Welcome to October!  This week we will be continuing our literature circle books - in connection to these, we will be looking at the r-word.org campaign (Spread the Word to End the Word) which is sponsored by Special Olympics.  I encourage you and your students to consider taking the pledge online that asks you to make a promise to work towards eliminating the "R" word from your vocabulary.  -  In Civics, we will be delving into chapter 3 in the Civics book (mostly section 2 - critical thinking questions of pg. 104) - the branches of government (we looked at the Senate on Friday) - and hopefully generating some interest in the first presidential debate which will be televised on Wednesday evening.