Language Arts

Ms. Bennett's Language Arts class continues to work through the mysterious development of our novel The Egypt Game. To encourage greater depth of comprehension, the students will be asked to draw conclusions about why the characters of the novel choose particular actions in reaction to the series of unfolding events in the novel. We will begin working on vocabulary for the second half of the novel using Comic Life vocabulary maps. These maps encourage the students to include the definition of the word, a picture, a personal connection, and a meaningful sentence. This week's spelling test over long vowel words such as reasoning, fearlessness, and received went very well. This week's writing in class was done while completing the ERB writing assessments. The students did an excellent job of completing this writing and incorporating skills we have learned thus far in the year. Each student used a checklist and graphic organizers to make sure their essay had all the necessary parts. Our grammar study continues to focus on verbs. We are identifying action verbs and their direct objects. We are also discussing the difference between transitive (verbs that do have a direct object) and intransitive (verbs that do not have a direct object).

This week in Ms. Clark’s Language Arts class: Phonological Awareness- The students are reviewing the vowel teams /ui/ and /eu/ and beginning work with the suffixes -er, -or, -ar and -ard. They are practicing dividing words containing these and other suffixes into syllables, and recognizing the sounds that each of the syllables make. Phonics- The class was given a new spelling list with words containing vowel teams /ui/ and /eu/, suffix endings -er, -or, and -ar, as well as words from the novel Running Out of Time. Vocabulary- This week’s vocabulary words come both from SPIRE as well as the class novel study Running out of Time. Examples of this weeks words are neutral, pursuit, awkward, hazard, and censor. The students will again be given a spelling/vocabulary contract to complete over the next two weeks. The assignments all focused on both spelling and meaning of the words. Written Expression- Students completed a standardized writing assessment this week. This assessment took place on both Tuesday and Wednesday. The students went through all steps in the writing process using a standardized prompt. Reading Comprehension- This week the class began a novel study with the book Running Out of Time. The students read Chapters 1-3 this week and began looking at character trait. They also worked on making predictions and highlighting unknown vocabulary words within the text.

Mrs. Hayes' Language Arts: Phonemic Awareness-Students are continuing to review the suffix ous that turns nouns into adjectives.  They are analyzing the phoneme by listening and looking at words with ous and identifying the syllables and the individual sounds within those syllables. Spelling- Students are continuing to practice spelling sight words that may not follow regular spelling patterns. Their words for this week are through, there, their, they're and friend.  They will type sentences and find pictures on their laptops to differentiate between the ever confusing there, they're and their. Vocabulary- Look for "A Variety of Valuable Vocabulary" on the wall outside Mrs. Hayes' classroom.  Students have done a great job using their vocabulary words in meaningful sentences on their Comic Life Vocabulary Maps. New words from The Whipping Boy include fathom, imposter, snipe, and confound. Comprehension- We are now in the eleventh chapter of The Whipping Boy and are continuing to discuss setting, characters, problems and solutions in the novel.  Our next story in our SPIRE book is “Quite a Marvelous Tale.”  It is a story retold by a grandchild handed down from a grandfather about how he met his wife. Writing- Students worked very diligently this past week on the ERB Writing Assessment.  Students were given a prompt and worked on a rough draft on Tuesday and completed their final drafts on Wednesday.  Mrs. Hayes' is extremely proud of their efforts!  The guys are continuing to work on their writing pieces about their personal culture.

This week in Mrs. Hibbs’ Language Arts class:  Phonological Awareness-  The students are being introduced to the prefixes mis- and dis- in SPIRE Level 8.  They will be forming new words and determining how word meaning changes when these prefixes are added to a word. They continue to practice dividing words into syllables, and recognizing the sounds that each of the syllables make.  Phonics-  The class will be given a new spelling list with words containing mis- and dis-.  Vocabulary-  Our vocabulary words continue to be drawn from the first half of The Egypt Game.  We will have a vocabulary test on Friday over these words.  Written Expression- This week the students will be given an ERB writing prompt to assess their writing skills.  In class they will continue to work on forming complete sentences and editing their writing to avoid fragments and run on sentences.  Reading Comprehension-  Students will answer comprehension questions for each chapter in The Egypt Game based on plot summary, sequencing, and vocabulary.

