June 11, 2014
These last few weeks of school have been filled with final projects, fun activities, and a peaceful retreat to Holy Hill.

We shared our end of the year book reports over the past several days, and the students really did a great job with their presentations.   It is our hope that through these Powerpoint presentations, the students will get some great ideas for their own summer reading list.

We spent Monday, June 9, at Holy Hill and had an absolutely perfect day!  We prayed the Stations of the Cross as we hiked up Holy Hill to the main church.  The students climbed the tower and enjoyed the view from the top.  After that, we attended Mass and learned a bit of the history of Holy Hill.  It was truly a beautiful day for the 5th graders to enjoy each other and end the year with a special prayerful experience.

Today was our "Mini-fest," formerly known as our end of the year picnic.  Due to the rain, we set up in the gym, and with an abundance of parent/ parish volunteers, it was a great, fun day for all.  There was a bouncy house, face painting, balloon animals, and lots of games to play.  Everyone had a fabulous time!  Thanks to our volunteers and also to our 8th graders who came back to help out.

Have a blessed summer!  See you in August!

Can it already be the end of May?  This week was a very busy one for us.

We have been building in plenty of class time for independent reading and working on the end of year book report.  Remember to have your presentation ready for Wednesday, June 4th.

We had the pleasure of meeting Father Kevin on Thursday when he came into our class for a brief visit.

On Friday we had our farewell Mass for the 8th graders.  It was a day of hugs, signing yearbooks, and tears.  We wish them well!

Friday, May 23

What a busy week it's been! As a follow up from a story we read in class called, "From Bees to Honey," we had a visit from Mr. Radosevich about his job as a beekeeper.  What a fascinating presentation we had.  There was a lot to learn about bees and how we get honey from bees.  If anyone wants honey products, you may contact him for more information.  We all got to try three different types of honey, and we also learned some great things.

The 5th grade class prepared the mass for the school today.  The theme of the Mass reminded us of our responsibilities as followers of Jesus.  We are to stand up for those who are mistreated just at the apostles did for Jesus.

Finally, today we had a very special guest, Mrs. Goff, come into our class and share with us the story of her son who was a doctor in the military.  She left us with a very powerful message about the importance of remembering all those who serve or have served our country.  Our prayers go out to all military families on this Memorial Day weekend.  God Bless Our Service Men and Women!

5/19/14

This morning in literacy we read more about bees, while preparing to be visited by Mr. Radosevich this Wednesday.  In 6th grade Social Studies we talked more about Rome and answered questions about our reports and projects due this week.  The 5th graders watched a video on the Persian war in Social Studies because they are learning about Greece.  After math class, we had more literacy in which blue had a spelling test and green along with yellow were introduced to their new words.  Later in 6th grade science we worked on a worksheet with partners.  The 5th graders worked on Venn diagrams comparing flowers and pine cones.
God Bless,
The 5th and 6th graders

May 12, 2014
Our 5th and 6th graders have had a great season in track.  At the meet on Saturday, they broke two more records!  The St. Leonard/ St. Joseph team came in 3rd place overall!  Way to go, track team!

The 5th graders were assigned a project in science in which they had to create a new plant and design the seed packet.  They had all sorts of creative ideas.  Today in science we had to finish our seed packet design.

Today we also started our final reading project which will be a technology book report.  More information will come home on Wednesday, but they each should have a book to read in school every day.  Students may use Powerpoint, Prezi, Animoto, or other application to share their books with the class.  Book projects will be due the week of June 2nd.

April 29

The sixth grade is starting reports on animal adaptations. They also are doing a project on Roman gods.The fifth graders are still working on their Greek gods' reports.

The fifth grade class had their parent mass and breakfast today. Fifth and sixth grade are working on stories that should have 400 to 500 words. Hopefully, they will be interesting. We are singing and learning about African music in music class.

April 2, 2014
We have a huge school of fish outside our classroom door for grade 5 and another school of fish hanging on the 6th grade door showing all of our lenten good deeds.  We have another few weeks of Lent, so continue doing your good deeds daily. (We won't stop just because Easter comes later this month.)

Grade 5 learned about dividing fractions, and we used manipulatives to practice.  Then we learned that we can "flip and multiply" to get the answer.  We practiced on IXL.

