Week of October 29

HELLO ALL,

The class is going awesome lately and I am really starting to see our group come together more as a community instead of just the old crew and the rookies. Friendships are growing and students are beginning to work together more effectively. Mediation is much more effective than it was at the beginning of the year and students are learning how to avoid conflict and manage it when it comes.

We finished up our unit on Immigration and are now moving to the Midwest where we will be talking about the Great Lakes, farms, and weather. Immigration was a success as I think that students understand what it is and some of the reasons it occurs, but I think that next time I will try to focus more on current events around immigration. It was difficult for the students to put themselves in the shoes of an Irish immigrant near 1900. We live and learn.

If anyone has any pictures from the pumpkin patch, please let me know so that we can post them to the blog. I know Megan has set up a Flickr.com account for the class where we can post pictures and then view them through the blog. You can either email them to Megan or visit www.flickr.com.
Username -
Password -

SCIENCE FRIDAYS

Thanks to those of you who have signed up for upcoming Science Fridays. For those of you who don't know what this is here is the lowdown. Your family signs up for a week and that week you bring home the Science Friday binder. The binder contains three books of different science experiments for our age kids. The family then performs (practices) the experiment or lesson at home for Friday presentation. The Friday lesson can be simply a demonstration or it could be more in depth where all the students perform the experiment. The family who does the experiment also fills out the assessment worksheet which is in the binder for record keeping. It is fun and keeps families involved in our activities.

HOMEWORK

*Spelling - same as last week. Spelling Bee on Friday. Students should study all words for the year thus far.
*Letter of the week- Y
*Sharing Topic - Something scary

*Students should bring in a food label for their favorite breakfast. We are discussing nutrition and looking at what is in our food.
*Write a scary Halloween story. (Students will start this in class on Tuesday and share stories at the end of the day Wednesday.

HALLOWEEN

Students can wear their costumes to school on Wednesday but should bring a change of clothes so they don't wear them to the Corbett Farm field trip. They will get dirty and may not be usable if they don't bring change of clothes. Please bring a bag for your students Halloween costume to go into once they change.

Here is the schedule for Halloween.

8:30 Morning Choice Time

8:45 Annual Trillium Halloween Parade

9:10 Change into clothes for barn field trip

9:30 Leave for Corbett Farms

10:00 Snack at the Barn

10:30 Rotating Centers
Hiking
Folk Dancing - Tutorial
Crafts
Animal Barn

11:50 Group Dance

12:15 Leave for Trillium

12:45 LUNCH

NO SCHOOL
Remember that we don't have school on the 9th (planning day) and 12th (Veteran's Day)

LEARNING PLAN EXHIBITION
We will be having an event on Thursday, November 8th from 3:15 to 7:15. This will be an exhibition of what individual students have been working on from their learning plans and other projects in the class. The event is a drop-in where parents and students can come at their leisure and talk about their work. It is also a great opportunity for students to see what others are doing and maybe even get great ideas for future learning plans.

THANK YOUS
It is hard to remember all the thank yous all the time, but I hope you all know that I appreciate all that you do for the classroom. Here are just a few for the week.
Thanks to all the people who helped bake something for the preschool Cake Walk. It was a lot of fun and we raised money for books.
Thanks to Ellie for starting a sewing class on Mondays from 2-245. The kids needed it since I can't sew to save my life.
Thanks to Mykle and Phina for chiseling away at the lincoln logs which will soon be arriving on our playground.
Thanks again for the computer. It is awesome to be able to print and access the Internet in the room.
Thanks to last year's parents for my massage from Nephyr. I have still not taken the time to indulge myself, but I think it will be coming soon.
Thanks to Micki for organizing and taking the lead on the Scholastic Book Orders. I love those things.
Thanks to Nephyr and Aaron for continuing to provide an awesome snack for the kids and saving me a trip to the store. It helps out a lot!
Thanks to all the drivers for all the field trips.