This week in Mrs. Howard’s Language Arts class, we enjoyed getting to know each other and I am delighted to be working with your children.  The students did not miss a beat and jumped right in producing wonderful work.  I am so proud of them.  Students completed an ERB writing prompt to assess strengths and challenges in writing skills. Students also concluded the “Cooperation and Competition” Unit in their Open Court text. The group continued working on their oral reading fluency, while reading aloud “The Five Wanders of the Ancient Skies” in their Open Court text. We began our Open Court unit on astronomy by reading the story “Galileo”. Students focused on the comprehension skills of monitoring and clarifying, asking questions and summarizing. This week’s vocabulary word knowledge focuses on recognition of root words to determine meaning and increase vocabulary.  For example, from the root word observe the students examined the structure and meaning of observation, observatory, and observer.  This week we continued to build our phonological awareness/phonics by studying the /k/  and /s/ sound of the letter c. In our Spellography lesson students continue with Lesson 16 and focus on open, closed and vc+ silent -e syllables. The next spelling test will be Wednesday October 6 the day before our SOAR trip.  In writing students will finish editing their summer stories and complete their final drafts using the Story Grammar Marker to facilitate story organization.

Ms. Kienzle’s Language Arts class: We will be learning a new SPIRE sound this week: the vowel pair oa (as in, boat and coat). Vocabulary: Vocabulary words will be drawn from SPIRE lessons. Students will look up definitions of vocabulary words and complete in-class assignments to target comprehension of words. Comprehension: Students will read SPIRE stories and answer questions related to story content. Written Expression: Students will complete paragraph building and expanding activities using Step Up to Writing materials. Students will continue to learn about verb tenses, and other parts of speech (noun, adjectives, and prepositions). Phonological awareness: Students will segment target -oa words into individual phonemes or sounds. Beginning, middle and ending sound identification, as well as rhyming will be targeted. Phonics/Spelling: Spelling will be targeted each day during SPIRE lessons and written expression activities. Other Information: Library day is Wednesday, please be sure to bring last week’s library books to return.

Mrs. Lewis' Language Arts class: This week in Language Arts, the students are taking the ERB, Gallistel-Ellis, and DIBELs assessments.  The students were given the ERB writing assessment test this week. They had one day to take notes, outline, and prepare a rough draft, and one day to record their final copy.  The purpose of the other assessments is to test reading fluency, decoding skills, and spelling proficiency. When the students are finished taking these assessments, we will read some selections from their Open Court book that go along with their Social Studies content.

Mrs. Prewitt’s Language Arts is in full swing! Phonics (Sound/Symbol Relationships) The students will work in SPIRE 6 (ue, ew, tu sounds, oi, oy sounds). Phonological Awareness (Awareness of the different sounds in words, and the understanding of the relationships of the sounds) The students will finish with SPIRE 6 lessons for ue, ew, and tu sounds combinations (ie: clue, barbecue, few, strew, mutual, tarantula). The students will begin working with sounds oi, oy (ie: convoy, broil) Fluency (Using appropriate expression and speed in reading): Students will read fluency drills for the following sounds: eu, ew, tu, oi, and oy. Students will read short stories for the mentioned sounds in the SPIRE readers. Students will continue to take turns reading aloud in Maniac Magee. Vocabulary: Students will have their second formal spelling and vocabulary assessment on 9/30. The words include: fondue, continue, cue, strewn, shrewd, mutual, tarantula, situate, punctual, virtue. Written Expression: Grammar with Daily Oral Language which includes editing two various types of written language (ie: sentences, addresses, quotes) and two analogies (ie: _____:fish::aviary:birds), students will practice implementing the grammar checklist (known as COPS: Capitalization, Organization, Punctuation, and Sentences). Students will use Story Grammar and In a Nutshell formats to summarize each chapter of Maniac Magee. Students will choose a Chapter (1-6) of Maniac Magee and act out the plot of the chapter using iMovie. Students also took the ERB test on 9/28 and 9/29. 

