Hello,
We had eleven of twenty three stay. Everyone got their written homework finished. Many also finished their 20 minutes of reading. We only spent 30 minutes (of the usual 45) on homework so I could set a few ground rules on how the "fun" part of the club would go. The kids really wanted to do their own thing, so there was very little structure. Four kids worked with Knex, a roller coaster and five foot big ball machine should be finished in a few weeks. Many kids built with Legos, opting for free building rather than sets. One child worked with the Master Builder Set.
All in all it was successful. It is helping to build our classroom community. The kids are interacting with each other and problem solving at the same time. There was a great vibe in the room, and even the homework time held no tension. I offered pretzels up for an extra snack and eight kids partook. Any parent willing to occasionally donate a bag of pretzels, a jug of fruit juice, or anything along those lines, is welcome to contribute. Thank you so much.
We had an interesting discussion during school today. What started out as a "Why we pledge allegiance to the flag and what that means talk," turned into much more. HBS no longer announces the pledge over the intercom in the morning. I thought that we should talk about that as a class and discuss whether we should keep the tradition. I personally think we should. I read a picture book titled I Pledge Allegiance by Bill Martin Jr. It led to a multi-faceted discussion about our freedoms, our military, ISIS, September 11th, veterans, why we go to war, etc. The interest was very high. At one point, half of the class had their hands up for comments or questions. Your child may ask you some questions tonight and it would be nice for you to give them your perspective. Heavy topics, but ones they are highly interested in, and I handled as straight forward, but as delicately as I could. Feel free to ask me about it as well.
I'll be instituting a current events reporter job soon, which goes to a different child every night. They will get a bonus on their next paycheck for bringing in a news item that can be local, national, global, or special interest. I can see that this class will be highly interested in this.
Tuesday was already my favorite day of the school week, because we get a full two hours of instruction in the morning. Homework club makes it even better. I need to build up strong relationships to get them to buy into the hard work that is coming down the pike. I enjoy that process immensely. (It's easier than getting them to do the hard work.)
Math jeopardy tomorrow, with the Chapter 1 test on Thursday.
Spelling test on Friday. Your child should have eight words in their assignment book that will be on their individualized test. The words came from words that they have missed earlier this year, or words from our geography unit.
I got a huge box at the very end of the day that was getting recycled. Now I just need to figure out how to incorporate that into a lesson tomorrow. It is refrigerator sized if anyone has any ideas.
Have a great night.
Mr. Shea
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