The Last Day of 5th Grade...

Can it be true?.......
Is this for real?.......

I can't believe that this is the last day of 5th grade!  I have truly loved every minute....well...maybe not every minute!  But the good minutes have definitely out-weighed the not so good ones infinitely!  I feel so blessed to have been chosen to be your children's teacher for one of their most important years in elementary.  We have worked so hard this year on On Demand Writing....and I really feel that I am sending them on with a fantastic start!  Mrs. Phillips and I have said over and over how wonderful their writing has become throughout the year!  6th grade teachers are going to be amazed by the talents and abilities of this fantastic group!

Thank you so much for all the support throughout the year.  I hope that you have been as pleased as I have been with the way this year has gone.  Each student will continue to hold a special place in my heart for as long as I live.  I am so thankful that God saw fit to bring me home to Kentucky and to lead me to Sedalia this year.  He truly knows what I need far greater than I do!  I know that he has AMAZING things planned for the life of each one of my students and I am so thankful that He allowed me to play a small part in the storybook of their life.  I hope that they will one day look back on this year as one of their favorites.  God is so good to me, and he has blessed me so much.  I know that He has perfect timing and a perfect plan, and I am so glad that I learned at an early age to put my trust and faith in HIM.

Thanks again for an amazing year! 
<3 ~ Miss Brazzell

Our last morning Zumba of the year!

Morning games with Jaron, Shelby, Kassandra, and Wayne

Keontae, Emily, Savannah, and Nicole playing The Game of Life

Sleepy Madeline slept through the movie and the games...love this sweet girl!

Aaron and Koby are stylin' on the last day of 5th grade

Miss Brazzell's Class ~ the sweetest 5th grade in the world!

Miss Brazzell with her favorite 5th grade class.

Have a great summer!!!
I'll miss you!!!!!!

Civil War Presentation

Friday, May 11th, Mrs. McEndree's husband, Shane McEndree, came to talk to the students about the Civil War.  He brought along several artifacts he has collected throughout the years.  He arrived dressed in uniform and the students thought it was amazing!  The kids really enjoyed his presentation and loved getting to see and touch so many artifacts!

Aaron was chosen to participate in a demonstration.

An actual uniform of the Confederate States of America.

Mr. Shane brought several different sizes of canon balls...from very small...all the way to 12 lbs!

Keontae, Keonah, and Savannah participating in a demonstration.

Fort Donelson

On Thursday, May 10th, we took a field trip to historic Fort Donelson in Dover, Tennessee.  The students watched a brief video on the history of the fort and the battle that took place there, toured the museum, toured the grounds, and then toured the historic house where Buckner and Grant met to decide the conditions of the surrender. 

Here are some pictures from our trip.

The view from the cannons on the river.

The students learning about what the cannoneers would've seen coming from the Union Army.

Shelby, Kassandra, and Ashley had a great time!

The students are participating in cannon drills.  Savannah was selected to be the "Powder Monkey".

Learning about the cannons.

 

The park Ranger had a lot of information for the students!

Let Them Eat Pancakes!!!!

Wednesday morning was a very special morning in Miss Brazzell's classroom!  The kids have been working hard all year long and have been very, very successful!  I am so proud of all of their hard work on testing and in On Demand writing.  In order to celebrate such hard work, I decided to make breakfast!  At first, I thought I'd just get donuts and bring them in, easy peasy lemon squeazy.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I decided that I wanted to make it special for them.  So we had pancakes and bacon instead!  I brought my griddle from home and had a few kids watching the bacon while I flipped flapjacks. :)

I think that it was a HUGE success and that the kids had a great morning!  I am so thankful for every one of these helpful, thoughtful, sweet kids!  I have been blessed beyond measure this year! 

Ashley, Madeline, Nicole, and Shelby are really enjoying their breakfast treat!!