Summer reading projects in Mrs. Ralston’s Language Arts class were graded and sent home this week after being showcased in our hallways for the past month.  Our current display will feature the boys’ work with puns.  Phonics (Sound/Symbol Relationships): The daily lessons continue to reinforce open syllables a/CV, i/CV, and o/CV (a/consonant vowel, i/consonant vowel, and o/consonant vowel).  The students have been introduced to the two long vowel sounds that u makes in the open syllable u/CV.  For example, ‘u’ says /oo/ in tulip and ‘u’ says /yoo/ in music.  They have also been introduced to the open syllable e/CV with words such as even, believe, and December.  Phonological Awareness (Awareness of the different sounds in words, and the understanding of the relationships of the sounds) The students used syllable rectangles and sound circles to practice the rule for syllable division when there is an open syllable.  As part of the phonemic awareness exercises attention was focused on each syllable having a vowel and when dividing after an open syllable there only being one consonant before the next vowel.  Fluency (Using appropriate expression and speed in reading):  Students have practiced fluency with open syllable word lists and with sight word lists.  Prior to their first reading of decodable word lists, students are guided through marking the words ~ identifying vowels, suffixes and syllable divisions ~ to facilitate decoding and fluency.  Vocabulary:  The boys have been challenged to define and find oxymorons during our class read aloud Punished by David Lubar just as the book’s protagonist Logan is challenged.  Oxymorons that Logan encountered in the book were “jumbo shrimp,” “plastic glasses,” and “red-hot chili.”  Comprehension:  Students have responded to oral and written comprehension questions during our class read aloud Punished.  The main character Logan is working off his punishment of being cursed to say a pun every time he speaks more than two or three words by completing a series of quests or challenges.  Written Expression: The boys worked diligently on Tuesday and Wednesday responding to a fall ERB writing prompt to assess strengths and challenges with writing skills.  They worked on their rough drafts the first day and composed their final drafts on Wednesday.  They took a break from writing this Thursday and will return to their funny and creative PJ stories on Friday.

Mrs. Richter's Language Arts class spent this week continuing the ey phonics (sound/symbol relationship) lesson in SPIRE.  Ey has two sounds.  The most common sound is long e and in only a very few words long a, such as prey.  Phonological Awareness: (awareness of the different sounds in words, and the understanding of the relationships of the sounds) Students used the phoneme (sound) segmentation sheet to count syllables in words containing ey.   Fluency: (using appropriate expression and speed in reading) Students completed oral reading fluency drills for the ey phonogram.  Students are also taking DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) assessments reading a passage for one minute and charting the amount of words read correctly in that one minute.  Vocabulary: Students have compiled a list of unfamiliar words encountered in the reader.  Students finished making vocabulary maps for each word.  The test will be tomorrow, October 1.  Comprehension: Students read stories from their SPIRE readers and answered questions, which helps identify literary parts of a story, such as main character and initiating event also known as the kickoff event.  Students are becoming familiar with the main character of Call of the Wild, which is Buck, a well-loved family pet.  Book orders went out this week.  You may place your order online by going to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and entering our class code, HB72Y.  All orders are due October 8.  Spelling: This week students are spelling words with ey using letter tiles during the word building section of each SPIRE lesson.  Written Expression:  Students have been writing in their journals every day.  Students are working on using the editing strategy COPS (Capitalization, Organization, Punctuation, and Sentences) with Daily Oral Language which is a book with sentences that need editing. Students spent Tuesday and Wednesday taking the ERB writing assessment.  Students will take another ERB assessment in April.  This week was spent focusing on linking verbs in grammar.  For the next few weeks students will work on identifying action verbs, linking verbs, and verb phrases, then moving to identifying sentence fragments and run on sentences.

