Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

I hope that everyone is enjoying their break and the countdown to Christmas.  I have loaded up my sleigh and am up with my family.  Again, I want to thank everyone for their generous outpouring to help make our party a good one.  Nearly every student donated something, and we had plenty of variety.  The students seemed to have a lot of fun.  Did they talk to you about our Gift of the Magi comparison?  We watched a traditional telling and compared that to the Sesame Street version starring Bert and Ernie.  I was a bit nervous that the class would think themselves too big for Sesame Street, but they loved it.  It is one of my favorite Christmas specials each year!  

For those of you who may be interested in tracking Santa's progress on Christmas Eve, check out this link: http://www.noradsanta.org/en/ 

What are your plans for Christmas?  Leave a comment sharing what you are doing and what your favorite present is!

PS:  Don't forget to save those wrapping paper tubes!  Also, I have tried and tried to post the carols our class rewrote, but I am having trouble getting blogspot to accept and upload the new files.  I have not given up, but I am getting discouraged!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

3 Weeks and Counting!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.  I heard about some of the great trips you took last week.  I'm glad everyone made it back safely!  As we get into the final push toward the holidays, I wanted to update you on the service projects we will be a part of in the next three weeks. 

• Pajama Project--Our team is collecting change during lunch in order to provide pajamas and books to children in need.  We are doing this as a school-wide service project.  Each day some students from our class will man the table to collect the change.  On Wednesday we will actually sort, count, tally, and graph the collections from that day!  I am really excited to show the students how much can be accomplished when everyone helps out just a little bit!
• Care Packages to Soldiers--We will be writing letters and sending care packages to soldiers who are serving in Afghanistan over the holidays.  At this point, I'm not sure how many we will be adopting, but some of the items they would appreciate include snack foods, shelf-stable meals and soups, and white tube socks.  As you are shopping over the next couple of weeks, if you are able, consider adding one of these items into your cart. 

I know that financially, things are tight for many this year.  Please do not feel you have to participate.  I want the class to be a part of the projects so they can see that anyone can make a difference.  If you are able to donate, that is great.  If not, it's okay.  We all give back in our own ways! 

Finally in today's newsletter I mentioned that this month's book order will be online only.  In order to ensure that the books come back in time for our break, an online order is the quickest and easiest way to get it done.  All of the flyers are available for you to look through online, but I will send the paper flyers home tomorrow.  If you have any questions or problems, please let me know.  The website is: http://clubs.scholastic.com/  Our class code is HWFT6.  If you want to order books to give as a gift, let me know so I can pull them aside and keep it a secret!

Have a great week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are within an hour of dismissal and I can almost taste the pumpkin pie!  I hope that this short little break brings you rest, good food, and some quality family time.  I will be headed up to the St. Louis area to visit my family and of course my little nephew; I can't wait!  I am eager to hear all about your trips.

Since the copy machines were broken this week, I was unable to send out a newsletter.  I did want to share an extra credit assignment offered over the Thanksgiving break.  In the spirit of our current essential literature book, students may write a letter to their favorite author.  The letter should include a brief introduction and then the students may ask the author whatever they want to know.  Upon our return to school, we will actually mail out the letters that are written to authors who are still alive.

Also our vertical team will be sponsoring a change drive the week following Thanksgiving.  All donated money will be used to support the pajama program-a charitable organization that provides needy children with pajamas and a book for the holidays.  Our team will collect, count, wrap, tabulate, graph, and share the results of donated monies. 

In the spirit of thanksgiving, our class wrote essays about those things for which they are most thankful.  Check out the comments section to read what they shared.

Math Book Login

Your child will start a new assignment this evening called daily math.  The specific information about how to complete this assignment is on the newsletter.  If you would prefer to access the textbook online instead of having your child bring the book home each evening, that is an option for you.  The directions for registering online are on the back of the daily math assignment sheet.  Visit the website on the assignment and use the Class access code: 7D90DF83A166C61EF0A4  Since it is such a long code, I figured I would give you a chance to cut and paste!   Please let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks!

Guess Who!! Trick or Treat!

 

EXTRA CREDIT

Okay, ladies and gentleman, here are the extra credit problems I promised you.  Although I would love for you to practice solving all of them, you can only share your solution for ONE problem.  In your comments/response you need to not only share the answer you found, but tell us HOW you solved it.  The more detail you share, the more possible points you can earn.  Good luck.

1.  There are 240 calories in a can of soda.  How many calories are in 6 cans of soda?

2.  Jennifer does 3 puzzles each day. There are 365 days in a year. How many puzzles does she complete in a full year?

3.  The pickle factory produces 780 jars of pickles per day. How many jars of pickles do they produce in a week?

4.  There is 135 feet of making tape on a roll.  Henry has 6 rolls. How many feet of masking tape does he have in all?

5.  A jet plane can travel 567 miles per hour.  How many miles could it travel in 4 hours?

6.  An adult panda can eat 138 pounds of bamboo each day. How many pounds of bamboo can a panda eat in a week?

7.  The company took 59 employees to a management conference across the country. Each round trip plane ticket cost $799. What was the total amount needed to take the employees to the conference?

8.  A popular rock band has scheduled 29 cities for the upcoming tour. Their goal is to sell 350 tickets for each show. How many tickets in all need to be sold for them to meet that goal?

Fall Break

I hope you are all enjoying your time off this week.  I also hope that there is reading going on during the week. 

Just a reminder that next week we are going to the Frist to see an exhibit on Egypt.  Students will need a sack lunch that day.  Then on Friday we will have our Fun Run.  Students will need to bring in  a drink and snack.  The main course will be hotdogs.  Remember that students are allowed to get donations and pledges for their Fun Run participation.  That information was sent home last week.

Also if you shop at Walmart and use Kellogg's products, check out this link to learn how you can get free books.   http://www.scholastic.com/kellogg/

Have a great week everyone!