Happy November to all~~
Our week began with the last day of October and a wonderful classroom party at the end of that day. I felt we were not only celebrating the holiday, but also our special classroom 'family' that we have established over the last two months. Many grateful thanks to Sharon Pertzborn-Jensen for planning and preparing our games and activities and many of the goodies. We got new pencils, played Trivia, and did a Trick or Treat Word Find. Sharon wrote our class a personalized 'haunted' story where every one of us in class were the characters! We sat in a big circle and passed around the small pumpkins she gave us to the 'left' or to the 'right' every time we heard those words in the story - which was MANY times! Our confusion got quite hilarious! Michele Joslyn was also there to help lead our games and make sure we all got enough treats on our plates! Jane MacLean brought in some extra snacks, and we were well supplied with festive tableware thanks to Tammy Bursac. Thank you to all for contributing to a really nice time together. By the way, copies of "our" haunted story will be added to our Writing Binders as a keepsake.
NEWS FLASH: Another social event will occur on Wednesday, December 7th -- the annual West Middleton Circle of Love Winter Tea. It will be held in our school's multi-purpose room, and the time slot that our class is attending needed to be changed this past week. Put it on your calendars: All families are invited to join us to share punch, cookies, and conversation that day from 12:35 to 1:00 PM. The lunchroom gets transformed into a Winter Wonderland with beautiful decorations by our PTO, live music from Middleton High School Orchestra students, and a seemingly endless supply of cookies and bars to sample.
Another event that our students are quite excited about is the 4 week-long contest to see which class can collect the most BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION. We are proud to announce we collected 300 BOX TOPS by Friday, November 4th! Our students are searching and hunting down all they can find from every friend and relative near and far - so any help from you is much appreciated! Could it be that their enthusiasm is spurred on by the fact that the winning class gets to throw a cream pie at the faces of their friendly principal and 'beloved' teacher???!
Meanwhile, back at the classroom... This week our class was also treated to an enlightening presentation by one our own students, Cecilie. She brought in and explained many items that were meaningful to her Norwegian heritage, and educated us all about this country and beautiful culture. To top it all off, we were generously treated to creamy ice cream and luscious fresh raspberries - thank you so much to Cecilie and her parents! Another eye-opening contribution this week came from Seth's mother, Laurie Luetscher, which caused quite a stir with the whole class! See for yourselves by going to www.worldometers.info/ . On Monday, October 31, it was estimated that our planet's population reached the 7 billion mark! The website shows the live ongoing count, along with the ongoing counts of many other statistics, and it is all quite mind-boggling. We took a look more than once during the week in class, and the kids were mesmerized. Thank you, Laurie, for clueing us in!
Our science experiments this week gave the students plenty of chances to discover what components make a successful and complete electrical circuit and what does not! Listening to all the inquiring, surprised, puzzled, and triumphant comments coming from every investigative team was such a treat for me as a teacher. After we came together to share and compare what was learned, and time came to summarize new information and vocabulary, it was evident the new concepts had found their way into our 4th grade 'scientists' brains. Very cool! I did catch more of this on video, and will share it with you.
The coming week, as you know from my email this past week, will be a different week with a revised classroom schedule for WKCE testing. We went over some practice items this past week, and I believe the students are ready to just try their best on each item, be thorough in their thinking, and know they do not have to be nervous about these assessments. I have told them this gives our state a chance to compare all the 4th graders in Wisconsin and see what they have learned so far. A good night's sleep and good breakfast will help concentration, and we will give ourselves some relaxing breaks between sessions. We've already got a big bag of string cheese in my little refrigerator, as well as cracker boxes and bags of bubble gum ready. Thank you! I also look forward to talking with you at conferences this next week as well (do let me know if you need confirmation of your conference time). Your child will have a chance to share with you some samples of their work so far this year, and we can all talk over together good goals for the coming months. See you next week! Melanie
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