Ms. Rigdon's Language Arts class were highly successful on their spelling test!  Each student made a 93 or better. The class is currently reading the last story in SPIRE 5.  Phonics/Spelling: r-controlled vowel sound: ar is being examined and compared to the others.  Fluency: this week is being practiced through pop-corn read alongs and partner reading where the students take turns reading paragraphs to each other.   Attention is being brought to the punctuation in the paragraphs, pausing at commas, and stopping at periods is still a main focus.  Vocabulary:  farmer, charm, harness, carcass, farther, alarm, cartoon, partner, and carpenter have been the vocabulary focus this week.  The students have practiced homonyms: there, their and they're in context.  Reading Comprehension:  the students are finishing the SPIRE 5 workbook this week with the stories: “Moose in Love: A Real Story,” “The Armadillo,” and “Marmots.”  This week’s readings were informative in nature, and the students were able to pull out the important facts of each paragraph that supported the 'star' idea.  The 'star' idea refers to the program Step up to Writing where the main idea of each chapter is highlighted in yellow, and its supporting ideas are highlighted in red.  Writing: this week the class is taking the ERB.  Sentences: there are three types of sentences, and the class is learning how to identify them this week.  The most difficult has been the sentences where the subject is understood 'you'.  Paragraph Grammar:  Commas in a series and comma usage with compound sentences and independent editing of the ERB.  By becoming familiar with the organization of current stories, the students are becoming more comfortable with the pattern of organization expected of them.

Mrs. Rose’s Language Arts class will be studying the phonemic sounds mb, gh, and gu as in the words climb, ghost, and guide. The students will take several more pretests in spelling this week. In order to aid comprehension, the students will begin to collectively retell a story using Story Grammar Marker components such as main character, setting, initiating event, internal response (feeling), plan, obstacle, and resolution. The students hope to make a video of their retold story over the next few weeks. This week in writing, the students took a writing assessment entitled the ERB WrAP (Writing Assessment Program). The students were very diligent to work on their writing during two class periods. Their competed drafts will provide valuable insight when developing individual writing goals for the student IEP (Individualized Education Plan). This week in grammar, the students are continuing to practice identifying the subject and the predicate of a sentence. Students will have daily homework assignments in which they will be asked to read a selection of sentences, underline the subject once, and underline the predicate twice. In order to aid reading fluency, students will work with the teacher this week to identify individual goals. Some goals that are included are reading with proper expression, taking appropriate pauses and breaths, identifying punctuation marks such as exclamation points, periods, and commas.  Students will also learn new strategies to help them work toward these goals. One strategy they will learn to use is a scooping method where the student learns to scoop phrases using their finger while reading. This method will help students develop proper phrasing and expression while reading.

Miss Southard's Language Arts class took the practice ERB this Tuesday and Wednesday in class. On Tuesday, students were encouraged to complete an outline and begin a rough draft during the allotted fifty-minute time period. On Wednesday, students were encouraged to finish their rough draft and complete a final draft. On Thursday, Miss Southard's Language Arts class completed their first Open Court Unit 6 test of the year. The test included multiple choice, matching, and short answer questions pertaining to vocabulary, characters, settings, overall themes, and comprehension of each reading lesson within Unit 6 of their text. Throughout the week, students have continued to read the exciting novel The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. In class on Friday, students will complete a character scrapbook. Each class member will include detailed information pertaining to the character of his choice from the novel. Students will then compile their character sketches and present to one another. Miss Southard has also updated her Wiki this week and is encouraging students to participate in Writing a Review in order to earn extra credit in class. Students will click on the Wiki link and submit a book review for a book of his choice. A shout out goes to Miss Southard's Language Arts class for having excellent library etiquette each week during Friday visits to the library! Students have continuously stayed on task, spent their time wisely, and shown utmost respect for teachers and items within the library. Way to go!

