I recall a Table Rock trip years ago in which a student showed up to school with an old airline carry-on bag. It didn’t have the straps necessary to carry it the way one would a backpack. Instead, it was like an over-sized purse, complete with the Pan Am logo on the side. Despite my insistence that he leave it behind, the student was equally insistent that he carry it up the mountain with him. And sure enough, by the time we were half-way to the top, that bag was the bane of his existence. Another year one of my students hiked all the way to the top and plopped down exhausted next to the big radio transmitter (the one that looks like a bowling pin). When I asked him why he was so lugubrious he complained about the heaviness of his backpack. A lunch and a water bottle? He opened his pack and revealed that he’d been lugging along his school work, including his math text book, binder, and a school dictionary! Why share these anecdotes now? Because Thursday it’s our turn to hike to the top of Table Rock, and the first order of business is to have a functioning backpack containing a sack lunch, a water bottle, and a jacket. That’s it! No dictionaries. No mp3 players. No DS devices. No stuffed seals, sea lions, or ventriloquist dummies. The only other items we should see in anyone’s backpack are binoculars, a camera (or cellphone), sunscreen, and a hat. The kids need to wear sturdy shoes and layered clothing appropriate for the weather. We’ll be hiking with Mr. Hadley’s class and  following a BLM ranger who will be telling us details about the Rock’s unique flora and fauna. We leave first thing Thursday morning, and parents who would like to join us are welcome.

Otherwise we have the usual array of activities including a new set of vocabulary words, the start of our DARE essays, and more work with fractions. Here’s the math homework for this week:  Monday, April 1; Tuesday, April 2; Wednesday, April 3; Thursday, April 4.