Middle school mode! I can’t believe we’re in it already.

The biggest difference is probably more homework. We went from one sheet of homework to about half an hour to an hour of homework. We’re taking spelling, social studies and practice math tests home for homework. Sometimes even some science or grammar.  

Last week we started working on current events. Luke and Tamia did a fantastic job. Current events are about events all over the world. This week Owen and Kenzy are doing it. We are very excited to hear what they chose.

Around this time we are learning about countries in Asia. Last week we learned about Israel. This week we are learning about Saudi Arabia. I have a lot of fun learning about countries around the world. Do you enjoy learning about countries around the world? 

Recently  we started taking our buddies to church and we’re gonna start serving soon at mass soon. Have you ever served at mass before?

A big thing in our class is accountability things that hold us accountable are 

Getting our planners signed and making sure our homework gets stamped.

Participation points are another key thing in our classroom. Basically participation points are five points a day. When you do something wrong you usually get a point taken off an example talking too much, our class needs to work on that especially me. 

This year we have started to have a study hall at the end of Tuesdays and Thursdays just because we are very busy on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We can work on homework or classwork that we missed throughout the day. We also might have study hall on other days too.

I have mixed feelings about Middle School Mode, but I think I will be fine by the end of the year and ready to go to Middle School. 

-Eli

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By Adeline P

I have had many lessons taught to me. Some have been important and some haven’t (or so I thought). But recently in art, the lesson has made a very large impact on me. It was all about neurographic art. Don’t let the fancy name fool you. It taught me that all of your problems that seem large aren’t tht big of a deal. There is always a solution. But anything couldn’t possibly be as bad we think. Even if, the stress or fear can be soothed. Art is just the right subject to see that.

Neurographic art is a simple way to work with the subconscious mind through drawing. It can be therapeutic or it could just be a fun activity to do on your spare time. You can actually use shapes to symbolize things in your life or just fun shapes that make sense to the design. Either way it is a fun yet calming art project you can do anywhere!

To make a neurographic drawing you simply draw loopy or squiggly lines, but make sure that none of your lines end in the middle of the page. You can also add shapes such as circles, ovals, triangles or any other shape. Also, make sure that you have no sharp corners and to smooth all the eges of the lines and where they meet. once you are done with all of that you can outline everything with a black or colored sharpie. Finally, you can color in all of the spaces and watch everything get colored and become vibrant.

This was definitely one of my favorite lessons in art. It was so interesting to try something new like this. It was also very calming and soothing. This project can be done almost anywhere. All you need is a couple markers and a piece of paper. If you are ever stressed at home and you have some extra time on your hands you should try this project. If not you can always do it later. I really enjoyed this project and I think you would too!

By Hailey C

Do you wanna learn about our desk pet friends? If so, keep reading.

The first thing is how do you earn them? Well we all have jobs in the class room. We have this paper cards with ten paw prints each day and if we do our job we get a hole punch. If we don’t do our job we don’t. But once we get ten hole punches we get a prize and our prize is a desk pet or accessories. If you are wondering what this desk pets are and the accessories let me tell you. The desk pets are erasers of animals like dogs and cats. The accessories are also erasers. The accessories are like a motorcycle and ice cream and more.

Now for the desk pet rules

1. If you use it while Mrs. A is teaching it goes to jail for a day
2. You can’t buy accessories or desk pets in the day you can only buy at the end of the day
3. You can’t touch others peoples desk pets without permission.

And another thing is that if you wanna switch your desk pets or accessories you can but they can’t be new you have to switch with someone.

And that’s our desk pet friends! I hope you liked reading about them.

By Melissa P

Do you want to know more about Mrs. A? She is a caring and smart teacher. Her favorite holiday is Birthdays and she loves her kids. Mrs. A collects mini brands and sharpies. She makes a fun classroom environment. I thought you should know more about her. I asked her some questions and here are her responses.

1. Where did you grow up?
I was born and raised in Southern California. I was born in Redondo Beach and moved to Orange County when I was two. I grew up in a suburb called Anaheim Hills.

2. What do your parents do for a job?
My mom is a nurse practitioner and my dad is an executive at a commercial insulation company. They both served in the U.S. Air Force.

3. Where did you go to school?
I went to St. Juliana’s in Fullerton, California from kindergarten to 8th grade. Then I went to Canyon High in Anaheim Hills, California. After high school I attended Santiago Canyon College and transferred to UW-Green Bay. 

4. What were your favorite school subjects?
I really loved social studies and science growing up. I have degrees related to both subjects.

5. Who is in your family?
My family is very close knit. We FaceTime and text daily. I am the oldest of three children and the only girl. One of my brothers, David, lives here in Wisconsin and my youngest brother, Branden, lives in California. Branden works for Disney and loves it! He also is the Athletic Director at a charter school in Orange County. My mom and dad come to Wisconsin often to visit and we try to make it out to California as much as we can.

6. What career did you want to go into?
Besides being a mom, my heart has always had a passion for education. I went to school with hope to work for the government or start a non-profit organization. I have always been actively involved in education and Student Government. I was on the Student Senate for California Community Colleges as the Chair for our Region and was the Chief Justice at my community college. I often volunteered to tutor others and assisted professors, and traveled to the Capitol to represent the students enrolled in the sixteen colleges I was chair of. Also, being the oldest cousin of ten, I always took the role of teacher when we played school. I loved teaching them all how to swim, dance, read, ride bikes, and so much more. After getting to stay at home with my boys, I am so blessed to now be in a classroom with you all!

7. What ideas do you have for the classroom?
I always have so many ideas for the classroom! I think we keep things exciting and I try to mix things up to keep our interest levels high. I love that YOU as the students get to take an active role in our classroom and hope that you learn so much more from me than what is in your textbooks.

