March was a very exciting month for St. Mary's School! It brought us spring, warm weather, snow, Spring Break, new lunch tables, and lots of new learning. In addition, it is the end of 3rd quarter, meaning summer is right around the corner! The students at St. Mary's have been loving the warm weather, and so have the teachers!
In Social Studies, we recently finished our chapter on the Ancient Americas. We read a lot about various games these Native American tribes played, and we played one of the games here at St. Mary's. We played a game called "Sticks," each student was given 4 popsicle sticks and had to draw various designs on one side of the stick. They had the option to color the design or just use black marker. Once we were done decorating our sticks, it was time to play the game. It was such a beautiful day out, and the students were going a wonderful job meeting my expectations, so we played the game outside! We played the game in pairs, as well as teams. The objective is to hold all 4 sticks in your hand, and then drop them to the ground. You earn various points based on how the sticks fell, and you play up to 50. The students had a lot of fun playing this game outside, and we have had the chance to play it a couple more times when we have some free time.
We were lucky enough to receive new lunch tables for our cafeteria through various donations, and the students love their new tables! They love that the design of the table makes it easier to have conversations and move around the lunchroom. The new tables look great, and have definitely helped to make our cafeteria look much more organized.
Spring break caused a lot of excitement at St. Mary's! Everyone was looking forward to vacations, family time, or a little relaxation time! In Math we just ended our chapter during the week leading up to Spring Break, which gave us a chance to play a math game to extend our learning. In our last Math chapter we learned a math "magic trick" using inverse operations. The students loved this "magic trick,' and enjoyed showing it to other students around the school. On our last day before break we played a game called "Mind Reader" in Math class. "Mind Reader" is a partner game where one partner thinks of a 2 or 3 digit number, and their partner has to guess the number they are thinking of. Each time the partner guesses they are told if they had any numbers correct (they are not told which number are correct, just if they have any correct), and if any of the correct numbers are in the right place value spot. Based on these clues the partner has to use process of elimination to figure out their partner's number. The students had a blast playing this game!
The last day of the 3rd quarter is Tuesday, April 5. From there we are on to our last quarter, and a lot of fun field trips! 6th grade will be going on an overnight camping trip on Monday and Tuesday, April 25-26. We will then go on our 5th and 6th grade Conservation field trip on Wednesday, May 11 where we visit various Kewaunee County businesses. Finally, or 3rd-6th grade Madison trip will be Friday, May 20.