A special thanks to everyone for attending parent-teacher conferences. I especially appreciate your patience when the schedule got a little backed-up. This is a great class of kids. I hope that came through during our conversations. One additional note–after completing about half the conferences, I discovered that the District had altered the report card template to allow for “E” (Exceeds) on the behavioral section. Unfortunately, this adjustment was made after I had printed report cards and conferenced with many deserving students. My apologies. Second trimester cards will better reflect the performance of these kids.

Upon returning to class, students will hit the ground running with a variety of important tasks crammed into our three weeks leading up to Christmas vacation. First, there’ll be a new set of vocabulary words introduced on Monday. Next, students will begin preparing their presentations and speeches for the independent novel they read over Thanksgiving. Thirdly, they’ll craft “Elf Stories” to accompany pictures of their cafeteria elves on their webpages. On top of all that, they’ll be getting ready for History Jeopardy and their first big history exam of the year. And then there’s math. Yup, more long division–including an exam on Wednesday! Here’s the math homework for this week: Monday, Dec. 2nd; Tuesday, Dec. 3rd; Wednesday, Dec. 4th; Thursday, Dec. 5th.

Also, with Christmas just around the corner, it seems appropriate to replay A Christmas Carol, last year’s fantastic 16 minute film made by Room 15 kids.  Click on the link to view it.