Spoke too soon....

...when I called last week a crazy week!!! While we have had quite a short week, it has been pretty productive.

Today our class began a program called Junior Achievement. This is a continuation of a program that the students have been participating in since 3rd grade. Mr. Michalski will be with us every Friday afternoon this quarter for Junior Achievement. Here is an excerpt from the teacher guide explaining this program:

Junior Achievement uses hands-on experiences to help young people understand the economics of life. In partnership with businesses and educators, JA brings the real world to students, opening their minds to their potential. 

Because of our short day, I chose to deviate from our nonfiction/Westward Expansion unit to use our reading time to learn about an important anniversary. Tomorrow is the 54th anniversary of the Greensboro Sit Ins so we read aloud the book, SIT IN: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney. Students analyzed the authors choice to highlight/bold certain phrases and quotes such as, "Practicing peace while others showed hatred was tougher than any school test". 

-A few announcements-

The Hands for Habitat Lego Blitz has been rescheduled for Wednesday February 19th in the Orange High School cafeteria. Registration will begin at 3:15.

Please cut out, count, and send in any "Box Tops for Education" that you have been saving.

**Last week yearbook order forms were sent out in grades k-4. Each 5th grader is given a yearbook as a going away gift from the PTA.**

What a crazy week here at HES!

Thank you so much to all of you who could make it out this morning to our DARE graduation ceremony. I am so proud of all of the kids hard work, especially on their essays. They worked on them independently with only one revision conference with me.

We have begun working on a research project to help us prepare for and get excited about our upcoming Washington DC field trip. Each student has chosen a topic and is currently researching. Before beginning our research we spent several days learning about how to choose appropriate books and websites for kids to use to conduct research. We identified ways to determine reliability and validity of a source and the pros and cons of book research versus internet research. Mrs. Shopmeyer did a wonderful lesson with them focused on identifying clues that a website might not be reliable….ask them about the “Northwestern Pacific Tree Octopus ”! If your child has headphones they may bring them in to keep in their locker. Now that we are using our computers regularly we are finding headphones to be very helpful.

**DC TRIP UPDATE**

- final payments due Friday 2/7,  let me know if you are unsure of your balance
- if you signed up as a chaperone but didn’t specify which parent will be attending, please let me know ASAP

**SUPPLIES NEEDED**

We are in desperate need of either:

mechanical pencils OR pencils & individual sharpeners

any donations will be greatly appreciated