We had our final vocabulary quiz of 2012 today. As one student put it, “It’s just the sort of thing you’d do, Ms. Espo, to give us a quiz on the last day before break. Hmmm. Come to think of it, I think more than one of them may have said that. Once they completed the quiz, we worked on critical thinking activities. Be sure to ask in what activity your child participated! Students worked very hard today in spite of their impending vacation.

There is no assigned homework over break. I would love it if they read as often as possible and to encourage that I am offering extra credit for students who turn in a reading log that shows a minimum of 200 minutes worth of reading over the two weeks. Thank you for letting me spend time with your children every day. They are funny, witty, shy, outgoing, serious, thoughtful and they make me smile every day.

Enjoy your break! I’ll see you in January.

We had another round of Vocabulary Bluff this afternoon. Winning teams were given the option of a glow-in-the-dark bracelet or a “Got Books?” pencil. The competition was fierce and I think it gave students some good information on what they need to study this evening.

Students practiced their songs with Mrs. Cargile and were given time to work on their artifact lists if needed. They were due today, but quite a few students did not have them finished and will complete them tonight for homework.

There will be no winter break homework assignments apart from reading. Any student who turns in a log of what they read over break will earn extra credit.

We had library today. Ms. Flowers read The Gift of the Magi to students. The vocabulary in this writing piece was a challenge for many students, but Ms. Flowers made sure they could handle it. Students also discussed the concept of irony and the meaning behind the story. They were then given time to look for and check out books.

The Eagles did not have class today as we went to the auditorium to watch the band concert. It was amazing and I’m looking forward to seeing more this evening!

We reviewed vocabulary homework. We also reviewed the procedures in place to request research or supplies. Artifact lists are due on Thursday. Actual artifacts are not due until January 17, 2013. This will hopefully negate the need for anyone to work on this project over winter break. If students have fallen behind they may need to do some catch up work in the meantime.

Students also had Spanish today where they reviewed author’s purpose and practiced for their performance in January.

We have moved on to the planning stages of the museum. Students worked with their groups to plan what they need and how they might carry out their vision. Each class has a director who was carefully chosen from among the applicants. The director’s job is to mediate disputes, harness resources make suggestions and keep students on task. Every one of the directors did a stellar job today.

The public relations department started planning their advertising campaign – including brochures and a variety of ways to pull people into our museum and specifically, into their exhibit. They worked with the researchers, educators and interpreters to brainstorm ideas.

The curators, collection managers and conservators started making their own plans of caring for and learning about the artifacts that will soon be in their care.

Exhibit designers and preparators looked around the room for the best place for their exhibit and began to sketch their plans.

They took their jobs very seriously and made a lot of progress.

Quite a few students have been out over the last week or two, so we used today as another catch up day. I handed back work and gave students information on missing biography/museum assignments. Students were also given additional information about artifacts and what they should be thinking about. Each class will be in charge of a different “wing” of the museum.

Wolf Pack – Achievement
Eagles – Discovery
Yellow Jackets – Leadership
Blue Devils – Rights
Tigers – Struggle

On Monday, students in all 5 classes wrote down the important ideas they believed belonged in our museum’s mission statement. On Tuesday, students looked at the information generated in all of the classes and distilled it down in a few solid ideas. Today, we took those ideas to come up with the mission statement for our museum.

The day students were dreading also came today. They had to decide which of the seven themes best fit the subject of their biography. This involved a lot of thought and internal (and in some cases) external debate. It was not an easy decision to make. We will narrow the seven themes down to five and then each class will be in charge of creating one themed exhibit.

The mission statement:

Our museum, Box Breakers, strives to make history accessible and fun. We want to show our community the power and diversity of individuals who have changed the world around them. We hope to inspire others to discover how they can make a difference in their world.

Today students took their triweekly quiz, which focused on comparing and contrasting. You may see some review work come home, as this quiz was a little more challenging than some of the others we’ve taken. When they completed their quiz they were given the opportunity to catch up on work they need to turn in or to read quietly while others worked. I’ll be sitting down with some students to review their quizzes to ensure that everyone has a solid understanding of comparing and contrasting information in nonfiction writing.

Students in the Tigers class will take their triweekly on Friday, as they went to the chorus concert this afternoon.

Today students looked at the statements written by all of the classes in order to distill the big ideas down so that we can write a single mission statement for our museum. Once we have a mission statement we will be able to organize our museum and exhibits. The students are excited and engaged, which is not always easy at this time of year as they begin to think of winter break. Students will have a triweekly quiz tomorrow, except for the Tigers, who will take that quiz on Friday.

The Tigers will attend a chorus concert tomorrow. I look forward to seeing them sing! I’m sorry I wasn’t able to see the orchestra perform last week, but I look forward to seeing their recital later on in the year.

The next step in our museum adventure is to create a mission statement. We talked about the purpose of a mission statement, read the Walker mission statement – which can be seen when you come in through the main doors – and wrote down some ideas of what our mission statement should say. During the course of the week we will refine our mission statement so that it reflects our purpose and our promise to our community.

Students were also given an opportunity to work on their artifact list – what 5 artifacts do they think would best tell the story of their biography subject. New vocabulary also went home today. Below you’ll find links to the quizlet pages for each group.

Vocabulary:
Groups A, C, and D
Group B

Link to first quarter stems

Spelling:
Group C
Group D