Students in Mrs. Yessick’s class participated in the ERB written assessment on Tuesday and Wednesday.  This assessment is given twice a year.  The writing prompt is standard for all fifth graders.  Students are given time the first day to think about the prompt and use all pre-writing strategies to plan their paper.  If they have time the first day, they may begin writing.  The second day is for completing the paper and editing.    After continuous practice writing complete sentences, students will learn the four types of sentences this week and the proper punctuation for each.  The four types are declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory.  Knowing the various sentence types helps students write with sentence variety.  In SPIRE, students are concluding the phonological awareness emphasis of the suffixes -ence and -ent.  For fluency practice, continue with the one-minute fluency practice sheets that were sent home.  Please add these to the fluency folders.  Spelling words contain -ence and -ent words plus two individual spelling words. Spelling words from the SPIRE unit are on green cardstock  and secured with a ring.  This is an easy tool to use when traveling in the car. Students are completing vocabulary maps with words taken from the -ence and -ent words.  The spelling / vocabulary test will be Wednesday, October 6.  Comprehension studies continue with the literary elements of “The Driver.”  Character, setting, kickoff, and plan have been examined.  In the “attempt” of Story Grammar Marker, students will find an obstacle which is represented by a broken bead.  

Math

Ms. Bennett's Math class has enjoyed learning two fun games. “Name that Number” prompts students to use the four operations to arrive at the designated number. “Landmark Shark” lets each student practice assessing data finding various landmarks such as range, median, and mode. Please encourage your student to teach these games to you and your family. The directions, if you need them, can be found on pages 299 - 301 of their Student Reference Book. These games are a great support to both fact fluency and computation skills; they are required to compete and win. Our application focus for this week was on broken line and bar graphs. The students practiced skills using their Journal 1 workbook finding landmarks of data about temperatures, precipitation, test results, and various locations from sea level.

This week Ms. Clark’s Math class finished a lesson on mean, median, mode, and range and took a short quiz on these concepts. The class began a new application lesson on factors and prime/composite numbers. The class completed a multisensory activity with this topic by using blocks to build “bedrooms and hallways”. Numbers that are composite can build both “bedrooms and hallways” because there is more than one way to make the number. However, prime numbers can only make “hallways” because their only factors are one and themselves. The students built these representations out of blocks and then created a chart to show the ways to make each number. Students continued to work on multiplication fluency using the computer program FASTT Math.

Students in Mrs. Hayes' Math class extended their lesson on perimeter by learning how to calculate area of a square or rectangle using their measurement from the field trip to the basketball and four square court.   Following the lessons on the diameter, radius and circumference of circles and lines, line segments and rays, students will take the 4A Saxon test.  Concepts and computation problems included on this test are word problems involving money, writing numbers in expanded form, comparing numbers, measuring temperature and time, rounding, missing numbers, and adding columns of numbers.  Upcoming computation instruction is multiplication by one and two digits.

This week in Mrs. Howard’s Math class the students continued working on multidigit multiplication and division of whole numbers and decimals. Students explored several methods to strengthen computation when multipling multidigit numbers involving decimals. For example, traditional column method, partial product method and lattice method were examined and compared for their features and functionality when working with multiplication of decimals. Students also continued to strengthen multiplication and division fact fluency utilizing the FASTT Math computer program.  I really enjoyed getting to know each student and spending time learning more about their interests, strengths and skill set. 

Mrs. Lewis' Math Class: This week in math the students are working on their Curriculum Based Measurement tests.  The purpose of these tests is to determine what level the students are achieving in specific areas of mathematics. For example, we are testing their fact fluency, their computation skills, and their application of various concepts such as measurement, geometry, charts and graphs, and word problems. The students are working hard every day and will have a Fun Food Fraction Friday to look forward to!

