Updates and announcements

Our students have worked so hard with their writing workshops! As a class, I am impressed with the high level of writing they produced during our workshop last week.

We have an exciting couple weeks coming up, so please take a look at our “Important Events”.

We are in need of a few classroom supplies, so please check out our wish list.

Our week in learning

This week, students will continue to practice using transition words to connect ideas and stretching simple sentences into longer ones using relevant details. Please help coach your students as they compose their practice sentences at home! On Monday, students will take the practice AZ Merit writing test to familiarize themselves with the AZ Merit’s tools and format.

In literature, students will continue reading through chapters 2-3 in Across Five Aprils.

This week in science, students will finish learning about bones, joints, and vertebrae. They will take a skeletal system anatomy quiz on Wednesday. They will be expected to know the location of each of the bones we have studied. On Thursday, students will begin learning about the muscular system.

This week in history, students will continue learning about the Civil War. Students will be learning about the Emancipation Proclamation, General Lee, General Grant, and the draft. Please note that when students have a summary paragraph for homework, that should serve as their notes for that chapter.

In math this week, we will start our unit on data analysis. Students will work with pie charts using fractions and percentages. We will take the unit test on Thursday, then transition into AZMerit practice until we take our tests on 4/17 and 4/19. We will have math groups this week on Wednesday 8:00-9:15.

Updates and announcements

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful Spring Break. I spent mine cooking wonderful food, making a quilt for my brother’s graduation present, and cuddling with Cosmo and Gustav.

Check the Important Dates section for upcoming testing dates. Attendance is always important, especially now while we prepare to take the AZMerit in April.

Our week in learning

This week in Language Arts, students will review transition words and practice using appropriate transitions in their writing. They will also begin sentence stretching exercises to add details to their writing by answering the questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? And How? Finally, students will complete a writing workshop on Friday, spending the majority of the morning composing a full five-paragraph essay from beginning to end. Students will meet with a teacher briefly to help coach them in their writing skills.

In literature, please send in Across Five Aprils--students will begin their new literature selection this week!

This week in science, students will begin their anatomy unit by learning about the skeletal system. Students will label the different bones of the human body, be able to locate them on themselves, and will take notes on their different functions.

This week in history, students will continue learning about the Civil War. Students will be learning about the beginning of the Civil War, Fort Sumter, advantages and disadvantages of the North and South, military strategies, the reason why it was called a “Brother’s War”, the Peninsular Campaign, the battle of Antietam, and General McClellan. Please note that when students have a summary paragraph for homework, that should serve as their notes for that chapter.

In math this week, we will start our unit on data analysis. Students will identify mean, median and mode, and interpret histograms, line graphs, and pie charts. We will also begin our formal test prep for the AZMerit by working through targeted packets for bellwork. We will go over the bellwork at the start of each day. As we get closer to the test, we will transition to more test prep during the school day. Because we are starting a new unit today, there will be no math groups this week. We will start back up with math groups on 3/28.  

Updates and announcements

Our field trip is tomorrow! Please send students to school with a packed lunch, comfortable shoes, their backpack, a water bottle, and sunscreen/umbrella. Chaperones will meet us at the school to give me their ticket money before the busses leave. Busses leave at 8:30 and will return to the school at 2:00.

Adding to our exciting week, we will also have a small end of the quarter Secret Garden celebration on Friday. Be on the lookout for a sign up genius from our wonderful class parents.

Our week in learning

This week, students will practice determining the appropriate audience for various types of writing and will continue to practice writing a single paragraph with a topic sentence and supporting sentences.

In literature, students will complete The Secret Garden and write a three-paragraph essay, due Friday, about the most dynamic character.

Students will recite “I like to see it lap the miles” on Wednesday.

Students will take their 25 roots test on Wednesday.

In science this week, students will read about the life of inventor George Washington Carver, who found hundreds of uses for peanuts and sweet potatoes. Thursday and Friday will be spent rehearsing and performing a short play centering around Mr. Carver’s life. Each student will have the opportunity to act in one scene of the play in front of the rest of the class.

This week in history, students will continue learning about the Civil War. Students will be learning about the Abraham Lincoln, the Underground Railroad, and the start of the Civil War. On Wednesday, we will watch a short History Channel video on John Brown that does contain some violent content. Students will finish learning about pre-Civil War material before break and have a short quiz over the notes in their foldables. We will do an activity on Thursday where students create quizzes and turn them in. I will then create a quiz using some of their questions. Their very short quiz will take place on Friday, 3/9. Students can be sure that only material from the foldables will be used on the short quiz.

In math this week, we will finish their unit on percentages. We will practice finding a percentage of a whole and word problems. We will take a short math test over this material on Friday. There will be no math groups for the rest of the quarter. We will begin with math groups again in quarter 4.