March 23rd, 2015
Class activities for Monday, March 23
Spelling: None today.
Cursive: Ten cursive sentences, seven or more words each, are due on Fridays.
Reading: Today was a reading day in Literature Circles; some groups worked on solving unknown words by breaking them into chunks.
Writing: Students continued to work on the draft of their fiction novel project or to start revising.
Each student has a daily writing goal of 150-400 words. The novel project is due Friday, March 27. Students should be nearing the end of their draft and be ready to start revising soon. Check StudentVue for your student’s progress, current as of today.
Novel Writing Project 2015
The final piece of the 3rd Marking Period will be our final fiction project of the year. Students will write and publish a novel. Each student will write their own novel, with a word goal minimum of 1,500-4,000 words, based on their reading level (each student’s minimum writing goal is equal to their reading level multiplied by 500). The novels will be written in Google Docs (docs.mrhowd.com) to make use of the word count feature. Final novels will be uploaded to Lulu.com and published as paperback books, which can be purchased for reasonable prices. So yes, students will actually write and publish their own novels. This project is based on the National Novel Writing Month Young Writers program.
Math: Today was a final class work day to finish these skills:
Skills that should be finished:
It would be helpful for students to continue working on these skills at home if they haven’t had enough time in class to master them.
Homework is to practice math for 15 minutes or more using MobyMax or Khan Academy, and to work on MobyMax FactMaster for 5 minutes.
Science: We learned about friction and how the force of friction has to be counteracted if an object is going to stay moving.
Social Studies: Students finished reading about how slaves kept their hopes alive during their difficult time in slavery. Homework is to finish reading notes p. 49 if not done in class.
Notes:
- Our next play practice is Wednesday, March 25 from 4-5. This is a dress rehearsal; students please wear your costume.
- Our class play, The Legend of Lightning Larry, will be on March 31. Here is the practice schedule. Our shows are at 10 am, 10:30 am, and 6:30 pm. Students please arrive at 5:30 on the night of the performance.
- 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.
- Fifth Grade Camp is May 7-8, 2015. Costs are $100 and payments are being accepted through May.
Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 6th grade.
