Introducing.... Fireball! Fireball is our new class fish, and a fan favorite of fourteen 6 and 7 year olds. Her name was decided by a class vote, which connected beautifully to the presidential election that was occurring at the time. The class came up with different names and chose a name through a fair voting process. Other names included, Mark, AZ, Luke, and George. Notice a common trend? The children sure do love their families! Fortunately, a marine biologist donated the fish to each classroom, and took the time to come in and teach our students different facts about Betta fish and how to care for them. The children compared different fish, noticing the size, shape, color, if it was female or male, and the behavior of the fish. They put the fish in order by the color noticing all the different shades of blue and red. On a different day, the children had an opportunity to make formal observations using other class fish, focusing on writing 3 complete sentences that describe the fish. It has been a fun, fishy kind of week!

Above: Evelyn, and Marlo observing the Betta fish. Michael, Andrew, and Melania were in charge of giving Fireball freshwater and food!

For the past week, the authors have been very busy writing for the personal narrative class project. The students have been writing about a nature walk we experienced together. The class project focuses on sequence and true information. Each child is drafting, revising, and publishing a personal narrative on the nature walk. To build on this, the children will soon be working on their own individual personal narrative, where they review the different features of a personal narrative and choose an episode from their own life to write about and draft, edit, and publish their work. Children will have partners who will read each other's drafts and give feedback to improve narrative qualities. Here are some examples of the children's writing thus far:

• "That was a happy day. It was a happy day because I spent time with my friends." (Andrew)
• "There was a daisy garden. I love my grandpa and it reminded me of my grandpa." (Kaydence)
• " I felt chilly and I felt happy. I though that a iceberg was hitting me." (J'Lyn)
• "I was cold. It was so cold my nose was running." (Aaliyah)
• "I saw a leaf plant. It was almost as big as me," (Alexis)
• "When I stepped in the wet dirt it felt squishy." (Sophia)

Happy writers, happy readers, happy kids.

I would also like to mention that the SCOPE Daisy/Brownie Troop 90790 are currently working on a service project that will help a family in need during the holidays. If you can, please donate a canned food or boxed food item by November 15th. There are two boxes located at the front office that are just waiting to be filled! If you do send in the food items with your child, we will make sure the food gets to where it needs to go. Next time you go to the grocery store, perhaps you can bring your child along and have them pick out a food item they think the family would like best.The more involved they are, the better! Thank you very much!

Have a wonderful weekend!