Mrs. Prewitt’s class will begin talking about fractions at the start of October. Computation: Students begin each class with a Problem of the Day (If Suzie has 20 m 5 cm of fabric then she uses 10 m 50 cm for curtains and 1 m 50 cm for pillow covers, how much fabric does she have left?). Students are practicing expanded form and estimation for multiplication and division in Unit 1. Students will begin Unit 2: Fractions on 10/4. Students have daily practice in computation for homework and as a warm up in class in the Transitional Math workbook and textbook. Concepts and Applications: Students continue to apply Making Math Real strategies to division. Students are extending various types of math problems, and practicing estimation.  Last week, students assessed various types of graphs. Fact Fluency/Automaticity: Students started FASTT Math in division and have nightly fact practice to solidify automaticity.  The class’ first assessment will be on 9/30 over Unit 1 in Transitional Math.

Students in Mrs. Richter's Math class spent this week working on the following computation skills of multiplying three digits by one and two digits.  Every day students start class computing problems from previously taught computation skills.  Students are also taking Curriculum Based Measurements that will be recorded on Individual Education Plans.  Addition, subtraction with regrouping (borrowing), multiplying by a one and two digit number, and long division are skills being assessed.  This week students reviewed the following concepts and applications (more than just pure fact recall and procedure) place value to the millions place using the place value charts the students made, rounding, and number sequences.  In addition to this students spend time working every other day on FASTT Math, which is a computer software program designed to strengthen students’ math fluency with facts.  Students continued working on the 3s Nine Line, e.g. 3 x 7 = 21.  Next week students will study the 4s.  Usually at the end of each day students play a game called “Three Eyed Monster” that is designed to help reconstruct the Nine Line.

Ms. Rigdon's Math class will be using FASTT Math to improve fluency of facts with the fact families 1-5. The students have been using the 9 Lines to image their facts.  The houses of focus have been the 3s, 4s and 5s, and these facts have been practiced in the contexts of word problems, graphs, and multidigit practice.  The class has been using skip counting with different pictographs in increments of 5s, 10s, 1,000s and 2,000s.  The most difficult question for them has been when they are asked to compare the information.  It is more of a language barrier than a computation issue.  The class is continuing their review of place value through the millions and are also practicing the borrowing process over zeros.

Mrs. Rose’s Math students learned how to create a graph last week using Numbers, a spreadsheet program. The students learned the importance of using a graph key to identify pieces of information. The students are working to complete surveys this week in various math classes to help them gather real-life data on favorite pets. They will complete their graphs on the computer and will display them in the hallway. In computation, students will begin to review adding and subtracting with regrouping. The students will use base-ten blocks to help them identify how regrouping works. The students will use Making Math Real worksheets to help them visualize groups of ones, tens, and hundreds when adding or subtracting three-digit numbers. 

Miss Southard's Math class is finishing up their focus on division skills this week. Last week students did a fantastic job using manipulatives to determine remainders within long division equations. On Friday, the class participated in a game of “Twister” with division facts. Everyone did a fantastic job of reciting division facts, despite being all twisted up! This week, students will review single and multidigit division. Students will take a QUIZ which will include: prime, composite, single division and mutidigit division equations next Monday, October 4. This week, students will continue to use manipulatives to solve division equations, they will also complete their study guides in class and for homework. All study guides will be checked for accuracy in class. Next week, Miss Southard's Math class will begin to focus on fractions. The unit will progress from comparing fractions, reducing to lowest terms, changing mixed fractions to improper fractions, multiplying, dividing, adding, and subtracting.

Students in Mrs. Yessick’s Math class are continuing fact fluency practice with “+9” problems such as 9 + 8.  The fluency practice covered thus far include:  “doubles,” “neighbors,” and “+10.”  This is from the Making Math Real curriculum.  As the class continues to practice application problems as the problem of the day, rounding has been included.  Our lessons last week and this week have also focused on rounding.  Number lines were first introduced to get a visual of what rounding represents.  The class discussed how this is used in everyday life, such as with buying groceries.  The emphasis has been on rounding to the ten’s and hundred’s place.  Since the class has also been studying bar graphs, we have discussed how rounding is used with graphs.  This week, the boys collected data for their math project.  Each student was assigned a row in the parking lot outside of Eskind Hall.  Using a sheet specified with various colors of cars, tally marks were recorded representing the cars with those colors.  The tally marks were converted into digits and entered in a form on their computers.  From that information, the students were able to make bar graphs representing their assigned row and the various colors of cars.  These will be displayed in the hallway, so when you are in Eskind Hall, please take time to see the graphs made by the class.  In computation, students are practicing addition with multidigits with regrouping.  The class has been introduced to the calculators, and they have been used to check their work.  When students find a discrepancy between their answer and the calculator’s answer, they must recheck their work as well as recalculate the problem with the calculator.  Allow your student to check various totals with a calculator at home.  You might have them add totals on receipts or total the amount of items on a pantry shelf.  

