Saturday, April 29, 2017

Achievement Test week

Welcome to Achievement test week.  Help your child to do their best this week, by providing them with good nutrition and lots of sleep (no staying up late to watch the Blues and Cardinals)!

Children will need a supply of #2 pencils, a ruler and calculator.  They should have a water bottle that closes, and a healthy snack for each morning.  Please don't send bags of chips and donuts, but find something with protein or nutrition.  They may have a small bag of mints of some kind, but they don't need to bring a giant bag.

If you feel your child needs a stress distraction, please send me note, as these have become a huge disruption in class and most are used as toys.  They won't be allowed in the room after testing week, but if your child needs to use one this week, I will need a note.

5th Grade Language Arts:  No Spelling this week.  I have collected their books and will record the past two weeks and any missing weeks' pages.  There will only be one more week of spelling and so any missing pages must be completed.
Grammar:  We will review and do last week's assessment this week.  Otherwise in grammar, we will be writing this week.  We are working on individual fairy tales.  Story maps have been turned in, and so we will begin stories this week.

Literature:  Students have been assigned to one last novel to read.  They are reading this book with a group of 4-6 other students.  All work for these books will be on Google classroom.  Each book has its own class on Google classroom, so look for the book title to find the correct assignments.
Also on classroom for each book, will be posted the calendar of chapters due and assignments.  Please refer to that to make sure your student is completing the work.

Social Studies: We will be working hard this week on our chapter about the US Constitution.  The workbook pages that we are taking notes on is due on Monday.  Most students had 1-2 sections left, but they are due Monday.  We will watch a great video, play a wonderful simulation game, and in groups students will be writing a constitution for a settlement on Mars.
We will move directly into the next chapter on The Bill of Rights.  This will be a combined test, most likely at the end of next week (Friday, May 12).

6th Grade Literature:  Please check Educate at the end of the weekend, for the five grades that have been assigned for our Holocaust unit.  Missing or incomplete work can be turned in still, but will not receive full credit.
We are going to finish our short mythology unit this week.  We have read 3 myths and completed 2 assignments on Google classroom.  Many students didn't complete the homework assignment and will receive a 0 grade unless it is completed and turned in for late credit. This week we will do a comparison on Hercules with a story and the movie.
Students have also chosen a last novel to read.  They had many choices and could choose something of their own as well as long as there were at least 2 people reading the story. Each group is deciding the pace at which they will read the book, but the book must be completed by May 12.  There will be 2 journals and a question set for each book.  They should be able to tell you which book they are reading and show you their progress.

Our experience last Monday to the Jewish Community School was awesome.  I will send a separate email this week about it with some pictures.  Ask your child about it.

****Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher:  It has come to my attention that several 6th grade girls have read this book.  It is a relatively controversial book as well as Netflix series.  I don't believe the content is appropriate for 5th or 6th graders, but that is up to parent discretion.  I am including the review of this book from Common Sense Media for you to look at if your student is interested in reading the book.  I do not have it on my shelves.  It is certainly worth reading together or reading it first before allowing your child to read it.
Common Sense Media review of Thirteen Reasons Why

Make sure your student gets lots of rest this week and good nutrition for testing.  Continue to check for missing work, and strive to get it turned in for late credit.
Blessings on your week,
Mrs. Brown

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Week of April 24-28


We have lots of great things happening this week, as we close out some units and move on to final units.

**6th Grade:  We will be taking our Holocaust field trip on Monday, April 24 to the Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School.  Our connection to this school comes through Rick Schmidt, a CCLS parent that teaches at the school.
We are looking forward to hearing some of their history, possibly hearing from a Holocaust survivor or relative of a survivor, and collaborating on a reflective project.

5th Grade Language Arts:  Spelling: Normal week in spelling, with pretest on Monday, pages and final test on Thursday this week.  We are working on pages 180-184.

Grammar:  We will begin our last major part of speech as we study Prepositions.  We will do the skill pages together.  We will do the Proofreading page this week and the final assessment.

