The Adventures in Mrs. Ripp's Class

Special Notes –

* What a great week.  Highlights for me has been seeing the groups work so well together, being kind to one another, and being honest in their opinions. 

* Blogging is going really well and we now have gotten more than 600 comments on the blogs already!  I am in touch with several teachers across the world that are watching our blog for ideas and to see how the kids are developing in their writing. 

*  As we get ready to read the book “Out of My Mind” I asked students to work in partnerships to solve brainteasers but without speaking or writing.  They did for 20 minutes and will now be blogging about it for next week’s blogging challenge.  Our main character, Melody, has CP and no way of communicating with the world so I wanted the students to get a feel for that before we start reading.

* We did another Mystery Skype this week and it did not go as well as the first one.  This was a wonderful learning opportunity for us as we discussed what we could do better as we get ready for our next one.

* The State Journal will be here Wednesday taking pictures of the students and asking them some questions about the Global read Aloud, I am looking forward to seeing these awesome students in the paper.

*MAP testing is done for this round, if students need to make up missed tests I have sent their names to Mr. Macklem.

* Dates for your calendar:  Ripp sub all day for meeting October 3^rd, PTO Fall Dance Party Night is Friday, October 4th 6 PM, Family Fun Night/Title 1 Night October 8^th 4:30 – 6:45 PM,  Mrs. Ripp sub in PM for literacy meeting Monday, October 14^th, Field trip to the Overture October 17^th 11:30 to 2 PM,  Picture re-take is Tuesday, November 5^th.

Math – We have just started the second unit which is all about numbers.  We have worked with adding and subtracting whole numbers with decimals and will soon start to work with multiplication of such numbers.  Students need to know their math facts so please have them practice if they are not secure in them.

Social Studies – We finished our zombie land regions project today and will present this Tuesday.  I am excited to see what the students came up with. We will then move onto Native Americans in the US with our next project.  Since this is something the students have studied before I will be asking them for ideas of what they would like to do.

Reading – We finished our first unit of reading and did a reading reflection of how we grew as readers in September.  These are being sent home today for you to read.  There is also a reading survey coming home, please fill it out with your child and send it back in to me. 

Writing – We are still blogging, the students know that they can ask to blog during recess and many are taking me up on that opportunity to not have to do it at home.  We have also discussed paragraphing this week and will start our next unit on essays and editorials the next week.  Most kids are finding enough time in the day to get their spelling work done, however, some are handing it in late.  They all have the option of bringing it home and work on it there if they feel they need more time. 

Science – We are working through variables and will start with lifeboats next week.  Students created hypotheses, tested them and then graphed their results to make predictions.  We are working on using our science language to show our understanding as well.