daw.com - April 25

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - Sabrina
Tuesday - Christos
Wednesday - Nikhita
Thursday - day 2, no current events
Friday - PD day, no school

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.
Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids

A short week this week with only four days. This means only three days of homework and it is due on Thursday morning. We are also switching around days so this Thursday is a day 2 and the following Monday is a day 1. I will be in Beijing over next weekend so I cannnot say if there will be a class letter or not. I will attempt one, but it is dependent on the time I arrive back from Beijing on Sunday afternoon. I will be away from school on Thursday as I prepare for my move to Beijing by finding a house/flat to live in when I arrive.

I want to thank Kaori, Simon and Brock for their job as class executive and welcome Zehra, Nikhita and Christoffer. I am sure they will continue the tradition of excellence in these positions.

We will complete Unit 10 in math this week with the final assessment and open response. We will then move on to Unit 11 and I have included the family letter with the weekly email. Please keep it for future reference.

For writing we will continue with our memoirs on friends. Students have had a great time writing about this but have had some difficulty weaving a thread or theme through their writing. It is not vital they do this but we are still trying to get the idea of theme in writing into our own writing. We are also completing the LUNE poem and will move on to the Sense Poem next.

This week we have the Middle School counselor visit our class so students should have questions ready to be answered by the counselor. Topics could include lockers, schedules, recess, after school clubs, homework etc. Just about anything is fair game.

In reading this week, students will complete their current set of Literature circles and prepare for the next ones. I have started to interchange this title with Book Talks as that is the more appropriate name for them.

In science we will move on to Lifeboats from Swingers. Our pictures this week are from the students experimenting with Pendulums. We discovered that it does not seem to matter what the material is that the pendulum is made of, only the length of the pendulum effects the number of swings.

As always, if you have questions please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw