Haunted Civilizations and Homework

I'm so excited! Today we decided on a theme for our haunted house. We'll be doing Haunted Civilizations where each section of the haunted house will be a different ancient civilization. Our tour guides are going to be Indiana Jones-esque people. If you have any props/costumes that you think might help, please bring them in.

I had told you that this was going to be the week where we started doing reading responses as part of our homework. With the Social Studies projects due in 2 weeks, I have changed my mind and will start them in November. This will give me time to model the kinds of responses I'm expecting and will give them more time to concentrate on their brochures.

Many of the students are following my mini deadlines. Several kids brought in their formulated questions and some of their research materials. I mentioned to the class today that some of their research materials should include books or magazines. It shouldn't all be web-based. We are going to do a lesson in class about plagiarism and citing on-line resources.

Take Note

A lot of notices went home today. I sent home the QSP package, a newsletter about the multicultural potluck, a notice about Unicef, and the Aviation Museum Overnight package including the field trip form. The field trip form is due on or before next Friday (October 19th).

Thanks to Hayley and Colleen who came out and helped us to improve our Ultimate skills. We also learned that it's called a disk and not a Frisbee!

Now that our hooks have been installed, I was able to play around with our furniture a little more. The students are now sitting in pods and have team names and roles.

Last block, we learned that all of the 5/6 classes are going to be doing a musical! We're super excited. Ask them about it at home!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Quick Notes

Here are some quick things:

Indoor shoes would be greatly appreciated. I'm sitting here typing this watching Kevin sweep up a enough sand for me to kick off my shoes, put out a towel, and lounge. Shoes that aren't slippy can stay here on our newly assembled hooks/shelf!

I have some jobs that I just can't seem to get to. I'm looking for a couple of more empty and cleaned out pop cans (about 10). Once I've collected those, I'm looking for someone that can arrange them in the front window display. I will also soon have a lovely collection of alphabet cards. Once they are complete (early next week), I'm looking for someone to laminate them, cut out some word wall words, and (using a ladder of course) stick them up on our walls. Let me know if you can help.

I think that's all for now...

Projects

In Social Studies today, I handed out a project outline for the students' brochure projects. Grade 5s are to create a brochure on a civic building or symbol. I listed a few examples in the project outline but students have been told that they can choose a different building or symbol as long as they check with me first. Grade 6s are to create a brochure for one of Canada's top trading partners. Countries were assigned in class today. We went over the steps of completing a research project in class and will soon go over the proper bibliography format as well. Projects are due on October 29th but there are mini deadlines that students can also follow. Please review the project outline with your student at home.
Our class coordinator, Stephanie Griffin, has now been given a class list with your email addresses. She will be creating a group snack schedule which will begin next Monday. Please remember to keep the snacks healthy and as non-perishable as possible.
Although it is a shorter week, there will still be a homework book. Students should make sure they are completing their corrections from the week before.
I hope everyone had a great long weekend!

Haunted House

We are still in the beginning stages of planning our Haunted House. We have done a piece of procedural writing so we are well on our way of knowing what we need to do to scare the pants off of everyone. If you have extra Halloween decorations at home, we would love it if you could set them aside for us. Thanks!

Thankful

I have many reasons to be thankful these days...


I am thankful that I had two lovely parents help me with our dream catcher craft this morning. I would have been lost in a sea of knots if it weren't for them. Thank you Shauna and Sharron!

I am thankful that we all got to experience Student Vote today. The polls are now closed and the results will be released soon.


I am thankful that we had such a great class meeting the other night. Thank you to everyone who came out. I hope I was able to answer as many questions as possible. If you are still wondering about something, please do not hesitate to drop me a line.

I am thankful for a great week with the kids in 310. I have enjoyed singing songs with you, finding out how to survive zombie attacks, watching you sweat during our gym stations, seeing you work quietly during math and language, and hearing all of your interesting questions during social studies. I am also thankful that many of you found our new method for division helpful. Please come and ask me for help if you are still having some trouble with division and multiplication.

I know I will also be thankful for all of the wonderful writing assignments that you will all finish soon. I am looking forward to reading your four paragraphs, your procedural writing for our haunted house, and your brochures for Halloween Fun.

Next week, I will be thankful when we work together and have a succesful freezie sale. We also can be thankful that we have a fun haunted house and field trip in our near future.

I hope you have many reasons to be thankful too. Enjoy your long weekend!

Clean and Spiffy

Picture day is tomorrow. I hope everyone come all shiny and spiffy.
Our class meeting is also tomorrow. Hope to see you all there. I promise...no longer than an hour. See you tomorrow!