Our 5/6 Learning Community just finished our read aloud,"A Long Way from Chicago" today.  We had groups work on a story map showing the various story elements including characters, setting, conflict, plot, climax and resolution.  It was impressive seeing the groups interact and work so well together!

It was a great day!
Mrs. Caporale and Mrs. Eicher

Today we started hieroglyphic cartouches in art. We are writing our names in hieroglyphs. In social studies the 6th graders learned about the Roman government and the 5th graders learned about Greek gods and goddesses. In science the 5th graders are drawing a diagram of the digestive system.

Have a nice 4 day weekend.   

March 21, 2014

We had our classroom Modern Woodman Speech Contest this week.  Congratulations to Hunter, Brandon, Molly, and Mason who will advance to the school competition on Monday.  Be sure to practice your speech this weekend. 

Today was the first full day of spring!  Get out and enjoy the warmer weather this weekend.

March 11, 2014

Today in grammar we are learning about regular and irregular verbs.The 5th graders are learning about how to change improper fractions into mixed numbers.  We will be using the IXL for both our English and math practice today.  Please be sure to find some time to get on the computer today for this important practice.  It sure is nice not to have to carry all those books home, though, isn't it?

March 6, 2014
Many things have happened since we last posted on the blog.  We had our Mardi Gras, and together the students raised over $500.  We began Lent yesterday with our Ash Wednesday Mass.
The 5th and 6th graders were introduced to a website called IXL (I excel).  Please see the note your child brought home for more information.  We are very excited to see how this website can supplement our math program at St. Joe's.
The students are making nice progress on the Modern Woodmen speeches.  They have put forth great effort, and I am looking forward to their final speeches which are due on Friday, March 14th.

We have been working on Modern Woodsmen. We also are doing a fun project in art class. The sixth graders also have a Social Studies project which is a lot of fun.

February 27, 2014
The fifth graders are doing a great job working through our IOWA Tests.  I am very pleased with the apparent effort and level of seriousness I am observing in their approach to these tests.
We will be having Band tomorrow, Friday, Feb. 28.
Just a reminder that we will be hosting the "Soda Bottle Ring Toss" game for the Mardi Gras.  Please send in either 2 liter bottles or a 6 or 8 pack of smaller bottles- soda, water, lemonade, fruit juice, etc.  You may consider flavors your family enjoys because the unused bottles are returned home for your enjoyment.  Thanks!

February 25, 2014
Today was the first day of the school week. In Social Studies, the 5th graders got their test back. On Friday we are having a take home test in Science. We need to study in Religion because we have a review coming up. Today we started Iowa testing, and it will go for 3 weeks. Today for Iowa testing, we did 1 whole category.
Have a great day!  We did!

February 18, 2014
Today after school 5-6 will be going sledding after school from 2:45 to 3:45 at Cherry Park. Then we will return to school for hot chocolate.  We are still working on Modern Woodman speeches. Today we had Health class so it will not be on Thursday. In 5th grade science we studied plants and insect body parts with microscopes.

Wednesday, February 12

In,Gym we played the spot game. We worked on taking more notes for our Modern Woodmen speech. In, Science we are using colored paddles with an LED.  We also learned the differences between opaque, transparent, and translucent.  Try to find examples of each type of material in your home.

February  11, 2014

We are learning how to diagram indirect objects in English class.  It is a lot of fun! Each day this week we can buy valentines for a friend during the lunch time to be handed out each afternoon.

The 5th grade class hosts the Mass on Friday, and we got our parts today for practice.

In science we experimented with colors and light.  We took different colored plastic paddles and combined them in different ways to see what colors we could make.  We will read and learn more about light and color tomorrow.

On Friday the 5th and 6th graders may exchange Valentine cards with their classmates. 

February 4, 2014

Today 5 and 6th graders all went to see Anthony's grandpa, we went to see him because her is a dentist. He talked about how he works what he dose.   He was amazing! We learned about early Egypt in Social Studies. We talked about Direct objects in English . We finished our Olympic stories.We are going to start our Modern Woodsman speech tomorrow.

We are also starting Forensics. Mrs. Eicher has been asked to be a coach this year.Thank You so much for reading our Monday Afternoon Blog  May God bless you Amen.  By: Elizabeth

Today the whole school went on a field trip to Skate Land.  I thought it was so much fun.  They played many awesome songs.  When we came back, we ate lunch and had fun in our two classes.  Keep warm in this cold weather and have a great three day weekend!