Red Ribbon and Halloween Week!!!

Hi there! I hope that you are having a great weekend. All week long we waited for the bright sun for our science lab and wouldn't you know it...out pops the sun yesterday and today. I should have listened to Hanna when she said the class should take their labs home and do them this weekend. Silly me said, nah…it is going to be cloudy too. Shoot! Sorry Hanna, you were so correct. Now, we will hope for sun this week sometime!

I enjoyed seeing so many of you at the Halloween party on Friday night. Sorry if I missed some of you. We were not able to stay the entire time. How fun was it to fish, toilet toss, ring toss, bean bag throw, win a plate of cupcakes and play plinko! A big thank you to PTA for putting it on and to the many of you that brought in cupcakes!



The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and doing things I love. It included having coffee with a new friend, watching the Arrowhead Broncos make the Rocky Bowl in their playoff game, and going to the pumpkin patch outside Laurel with my own kiddos! Perfect weekend!

The upcoming week is going to be a packed one. It is Red Ribbon Week along with Halloween on Friday. That will make for an out of routine week and many opportunities to get out of control. So, CALM will be the word of the week. :0)

We kicked off Red Ribbon Week on Friday with DEA Agent Dunlap. He did a great job sharing the story of Enrique Camarena and why we celebrate Red Ribbon Week. The kids were able to ask him a million and one questions about the week, his job, and Enrique. I loved it because it got them excited to learn more. And learn we will!!! I take this week very serious. I have kids of my own that are at the same age as these little ones. As a mom, I want to shelter them from the scary world outside. I don't want them to know that drug dealers are lurking around parks, schools, and homes. I want them to feel safe forever. However, I know that they are now old enough to pop that fantasy bubble. Kids this age are targets and it is important that they begin to build their tool belt with strategies to use when situations come up. Arrowhead area, especially Will James and West High areas, are not exempt from the drug, alcohol, and tobacco world. In fact, they are packed with them. That is not far off.  Everything we learn about this week will be age appropriate. It will not be to scare children, but will be taught to give them a sense of confidence and knowledge of what to do if and when they are ever confronted with the situation. They will especially learn to just say no and mean it. We will end the week by watching an episode of Little House on the Prairie where one of the characters gets hooked on drugs and his dad has to help him get back off. I have used it for years, and it is the perfect way to wrap up the week. A sheet in the Tuesday folder will explain it more and ask for your permission.

For Halloween, we are not allowed to have a classroom party. Drats! I remember the days when we wore our costumes to school and went down Trick or Treat Street!!! Those days however, are long gone. Kids may NOT wear their costumes to school on Friday. Please refrain from sending in treats. Halloween is my birthday so I will bring in birthday treats for the end of the day. This being said. we will end the day in a fun way. We will be shifting to our new Science unit: Matter. We will take a look at solid, liquid, and gas in a hands on way. We will be working with dry ice in some fun experiments that demonstrate all three of these states. Kids will go through Dry Ice Safety before it is even passed out. I have yet to have an accident in all the years I have done this. Kids that do not take the safety procedures seriously, even joke about them, will be removed immediately. Dry ice if fun, but it can be dangerous if not used correctly. Kids get this and we end up having a wonderful time learning!!! We will end the day with our treats and some "witches" brew. :0) Permission slips will be coming home in the Tuesday folders.

Other than that, we will have a perfectly normal week…

Math: multiplying large numbers

Lead 21: Predicting and summarizing

Language: Adjectives

Spelling: vowel sounds aw and au

Science: Finish weather. We will have Mr. Meier coming in on Tuesday to talk weather tools with us. We will then fill out a unit study guide and have the test on Thursday. We will begin states of matter on Friday.

SS-Continue our tour of the NE region. Here is a picture of the States and Capital's example quiz. I went over it completely with kids last week. As you can see, kids will need to know where each state is  (They have to put the state in the correct number below). Then, they have to match it to the correct capital city. There are word boxes, which then require correct spelling. Feel free to use this one as a practice. Please know that the numbers on the states will not be in the same order on the test I will give. Study, study, study. :0)


MT History- American Indians and Reservations found in MT

Fly Time-Red Ribbon Week: drugs, alcohol, and tobacco free kids!

Last week ended with Gabrielle being star of the week. She shared her fun bear that her brother won her, her dance shoes, her tennis ball (she is a tennis player) and many other fun things! What a joy she is to have in class and in our lives. Thanks for sharing with us Gabrielle.


I leave you with a fun picture! Have a fantastic weekend with your family!