Week 8 - October 25, 2010

Dear Parents,

Can he do it?

Everyone is excited about the 8^th grade haunted house and of course Halloween Fair. It has been our tradition to dress up after lunch, visit the Nursing Home then return to an afternoon of fun and it saddens me to hear some of the 8^th grade boys complaining about having to take the time to visit the Nursing Home. This attitude seems to be at the root of many challenges we face. As we give students greater freedom we expect them to take greater responsibility. Responsibility requires thinking beyond one's immediate needs.

The 5^th and 6^th graders continue to work on their Life Thru Time Play. The performance will be on Friday, November 12^th at about 2:30PM. The 7^th and 8^th graders did an activity called “Contagious Classroom”. The students simulation the spread of the flu by exchanging some of the contents of each others cups. After the exchanges, I added an indicator to each cup to measure the amount of “flu” each student had. The purple color made it obvious that some students were quite ill and others just had a mild case.

Loose tooth

The 8^th grade math students have begun their final investigation and will be finishing the unit on the Pythagorean Theorem next week. The 6^th graders are exploring fraction to decimal conversions and the 5^th graders are learning to use protractors, compasses and geometry templates.