Good Evening Families,

As a way to celebrate the publication of our argument essays, the students are extremely pumped to host a Writers’ Celebration. The format of this writing celebration will be a little different than past Writer’s Celebrations. In an ideal world, I would love for all students to read their essay out loud. However, that’s not possible due to time. We determined that each research group will pick one student to read their argument essay out loud. For example, there are six students researching whether or not dodgeball should be allowed in schools. Of those six students, one of them will read their argument essay out loud at the celebration. We haven’t yet determined who those students will be. They will be identified next week. Please mark your calendars for Wednesday, March 20th at 8am. We’ll have our celebration first thing in the morning in a “brunch” format. This will hopefully allow you to come by on your way to work.

We wrapped up our colonial unit this week. In this unit, students learned about various aspects of life in the 13 British colonies. We started with what a colony is, why England wanted colonies in the “New World”, and we held discussions that led us toward understanding why the colonies eventually wanted to become their own country. Today, I asked the students to share something that they learned from this unit. Here is what some students shared:

“I learned that there was a lot of slavery in the 13 colonies.” ~ Jacob

“I learned that New York used to be a British colony.” ~Anand

“I learned that Virginia was a really popular colony and there was a big population.” ~Jessie

“I learned that their minds were just on getting gold instead of building buildings for the Winter.” ~Patrick, referencing Jamestown

“I learned that Rhode Island is the smallest out of the 13.” ~Livia

“I never knew that New York could be a British colony.” ~Gabriel

“I learned that the colonists just came, set up their colony, and ignored everybody that was already there.” ~ Oak

“I didn’t know that Georgia was one of the colonies and never knew that Jamestown was a colony.” ~Viking

“I learned that Pennsylvania had slaves.” ~ Diya

“I learned that they had a lot of slaves.” ~Jack

Kevin is competing in the Regional Spelling Bee at the Hollywood Theater in Portland this Saturday, March 9th. Doors to the theater open at 9am and the competition starts at 10 am. While it’s not necessarily a type of competition that requires boisterous applause, whoops, and hollers, Kevin would certainly appreciate the presence of some of his classmates. I think I will be able to make it. If you and your child are interested in coming, I recommend arriving around 9:30 am. When I went two years ago, the theater did fill up.

During the month of April, we’ll be completing the Smarter Balanced standardized tests. Our schedule will proceed like normal. The biggest thing to know with these standardized tests is that attendance is important. If you know your child will be absent at all in April, please let me know so I can plan accordingly.

Speaking of important upcoming dates, here are some more:

Week of 3/18- Progress Reports will be sent home

Week of 3/25- NO SCHOOL Spring Break

Wednesday 4/3- Scablands Informational meeting in my classroom after school

Friday 5/3- FRIDAY SCHOOL DAY

Tuesday 5/14- Thursday 5/16 Overnight field trip

Monday 5/27- NO SCHOOL  in observance of Memorial Day

Friday 5/31- LAST DAY OF SCHOOL (half day)

Enjoy your weekend,

Mr. B

Idiom of the Week: Dust in the Wind

Vocab of the Week: Puny, Ignorant, Conscience, Rustle