Like oil and water

Hello,

Please ask son or daughter if they know what the saying, "Like oil and water" means. If they were paying attention in science today, they should have a very good idea.

We did a better overall job of following directions and focusing on the learning rather than just trying to do cool stuff, but I still had to cut a table short. You can't be too grabby and excited with oil and food coloring. It can make a mess quickly. Chemistry is not a great subject when you can't trust everyone to follow explicit instructions. It is holding back some of the experiments that we can do. At least it was a minority today. We are making strides.

We discussed our writing territories this morning. Writing territories are any areas in which we can write about, write to, or write from. They can include genres, topics, places, people and potential audiences. It is a lot like our idea books from last year, but since that didn't work that well for everyone, I thought I'd give it the Nancie Atwell spin. She is the local teacher who won the international Teacher of the Year award this past year. Writing territories is a term that comes straight from one of her many books on writing instruction. Your child should be able to show you a list of their own territories tomorrow. You should get a good sense of what is important to someone if you get a glimpse of their territories.

As you may have noticed, I don't write blogs on Fridays. It is usually all I can do to make it home without falling asleep. I crash pretty fast at the end of the week.

I didn't write on open house night last week either for the same reason. It got late. I was tired. I had seen most of you already.

Thanks to everyone who made the time to come to open house. I saw twelve families picking up at homework club and another seven at the open house. I was very happy to see so many families from my last looping class. Wow, they grow quickly.

Guitar club tomorrow night. We have a loaner guitar in the class now for kids to take home. Thank you to the Dolley's for that contribution.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea