Week of October 24th -October 30th

Dear families,

Big week coming up!

Monday will be our last ceramics class and the kids will be painting the pieces they have created. They will also have the opportunity to attend an assembly that will explain a possible adoption of a school in Afghanistan. An organization is looking to find sister schools that will help provide an education for orphaned children from Afghanistan. I think it will open their eyes to other parts of the world and the struggles that we often don't have to face.

On a different note, the kids will be also be participating in their first Monday morning meeting as an entire school. All classes will be meeting on the upper grade playground each Monday to do the flag salute, sing a patriotic song, and discuss a monthly theme. This month's theme is appropriately "Pride". I think it will be a great community builder.

Our continuing focus on algebra will continue with a new chapter on variables (Parents: If 3x + 4 = 10, what is x?) The kids will have to continuing using the knowledge form last chapter but add a few new wrinkles to their bag of tricks. I have updated the challenge pages as well as the review pages. Please use them to help your child with any concepts you see on the homework.

Our first spelling pretest had three students pass on Monday, and subsequently take on the challenge list last week. I am proud to say that these three students all got a 100% on a ridiculously hard list! Congrats to them and look for more kids to pass this next week. Good luck with the challenge words!

The Halloween parade will be Friday at 8:30 (I believe). I look forward to seeing some great costumes and a fun filled day. We are having a party in the afternoon and will have a relaxing, no stress day in class. Hope to see some of you there.

Lastly, "Crazy Hat Day" was a success and I have included a slide show below of our kids. Enjoy! Have a great week.

Hope all is well,
Mr. Mc