I'm Back!

I bet you thought I dropped off the face of the Earth...nope! Just really busy doing those report cards for next week. I wanted to thank you for taking the time to talk to your child about respect. Our class on Thursday and Friday  were awesome! We had a really long talk during our morning meeting on Thursday morning about respect. I was impressed by how serious they took what you and I had to say. I hope that it continues without too much reminding. 

Venture theater practice is coming along great! I have poked my head in the gym a couple of times. They are really coming together. I am excited to see the final show soon. I am very impressed at the amount of kids in the production and the dedication they are presenting. 

We have been studying the inside of the Earth in science. Last week we studied the layers of the crust and the three different types of rocks. This week, students will expand on that by doing some scientific testing on rocks. Toward the end of the week students will need to bring in a rock of their own to do some research and a small project on. This rock can be from a collection or one they find in their driveway. It will help if they can research their rock and possibly find out the name of their rock, but it is not mandatory. 

Thanks to a parent volunteer, we have been able to start up an extended math studies group called Alien Math. This is a very fun, strange, and challenging program. I have selected six students for the first group. They will be discovering how aliens count on a base six system two days a week. If you have any available time on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:30-3:00 I would love to start another extension group or two for other students. Please let me know if you could help out with that. I would love to be able to provide that service for other kids. 

I hope that all of you enjoy your Monday off. I will be attending meetings and then learning how to use our new classroom video recorder flip video thing, not sure on the real name. I am just excited that it has been given to us and to start planning on how to use it! Hmmmm??  We will be watching a short amount of the live coverage for President Obama on Tuesday. History in the making! I encourage you to communicate about it at the dinner table on Tuesday night. I have stressed to your children that even if we didn't vote for him, he is our new president and he deserves our respect. I have been researching him, and if he makes good on his education promises life could become very interesting in the classroom. That is exciting! 

Have a GREAT long weekend!