Newsletter 10/18-10/22

Here's What's Happening...

English/Language Arts: We continue our narrative writing unit with two more lessons this week.  The first is called "Turning Points", where students will think of small moments that revolve around "first times", "last times", or "times you realized something".  Then they will choose one and write about it.  The second lesson is called "Dreaming the Dream of the Story",  where students will think of important places and small moments that happened there.  Then, they will once again choose one and write about it.  We will also go through a mini lesson about onomatopoeia, and then students will do station work to practice story structure, the RACES strategy, and Word Work List 4 slides.  We wrap up the week with learning about Theme.

Science: We didn't get to reading "Which Way Is Up?" and completing the anticipation guide, so we will start with that this week.  In addition, students will create a collection of sentences using the important scientific vocabulary from the chapter, as well as create a concept map with important words from the chapter.  They will write a scientific explanation for our chapter question, and enjoy a Bill Nye video at the end of the week.

Social Studies: Our next chapters in Social Studies focus on the colonization of the Americas by countries other than Spain.  Students will do an activity this week to think about and share their prior knowledge about this topic.

Advanced Math:  Students will continue to develop their understanding of ratios, as well as knowing how to work with equivalent ratios. They will wrap up the week learning about unit rates as well.

Important Info:

Book Project!

Students are selecting fiction novels to read for our end of unit project in ELA.  This project is a book report that asks students to apply the skills they learn throughout the unit.  The skills are as follows:

• The theme of the novel
• A summary of the novel
• How characters respond to challenges
• Identify the narrator's point of view and how it influences the story
• Examples of figurative language
• Similes
• Metaphors
• Personification
• Onomatopoeia
• Imagery

Students will need to think about themselves as readers and make a plan for reading their book.  Some of the skills can be done while they are reading, while others will need to be completed at the end of our unit.  While I cannot give an exact due date at this time, I can tell you that it is generally due between Thanksgiving and Winter break.  I will give updates along the way so that both students and families are aware of where they should be with the project.

Schedule of Events

• Monday, October 18th: Monday Choir, 2:45-3:45pm
• Tuesday, October 19th: Tuesday Choir, 2:45-3:45p
• Wednesday, October 20th: American Eagle Theater Class, 2:45-3:45pm
• Thursday, October 21st: Young Rembrandts, 2:45-3:45pm