Updates and announcements

Thank you so much for signing up to bring supplies for Great Hearts day! We are excited to celebrate the virtue of friendship. In keeping with the philosophy of our school, we are celebrating the virtue of friendship, so please, do not send store-bought valentines to school. Some students have spoken to me about bringing handmade valentines and treats for their classmates, and that is ok. We want to be sure we are sincere in our honor of this virtue.

Our week in learning

This week, students will practice creating outlines from short essays. They will focus on identifying the main idea and supporting details of each paragraph. Next week, they will practice writing from outlines.

In literature, students will continue reading up to chapter 21 of the Secret Garden.

Students will recite their poem, “The Arrow and the Song” this Wednesday.

Students will have their weekly roots quiz this Wednesday.

In science this week, students will continue to explore angiosperms, or flowering plants, by studying pollination, dissecting a flower, and watching a video about pollinators. There is a short quiz on parts of a flower on Tuesday.

This week in history, students will continue learning about Westward Expansion before the Civil War. Students will learn about the idea of Manifest Destiny, the additions of Texas and Oregon, the War with Mexico, and settling the far west, such as the movement of the Mormons to Utah. The study guide will go home on Monday, February 12th and is due on the day of their test, Wednesday, February 21st. While there is an R&R weekend before the test, students will still have 5 non-R&R days to complete the study guide and prepare for the test.

In math this week, we will start learning about measures and volumes. We will begin with converting units and work towards finding the volume of a rectangular prism. This is a short unit, so there will be a test next week. There will be no math groups this week, as we are just starting a new unit.