What’s your favorite book? Are you ready to encourage others to read it? Now is the time to use some writing skills and creativity for Mrs. McBride’s monthly challenge,The Book Bottle Buddy Challenge.

Reuse a bottle and get to work! All entries are due November 21st.

The Story Pirates returned!!! What did you think?

Here are your new books! How is your reading going? What are you enjoying about your new book club? Would you recommend the book you are reading? Why? Why not?
Post! Post! Post!

This month we celebrate and practice ACCEPTANCE!

• Acceptance is the willingness to embrace feelings, habits, or beliefs that are different from your own.
• Acceptance is the ability to experience or survive something unpleasant.
• Acceptance is the willingness to tolerate a difficult or unpleasant situation.
• We all have the human need and right to be accepted.

Here is a recording introducing and pronouncing Duncan Tonatiuh.

Sylvia Mendez (left), 73, talks to her sister Sandra Mendez Duran (right), 59, about Mendez v. Westminster, their family’s 1945 lawsuit that won Mexican-American children the right to attend white schools. Listen to them speak here, Story Corps – Mendez.

What surprised you about this story?

Our research clubs were reading, talking and deciding on the ways that their ancient societies were complex. What did you decide? What made the Aztec, Mayan, and Inca civilizations complex?

Our book clubs are launched! It’s amazing that some clubs are already finishing their first books. The book clubs are analyzing the main characters and taking note on how they overcome their personal challenges. This work is helping the clubs identify the themes of their stories. We are learning that as we read, we become better readers but we also become better people by learning from these big ideas.
What are your thoughts on our book clubs?

Happy Socktober! Each night in the United States, an estimated 600,000 people live on the streets. This October, we want 2 million people to show that even a small act of love, such as donating a pair of socks, can make a big difference in the lives of our neighbors who are homeless.

Kids and adults around the world have started their own sock drives to benefit their local homeless shelters. Cottage Lane Student Advisory Council will collect and donate new socks to People to People.

Please bring in a new pair of unworn socks by October 25th.

As a school we will celebrate this event by wearing our own pair of Crazy socks on October 25th!

We had lots of fun today on our Google expedition adventures in social studies class! Mrs. Coatti and Mrs. Sainz’s classes got to explore an ancient Mayan pyramid, the Aztec chinampas (floating farms), and the Incan city, Machu Picchu. A big thanks to Mr. Eckert for being such a great tour guide!

Let’s reflect.
What are your thoughts about the ancient civilizations we visited today?
How would you describe the people that lived in these civilizations? Why?
Which civilization do you want to study more?

Our class charter is a document that we wrote together to describe how we want to feel in our classroom and what we can do to make sure everyone feels that way. We all signed this important document as a promise to stand by each other and support one another. We worked very hard and right now we are in the middle of decorating the wall around it. What did you enjoy about creating our class charter? Do you think we are doing a good job following it? Please take some time and reflect below.