Week of Nov. 27-Dec. 1

I hope and pray each of you had a blessed Thanksgiving with family and friends.  It is a wonderful break before we plow through the rest of second quarter.

Both 5th and 6th grade Literature classes have a calendar for our next class novel.  The calendar takes us to the end of the quarter.  Remember the assignments listed are what we will work on that day in class, not what is due.  Assignments done before they are discussed and assigned will not be accepted.

It is a great way to know what work is done if your student misses a class for any reason.

5th Grade assignments for this week:
Look at the Literature calendar for chapters assigned.
Sketch of the log cabin from Sign of the Beaver - Monday - due Wednesday
Comprehension questions for novel - Tuesday on Google classroom - due Wednesday
Reaction journal assigned Thursday - due Friday
Explorer first draft due Wednesday
Spelling assignment Tuesday - due Wednesday
Spelling word test on Thursday
Social studies study guide for chapter 6 - Tuesday - due Wednesday
Chapter 6 social studies test - Thursday

Language Arts: Literature:  We have begun our next class novel, The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare.  It is a historical fiction book that ties so well into our history lessons in social studies.  We will be discussing the elements of historical fiction, as well as setting and plot.
Again, the calendar is posted on the blog and on Google classroom.  The assignments listed are what we will be working on that day. 
All grades from this unit will come from the listed assignments.  There will not be a final test.  Vocabulary will be done individually and the grades will come from the folder.

Grammar, Spelling:  We will have a spelling assignment on Tuesday and final test over these words in Thursday.  Students need to make sure to look over the words during the two weeks before the test.
We will continue to work on nouns in grammar.  We will only do 1 skill a week for now since we are trying to finish our writing project.
Writing:  The first draft of the Explorer writing is due Wednesday.  From there we will be looking at a few more informational writing elements.  We will add to our first draft.  Next week I will publish the final project, what is due and when it is due.

Social Studies:  We have essentially finished with chapter 6.  We enjoyed watching Disney's version of Pocahontas on Tuesday.  The students were able to pick out the historical inaccuracies, having read true accounts of Jamestown and Pocahontas.  This week we will finish up the chapter, complete the study guide, review and take the chapter test.
Study guide will be due on Wednesday.  It must be at school and completed for points.  We will go over all the answers on Wednesday so late work will not be accepted.  Students will not be able to use notes for this test.  They will need to study the information on the study guide.

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6th Grade Literature:  We have begun our new class novel Hatchet.  Calendars for both A and B day classes are posted on Google classroom.  Both classes were assigned to read the first 2 chapters over the break.  It is important to keep up with all the assignments for this unit.  We will end the unit right at quarter end, and late work will not be accepted.  Vocabulary will be done individually and the grade will come from the work in the vocab folder.
We will be returning to the original teacher for this unit, except for a survival project in the middle of the book.  Those 6th graders that were in Ms. Stearn's room first quarter will be with her again, and my students will return to my room.  The book and assignments will be the same.

This book will allow us to teach about plot and 3 literary types of conflict, all contained in this book.
There is a movie entitled, "A Cry in the Wild" that we will watch at the end of the unit.

This week students will be writing questions, they will begin vocabulary work, there will be a quiz to go along with the chapters assigned.  Students will have chapters assigned each class that will need to be read outside of class.

Thanksgiving Week

It is so hard to believe we are at the week of Thanksgiving already.  We have finished all Book clubs and begin new class books this week.

If your family misses extra days over break, please make sure all work is up to date.  We are past the halfway mark in the quarter and time goes very quickly from here to end of quarter.

5th Grade assignments week of Nov. 20-21:
Read chapter one from Sign of the Beaver.  Create a list of 10 questions, predictions etc.. in Reader's notebook
Read up through chapter 4 in Sign of the Beaver for Monday 11/27
Grammar assignment on Chromebook on Monday - due Tuesday
Spelling words on chromebook - Tuesday
Explorer first draft due Monday 11/27

5th Grade Language Arts: Literature:  On Monday we begin reading our next class novel - Sign of the Beaver.  This is an excellent Historical fiction novel that goes hand in hand with our studies of this time period in history. 
**There is a calendar of chapters and assignments posted on this blog under Literature.  Each student also has a copy on Google classroom, literature.  There will be some note taking added to the calendar, but it contains the chapters and major assignments.