Literature:  We will be writing individual Fairy tales this week.  We will begin with the story map on Monday that will be due on Wednesday.  The story map will receive a  grade as well as the story itself.
On Monday, students will be listing their choice of novel to read.  There are 5 choices, and I will divide the class into 5 groups.  Novels will be assigned by Wednesday, and we will complete a calendar for each group.  Calendars will be posted on Google classroom.  We will do most of the reading of this final novel in class, but some outside reading will be required.  You may read along with your child at home if you wish.  There will be 2 journal assignments, and 1-2 quizzes on the novel as the groups read.  Those will be on Google classroom when they are assigned.

5th Grade social studies:  We will be finishing up our Revolutionary War presentations this week and those will be graded.  Students have been taking notes on each presentation in class and that will also receive a grade.  We  will begin Chapter 14-15 on the Constitution and Bill of Rights this week.  We will first read about and study the US Constitution. We will complete workbook pages as we work through the text. Then students will be challenged to create their own constitution for a new civilization on Mars.  This will leads us into the chapter on the Bill of Rights.  It will be a combined test on these chapters.

6th Grade Literature:  We have begun a short unit on Mythology.  We have read one myth together and students are assigned 2 more stories from their yellow Lit book.  There is an assignment with those stories posted on Google classroom.  The assignments are due on Wed. for Caciano and Thursday for Hieber.  We will also do a comparison of Hercules stories as an assignment.
Our last novel to read will be a choice novel.  Students must find a book that at least one other student in the class is also reading.  It must be in the Fantasy, Science fiction, mystery genre.  Students must have their book chosen by either Wednesday or Thursday's class.
As students read the novel, there will be journaling and discussions that will be graded.
We will take 2 final tests - one on our mythology unit, and a final exam on Genre.  This test will be May 15/16 and I will go over what is on the test as we get closer.

We still have lots of work left to do.  Encourage your child to be diligent and work hard, and not to fall behind on work.
Have a blessed week,
Mrs. Brown

Monday, April 17, 2017

Week of April 18-21


I hope and pray that each of you had a blessed Holy Week and Easter celebration.  God is so good and gracious and Easter is such a wonderful celebration of his greatest gift to us.

Even though the week is shortened by a day, it will be a regular schedule this week.

Just a note about last week's presentations by both 5th and 6th grade.
Genius hour presentations were wonderful on Tuesday of last week.  Thank you to so many parents and friends that came to see them.  We were so impressed by the amount of information the students absorbed and could discuss.
Mr. Akerson and I will be working to put a piece of each project on video so we can keep them as examples and you can also access them.  Sometime this week, the projects should return home.

6th Grade Holocaust presentations were a good collection of work by the groups.  It was a difficult project, and most students did a great job researching and being able to present the information they had learned.  We had many classes from the middle school come down to see the projects.  It was a great learning experience.  They are on display in the upstairs hallway, and we will in some way incorporate them into our visit to the Jewish school next week.

5th Grade Language Arts:  Spelling: We will still have a unit this week on spelling.  The pretest will be Tuesday.  The pages are due and the final test will be on Friday.  Please check Educate.  Numerous students are not completing or turning in their spelling books and are not doing will in English because of it.
Pages this week are all 5, p. 174-178.
Grammar:  We are working on Adverbs and struggling a bit.  We redid the weekly assessment from two weeks ago, and those correction grades were just posted.  Some students struggled on last week's assessment as well.  We will skip proofreading again this week, in order to complete a review page on grammar that involves Fairy tales.  We will work on the other skill pages this week and take the assessment on Friday.

Literature:  We are finishing up fairy tales.  We will be presenting our partner fractured tales tomorrow.  We have worked on them for the past week and a half.  We are excited to read them.  We will be writing an individual tale as well, most likely starting at the end of this week.

We will do some work on the independent reading book this week. These assignments will be on Google classroom.  Then we will move on to one last novel.  There will be 4-5 choices in the class.  Students will choose 1 of the choices and read with a group.  We will work through a schedule when that is decided.  There will be journals, quizzes and discussions for the final novel.

