World Series post

Hello,

I was impressed with the A to Z foods that everyone was able to come up with.  Well done by all.  I think the kids liked the assignment.  Many sought parent help.  Many went online.  We had fun with it. 

Our legislators met this afternoon.  Most of them seem out of ideas for how to make the class run more smoothly.  I'll take that as a compliment.  However, they might have trouble during their reelection campaigns, being out of ideas so soon.  New elections will happen next week.  Is your child interested in running?

We went over some different types of government today.  Ask your child if they know what an oligarchy is.  They should.  I took a page out of Teach Like A Pirate and tried to teach it in a memorable way which involved a lot of movement on their parts.  We covered three forms of totalitarian governments: monarchy, dictatorship and oligarchy.  I think they enjoyed our dictator a little too much, but I think they got the point.  We also talked about direct democracies and indirect democracies.  Our republic is an indirect democracy because we elect representatives to make governmental decisions for us.   We began our learning of government last year and it is nice to take them to the next level of understanding.

The fifth grade has had a lot of trouble walking from lunch in a civilized manner.  Part of the homework tonight is for the class to come up with suggestions on how we can improve this.  I don't think our class is a major part of the problem, but we can definitely do better.  I'm just hoping a huge consequence doesn't come down for the whole grade, but rather targets the major offenders.  Our homework is an attempt to ward off the giant consequence for all. 

Our lunch buddies this year will come from Mrs. Vallella's third grade class.  Students from both classes will be paired up to eat together once a month during the year.  We'll meet our buddies on Friday for twenty minutes before going to lunch with them.  Throughout the school 3rd grade and 5th are matched up, and 2nd and 4th.  Be sure to ask your child how it went.

Our 5th grade pot luck is tomorrow night.  I need to put it on the calendar above.  I will.  I think tonight may be the first night that a reminder didn't go home this week.  So here I am.  Any students staying after school for homework club are certainly welcome to stay through to 6:00 for the dinner.  We will march down at 6:00. 

Have a great night.  Go Sox.

Mr. Shea