Happy Thanksgiving

Here's what I'm thankful for

Happy Thanksgiving to all my wonderful students and their fabulous families!

Typhoon the Guinea Pig

Our class pet, Typhoon, is a sweet guinea pig.  Thanks to all who have supplied carrots, apples, and other crunchy vegetables.  If you would like to take care of Typhoon over the Thanksgiving break, bring in a note from your parents. I will select one note from the pile and make arrangements with your parents to pick up Typhoon the week of Thanksgiving.   

What are COWS?

COWs are Carry-over-words.  These are words we misspell on our Friday test, so they carry over to next week's list.  These words are written on the inside cover of the red spelling notebook.  They count on the next week's test, so students need to be studying them along with their weekly list of words.

Another spelling item:  starting with this week's test there will  be dictation.  Sentences will be read and students need to listen carefully and write them.   Also beginning this week when students receive 100% three times consecutively, the following week they are spelling free!  This caused quite a bit of excitement, and a new enthusiasm for studying and using correct spelling.  Students are also accountable for correct spelling in their writing.  One tip for proofreading spelling is to read the writing from the last word backwards.  This forces the reader to concentrate on one word at a time!

A belated bithday wish to Christina, whose birthday was Friday.  We loved the yummy brownies!!
Happy Birthday!

Trick-or-Treat for Unicef

Among the many activities planned by our fifth grade student council is a collection for Unicef. Many of our fifth graders collected money as well as candy on Halloween.  Pictured here are student council members who form the Community Helpers Committee.  They recently helped Mrs. Jaffe separate the coins from the bills during recess.  We are all very grateful for the generous donations made, and proud of our students who give their effort and time for such a worthwhile cause.  Unicef helps so many children by providing access to medical care and food. As soon as all the money is counted I will post the amount collected. Thank you!

What's New This Week?

We now have a new visitor (we have passed Seymour to Miss Conceison's class) a guniea pig named Typhoon.   We would appreciate some newspaper, cardboard and maybe some snacks for Typhoon.  He needs fruits and veggies every day, just like us.  Speaking of fruits and veggies- ask your fifth grader what some of the early explorer-sailors had to eat on their expeditions, and why fruit and vegetables are so important!
As we say goodbye to Seymour we would like to dedicate some of the poems we wrote to him.  Here's one by Josh. Happy Birthday Josh!

Snap!

Carry house on your back, snap!

Never run, snap!

No teeth but a beak, snap!

Stay away from the tooth fairy, snap!

Be the meanest turtle around, snap!

Shred things to tiny peaces, snap!

Tell your great grand kids stories

Snap!

Snap!

Snap!