We had another great day! I'm enjoying getting to know your kids. Today we started the day with the Rocket Math 4 minute timing for multiplication facts. I wanted to see who could get 100% of 100 math facts. So far no one, but I know it's going to happen soon. We will officially begin Rocket Math tomorrow. Then, we took a field trip around the school and talked about procedures and the leadership responsibilities of a fifth grader. To sum up, fifth graders are cool, so be cool. After that we started our first math lesson on place value. This concept may seem easy, but it is actually quite abstract and challenging. I told the kids that this is the hardest easy thing I teach. After lunch, we practiced a little more math before starting our pipe cleaner and foil art project. I will post pictures of that once I figure out who has signed the media release and who has not. We ended the day with our first of many bullying lessons. Remember, for it to be bullying, three conditions need to be met: First, bullying is aggressive behavior that involves unwanted negative actions. Second, bullying involves a pattern of behavior repeated over time. Third, bullying involves an imbalance of power or strength. We will talk more about bullying tomorrow.

I had only one student return with the secret code word today. Tomorrow's secret code word is: phooey.