Week of November 2-6

Fall has arrived.  First quarter has come and gone.  It was wonderful to be able to meet and talk to so many of you during conferences.  It is one of my favorite times, because it gives me great insight into the students and how we can partner together to help them succeed.


This week all will return to normal!!  As normal as middle school can get.

5th grade language arts:  After taking last week's short week off, we will return to spelling and grammar as normal.
We will be working on VCCV patterns in spelling.  The pages are 58-61.  We will take a pretest on Monday.  Pages and final test on Thursday.
Grammar:  We will continue to work with the very tricky plurals and possesives.  We will complete pages 57-58 together to learn the skill.  Wednesday we will work on page 59.  Thursday page 60 will be assigned on Google classroom to correct.  It will be due Friday.  And Friday we will take the weekly assessment.

Literature:  We will be working out of our Treasures book for the next 2 weeks.  Last week we read a biography called Black Cowboy Wild Horses.  The stories are relatively short but need to be read well when they are assigned.  We took a quiz last week after reading the story and many students struggled.  They were allow to make corrections for partial credit.

This week Monday we will read "Sleds on Boston Commons."  It is historical fiction and we will takes notes about that genre.  Students should be prepared to answer questions about the story on Tuesday.
Wednesday we will read the poem, "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere."
And on Friday we will read "When Esther Morris Headed West."  All 3 of these stories  are based on American history and are great examples of biography and historical fiction.

**Make sure your student has read each of the stories.  They bring home their Treasures book to read over them!

5th grade social studies:  Monday and Tuesday we will be taking notes about each of the 8 explorers in chapter 5.  They notes will be completed in the social studies workbook and will be used on the final test. Students were divided into groups to become an "expert"  on one explorer and then teach the class about them.

I will send an email later this week about the final chapter test.
Each student will also be choosing 1 explorer to research.  We will turn the research into a 5 paragraph essay.  We will be working through this process in class.  At some point next week, the rough draft of the essay will come home for you to read and go over with your student.  This will be required before they type the final copy.


6th grade literature:  We will be working out of our large lit text book for the next 2 weeks.  We will be reading several short stories from here.  There will be Google classroom activities for each story.  Keep a check on these grades over the next couple of weeks to make sure students have completed all the work.
We will working through plot, character conflict and foreshadowing.
This will get us ready for reading Hatchet  beginning November 16th.


**Don't forget second quarter book report was assigned for both 5th and 6th grade.  Directions are posted on the blog under 5th or 6th grade Lit.  Students need to be able to check in their book by Wednesday of this week.
Start reading the book now!!  That way you can be done before we begin our next class novel.

Week of October 5-9

Uganda - Here I come!  I am so blessed to have received an opportunity to travel to Uganda and work with our partners at CCLS-U.  I will be leaving next Tuesday, October 13th.
Since the quarter ends and report cards are done while I am gone, I will be using this week to touch base with any students with missing or make-up work.
If your student has a question in one of my classes, please have them see me during Seminar this week.


5th Grade Language Arts:  Spelling  pages this week are 37-40 with the pre-test on Monday.  Spelling pages are due on Thursday.  Youy may want to touch base with your child on Wednesday to make sure those pages are done.
Grammar this week is a continuation of nouns.  We will work through pages 39-40 on Tuesday.  On Thursdays we work through the proofreading page and the students re-type this.  You may want to check the grades on these pages and encourage your student to take his/her time.
Literature finds us reading our novels.  We continue to work on vocabulary words in class so that we all agree on the definitions.  We completed our first round of journals last week.  Some need to be redone or completed for late points.  Monday will be a quiz on the first 3 reading selections.  Later this week we will work on  Acrostic poems to match our Lit books.  Each student has a calendar of chapters that are due and each due date. Chapters are due every 2 days.  The students should be bringing home the books to read!

5th Grade social studies: Hopefully you saw the email about this week's Great Native American Dig.  WE will prepare for the dig Monday-Wednesday and dig on Thursday.  The follow up recovery analysis and presentations will take place Friday and the following Monday.

6th Grade Literature: We have 4 wonderful novels we are reading. Each class period another set of chapters are due.  Students should be reading the chapters outside of class.  In class we find and add 2 vocabulary words and definitions each time, go through a daily discussion question, and then write journals or discuss them.  This week Monday and Tuesday will be a quiz on the first 3 sets of chapters read.
We are targeted to finish reading the novels sometime next week.  In order to make sure your student is reading their chapters, have them tell you all about the book!