School Mock Presidential Election!

Our Mock Presidential Election is tomorrow at Beauclerc! Students from grades K-5 will be voting for who they'd like to see as the next president of the United States of America. I am delighted to hear children all over the school, even some as young as kindergarten, talking about who they'll vote for. The exciting part is that many kids around the school actually have good reasons to vote for one candidate over the other, rather than just voting for superficial reasons such as "He's cute," "He wears nice suits," or "My dad's voting for him."

Tuesday morning, the day of the actual election, we'll announce the winner of Beauclerc's Mock Election LIVE on Beauclerc Broadcast. Then, on Tuesday night I'm giving the students a special HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT. The assignment? To STAY UP LATE AND WATCH TV! I'm encouraging you to allow your child to stay up later than usual on Election night so they can watch the polls come in. I've given the students maps for which they will color the states red (for states that John McCain wins) and blue (for Obama). If the election runs too late Tuesday night, they can get any missing states in the morning.

Today, we played around with the website, http://www.270towin.com. You can explore the website yourself as much as you like!

You can find out what it will take for Senator McCain to catch up to Senator Obama in the race.
You can run simulations to see what the votes might actually look like on Election Day.
You can compare this year's election to 2004's.
You can view the voting records and polls from all 50 states.
And you can see the electoral maps for every single election in US history.

The site is a lot of fun, so make sure to check it out!

PUMPKINS!

We're going to be doing a special science investigation on October 31st involving pumpkins! To help with the investigation, I am asking for parents to volunteer to send a pumpkin in with their child. We'll need about 5-7 pumpkins, varying in size. Let me know ASAP if you'd be willing and able to send in a pumpkin next week. If you can, send it in by Wednesday or Thursday of next week.

Thanks!

Live Wax Museum - Leaders

The entire fifth grade will be working on a project over the next month to present a Live Wax Museum to the entire school! Students from all 9 classes will research a famous person and do a presentation on that person during the Museum.

The research and report portion of the work will mostly be done in class over the next few weeks. We have already started checking out books. The rest of this week, we will work on research, note taking, and pre-writing.

In addition to the written report, students will also be preparing a visual display on tri-fold poster boards. The display should be colorful, attractive, and feature key facts and pictures that show who their chosen person is. They will prepare a 60-second version of their report to give during the Wax Museum, and they will come to school dressed as the person.

Our class is making this project a bit more specific. Since we're in an election year, and we're deciding who would make the better leader for our country, our reports will focus on LEADERS. These can be leaders of a country, such as presidents, kings, or dictators. They can be civil rights leaders, such as Gandhi or Malcolm X. Or they can be pioneers in a particular field of work - such as Walt Disney or Henry Ford.

Over the next two days, please help your child choose their person to research and review the information in their report packet. Sign the page and have them return it to school to have their person approved. Also, if your child does any research on the Internet, please make sure that they are adequately supervised and that they keep track of any websites they use for information.

PROGRESS REPORTS and PLANNING DAY

Progress Reports went home today. Since the nine weeks ends next Wednesday, the grades indicated on the progress reports will likely not change before the first report card. The only grade that may move slightly is the reading grade if a student hasn't read 7 books and does so by Wednesday.

Students have seen how much of a change there is from fourth to fifth grade, especially in reading. Many students' grades have gone down since the end of last year. You and your child should use the report card as a guide for the area(s) that they need to work on this year. There is plenty of room for EVERYONE to improve, and as my students know, effort, attitude, and improvement is what I value above everything else.

Another VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE - There WILL be school on Monday, October 20th. Originally, this was scheduled as a teacher planning day. Due to Hurricane Fay, the calendar has shifted to make up for the three days missed. Because of this, the planning day will be on Friday, October 24th instead.

Finally, check back on the blog early next week for information on the Living Museum, a special event that the fifth grade classes will be working on during the next month.

Learning Study

A permission slip went home today for students to participate in a study that is being conducted by our Guidance Counselor, Jennifer Allen. The study observes the effect of certain rhythmic movements on students' achievement. The sessions will only last for a few minutes each time and the kids find them to be a lot of fun. It's basically just dancing!

Students may only participate in the study if they have returned their signed permission slip. So please return them as soon as possible! Thanks!

Learning Buddies!

Last week, for the first time, we met with our Learning Buddies in Mrs. Courter's kindergarten class. Learning Buddies is a wonderful opportunity for fifth graders to be role models and mentors to younger children. Every couple weeks, we'll visit Mrs. Courter's class to read stories, help them with basic skills, and work on craft projects together for the holidays! My classes in the past have always looked forward to Learning Buddies as one of the highlights of the week!