We have lots of wonderful summer festivals here in Milwaukee, WI but my favorite has always been Irish Fest.

I love Irish music and dancing, not to mention the shopping and delicious treats available down at the lake front!

Are you an Irish Fest fan? What do you like to do and see when you are there?

It’s August and that means it is time for the Wisconsin State Fair!

Make plans to take your family to the State Fair to sample delicious cream puffs, enjoy the rides on the Midway, drink delicious flavored milk, marvel at the many types – and sizes – of farm animals, see singers, dancers, and magicians, watch animal judging, and much much more!

What is your favorite thing to do at the State Fair? ♥

Write a post for your blog or comment below and let us know.

My family always enjoys the Sunset Zoofaris on Wednesday nights during the summer. This year the dates are June 24, July 1, July 8, July 15, July 22, and July 29.

Maybe I’ll see you there checking out the animals, enjoying delicious snacks, and dancing to the band’s groovy music!

Students were assessed on their essay in several language arts categories: writing process (packet work, notes, graphic organizer, and illustration), content (accurate information from the time and place), organization (sentences, paragraphs, and essay), conventions (spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and usage), illustration (from the Carriage Museum), and presentation (overview of the person’s life).

Summer Web Sites 2009

Students took notes, made sketches, and worked on related worksheets before, during, and after the trip, and are using these materials to help them create their Wade House essays.

This writing project follows lessons focused on writing with the traits of ideas, voice, word choice, and sentence fluency, and takes students to the next level – writing with from the perspective of a person (real or fictional) who was connected with Wade House in the 1860s.

Students will also focus on the steps of the writing process during this project – prewriting, drafting, editing and revising, and writing – then typing – their final draft.

Wade House essays will be posted on the class web page in the next few weeks – so stay tuned!

This historical site also includes a sawmill, a blacksmith shop, and a carriage museum. Students will learn about life at Wade House in the mid 19th century from the viewpoint of visitors, as well as those who lived there.

This is a full day field trip for academic purposes, which is different than a family trip, and students will have related activities to complete on the bus, at Wade House, and back at school.

For the follow-up language arts project, students will take on the character of a person who visited, lived in, or worked at Wade House in the 1860s and describe what life was like in those days.
A note with more information about the field trip is included in today’s Friday folder.

Riveredge Nature Center

Follow Wisconsin’s (and your teacher’s) favorite football team here 

Have you ever wondered what goes on in village hall? Well, one of the things the people who work at village hall are thinking about is refurbishing East Silver Spring Drive. In some peoples opinion, change could be great; others think Silver Spring should stay the way it is. What do you think? Should the people of city hall refurbish, change, and maybe improve East Silver Spring Drive?

Students were interviewed to find out what they think about this situation. Students were asked questions such as what they thought about changes on Silver Spring, what they would change about Silver Spring, and what they would add and why. The choices of possible additions were: bowling alley, better shoe store, arcade, better toy store, better restaurants, and other. Is Silver Spring losing its sparkle? Do you think Silver Spring needs better retail? Well, here is what your fellow Richards School students said!

Results:
Bowling Alley: 4 people answered bowling alley or 19%
Better Toy Store: 3 people answered better toy store or 14%
Better Shoe Store: 1 person answered better shoe store or 5%
Better Restaurants: 4 people answered better restaurants or 19%
Arcade: 4 people answered arcade or 19%
Other: 6 people answered other or 29%