Grammar/Spelling:  In this short week we will spend one day on each of these subjects.  Monday will be a review of nouns and a Google Classroom assignment.  Tuesday we will choose new spelling words.  The test will be on Thursday, Nov. 30th.  We work with the words for two weeks.  The last few test scores have had some low grades.  Make sure to review the words with your child before the test.

Writing:  We are currently writing our FIRST draft of the Explorer research project.  We have many weeks to go.  We will be working with these drafts in several ways, completing more research and then discussing the final form.  At this point, most of the work is being done at school.  The draft needs to be completed by Monday, Nov 27, in order to go on to the next step.

5th Grade Social studies
This past week we studied 3 early American settlements, including Jamestown and Plymouth.  This week we will continue to investigate these settlements.  We have been reading from Jean Fritz's The Double Life of Pocahontas.  On Tuesday afternoon we will watch Disney's version of this story in order to make comparisons to the historical account.
The study guide and test will be the week after we return after Thanksgiving. 

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6th Grade Literature:
Book clubs are finished.  The groups did a wonderful job reading the novels and have now developed a collage project and song representing their book to present to the rest of the class. Each student also has an individual book review due on Google classroom either Monday or Tuesday. Just be word of mouth, many students have borrowed  book club books to read other than the one assigned.  All the books will be available for check-out to read along with many of the sequels.
Grades for this unit are totaled and on Educate.  If your child has any missing work from this unit it should be made up immediately for a late grade, before moving on.

Monday/Tuesday we are moving on to our next class book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.  This book will allow us to investigate Plot more in depth and look at the 3 main types of literary conflict.  There will be a calendar posted for Aday and Bday on my blog.  Each student will have a calendar on google classroom.  It does not contain every assignment, but the chapters due and most major assignments are posted on the calendar which takes us until Christmas.  Please remember - the assignments listed are what we are doing in class that day.  DO NOT have your child do them ahead of time. There will never be an assignment due that we have not gone over in class.

There will not be a final book test or vocab test for this unit.  The grades will come from the work we do as we read the book.  Students will need to stay up to date with the assignments.

Blessings on your weekend and the short week ahead.  I pray each of you have a wonderful, family filled Thanksgiving.
Mrs. Brown

Week of November 13-17

This week will be a final wrap up for our Book clubs.  We will complete all the tests, turn in the vocabulary folders and complete a final project.  Be sure to look below as to what still needs to be completed and what should be done for this unit.

5th Grade social studies and writing will be overlapping.  We will be working on our Explorer research project during writing and genius hour time.

5th Grade assignments for this week:
Book Trailers - group project
Spelling assignment: Tuesday, due Wednesday
Spelling word test: Thursday
Social studies research notes:  Thursday - enough notes for writing a flash draft.
Grammar:  Proper noun sheet:  Wednesday, due Thursday
Social studies workbook pages: Due Friday

5th Grade Language Arts:   Literature:  We have finished reading our book club books.  We took the tests on Friday.  Monday, I will be making sure all the tests are complete, and touching base with students that need to look back over their tests. 
Test grades will be on Educate by the end of the week.
Vocabulary folders need to be turned in for a grade.
This week, students will be working on creating a book trailer for the book they read. We will also take some literary notes to prepare for our next book.
Spelling/Grammar:  Spelling words are posted on this blog.  You child's complete list is on Google classroom.  There will be an assignment Tuesday and the final test on Thursday.  We will do some work with Proper nouns this week.
Writing: Each student has been assigned an explorer to study. For the next 3 days we will be gathering information about the assigned Explorer. We will then write a flash draft with the information that we have.  We will then go back and evaluate other information needed. We will be working with writing non-fiction with a historical voice.