Winding Down

As the school year draws to a close, we have a lot of activities going on!  Here's a list of things we are doing in the last five days of school:

May 9th                  AR Reward field trip to the PAC (bring swimsuit and change of clothes)
May 10th                5th Grade field trip to Fort Donelson (bring a sack lunch)
May 11th                Annual trip to Shupe's Nursery and 6th Grade play at GCHS
May 14th                Attendance Reward Movie (3 absences or less) 12:45 in the gym
May 15th                5th Grade lunch at Sedalia Restaurant
May 15th                Splash Day for students who have met 3 out of 4 AR goals
May 15th                The LAST day for students!!!

Let's get ready to RUMBLE!!!!! Err....I mean, REVIEW!!!

TRASHKETBALL!!

I am sure that you are asking yourself, "What in the world is Trashketball?"  It just happens to be one of the best review games I have in my secret stash of all things educational disguised as CRAZY FUN!!!!!!!!!

The premise of the game is this:  The class is divided into teams (as they enter, they are assigned a number 1-4).  I have a Power Point presentation with all kinds of questions loaded in and ready to go for game time.  Today we reviewed Figurative Language - hyperbolas, similes, metaphors, understatements, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and personification.  Each team has a stack of paper and a highlighter with which to write their answer.  A statement or example will pop up on the screen like so:

For all of you overachievers who can actually read what this says, what is this an example of?

Did you write "alliteration" on your paper?

If so, you are correct!!! And your team is awarded one point!

Kassandra, Benjamin, Noah, Cameron, Sidney, and Wayne were working hard to get their answers correct!

If the team is correct, they get to send a representative to the board to award their point and then wad their answer up into a ball and "shoot" it at the trashcan from a 1, 2, or 3 point line.  If their ball makes it in, they are awarded those extra points.  At the end of the game, the team with the most points win!

Let me tell you, shooting a small paper wad into a trash can that is about ten feet away is not as easy as it looks...yet so many of them went for the three point shots every time!  Here's a few photos of their reactions as they were shooting.



Benjamin going in for 1 point....it's GOOD!

Kole shooting for three....nothing but NET! (Or trash bag, in our case!)

Carlie just barely misses! 

Ashlyn celebrating....I think!

It was a great review game and the kids had a blast!  Bring on the K-PREP testing, because I know these kiddos are R-E-A-D-Y!!!!



Getting in a Morning Workout!!



Almost every morning we do some form of physical exercise.  Some days we do basic stretching; extending our torsos, touching our toes, squats, shoulder rolls, yoga, etc.  However, more often than not, we ZUMBA! Zumba has been a passion of mine for about a year and a half.  It was the catalyst for my over 70lb weight loss over the last year...and I'm still going!  Zumba is a fun and easy cardiovascular exercise that began in Brazil and has slowly, but steadily, moved it's way throughout North America and the entire world!  I also run, although I am not quite as good at, or as fond of it as I am Zumba!  Here's the great thing about a Zumba class:  In a high energy class, you can burn anywhere from 500-700 calories in an hour.  That's about double what you could burn riding a bike or walking for an hour.  And running a 12 minute mile, if you ran for an hour, you'd burn around 900 calories.  Let's see, dance for an hour....or try (notice I said try) to run for an hour keeping a 12 minute mile pace.  I'll take dancing any day! 

And the kids LOVE it!  We take 5-10 minutes after calendar math time to do a couple of songs and I guarantee you that it puts them in a better mood, wakes them up, gets them going, and gets them energized for the day.  Some of the routines we do are ones that I do in my class that I have taught them.  Others are from XBox or Wii Zumba games that I have pulled from YouTube.  Another great thing?  All Zumba music (the music that comes from Zumba headquarters) is clean!  Almost any song can be choreographed with a Zumba routine, but I am very careful to make sure that I have viewed the video before we do the song. 

The bottom line?  Exercise is key to leading a healthy lifestyle.Whether you're ten, twenty, forty, eighty or any age in between, there's a perfect Zumba class out there for you!  In fact, if you're reading this...you should check Zumba out!! Send me an email and I'll give you the details!

Happy Exercising!
xoxo
Miss Brazzell's Class