The Longmore Learners
Week of January 11, 2016
Congratulations
Congratulations to Dominic for being our alternate Spelling Bee champion. He gave the winner a run for his money, and we look forward to his continued success in spelling.
Special congratulations goes out to Akhil for being our Spelling Bee winner. He will represent our classroom in the Castlio Spelling Bee on January 21st. Great Job Akhil!
Special congratulations goes out to Akhil for being our Spelling Bee winner. He will represent our classroom in the Castlio Spelling Bee on January 21st. Great Job Akhil!
Last Week
Sorry I did not get a newsletter out before last week. Just a few highlights. We had a great first three days.
We:
We:
- changed seats
- created new pod names
- had a snack tectonics science lab
- started to learn about Earthquakes
- started the Lightning Thief as our read aloud
- determined our Spelling Bee winner
- started Topic 9 in math (division)
- got into the groove of things.
This Week In Math
We jumped right in last week and started Topic 9. Topic 9 and 10 are about division. We start out with the basics again, and move up to long division. If your student struggles with multiplication facts, I urge you to practice nightly with your student. Not knowing multiplication facts at this point is a real detriment to their ability to move forward in math. it affects their ability to understand the concepts of division and other higher level maths as they move forward in their education. If you need flashcards, don't hesitate to let me know. I can print some up pretty quickly.
We will go over Topic 9, unit 3-6 this week, review on Friday or Tuesday and test on Tuesday or Wednesday. I will take some extra time if I see that students are struggling with this Topic, because as with all math, it builds on itself, and the next topic will be more difficult. If your student is struggling, please contact me.
We will go over Topic 9, unit 3-6 this week, review on Friday or Tuesday and test on Tuesday or Wednesday. I will take some extra time if I see that students are struggling with this Topic, because as with all math, it builds on itself, and the next topic will be more difficult. If your student is struggling, please contact me.
This Week In ELA
This Unit of Study is a natural disaster unit. I love science, and I likewise love this unit. We will focus on earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. The written assignment is a presentation about a specific natural disaster. I will have that information written up this weekend and hand out. I will also post to my schoology website. I also just want to say that this class is very non-fiction oriented. They love to read non-fiction, look at the diagrams and they ask awesome questions. I hope I can maintain that love this year! They are incredible.
Reading
We started a new Read Aloud this past week, The Lightning Thief. This is not ideal in the middle of a science unit, but last year we found that reading Lightning thief in 4 weeks was impossible during the mythology unit, so the district suggested we start reading it now. Hopefully, it will have more meaning when we finally get to the mythology unit.
With science, the main reading goal during this unit is to learn how to use text features to help us process what the text is saying. We will ask questions like, How did this graphic help you learn? What part of the text does it support?
Science
We did Snack Tectonics last week. I highly encourage you to ask your students about the activity and really push them to see what they learned (they should use continental plate, oceanic plate, divergent boundary, continental oceanic boundary, continental-continental boundary, strike-slip fault, reverse fault, normal fault). We will focus on earthquakes next week mosty, and then head into volcanoes. I did tell students that they would be able to make a volcano at home and bring to school. We will allow those students to do an eruption of their volcano. It is extra credit and not something that is required, but so much fun, that I have to include it somewhere!
Writing
As I said above, the main product of this unit is a presentation/essay about a specific natural disaster. The gist of the piece will be what you learned about natural disasters, but it will be focused on one particular event. We will pick natural disasters Monday in class, by doing a little research. I will work on deadlines this weekend and post them as soon as possible.
Reading
We started a new Read Aloud this past week, The Lightning Thief. This is not ideal in the middle of a science unit, but last year we found that reading Lightning thief in 4 weeks was impossible during the mythology unit, so the district suggested we start reading it now. Hopefully, it will have more meaning when we finally get to the mythology unit.
With science, the main reading goal during this unit is to learn how to use text features to help us process what the text is saying. We will ask questions like, How did this graphic help you learn? What part of the text does it support?
Science
We did Snack Tectonics last week. I highly encourage you to ask your students about the activity and really push them to see what they learned (they should use continental plate, oceanic plate, divergent boundary, continental oceanic boundary, continental-continental boundary, strike-slip fault, reverse fault, normal fault). We will focus on earthquakes next week mosty, and then head into volcanoes. I did tell students that they would be able to make a volcano at home and bring to school. We will allow those students to do an eruption of their volcano. It is extra credit and not something that is required, but so much fun, that I have to include it somewhere!
