Happy Friday! I can't believe it is already February vacation. The time will tick by so quickly after we get back -- I'd like time to slow down a little!

The big news today was our auction. Thank you all SO much for sending in items. We had 70 fabulous items for bidding. We set it up like a real auction. The kids got to look at the items ahead of time, and they all had sticks with numbers on them. They had bidding sheets where they got to keep track of what items they had bid on. It was so much fun! We talked ahead of time  A LOT about how they would feel if they were outbid by a friend so that I could prepare them for that disappointment. There were a few sad kids, but mostly they were SO kind to each other, and some even bid on items to give to their less "rich" friends. In the end, I think everyone had fun and learned a lot of life skills through this entire project. They were my guinea pigs, and I will use their suggestions to make the checkbook/job/auction project more successful next year. Ask them to show you their checkbooks! They are cute, thanks to my husband who made them all for us. I wish I could have taken some photos of the auction in action, but I was too busy being the auctioneer! My throat is parched from all that auctioneering!

Aside from the auction, we had regular school this week as well. We continued working on finding equivalent fractions, and we even started learning about decimals. I think the decimal work actually created a lot of "aha" moments! We are learning a lot of math!  This unit will continue after vacation.

We are still reading our social issues books and thinking about power versus powerlessness, fairness, identity, and how social issues affect our lives. I love the conversations I am hearing in the book group discussions. These kids rock, and they are clearly interested in the world around them! 

Our opinion pieces are coming along. We are learning how to add mini-stories to each paragraph to really explain our opinions. I love the organization I am seeing -- the students are learning to use paragraphs! We will finish up these pieces shortly after vacation and then we will move into writing persuasive pieces. I can't wait to see what they come up with. They are a dedicated and passionate group of students! Have I told you I love this class?

Our new vocabulary words this week were fluctuate, deplete, and dilemma. I hope you can throw those words into your family conversations!

Enjoy the vacation! I hope you get to spend some quality time with your wonderful children. I will certainly miss them!