Monday and the week

Howdy all, and thanks for checking in. We're off to a gray start after a beautiful weekend,and the kids came in a little groggy today.

We have a writing intensive week ahead of us as we begin formatting our ocean animal reports. We'll go over exciting introductions and work with a color-coded writing system to ensure that the kids are using strong topic sentences, and supporting them with appropriate details.

I am also excited to inform you that we have a month of clay with local artist Jenni Ward starting this Wednesday afternoon. We'll see her the last hour of the day as part of the school's SPECTRA program. We'll have 5-6 weeks of painting in the spring as well.

Blue Folders are full of returned papers this week and a new reading log. Friday science exam was, for the most part, a dud. Disappointing knowing that it was an open-text exam and the kids were not timed. Many of the students blazed through the content without taking then time to check their facts. Sad, because this should have been a breeze for those who made the effort.

Students will be taking a district math benchmark exam on Wednesday. The exam is used for district purposes only, and the kids will not be graded on their work. I will, however, share the results with folks at conferences.

We are looking good for aquarium drivers next week. If you have not completed the necessary insurance paperwork in the office, please do so immediately.

Scholastic Book orders are due by Thursday, as I will be submitting them on Friday. Feel free to use the link on the lower right hand corner of this page.

Last week was National Turn Off the TV Week, and I completely forgot to mention it. This week, I am going to encourage folks to take a peek at the Ken Burns "National Parks" series on PBS. It airs each night, Monday - Friday, at 8pm. It started yesterday with John Muir and Yosemite. It was amazing and beautiful.

Finally, whew, the Harvest Festival is this Friday.

Tonight, the kids are responsible for the following:

- blue folders
- reading log
- math 5.5 (pages 45 & 46)
- reading practice book pages 106 & 107

Respectfully, Mr. Bryant