Happy Holidays

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. With the holidays coming up it has been busy and my wife and I have both been sick. (As of this writing, we are both on the road to recovery). I wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a happy holidays. I hope that everyone has a chance to spend time with family and have a nice, relaxing holiday. Eric Langhorst, a teacher at South Valley Middle School – and the Missouri Teacher of the Year, recently put a podcast up about sharing and recording family histories. I think this is a great idea, and one that I have been trying to get my dad to do. My dad has a ton of great stories and I am trying to get him to record them. I am hoping to get more of his stories on tape over the break. I encourage you to listen to Eric’s podcast about how to accomplish this. While you are there, you should listen to some of his others, they are absolutely amazing. You can get to Eric’s web site, Speaking of History, by clicking on the link below.

http://www.speakingofhistory.blogspot.com/

Also I wanted to put up a few more pictures of some of the science expereiments that we have been working on. Have a great break!

Reading Buddies

Here are some pictures that I promised the kids that I would post last week and just didn’t get a chance to put up. Every student got a brand new reading buddy. This is a friend that loves to listen to student writing. I really want the kids to get into the habit of reading what they write out loud. It is amazing how many mistakes you catch when you do this. Enjoy these pictures or Room 42 with their reading buddies.

Two Weeks Left

We have two full weeks left until the holiday break. I know that I am looking forward to the break but I am also looking forward to the next two full weeks. We have a ton to get accomplished. Today we took a math test and I have a feeling that this group is going to do really well in Unit 6 which deals with data and probability. We are also jumping into colonies with a giant poster project. Not only do I mean that this will be a large project but also, the finished posters will be huge. We had a great discussion today about some of the errors the kids made in the science work that we did this week and the kid have an opportunity to re-do one of those assignments. Next week we will continue our work on forces and begin to look at simple machines. Enjoy the weekend, and hopefully the weather will be nice. I’m heading north to Des Moines, Iowa to meet Brooks Robinson, Baseball Hall of Famer. I’m hoping for nice traveling weather tomorrow.

Snowball Fight

Today we had a giant snowball fight in Room 42. We did this to practice calculating speed. We did not go out side and get snowballs (no matter how tempting that would have been) instead, we made due with indoor snowballs. We also went through our Newton’s Third Law sing along again. Ask your child to sing you the song about Newton’s Third law, they would love to sing it for you!

Quick Notes

I just want to mention quickly that there are some changes on the horizon for collecting homework and makeup work procedures. We had discussed this earlier and it looks like we will be trying out the new system either next week, or the week before break. I am excited about this system and I think that it will work well and shouldn’t impact grade at all, especially if the kids are turning assignments in on time. More to come on this topic later.

Multiple Topics

Where do I begin? I have a bunch of different topics to talk about today.

Adopt a Soldier
First, we are going to adopt a soldier for the holidays (our package won’t get there until after Christmas). I am collecting different items to send over. There is a whole list on the newsletter for last week. Mainly we are looking for non perishable stuff that we can send over. Beef jerky, crystal light packets, granola bars, CD’s, DVD’s, etc. What I told the kids is to think of what would put a smile on someone face. I am wanting to send the package sometime at the end of next week. Also, anyone that wants to contribute a dollar to the postage fund, it would be greatly appreciated.

Roller Coasters
Below are some of the pictures of the Roller Coasters that the kids turned in today. I have not graded them yet but I can’t wait and I wanted to post some pictures. Newton’s Laws

Newton's Laws

Today was our first day of studying Newton’s Laws. We did this by completing a series of observations including yanking a tablecloth out from under some dishes. I did tell the kids not to attempt this at home (we had plastic dishes). Here are some pictures also of the kids working on these centers today.