Final Week of First Quarter

We have arrived at the final week of the first quarter.  We have accomplished much during this time, and hopefully can pick up the pace a little.

End of Quarter means that all late or missing work must be turned in by Friday.  I worked last week and will again this week with any student that is missing work. Remember, even if a student is absent they need to make up the work.
Many of you have checked Educate to look for missing work.  Please do so again this week.  I will be adding quite a few grades and your student will need to check that everything is complete.

There are several test this week and writing projects.  Please read below and watch for any special emails with information.

5th Grade Language Arts:
Spelling:  This week's spelling will count for first quarter.  The pretest is Monday, and pages 46-49 are due on Thursday.  I will collect the books Thursday and record the page grades for the past two weeks.  
Spelling is getting harder.  Some students will need to study more for the test on Thursdays.

Grammar:  We are doing better with grammar.  The last week's quiz and proofreading grades were much improved.  We will incorporate some writing now, and try to apply some of the skills we have gone over.  We continue this week with plural nouns.  We will work on skills in class Tuesday and Wed.  Proofreading homework will be page 48 assigned on Thursday., with the quiz on Friday.
**Any grammar grade below 70% can be corrected and turned back in for a grade.

Literature:  We finished reading Wonder!! It was awesome.  Some of us cried when we reached the end.  Tuesday of this week we will take the test over the book.  The students should be fine on the book questions, but they can borrow a book on Monday if they want.  They will need to study the 12 vocabulary words  for the test.  They should have brought home their vocab folder on Friday.  In it are all 12 words and the definitions we did together in class.  They should have added an example to each word.  Consider quizzing them on the words a few times between now and Tuesday. 
        This week we will be working on a writing assignment for the unit.  The final assignment will be due on Friday and it will be on Google classroom.  We are working through the pre-writing together in class.
         We will read a few stories from our Treasures book, before choosing another novel to read.  

5th Grade Social studies:  It is Great American Dig Week!!
Groups are hard at work finishing their research and creating their shoebox artifacts.  We will add to it a presentation this week.  Then we will be ready!!
On Thursday or Friday of this week (we will pick the day with less chance of rain) we will carry our shoeboxes out and bury our artifacts.  Another group will dig them up and by observation and comparison with the notes we have taken, try to determine what tribe they have discovered.
This is a wonderful activity.  I will try to let you know by Monday or Tuesday which day and time each class will be doing the dig.  Parents are more than welcome to come and watch.
Chapter 2-3 test will be returned on Monday.  I will go over with the students the correction policy.  I will send an email with that policy and due date as well.

6th Grade Literature:  Charlotte Doyle comes to an end!!
We will finish this awesome book this week.  The test will be Tuesday for Caciano homeroom and Wednesday for Hieber homeroom.  The book portion of the test should be easy, however students will need to study the 12 vocabulary words we have done in class.  Caciano students should have brought that folder home over the weekend, Hieber will bring it home Monday.

6th grade will also be doing a final writing project for this unit.  We will do all the pre-writing together.  The final will be on Google classroom and at this point will be due on Friday. We will use the Step up to Writing method for this project.

We will spend a week or so going over plot, and reading a few stories from our Lit text book.  After that, students will be choosing 1 of 5 novels to read in a book group.  I love all 5 choices, and we will go over them early next week.

Let me say again, how much I love reading with your students.  I love their reactions and thoughts about what we are reading.  I truly believe there is much value in just reading good quality literature, as opposed to reading shorter stories and answering questions about them.  I realize that gives us less grades in a quarter, but I believe they gain more knowledge and understanding this way.

Have a blessed week!
Mrs. Brown