Week of Nov. 30-Dec. 4th

Three weeks until the end of the quarter!!  These 3 weeks will be fast and furious and filled with many activities.  It will also take us to the end of second quarter so it is imperative that students stay on top of their work and keep checking Cornerstone for missing/late work or grades that need to be redone.

BOOK REPORT: Do not forget book reports are due next week!!  Check the literature tab for the exact date.  This is not a one night project.  I told the students that book reports are worth 2-3 times the normal amount of points given on an assignment.  Make sure they are working on it.  Parents should be proofreading the work before it is turned in.

Students may bring in reports anytime starting Wednesday of this week (12/2).  We will begin presenting early if there are reports turned before the due date.

5th grade Language Arts:  We will have 3 normal weeks of Spelling and Grammar.
Spelling - Pretest will be Monday.  We will be working on pages 76-79 this week.  Multiple students are not completing these pages.  You may want to check on Wednesday night that the pages are completed.  If they are not completed when we grade them they cannot earn all the points possible.  Pages and test on Thursday.
Grammar - We will work on pages 77-79 in class.  We will continue with verbs.  Proofreading correction page will be assigned on Thursday so they can work on it in study hall.  However you may want to check your child's grades on these and proofread their work.  The last of these assignments have had numerous errors.
**Any work that is assigned to be turned in the next day can be checked at home, even if it is completed at school.

Literature - The calendar of assigned chapters and activities is posted on this blog under 5th grade literature.  Students should be reading chapters from The Sign of the Beaver every night.  We will be completing the journals, vocab, quizzes and other activities in class.

5th grade Social Studies:  We have finished chapter 6 on early colonies.  Monday we will spend a short amount of time looking at Plymouth colony and completing the study guide.  The study guide must be completed and at school on Tuesday to receive points.  This is the one assignment that cannot be made up, because we go over all the answers in class on Tuesday, and the students are required to write down the correct answers to have them to study for the test the following day.
Chapter 6 test will be Wednesday.  This is not an open note test.  Make sure to go over the information with your child Monday and Tuesday night to prepare them.

We will complete chapters 7-8 by the end of the quarter.  There will not be any social studies projects during these last weeks.  We will complete 1 group project in class.

6th grade literature:  We are reading  Hatchet.  Students will have a reading assignment each day.  We will complete all the journals, vocab, quizzes, and activities in class.  It is very important that they do not get behind in the reading.  You may want to check with your child about the chapters that they are on.  They should be able to tell you all about what they have read, or they can certainly read it with you at home.
**The calendar of chapters and assignments is on this blog under 6th grade Literature.

We will complete the book, and take the test and vocab test before the end of the quarter.

Week of November 16-20

New Book Monday!!  That's what Monday, Nov. 16 will be.  6th grade will begin reading the Novel Hatchet by Gary Paulsen and 5th grade will be reading The Sign of the Beaver  by Elizabeth George Speare.

Both are excellent novels and will take us to the end of second quarter.  Calendars for both grades will be posted under the literature tab, shared with students on Google and handed out in class.

5th grade language arts:  Spelling pretest Monday, pages and final test on Thursday. Pages this week are 70-73.
Grammar pages begin on page 71.  We will continue to work with verbs and try to review nouns.

Literature - Books and calendars will be handed out Monday.  Students will be assigned to read approximately two chapters each night in the novel.  You may certainly read the book at home with them.  If they are reading it at school, just check that they are keeping up and understanding the chapters.  They should be able to tell you all about what they are reading.  We will have quizzes, journals, vocabulary and some class activities.

5th grade social studies:  Last week Thursday and Friday we played the Settlement Survival Game.  True to life, more original settlers "died" in the game than survived.  We will take a closer look at the 3 settlements this week in chapter 6.  We may take the chapter test at the end of the week.

Explorer essay:  We worked on this last week in class.  Students were to have an outline completed and rough draft written by Friday.  I printed what they had done.  Please take time to read over this document and help them circle mistakes on the paper.  Please sign the paper so I know you went over it with them at home.  We will work on making corrections and a final copy this week.  The final will be due on Thursday, Nov. 19.

6th grade Literature:  Monday and Tuesday of this week, we will take the Unit test.  Students will be tested over the 4 stories read in the Yellow lit book and the class notes on characters, setting, plot and conflict.  We reviewed the information on the test in class.
We will also begin reading Hatchet.   Please check the blog under Lit for the assignment calendar.

Don't forget to keep working on book report book.  Once students have completed reading,  they may begin the project.  Please do not have them bring the project in until I give them the go ahead.  We will look at sample projects again this week.

Week of November 9-13

Last week was a busy week in all the classes. In LIterature we are reading stories and poems out of our Lit textbooks.  We are learning numerous literary elements as we go.  We will spend one more week in our textbooks before moving on to a new novel.

Make sure your student is reading their book for book report.  They are welcome to begin the project whenever the book is read.  I will give them a date that is ok to bring in the reports.

5th grade language arts:  Spelling - this week's pages are 64-67.  Pretest on Monday and pages and final test on Thursday.  Grammar - we will review plural and possessive nouns over the next few weeks.  I will be sending home one review page each week.  There are still some struggling with this skill.  As a class we will move on to Verbs.  We will be working from pages 65-66, assigning p67 and 68.  Friday will be the weekly quiz.

In literature we will introduce and read "Esther Morris Headed West" on Monday.  On Tuesday we will do a class worksheet on the story.  Wednesday will be a test on the story, fact and opinion, and the notes we have taken over historical fiction, biography, and autobiography.  The notes are in each student's lit notebook. They should bring it home on Tuesday to review.

We continue to work on reading poetry.  We will begin writing our own at the end of the week.

5th grade social studies:  We will be taking chapter 5 test on Monday.  Again, students can use their notebook to help on the test.  They should have reviewed the questions on the worksheet for other parts of the test.  We will begin our research project on Tuesday.  I will send a follow up email on the day that you should expect to see the rough draft come home for corrections.  Then I will post the final date the essay needs to be turned in.  Again we will do most of the work in class.

Settlement Survival Day is on Thursday.  We will play a survival game based on the three settlements we study in chapter 6.  We will then investigate 2 of those settlements further in class.


6th grade literature:  We are finishing up our story "Lob's Girl".  We learned numerous literary elements from the story as well as a great discussion about the ending.  We are doing a writing piece this week based on the theme of this story. Most 6th graders still need to have someone else read over their writing before turning it in.  It will be on Google classroom by mid week.  Check it out!
 We will read one last story "Scout's Honor" from the textbook this week.  We will take a unit test on all 4 stories and notes we have taken in class at the end of the week/beginning of next week.  I will send home a study guide and test date later this week.
We will begin reading Hatchet Monday, November 16.