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The Shakespearean Sonnet
October 27, 2008
Hello all,
Important
Unfortunately, one of my colleagues seems to have walked away with my conference signup sheet when she borrowed the clipboards from our classroom. I was hoping that it would turn up somewhere in her classroom, but it has not. If you remember when your conference was scheduled, please fill in the day and time on the attached sheet and send it in ASAP. If you haven’t signed up or cannot remember when you signed up, please call or email ASAP and we’ll get you a date and time.
In case you didn’t know, conferences begin on Monday, November 10th.
Also, if you signed up for a time on Monday evening at 5:30 or later, I will need to reschedule you. Elysha and I have our first Birth Class on this night and she has warned me that my attendance is mandatory. I attempted to argue that every other mammal on Earth is capable of giving birth without taking a class, but as you might imagine, that didn’t go over so well.
However, since we have such a bounty of kids in class this year, I’m more than willing to stretch conferences into the following week as well, so I can accommodate whatever schedule you may have.
Thanks, and my apologies for the lost sign-up sheet. I have made my friend and colleague feel sufficiently guilty for the extra work that she has created for us.
Congratulations!
Congrats to Team 2, Team Haunted, for their second straight victory in the team competition for last week! Each of them will enjoy Writer’s Workshop in the first on Tuesday!
Congrats to me as well, for defeating the class in the class-wide competition last week. As a result of my win, I will enjoy the opportunity to jump into giant piles of leaves that the kids must rake for me. Fun for me!
I’ve given the kids an opportunity to win the same prize this week, so that we can all enjoy jumping in piles of leaves. But they will need t be much more attentive and focused than they were last week. Otherwise I’ll get double the fun!
Charlie Award winner!
Congratulations to Michael S., this week’s Charlie Award winner! Michael has won this honor for his outstanding effort in double digit multiplication last week. Michal is one of the few kids who has been experimenting with different ways to solve these problems, and this process often results in more work for him, which he willingly embraces in an effort to find the method that works best for him. Way to go, Michael, on your strong effort and excellent work ethic!
Mr. Dicks Writing Contest Winner
Congratulations to Matthew, the winner of the most recent Mr. Dicks Writing Contest. Matthew wrote about his worst day ever with great fluency and elaboration. The judges adored his piece.
Just a reminder that the current contest’s due date is Halloween. I hope to receive lots and lots of entries!
Homework
This week I’ve assigned your child a reading assignment and a math assignment to go along with his or her Essay of the Month and Science Project of the Month.
The math assignment is one pertaining to estimation and mental computation. The kids should be working on determining “convenient numbers” with which they should be able to compute a reasonable estimate in their head. I’ve asked the kids be sure to illustrate their mental processes on the page along with their answers.
The reading assignment consists of two parts. First, they must complete a Cloze assignment, making sure to underline the word or words in the passage that they used to determine the correct answer. They also have an open ended question to answer about the book that they read at home each night. This is an assignment with which the kids should be very familiar.
Both month long assignments are also due on Friday. The kids should arrive to school on Friday with a paper airplane and a journal reflecting their work, as well as their Essay of the Month. This can be emailed to school or brought in as a hard copy or on a jump drive
Thanks as always for the support!
That’s it for today!