Dear Families,

Kennedy grabs the envelopes marked “September” and “October.” She passes the envelopes off to Dempsey. Holding the microphone steadily in front of all of the fourth and fifth graders, he slowly opens the envelope one at a time. Johnny provides the dramatic drumroll. Dempsey pulls out the coveted piece of paper in the envelope. He announces the September and October winner of which class has brought in the most Box Tops. He announces “Mrs. Chiu” and “Mr. Wallace.” The crowd cheers. The trophy is awarded to Mrs. Chiu’s class for bringing in the most Box Tops overall this school year. However, Dempsey shares a special announcement. While Mrs. Chiu’s class has brought in the most Box Tops so far, our class is only behind them by 200 box tops! The competition is on…

Keep collecting those Box Tops. They can be found on many items you buy, from dishwasher detergent to yogurt. Each box top brought into school is money raised for our school!

I want to give a huge shout out to the following students: Wyatt, Jacob, Lucas, Jonathan, Dempsey, Joe, Rebekah, Gabriel, Justin, Jessie, Ariana, Kevin, Kamryn, Diya, and Viking. These students were in school every day for the month of October. Hats off to them!

We’re wrapping up the first part of our journalism unit. Students wrote an article about an event or story as if they were reporters. Some examples of topics include reporting on an older sister’s “freak out” moment, a younger brother forgetting to turn off the family’s four-wheelers, a first gymnastics lesson, and a football team’s end-of-season celebration. The following students reported that they would benefit from putting some final touches on their articles before Tuesday: Anand, Dempsey, Ethen, Gabriel, Johnny, Livia, and Patrick. The next bend of our unit will focus on feature articles, pieces of journalism that dive deep on a particular topic.

We’re enjoying our nonfiction reading unit. Students are reading books on a range of topics like dinosaurs, weather, animals, Benedict Arnold, and war. Our read aloud books are focusing on famous American women who have made an impact in our country’s history in meaningful ways. I read the picture book “The Daring Nellie Bly: America’s Star Reporter” by Bonnie Christensen. Nellie became famous for becoming one of the most prominent female reporters in the country at the end of the 18th century. Not only that, but she traveled around the world, which was unheard of at that time for a woman. A trailblazer, indeed.

Remember, weekend expectations include reading every day for 30 minutes and studying spelling words. Reading should be documented on a paper log or on the digital reading log.

There’s no school tomorrow, Monday 11/12 in observance of Veterans’ Day. This means we do have school this Friday, 11/16. Next week is Thanksgiving. We’ll have school on Monday 11/19 and Tuesday 11/20 but will have the rest of the week off.

~Mr. B

Idiom of the Week: All Bent Out of Shape

Vocab of the Week: Segregation, Unique, Freedom, Inspiration