Week in Review

We had a full week in Room 31!  One of the things we did this week is finish up our Monster Exchange Project.  We started the unit by researched legends from around the world.  Students learned about Godzilla, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and more!  Then, using the information they gathered about these imaginary monsters, they created their own monsters! We had monsters named The Five Eyed Bed Monster! Vambana! and The Electrical Ape! After creating their monster, students wrote, revised and edited a description of their monster.  Our partner class from Presidential Meadows Elementary in Texas received our description and drew our monsters as best they could.  We did the same for them. You can check out our Monster Gallery here. You will see the original monster, description and redrawn monster in the gallery.  We had a lot of fun and learned a lot about following directions and using describing words in our writing.

Our mini-unit on the election is in full swing!  We will spend next week learning about the candidates.  Our school will be holding a mock election on Tuesday, November 6th. While the rest of the nation decides the next president, Great Works will too!  The election is great learning opportunity for our students. I encourage you to bring your kids with you when you vote on November 6th!

Multiplication facts are flying in our room! We've been working with our facts all week - learning about patterns, square numbers, tricks and memorizing the difficult ones. We will now be having weekly multiplication fact tests. We practice a lot at school, but there are some great ways you can practice at home. Flashcards are great.  We also have fact triangles at school that can go home to practice as well. If you have an iPad, iPod or tablet there are some great apps to practice, too. Everyday Math Multiplication Baseball (1-6 and 1-12) is a fantastic app.  There is also Everyday Math Beat the Computer (multiplication). Another cool app is Match-Up Math Multiplication and Division and Flash to Pass.

During a conference last week I was introduced to a great website to help with spelling.  The site is Spelling City. You can sign up for a FREE account and set up your child's spelling list to practice all week. Let me know if you want to try and have any questions or problems accessing the site.

All the talks of the storm coming next week have the halls and classrooms at Great Works buzzing.  This is a great time to talk about my expectations of students if we miss a day (or two!) of school due to weather or power outages. If school is canceled (say, on a Tuesday) and students have already received their Reading Log for the week, my expectation is that they read and respond that day.  The only time students are excused from reading is if they are sick or out of school for family reasons.  Snow, rain and lack of electricity shouldn't prevent us from reading. :)

Conferences went very well last week! Thank you to all the parents that came to see me.  I'm looking forward to meeting the the other half of you on Thursday!  I still have a few openings left if anyone would like to schedule a conference.

With Halloween and Trick or Treating coming up this week, I'm sure students will be asking questions about costumes and candy. No costumes can be worn at school and I would prefer no more than two pieces of candy be sent to school per day. Big bags of candy will be confiscated! ;)

Upcoming Dates to Remember:
November 1 - Parent Teacher Conferences
November 7 - MGWS Veteran's Day Assembly
November 7 - MGWS Sneak Peak, Oliver!
November 12 - No School, Veteran's Day
November 21-23 - No School, Thanksgiving