This week we honor our veterans. Tomorrow the kids have off of school. Hopefully you do too so you can spend it together. If you have any stories of veterans in your family, tomorrow is a great day to share those with your kids. Personally, my favorite serviceman was my dad who served in the Navy during the Korean War on the SS Bottineau.
When the students return on Wedneday, our schedules will be a little different. I've told all the classes this, but just in case someone didn't "hear" me, we will have special areas at 8:30 on those two days rather than 9:15. That way, once we return, we have a 2 hour, uninterrupted block of time for them to take the Writing Benchmark. It's broken into two days, 2 hours each day. Benchmarks are given to allow us to see what areas we need to dig a little deeper with students throughout the year. On Friday, I promised them we would NOT be working on the expository piece we are almost finished with, because I think they'll need a break. I'm planning on doing some social studies activities instead. For benchmark testing, students should bring a jacket or sweater in case they get cold from just sitting for so long. They can always fold it up and make a cushion to sit on when they're not cold. Snacks and water bottles are fine for both days, just nothing that's messy or requires a spoon.
In Social Studies, we have learned about 4 Spanish explorers so far who have explored Texas. We started our timeline for this newest section of Texas History.
In Writing, when we aren't working on as a whole group on expositories, we are working in stations. One of our stations has been a letter-writing station. We are beginning to get some responses. Check out Avery's keepsakes she received from the new Longhorn football coach!