Social Studies:    We will be checking on the explorer essay, but we will move on in class to the next chapter.  Friday we started the Settlement Survival game.  Students are grouped and playing a simulation game based on 3 early American settlements.  We will then study each settlement in depth.  They will work on 3 workbook pages this week in class.
Last week's social studies test will be returned and grades posted.

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6th Grade Literature:

We will spend one more week working in Book clubs.  The B day class will take both the book test, and their vocabulary test on Monday.
We will take some literary notes on Plot vs. Theme to use in our final project.  There will be a group project with two parts to it, that will be worked on in class. 
**Each student will have an individual Book Critique to be filled out on Google Classroom.  Those are due on Thursday (A day), and Friday (B day) this week.  
Vocabulary folders should be turned in for a grade.
Educate will be updated this week, as we finish up the unit.

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Both 5th and 6th grade Literature classes will be preparing for the next class book.  All students should have an independent reading book for this week.  6th grade will begin reading Hatchet, and 5th grade will begin The Sign of the Beaver the week of Thanksgiving.

Blessings on your week,
Mrs. Brown

Week of November 6-10

Last week was a very full week of work.  This week will be also as we complete our Book club books!

5th Grade Assignments this week
Social Studies chapter 5 test is Monday.  Students can use their note page from the workbook on the test.  A study guide with 4 other terms/questions came home Friday.  They should review this page.
Literature:  250 word Journal on Monday - due Tuesday, Google classroom
We will choose the last 2 vocabulary words in book clubs Tuesday.  Folders should come home to study.
Book club vocabulary word test- Friday
Book club book test - Friday
Spelling words assigned Tuesday - due Wednesday on Google classroom
Mentor Sentence assignments - due Thursday, Writer's notebook


Language Arts:  Literature:  We are at the end of Book clubs!  This week each group will finish reading their book.  On Monday we will write a journal in class.  It is due Tuesday.  We will use those journals to do a graded class discussion.  Groups will choose their final vocabulary words, and the folders should come home to study the words.  I recommend making the words into flashcards or Quizlet.
After Friday's tests, we will take a couple days to work on a group project.  Each group will make a book trailer for the book they read.
We will then get ready to begin our next class book.

Spelling/Grammar:  We are choosing new spelling words on Tuesday.  Again, your child's complete word list will be on Google classroom under English.  The word list is due on Wednesday, so that I can check it. The test will be next Thursday, Nov. 16.
We spent a lot of time on grammar last week.  We took a test over sentences on Friday.  We worked through the test together.  We also worked through a Mentor sentence.  This week we will have another mentor sentence.  The work will be done in the Writer's notebook and due on Thursday.

Writing:  We had an awesome Author's celebration on Friday.  Thank you to those of you that sent in a treat.  We had food, and moved around reading as many stories as possible.  Comments about the stories were put on a sheet for each student. This week we will begin talking about how to write a research report.

Social Studies: We have finished hearing about the 8 explorers and taking notes on each of them.  The test is Monday.  Students will be able to use their note taking page about the explorers in their workbook.  They will not be able to use their book and study guide.  There were a few questions on the study guide that are most likely not in their notes, so they should look over those.  They may choose to take their workbook page, and re-write the information there, in a different form that is easier for them to use.  That is up to them. 

Each student will be assigned to one of the explorers to research.  This is an independent project.  The directions will be posted on this blog under Social studies and on Google classroom.  We will work on this project in Genius hour, writing and some social studies time.

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6th Grade Literature:  We are also ending book clubs this week!
Monday/Tuesday of this week groups will be choosing their last vocabulary words.  Then each student should bring his/her folder home and begin studying the words for the test.  I recommend that they make flashcards or use Quizlet to study.
Also on this day, students will be assigned to write the last reflection journal for the book.  It is due the next class period and will receive a late grade if it is not turned in on time.  The assignment will be on Google classroom.
All chapters should be read by the end of the week.  A-day classes will take the test on Friday,11/10 and B-day classes will take the test Monday, 11/13.
There will be a final group project completed in class, and each student will have a Book critique assignment on Google classroom to complete on their own.  Those will be next week.
We will be studying Theme/Plot and figurative language through this project.

We will begin our next class book sometime next week.