Headlines 3/27

Good Morning! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I was very excited to welcome my new nephew Brighton Mac to the world on Friday. A brand new baby is the perfect way to bring in Spring, so here is a little glimpse of his sweetness!

We begin AZMerit this week with the writing assessment on Friday. Please be sure your student is at school on time and has had a healthy breakfast. We have worked hard to prepare for this test and I have confidence that our class will do very well!

ELA

In Literature we will continue,reading  Across Five Aprils. We will will have a class debate about fighting in the Civil War and will continue looking at vocabulary in context.

We will be taking the  AZMerit writing test on Friday. To continue preparing we will be sharing our practice essays with the class and will look at sample persuasive essays.

We will have a quiz over roots 76-79 on Wednesday and will introduce our new poem, Barbara Frietchie. This is a long poem so students will be reciting this in groups on Wednesday, April 12th.

Math

This week the students will learn how to interpret a set of data in many ways- mean, median, mode, histograms, tables, and pie charts.  There will be no math groups this week!

Science

We are studying the human body. There is a skeleton quiz on Wednesday!

History

This week, students will take their Westward Expansion Before the Civil War test. The study guide is due Monday, 3/27. The unit test will be on Tuesday, 3/28. Students will also finish learning about US Geography with the West Coast, Alaska, and Hawaii. A study guide for the 50 states map test will go home on Wednesday, 3/29, due 4/5. The test will be on Wednesday, 4/12. We will start our unit on the Civil War this week. We are discussing slavery throughout the unit, with an emphasis on the life of a Civil War era American slave this week. This may be sensitive content for some students, so please have a discussion at home if needed.

Headlines 3/21

I hope everyone had a wonderful spring break and was able to relax and enjoy time with family. I must admit, the alarm seemed to go off awfully early this morning!  

Today I spoke to the class about preparing for sixth grade and practicing being a self-advocate in our behavior and study skills. We will accomplish a great deal this quarter!

French and Fine Arts night is Friday, April 7, see the following for more info. It should be a wonderful evening:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxSuyHM9YtLNS3E5NlFvYWRKaVU/view?usp=sharing

ELA: This week in Literature we will begin our next book, Across Five Aprils. Our focus for this book will be integrating our study of the Civil War in History with the novel. We will also be concentrating on vocabulary and defining words using context clues.

In Writing this week we will be preparing for the AZMerit writing test by using all of our block time today to use the writing process to write a five paragraph informative essay.  In order to give students immediate feedback on their writing each teacher will be conferencing individually with students about their essays. Our hope is that this gives them confidence in their writing abilities!

We will use the remainder of the week to review parts of speech, noun jobs, and add predicate adjectives to our diagramming.

Math:

We will finish Unit 11 this week by solving rate problems. We will have math groups on Wednesday and will take the unit test next Monday. If you are able to help with math groups, please let me know. We love having you in our classroom!

Science:

This quarter, we will be learning all about the human body. We will start with the skeletal system this week. There will be a quiz on the human skeleton during the following week.

History:

This week, students will finish learning about westward expansion before the Civil War. Students wil cover the Mexican-American War, and settlers moving further west, such as the gold miners and the Mormons. The study guide is going home Tuesday, and it will be due Monday, 3/27. The unit test will be on Tuesday, 3/28.

Headlines 3/6/17

I can't believe this is the last week of the third quarter. The students have been working hard the last eight weeks and I have been so impressed with their diligence and perseverance.

Our focus this quarter has been becoming a self-advocate and I continue to see the students making improvements in their maturity and level of responsibility.

Last week we had a class conversation about appropriate playground and social behavior. We came up with a list of acceptable and non-acceptable behaviors for our class. I reminded students that we keep our hands to ourselves in line and on the playground, and to be respectful of others' boundaries. We also discussed how to solve problems with others in a constructive way. I am hoping this will help some of the issues that have arisen in the last few weeks!

Here is everything we will be doing this final week!

ELA

This week in Literature we will be using the character studies we have completed to complete a “Most Dynamic Character Award” writing prompt. Students will be writing a persuasive paragraph based on who they believe has changed the most in The Secret Garden. Please be sure your student has the novel, Across Five Aprils, which we will begin when we return from Spring Break.

In Grammar and Writing we will be reviewing similes and metaphors and will use these to describe the virtues.

The Tyger, by William Blake will be recited Wednesday, March 8th.

Science

This week we will continue studying the life of the famous botanist, George Washington Carver.

History

This week, students will continue learning about westward expansion before the Civil War. Students will cover the expansion of canals, invention of railroads, the Trail of Tears, Manifest Destiny, acquiring of Texas, and the settling of the Oregon territory. There is also a geography quiz over the Midwest, Rocky Mountain, and Great Plains regions on Wednesday, March 8th. Students will also be learning about the Southwest region in Geography.

Math

Last week we began learning about finding averages, this week we will begin learning about rate. Math groups are back on this week on Wednesday from 8-9! Please let me know if you are able to help this week. Thank you!