Ithaca North Elementary

4th graders would like to give Big Top a big thank you for making the end of the year special! They thoroughly enjoyed the ice cream!

Dear North Families! We have reached our final The Buzz of the school year! Thank you for another amazing year! Have a great summer and we will see you soon! -- Go Jackets! Jessie Rayburn North Elementary Principal Ithaca Public Schools jmiller@ithacaschools.net 989-875-3047

Here are our May Students of the Month! These students demonstrated positive character strengths throughout the month of May! Congratulations!

We spent our morning in STEAM lab racing magnet-powered cars, designing slides for 3 different objects (pom poms, ping pong balls, and marbles), and building models of self-cooling buildings inspired by termite mounds! WHEW!

The Greenfield Village field trip is tomorrow! The Fifth Grade Teachers look forward to seeing students and their adult chaperones tomorrow, May 30, no later than 6:30 AM in their classrooms. After checking in with teachers, chaperones will be free to return to their vehicle and start the trip! Please help students remember to bring any food, sunscreen, cell phone, or other supplies you think may be needed for a day spent mostly outdoors, walking! Students riding the bus to Ithaca from the Village will be at North School's gym lot around 6 PM. Parents need to pick up those children at North school at 6 PM.

The Gratiot County Farm Bureau generously funded a 4th grade field trip to the Ithaca Fairgrounds for Project RED (Rural Education Day). The students had the opportunity to learn about beekeeping, how to care for cows, interesting animal facts, showing sheep, tractors, pigs, fertile soil to plant crops, and how to grow soybeans! Some students chose to leave their soybeans at school to watch them sprout!

Remembering and honoring our fallen on Memorial Day

4th grade would like to thank the PTO for financing our field trip to the capitol building and the Michigan Historical Museum! The students had a great time seeing and experiencing things that they have learned about in the classroom!

On Thursday, May 23rd every student at North got to spend some time outdoors enjoying activities around the school in honor of Field Day. The students were active and engaged and may have gotten a little wet too! Thanks to Mr. Rayburn for organizing this event as well as the high school students who helped run the stations.

Attached is a flyer for a health and safety fair called Project Connect put on by My Michigan Health on August 14th from 4-6 at the Alma Fairgrounds. Backpacks and socks will be available for children. There will be a booth teaching families on the importance of physical activity and what it does for the body, and a jump rope competition and children will receive a free jump rope.

After watching a video about the wonders of Isle Royale National Park, students collaborated to build the water plane used to get to the island, the mine shaft explored on the island, the moose seen on the hiking path, the footbridge used to cross the small water ways, and the tent the hikers spent the night in! Can you spot all of those sights in their blue block creations?

The 5th graders had an engaging visit to our local community Historical Museum and Gratiot Commission on Aging to meet local Veterans.

I wanted to extend an invitation to you to join us for summer school at North School. We would be thrilled to have you with us for 2 more weeks this summer. If you are interested, please feel free to contact the North School office by Friday, May 24th! Looking forward to the possibility of having you join us! Warm regards, -- Go Jackets! Jessie Rayburn North Elementary Principal Ithaca Public Schools jmiller@ithacaschools.net 989-875-3047

Congratulations to our 2024 Ithaca Graduates. Thank you for coming to see us!

Last Friday, May 17th, the 6th graders had the opportunity to go to the Sloan Museum of Discovery and also watch "We Are Stars" at Flint Longway Planetarium.  Both of these were sponsored by our PTO.  The students were able to explore and discover many hands-on science experiments, take a walk thru the past in the historical gallery as well as see some unique cars too.  Again many thanks to the PTO for helping sponsor this trip along with the many parent volunteers who helped chaperone the trip as well.

3rd-5th graders at North Elementary enjoyed an amazing opportunity to attend the CMU vs. WMU baseball game!

5th graders enjoyed a fun and engaging day at the CMU baseball game!

Dear North Families, We have a lot of exciting activities planned for the remainder of the school year. In this week's Friday Folder you will find a permission slip for Reed's Park OR Leisure Lake. Please return the form ASAP. Have a great weekend! -- Go Jackets! Jessie Rayburn North Elementary Principal Ithaca Public Schools jmiller@ithacaschools.net 989-875-3047

It may looks like a bunch of beans to you, but these sixth graders are learning what happens when organisms use the same resource - competition! They competed to "eat" as many beans as possible and graphed the data to decide if "spoons" or "hand claws" were better competitors. They learned competition between individuals makes it harder to gather food, which makes organisms grow less and have fewer babies, which makes their population less likely to increase.

Sixth graders collaborated to construct working hydraulic machines in STEAM lab!