Writing
As I said above, the main product of this unit is a presentation/essay about a specific natural disaster. The gist of the piece will be what you learned about natural disasters, but it will be focused on one particular event. We will pick natural disasters Monday in class, by doing a little research. I will work on deadlines this weekend and post them as soon as possible.
Small Reading Groups
We will be focusing on a non-fiction unit for 2 weeks. This coincides with the science unit, and most every group is doing a non-fiction book based on a natural disaster. We will be done with the non-fiction unit next week and continue with some more fiction and novels. You can see the calendars for the various reading groups on schoology.
Purple: Do Tornadoes Really Twist
Red: Earth Fast Changes
Orange: Sweeping Tsunamis
Blue: Volcanoes
Neon Green: Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens
Purple: Do Tornadoes Really Twist
Red: Earth Fast Changes
Orange: Sweeping Tsunamis
Blue: Volcanoes
Neon Green: Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens
Spelling Week 16
Ending -ed
Ed is a suffix to show past action and is pronounced in 3 ways; /t/, /d/, /əd/. The –ed suffixes is added to words to preserve meaning rather than spelling. In these cases morphology overrides syllables (ex. Begged instead of beg-ged, formed instead of form-ed, passed instead of pass-ed). The e is normally silent. It is voiced only after a D or T. This helps the listener hear and realize the suffix is present. D is voiced if the ed follows a vowel or a voiced consonant (b, d, g, v, th, z, zh, j, w). If –ed follows an unvoiced consonant the D loses its normal sound and sounds like T.
addressed
menaced
advanced
mortified
relieved
departed
decided
completed
knitted
Weekly Calendar
Monday, January 11
Day 1
Tuesday, January 12
Day 2
Wednesday, January 13
Day 3
Thursday, January 14
Day 1
Friday, January 15
Day 2
Dictation Sentences today
Mentor Sentences - Invitation to Edit
Update Data Binders
Monday, January 18
MLK Day - No School
Log Ins
www.Schoology.com
username: first initial last name: Example: tlongmore
password: student id#: Example: 123456
www.Pearsonrealize.com
username: first name + last name + last three digits of student id (example:tonyalongmore456)
password: FHSD + Id number (example: FHSD123456)
Scholastics Reading Counts
https://h100003970.education.scholastic.com/src/loader/?LLO=true
username: Student ID (lunch number)
Password: Password1
drive.google.com
first initial, last name and last 3 digits of the student ID@g.fhsdschools.org (example: tlongmore456@g.fhsdschools.org
Password: fh123456 (fh followed by the students id or lunch number)
Voice Threads
The link has to go to the FHSD subscription, so here is the link
http://fhsdschools.ed.voicethread.com/myvoice/#u1574081
email: the students ID number (123456)
password: francis
Discovery Education NEW
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/
first initial, last name, last 3 digits of your ID# (example: tlongmore456)
password: student id # (example: 123456)
username: first initial last name: Example: tlongmore
password: student id#: Example: 123456
www.Pearsonrealize.com
username: first name + last name + last three digits of student id (example:tonyalongmore456)
password: FHSD + Id number (example: FHSD123456)
Scholastics Reading Counts
https://h100003970.education.scholastic.com/src/loader/?LLO=true
username: Student ID (lunch number)
Password: Password1
drive.google.com
first initial, last name and last 3 digits of the student ID@g.fhsdschools.org (example: tlongmore456@g.fhsdschools.org
Password: fh123456 (fh followed by the students id or lunch number)
Voice Threads
The link has to go to the FHSD subscription, so here is the link
http://fhsdschools.ed.voicethread.com/myvoice/#u1574081
email: the students ID number (123456)
password: francis
Discovery Education NEW
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/
first initial, last name, last 3 digits of your ID# (example: tlongmore456)
password: student id # (example: 123456)
Mrs. Longmore
Email: tonya.longmore@fhsdschools.org
Location: 1020 Dingledine Road, St. Charles, MO, United States
Phone: 636-851-4338
Twitter: @tonyalongmore