Martin Luther King Day is Monday, January 21st. This is a federal holiday, so there is no school. We haven’t yet discussed Dr. King in class, but we will be addressing the Civil Rights Crusade extensively later in the school year as part of our chronological study of American history

Our Adopt-a-Street Clean-up is this Thursday at 10:00 a.m.. If you’d like to join us, please come to the school at 9:50 a.m.  Our long-awaited performance of The Necklace will be this Friday at 1:00 p.m. in the Music Room. Family members are encouraged to attend.  The other groups (Worked to the Bone and Rikki Tikki Tavi) will this week begin recording their plays as podcasts. We’ll post them here on The Daily Platypus when they’re finished. In additional to reading through the play scripts, students should also be reading for at least 30 minutes from a book of choice each evening. Next week we’ll be starting new Book Clubs with assigned novels.

In geometry class this week we’ll be learning how to calculate the area of triangles and circles, as well as reviewing area of parallelograms and rectangles. Students are now keeping a small, red-colored math journal in which to take notes during math class. We’re hopeful it will help them retain more of the materials we cover. The journal is kept in their binders for use as a study guide at home, but please help them get them back to class every day.  Here’s the homework for this week: Tuesday, Jan. 22; Wednesday, Jan. 23rd; and Thursday, Jan. 24th.

Finally, it’s state testing season again. Results of these tests have broad ramifications for both students and the school as a whole, so it’s important to help your child do his or her best by getting them to school on time, feeding them a healthful breakfast, and making sure they’re getting a good night’s sleep. CPE was the only D6 school to earn “Outstanding” status on the State of Oregon’s School Report Card. By sending your child to school ready to learn you contributed mightily toward that success. Let’s do it again this year!