January 7th, 2015
Class activities for Wednesday, January 7
Spelling: None today.
Cursive: Ten cursive sentences, seven or more words each, are due on Fridays.
Reading: Two groups of students performed Literature Circles plays to practice reading fluency.
Writing: Students continued to draft their adventure story today. We also looked at some sample endings and noticed that the endings make the reader infer what is happening (“the last thing you see is the sharks jaws moving closer to you”).
Our next writing project is a Choose Your Own Adventure fiction gamebook. Students will write a fiction adventure story with choices that the reader can make. Each choice can change how the story turns out. Students will publish their adventure as a website at sites.mrhowd.com. See below for more details.
This project is due Friday, January 16. Students should be working on their draft now.
Choose Your Own Adventure Resources
- See examples of Choose Your Own Adventure fiction websites here and here.
- Here are some good student examples:
- Look at an Underground Railroad Choose Your Own Adventure website.
- Look through the Underground Railroad Interactive History Adventure book (hint: search for “the end” to see some of the endings of the book).
- Look at some examples of different kinds of endings in a Choose Your Own Adventure Story.
- View the titles of all the Choose Your Own Adventure books to get adventure topic ideas.
- Play Zork, a text-based computer game. Here is a list of commands and directions. Here is a map of the dungeon if you get stuck or lost.
- Find a complete list of resources here.
Math: We practiced dividing today when a zero would be in the quotient. Here are some division skills we’ve been working on lately:
Homework is to practice math for 15 minutes or more using MobyMax or Khan Academy.
Science: We finished reading about how scientists plan and test medicines scientifically, using a placebo and control group to see if the medicine is safe and effective. Homework is to finish analysis questions 1-6 on pp. 19-21 in the text.
Social Studies: None today due to our reading skills and AR practice time. Next Friday is the deadline for each student to reach their AR goal; 14 students have reached their goal so far. You can check on your students progress by looking in StudentView.
Notes:
- The second marking period ends next Friday, January 16. Log in to StudentView to look at recent grades and check for missing assignments.
- Visit our Links page: keep track of all the websites we use for learning, or try something new.
- Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
- View grades, report cards, behavior, assignments, and attendance online.
Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 6th grade.

