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working more independently, students reading and understanding higher-level reading passages, and students working multi-step math problems in a variety of ways just to name a few. We have completed the Smarter Balanced Assessment and feel our students put forth great effort. Students took all tests on the computer this year.
• Third graders are preparing for the Biography Fair on May 2nd and their spring concert on May 6^th. Our field trip to the Bramble Park Zoo in Watertown will be on May 8^th. Students will tour the different parts of the zoo and attend an Animal Encounter program put on by zoo educators. We continue to enjoy a vast variety of good stories and novels. Students have become very adept at identifying types of genre.  The sophomore computer class made PowerPoint presentations out of picture books for us. Our students enjoy seeing the illustrations on the Smartboard while listening to the story. This has been a real treat for us.  April is National Poetry Month, so we are studying and writing different types of poems. Students are also working hard to write good paragraphs that include topic sentences, supporting details, and a concluding sentence.
• After a school year of hard work, we have a blossoming crop of soon-to-be fourth graders!
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• 5^th Grade ~ Shelby Hendrickson & Janel Lone
• Fifth grade has had the privilege of having a high school intern, Mason Madsen, in our room.  He has been with us since the beginning of the semester and has been a great help to us!  We wish him the best in his future endeavors.
• We have just completed Smarter Balance Testing.  5th graders are required to take a standardized test every year. This year is a trial year with the Smarter Balanced test, as it is the first year it has been administered on computer. There have been many bridges that were crossed, however all in all testing seemed to go well.
• We will be returning to our normal schedules and routines now that testing is completed.  Math will have us working with fractions.  Fractions are one of the more difficult concepts for 5^th graders. In Reading, we will be making posters of different terms we have learned this year, and we will also be reading one more additional novel before the end of the year. In English we are combining sentences to make compound and complex sentences.  Life science will end the year by exploring the classifications of living things, such as plants and animals.  Social studies will have students exploring the American Revolutionary War and how it came about.
•  The year has gone fast and everyone is getting excited for the nice weather.  We are really hoping to have nice weather for our field trip to Fort Sisseton on May 15 and the D.A.R.E sponsored JDC field trip on May 14.

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