DATES:
Wed. Nov. 7th..............Donuts with Dad

Thur. Nov. 9th.............picture retakes

Tues. Nov. 13..............Kids' Art Fair in Gym 6-8

Pumpkin Day!

I have an awesome class. They handled this time very well. Cooperating, doing what was asked, and enjoying themselves!  

*We estimated weight, amount, weighed the pumpkins,did some division, and counted seeds- ate them on Friday!

*Then the kids designed and carved their pumpkins with no injuries! 

*Each group took pictures with an iPad and are going to use them for a group project on Monday. We will upload the project to the blog so you can check it out!

*Thank you Cindy Kleinheksel for donating a couple pumpkins and helping out. Thank you Jody Heavilin for bringing us some cookies!

Field Trip: I was nervous as this was a new field trip, but it went well and all centered around the native American learning students are doing coupled with science since we were able to visit the Planetarium. Thank you to parents for going along! Lori Haverdink, Jody Heavilin, Cherish Nyboer, Jen Heyerman. We appreciate it!

October Book Presentations: Because of the field trip, we will finish presentations on Monday. They are doing a great job! It helped us have a good discussion of what information is important to include in retelling a story to others. 

November Book Projects: Students have known since Monday that they need to have another book chosen to read in November. We discussed choosing appropriate books for their level. They will have 4 options for projects this time. I will review the options again on Monday.

 Math:   

Students took the math test today. I will have those back on Monday. We are starting an algebra unit that includes exponents, multiplying whole numbers by powers of 10, and multiplying and dividing  decimals by powers of 10.

Reading: We finished Guests and our story map. We reviewed the characters, setting, problem/resolution and theme. We will have a test on Monday and Tuesday over identifying the above story elements, simile, and personification. These are items we have worked on since the beginning of the year. Students will also be required to read a selected passage and respond to questions. A third part is responding to the question, "How has Moss changed throughout the novel?" We discussed how to set this up, how to find the information, how it would be graded, etc. We have talked about this all along in the book and the students have a grasp of this- they need to be able to use text examples and/or quotes which we have worked on a lot.

Writing:
River Tour pieces are done. Your child will have a rubric with typed comments and if he/she typed it into google docs, there are additional comments there as well- students can direct you to that. Some students wanted theirs made into a digital flipbook which I did last night, and will upload them to their individual webpage this weekend. Students also wrote persuasive papers in response to an article about girls being allowed to play on boys' sports teams. Most have been returned graded- if your child doesn't have his back, it needed some work and I need to regrade it.

We also discussed a new short Spooky Halloween story that uses onomatopoeia, or sound words, such as "crash", "boom", etc. Next week we will also write a short persuasive piece. We couldn't get to it before Halloween, but the kids still want to write it, so we are! Should only be a 2-3 day project

Spelling:  Spelling test will be returned on Monday. Spelling list sent home Monday. Spelling skill for next week is ways to spell the sounds of /s/.

Science:
 Projects have been presented- I enjoyed the variety of posters, powerpoints, and iMovies!