Another week down...Congratulations are in order to all the students of Room 14 who participated in the Rancho Spelling Bee on Wednesday! Special congratulations to the three school winners, all Room 14 students: third place, Heather; second place, Andrew; and first place, Adam! They will all have the opportunity to compete in the District-wide Spelling Bee at San Jose Middle School. Good luck to them all!
We have drivers and helpers for our restoration field trip in place now; thank you! As your child may have told you, our site has been switched from Point Reyes to the Barboni Ranch (which is just north of Novato, off Hicks Valley Road). We will be planting willows and other native plants along a creek that drains into Soulejoule Reservoir. Everyone going needs to be prepared for Tues., Oct. 28 in the following ways:
- Eat a hearty breakfast the morning of the field trip!
- Bring a lunch and drink, as well as a water bottle
- Dress in layers that can be easily taken off as the day (and your body) warms
- Wear clothes that can get dirty
- Wear boots or shoes that can get muddy or dirty--it is a good idea to bring along an extra pair of shoes for the ride home and a plastic bag for the dirty shoes you wore during the day
- Wear a hat and/or sunscreen
- NO SHORTS--long pants for everyone
- NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES
- Arrive at school on time and ready to go
- Rain will cancel the field trip, which will then be rescheduled. If there is only a light mist that is not expected to last long, we'll probably still go, so pack a pancho or rainjacket!
We will leave Rancho at about 8:35am and return back to Rancho by about 2:30pm. There will be no time for a midmorning snack, so it is very important that everyone eats a good breakfast before coming to school. STRAW provides gloves, all the necessary tools, and the expertise needed to properly restore the site; we provide the labor. It will be a great day! Please contact me if you have any questions.
THE PERMISSION SLIPS FOR THIS FIELD TRIP are in today's Friday folders. Please return the signed form by Wed., Oct. 22.
We are working on the math chapter dealing with data presentation and analysis. Students should be working on their own mneumonic devices for reliably distinguishing mean, median, mode, and range. All are easy to do, but easily confused unless you have a system.
We'll be having our first science test next week (Thurs.), and it will cover mixtures and solutions, as well as means of separating them, saturated and supersaturated solutions, and our investigations on chemical reactions (reactants, products--how do we know a chemical reaction has happened? What's the difference between a physical reaction or change and a chemical reaction?), including the chemical names and formulas we have been practicing in class {calcium chloride + sodium bicarbonate combined in water produce calcium carbonate (chalk) + sodium chloride (table salt) + carbon dioxide (gas) + water}. Because I cannot type in the subscripts properly using my computer, I can't provide the chemical formulas here except in word form, but students have all the information they need in their science journals. Students should also be studying for the geography and language tests they'll be taking next week.
DONATION NEEDED! We need straw/hay (a bale perhaps?) for 2 purposes: I'd like to put a thick layer of straw down on the bare soil under the new backpack structure (Thank you, NUSD) to keep the dust down (and mud, once it starts raining), AND to use as a mulch in our garden box (which I hope we can get working on and planted by the end of November). Please let me know if you can help us out.
Have a wonderful weekend.
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