It may officially be Fall, but my room is definately still feeling like summer - Wow! Please encourage your students to bring water bottles and dress appropriately for heat! This week in history we are well into our group map project where groups of 3 (a couple with only 2) students build Washington State, complete with elevated mountains, rivers, etc... out of materials that they provide --- most choose clay (i provided a koolaid playdough recipe for those that wanted it), others go with playdough or modelling clay - paint is also used by some, while others choose frosting and candy. Of course i do not require expensive items and students are welcome to simply color with markers or colored pencils and then use recycled items such as egg cartons to build mountains (a few go with this approach) --- yesterday they traced outlines of the state up at the Smart Board - they love getting the chance to use that technology :) regions are in progress and today most groups will begin building mountains and adding rivers. We will likely finish this up in class on Monday since we magazine drive assembly starts tomorrow!!! A test on the cities will follow next week (probably Thursday or Friday depending on map progress)
For English, the students have a book project and a reading log due on Monday --- this has been the only homework to speak of for the last week or so. They should have a handout that explains this project and they have seen multiple examples in class.
GO TEAM RED!!! this is my homeroom's team for the magazine drive. my class does have a history of winning this event and that is always fun - but my main emphasis for this sale is civic responsibility. In class we talk about ASB funding (dances, sports, end of year ice cream, etc...) and how they benefit from the sales that were done the year before. I hope that each student can sell at least one magazine in order to feel that they contribute to the ASB fund that enriches their experience at school. This should be fun and not stressful --- i have encouraged them to think about magazines as gifts or to ask parents or grandparents to consider this as well - they really do make a great gift and you save on postage, wrapping and shopping time :) if you have any issues with your student selling - please communicate this with me. Thanks again for supporting your kids and our school! Happy almost end of the week! kw