8. What are your favorite things to do?
I love to do anything craft related. I am constantly wanting to learn new ways to be creative. From teaching myself how to sew, to making things on the Cricut, learning digital design software, or strolling down the aisles of Hobby Lobby to pick up a new craft project, I am always looking for new ways to be creative. It is therapeutic for me.

9. How did you get to our school?
I used to live on Bay Settlement Road. When Liam was little and was starting to talk, he associated Holy Cross with the word “school”. He would see the bus drive by and always say he wanted to take the bus to school and when we would drive by wanted to come play with the kids he would see at Holy Cross. We used that as the main motivator for getting him potty trained. He started 3k at HC and we have loved it since! Even though we don’t live nearby anymore, we will drive whatever distance to still come here. Holy Cross is a special place and I am so lucky to be able to teach here!

10. What questions do you have for Mrs. A?
Write a comment with your questions for Mrs. A!

By Scarlett D

Our Fifth grade classroom is very exciting! There is very cool stuff and a lot to learn!

First our desks: We are in pods for our desks and there are 4 people in each pod. On our chairs we have fun fidget bands for our legs.

Mrs. A’s desk: On Mrs. A’s desk there are pok-a-dots and her desk is cute with lots of pens and cute decorations. She has her computers and paperwork on her desk. She has treats so when we accomplish things she gives us one.

Bulletin Boards: We have a wall of knowledge` where we put all our best tests and show how much we know in 5th grade. We have a writers wall where we put all our favorite quotes and writers. In the front of the room there is a big chalkboard and a big whiteboard where we do most of our work on.

Games: Mrs A. has many fun games and fidgets in our classroom. We have pillows that we get every day and have UNO and other fun card games. There are pop- its and other fun fidgets.

Other things: We have cubbies with all our stuff in it. We have a wall that says “Fifth Grade Family” and we have all our pictures on the wall. We have a back table and a standing table in the front. There is a lot of cute preppy pictures and cute stuff Mrs. A has.

Our classroom is very exciting in many ways! I hope you liked learning about our classroom! What are some things you wish you had in your classroom? What are some things you had in your classroom?

By Marah S

We walk in in on a Monday in a welcoming class! We may be a bit tired but we all are very nice no matter what! It’s very very crazy but we all love it! Everyday is different so I am going to tell you about our Mondays! We have a ton of classes, We have an amazing class and friends. There are so much things in a Monday to do! We have to get started we can’t be late.

We have to start on our Mind Candy, it is normally different for everyone cause we have stations. Like we have bible study: we read the Bible and talk about God. Math: We have a packet to do with multiplication, division and more. DO THE MATH !DO THE MATH! DO THE MATH! Task Cards: we have different cards we do every week, there are some about the Capitals, Math, English Language Arts and more! We also have Scholastic News/Study Hall: Scholastic News is a packet we read every week about new things! And in Study Hall we study on things we are doing. And then we have Spanish with a very nice teacher! we learn about positions, Argentina and more! And then at 8:45 we have spelling! we have spelling words that we practice for Friday. And after 10 minutes we have 5 people’s favorite subjects! Art, we have projects that we can be very creative tho! And at 9:30 we have recess, a lot of people voted this at there favorite subject but it’s not a subject! And at 9:50 we have more time to do our spelling stuff! And at 10:15 we have our time to do our math, we do lessons in our Saxon math book about many things like long division, multiplication, short division and more! And an hour later we get to have Lunch! And when we get in at 12:05 we get to do Science we either do Einstein kit which we learn about a ton of fun stuff! And then at 1:35 We have our time to do ELA and write out blogs, write story and more! And at 2:20-2:40 it is the end of the day then we go home.

We have plenty of amazing and fun classes to do here at Holy Cross! Our school is full of happiness, fun and laughter! Mondays may have a lot to do in them but we make it through by listening to our teacher and helping someone if they need it. We all put a helping hand everyday. We all make it through matter what. We all will make sure to help out in the class and be the best to all our teachers everyday we are here. We make sure to pay attention to our teachers, friends and everyone at school so we can be the best people we can ever be at Holy Cross.

If you were in our class what class would you enjoy the most?

By Quinn S

In fifth grade we are starting to get into “Middle School Mode”. Middle school mode is making school more challenging. This blog will tell you what we are doing or things we need to change in the classroom

What is Middle School Mode?
Middle school mode is Mrs. A getting us ready to go up to middle school next year. Middle school mode started when we got back from Christmas break. Middle school mode is making the things we do in our classroom harder then it was before we started. Now that we are in middle school mode we are getting a lot more homework.

What does Middle School Mode mean?
Middle school mode means that Mrs. A is getting us prepared for what middle school is like. Upstairs when you don´t put your name on papers you lose points, so Mrs. A is getting us prepared for that.

Grading Things
We have started to grade our homework. In class we have started to check everything we do in red pen.

Transitions
As a fifth grade class we need to get better at transitions. During our transitions we always talk. We need to be a lot quieter during transitions. Our transitions should be quick and quiet.

Organization
The fifth grade classroom needs to be a lot more organized, for example our tables and spots need to be more organized. The textbooks could probably be more organized.

School is Getting Harder
When we started middle school mode everyone is struggling a little bit more because what we are doing in class is getting harder. We are getting a lot more homework than before we started middle school mode. Some examples of things getting harder are math and science.

That is what is happening in fifth grade. There are a few things we need to get better at, but I still think we are doing OK with middle school mode. I hope this blog helped you understand what we are doing or need to change in fifth grade.

If you were in fifth grade would you like middle school mode? Why or why not?