Friday Blues

Tomorrow we will be having special guests come in and perform for us. The Brothers Chaffey are actual brothers and have been playing music for their entire lives. Most recently, they have formed "The Brothers Chaffey" and perform all over Canada and have recorded a CD with their own blues-folk-grassroots songs. Check out their website here: http://www.myspace.com/brotherschaffey
Can't wait!

Field Trip Forms

Hello all. I wanted to remind everyone that field trip forms are due this Friday. I need to know our confirmed numbers by then so please pass your forms in.
Social Studies Projects are due on the 29th. At this point, everyone should have their questions formulated and their resources collected. Many have moved on to answering their questions. Great start! If you have misplaced your copy of the project outline, make sure you come and get another one from me please.
In class we have been discussing possessives in language. I am excited to see the students' funny possessive plays later today. We are also finishing up our Halloween brochures in class. Soon we will be able to share them with our reading buddies. In math, we have divided all of the 5/6s up into 3 different groupings so that some are with Maggie, some are with Ray, and some are stuck with me. It's been really fun to mix it up. We've started working on our Haunted Civilizations of the Past tour. We will be focusing on Ancient Egypt, Greece, China, Rome, and the Mayans.

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!