5th grade social studies:  We are studying the Revolutionary war this chapter.  Last week we went through chapter 13 in class, and worked on the corresponding workbook pages.  The final 3 sections of the chapter and workbook were assigned on Wednesday and due tomorrow.  I will be collecting the workbooks and grading several pages.  The students chose a topic about the Revolutionary war and are working on a presentation about it.  It is a short slide presentation on Google.  The directions are posted on Google classroom.  It is due on Thursday.  They will work on it in class this week, but may have work to do at home.  Each student is working individually.


6th Grade LIterature: We are wrapping up our Holocaust study.  We have a few last things to accomplish.  We are planning on visiting the Jewish Community school next week Monday, April 24th.  I will send an email about it this week.  Grades for this unit will be based on each person's individual work within the group.

We will then do a quick unit on Mythology.  We will read 3 stories from our yellow Lit book.  There will be several Google classroom assignments on these stories.  We will do a comparison of Hercules stories with an assignment on Google.
We will also be reading one last novel.  It will be a fantasy, mystery or science fiction book.  I have numerous choices.  Students will need to choose a book that at least one other person in the class is reading.  There will be journals, discussions and possible quizzes on this novel to end the year.

Blessings on your week,
Mrs. Brown

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Week of April 3-7

We have lots going on in our classroom at this point.  Make sure to read through what we are working on and some special dates coming up!

5th Grade Language Arts:  Spelling:  Normal week.  We will continue with normal weeks until we finish the book.  I have posted the remaining lists on the blog.  Pretest is Monday and pages are assigned.  Numerous students did not finish the pages last week.  You can check for this on Educate as it is listed incomplete.  If too much was not done, they receive a 0.  Pages 162-166 are this week.
We will take the unit test tomorrow in order to practice for achievement tests.  Final test is Thursday.
Grammar:  We will continue with the grammar skills until we finish the book.  However we will be doing several writing assignments and will not complete all of the pages.  This week we will not do the proofreading page.  Instead students will receive a proofreading grade for editing their fractured fairy tales.  Mr. Akerson will be using some of their newspaper assignments as grammar/writing grades as well.

Literature:  Last week we enjoyed reading and comparing fairy tales.  The final venn diagram document on google classroom is due Tuesday.  If your child has been absent they will need to stay in tomorrow and read the stories they are missing.
This week we will be writing a fractured tale.  Students will work together and take an original fairy tale.  After receiving 3 common objects, they will change or fracture their tale to include the 3 items.
This will lead into each student writing their own fairy tale the following week.

Students should be reading independently, their own book at this point.  We will do some assignments on those this week as well.

5th Grade Social studies:  We will finish our study of the Declaration of Independence this week.  We have been watching a series of videos call Liberty's Kids and answering questions on them.  If your child is absent they will need to watch the video on line and complete the assignment.  On Wednesday, they will receive the take home test for this chapter.  It is all short answer about the Declaration.  They can use their book and notes to help them.  It will be due on Friday.
On Thursday we will be observing objects and completing questions about them and making a final analysis.  This has to be done in class.  That will lead us into the American Revolution.  This chapter will include individual presentations on a related topic.  More info to follow next blog.

6th Grade Literature:  We are spending our class time split into 3 components.  1. Students read independently for the first third of class.  This week they will have assignments on the books they are reading.
2. We are working on a Project based Research activity.  Their groups meet each class.  They are currently finding the research they need on a topic related to the Holocaust.  Then each group will turn what they have found into a project.  We will be presenting those projects in the dining hall next week Wednesday and Thursday.  Caciano will present on Wednesday, April 12, and Hieber on Thursday, April 13th from 9:30-10:30.  Please join us if you are able.
3. The last third of our class time is spent watching the documentary film "Paper Clips".  We are taking notes as we watch and those notes can be used on the final test.  It is awesome film about kids studying the Holocaust.

Blessings on your week.  I look forward to all the new discoveries we will make together in class this week!
Mrs. Brown