Hopefully you've heard about the SCRIPS program by now.  I've sent a couple different papers home with your kids now and I just want to make sure you know about this great program.  Basically, you just buy gift cards here at the school and when you use them, the school get 10% (I think) back.  Mindy and I are just planning on buying a Fred Meyer card every month and then purchasing our groceries and gas with it.  You could also purchase gift cards as Christmas gifts.

There is usually a SCRIPS sign up table set up inside the school in the morning if you are interested in purchasing a card. 

Don't forget to dress up in a Thanksgivingly themed costume, bring a change of clothes in case of rain, and most importantly, some food for the food bank.  In fact, it would be amazing if you could find a way to donate a turkey.  The food bank has expressed a specific need for turkeys.  Thanks!

Right now are working on our SCOPE business letters.  SCOPE is an acronym used for the five tools of persuasion we are using in class right now: stats, comparisons, observations, predictions, and expert testimony.

Today and tomorrow we are finishing up the drafting process for these letters.  Understandably, different students are at different points in the process.  Some are writing longer letters than others, and some are slower writers than others, and all of that is okay.

The expectation, though, is that every student will have the first draft of their letter finished by Monday after Thanksgiving.  We will have time to write in class tomorrow (Tuesday) and then we won't be drafting again in class.  

I really want the students to have Thanksgiving off from school-work, so if a little extra homework needs to be done tonight, tomorrow, or Wednesday, you may want to be aware.

The bottom line: Please check with your kids and make sure they have a plan for getting their letter drafted by the Monday after Thanksgiving.  (Probably about four paragraphs and using four of the five types of SCOPE.)

The Rules:

1. Each conclusion sentence should connect the content of one paragraph to the content of the next paragraph.
2. The final conclusion sentence will be the big so what.

Examples:

1. Through successes and failures, Abraham Lincoln's early experiences contributed to his future success as President of the United States.
2. Not only do statistics support the argument, but a number of personal stories support it as well.
3. Clearly, statistics support the argument, but it is important to remember that each of those numbers is first and foremost a person.

We're getting closer to the end of the trimester, so make sure to be checking out your grades in Sycamore.

Due to the long Thanksgiving weekend, we will not be doing spelling tests the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or the weekend after.  That means we have already had out last Spelling test of the trimester.  If your grade isn't where you want it to be, then see if there are any practice spelling tests that you are missing that you could turn in, and also make sure to do really well on the final vocab quiz(es) of the trimester.

In History, we also won't have any more tests, but we will have more daily work.  Be sure to get in any new assignments on time and check to see if you are missing anything that you can turn in.

Finally, in Reading, make sure to be posting to your reading blog and checking to make sure I've read it.  Check now, not the last day of the trimester.  The last day of the trimester will be too late.  If I haven't commented on a blog post, I haven't seen it yet.  If I haven't written "Count it" somewhere in your comment, it doesn't count yet. 

This week has been great for our design projects.  In groups of three, the students brainstormed problems in our school and then invented real-life designs that would solve those problems.

In a few weeks, they will be pitching their design ideas to some "venture capitalists" who will be coming to hear their presentations, so each group is preparing now to persuade these investors to invest in their design.

Yesterday, students designed polls so they could compile statistics that would hopefully support their claim that their invention is needed.  Today the polls were in and the students had to figure out how to make sense of them.  All groups figured out on their own to represent their findings in the form of a fraction, but then we decided we needed to convert that fraction to a percentage.  It was great problem solving, and great team work.

Tomorrow we will start drafting a business letter to the venture capitalists using our statistics and other persuasion techniques we've seen in advertisements to convince them to come to our class. 

Here are some baby pictures from last Thursday.  He's very healthy an