Mrs. Blankenship's News You Can Use
November 16, 2015
Curriculum Focus
ELA:
Reading-The students will continue to work on paired passages where quoting accurately from the text is a focus. Thursday, the students will complete a cold read. This will count as a test grade.
Grammar/Writing-The social studies research project will be completed in class by Tuesday. This is a test grade for writing. From there, we will begin a review of synonyms, antonyms, and homographs. There will be a DG on this skill when we return from Thanksgiving break. We will also continue a focus on paraphrasing and summarizing in writing in preparation for an in class science writing piece that will begin when we return from break. Just for fun, the first 10 parents to email me with the phrase, "My child is awesome!" will earn a Ticonderoga pencil (best pencil in the world) for their child.
G/L roots-The Tempor/Chrono DG will be given Tuesday. That is the final grade for roots. I will be issuing a "root challenge" enrichment activity where the students will include roots learned from the beginning of the year in a fun fall piece.
Math- In math, we will wrap up our fraction unit with a test on Thursday. Our last skill that we are focusing on now is multiplying a mixed number by a mixed number. A study guide will be given out on Tuesday.
Don't forget about the accelerated math content on eClass. Very few students have taken advantage of this opportunity.
Social Studies- In social studies, we have wrapped up chapter five and are reviewing both chapters 4 and 5 for our Tuesday test. The students were given study guides Tuesday the 10th. The social studies study guide is due Monday. The students have had 4 days to work on it.
Science- In science, we've been examining the effects of weathering and erosion on land forms. There is a daily grade on this Wednesday and the students have plenty of notes in their notebook to prep with, We will then shift our focus to volcanoes and earthquakes and how they can be both constructive and destructive forces in nature.. The unit test will be after the Thanksgiving break.
There are great resources on eClass for both science and social studies. I am adding a featured website to the landing page every week. Also, check out the links under the Resources tab that provide students with game based activities to review science content and an important Google map of places we have studied in socials studies so far this year. Students are responsible for locating specific geographic locations in social studies.
STEAM Activity
We will be participating in a Holiday Luncheon STEAM challenge next Friday. Both classes have had the opportunity to split into groups of 3 or 4 students and do some planning for this challenge. The theme for the luncheon is peppermint and hot chocolate. Working with that theme, I've challenged the students to create a marble maze from marshmallows, peppermints and the lid of a box. The object of the game is to move the marble through the maze of sweets!
Both classes will spend time on the 20th creating their maze, which will then be displayed at the holiday luncheons. Mrs. Blankenship and I will supply the box lids and marbles. We are asking the students to decide within their groups who will bring in the marshmallows and peppermints. Please ask your child if he or she needs to pick up one of those items.