January 22nd, 2008
Class activities for Tuesday, January 22
Spelling: Most students completed their Words to Learn list today. Some students are still correcting their words or writing sentences for the homophones and should be done soon. The unit 5 spelling worksheets will also be due tomorrow.
Cursive: Cursive pages 56-58 are available and due Friday.
Reading: Today was the final Literature Circles discussion day of this nonfiction, magazine cycle. Students will work on mini-projects this week.
Writing: We talked today about ways to organize writing, either with paragraphs, or more creatively with chapters or sections of text. For example, a piece about a baseball game could be organized into innings, or a school story could be organized by period, hour or class.
Students started prewriting today for the next piece of writing, due February 8. This piece should be some type of fiction not including any student from our class as a character.
Math: We continued to review fractions and decimals using base 10 blocks. The idea was to see how fractions and decimals are related, focusing on hundredths and tenths (e.g., 1/10 = 0.1, 1/100 = 0.01). Homework is to review Journal pp. 80-82, checking them after today’s extra practice. We’ll grade the homework tomorrow. Click here for a website with interactive base 10 blocks to use for extra practice.
Science: None today due to a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day activity.
The Energy Fair in this Friday. Students are to select an object from home that demonstrates at least one form of energy that we have been discussing, and to make a poster and give a presentation that explains the exhibit. Here are the guidelines and a rubric for the project.
Social Studies: We looked at images from the Civil Rights movement. We also sang “We Shall Overcome.” View the presentation below:
- Yellow magnets: 2
- Orange magnets: 1
- Red magnets: 0
- STAR Awards: 3
- Current Hours with No Orange Magnets: 0*
*We went two months without an orange magnet; however, all it took was some careless impulsivity, just a little talking, and we are back to zero. Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet.
Notes:
- The office has directed me to temporarily suspend all student Gmail accounts due to two inappropriate email messages sent from one student. I am working to have these available to students again soon. This might be a good opportunity to discuss proper “netiquette” with your student and how the actions of one can affect many.Here are some resources to use:
- PBS Kids Get Your Web License. Students have already complete this at school.
- Disney Surf Swell Island
- The second marking period and first semester has ended. Look for report cards this Friday, January 25, or check SnapGrades if you can’t wait!
- View grades, assignments, attendance and even the report card at SnapGrades.
- Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
- This week’s juice volunteers: thanks to responsible and generous families, we have a juice backlog, so no juice volunteers needed for a few weeks!