5^th-Grade Science Lab

The fifth graders are working on Chapter 3, Lesson 3 of Unit A. The lesson is about behaviors and adaptations.  Students discussed the various adaptations animals and plants have in order to survive.  Then students created their own plant or animal species.  Students had a picture of their animal or plant, told where it lives, and described at least three adaptations it has for survival.  Students had the choice of drawing their animal or plant or using a website called Switcheroo Zoo.  At Switcheroo Zoo students are allowed to morph up to three different animals into one new creature.  The students really enjoyed this project.  We have many talented, creative, young minds.  Next week students will look at cells under a microscope. 

5^th-Grade Science

Students in Mrs. Hayes' Science class are enjoying learning about animal adaptation and behaviors as we study the final lesson in our ecology chapter.  Students watched and took notes on the video Behaviors and Adaptations.  They are also interacting with the Promethean Board to help learn how plants and animals uniquely respond to their ecosystems.  Students chose an animal from the Oakland Zoo website and used the information to describe the animal, it's special adaptations, diet, unique behaviors and the animal's current status in the wild.  There will be a Science test covering information learned in Chapter 3: Populations and Ecosystems on Wednesday, October 6.  Students will complete a study guide at school to prepare for the test.

Miss Rigdon’s Science class is studying Populations and Ecosystems for another week. This week students have continued to study the different habitats of the predators and prey from last week.  The delicate balance of the ecosystem rests on everyone doing their part in the sequence.  In the classroom, the students have been working with the new vocabulary through a Promethean Board activity.  It's a huge matching game between definition and word. Vocabulary focus is to review all vocabulary from the entire unit.  Next week, the science class will begin the unit on the Earth's Atmosphere.  

Mrs. Rose’s Science students will be reviewing Unit 1, Chapter 3 this week.  In order to provide the most valuable review time for the students, it was necessary to reschedule the test. The test on Chapter 3 is planned for Tuesday, October 5. The students will receive a study guide for the test this week. Daily tasks and assignments will be given each day to help students prepare for the test. These tasks may include activities to review notecards, complete pages, read through questions, create question and answer sheets, and other study strategies. The students completed a special Comic Life project on animal and plant adaptations this week. The students used a website sponsored by the Oakland Zoo to help them complete their research. Student projects will be displayed next week in the hallway. Vocabulary words include behavior, stimulus, response, innate behavior, learned behavior, and adaptation. 

6^th-Grade Science Lab

As a culminating activity for Unit A, Chapter 1, 6th graders are designing their own living thing.  Students drew what their living thing looks like, explained if it is one celled or multi celled, explained how it eats, explained how it moves, and finally classified it in one of the five kingdoms we have studied based on rules of taxonomy.  Some students were very creative and designed a living thing that did not fit nicely into any of the kingdoms, so a brand new kingdom was created.  We have many talented and creative students.  Students had to synthesize characteristics of living things, characteristics of each kingdom, ecosystems, and adaptations for survival.  Next week students will start working on their biome diorama.  A letter about the project was e-mailed earlier this week and a hard copy of the letter is being sent in the Thursday folder.  

6^th-Grade Science

Ms. Bennett would like to congratulate everyone's excellent work on last week's classification quiz! This week we will focus our attention on the animal kingdom. Vocabulary words for this week include: vertebrate, invertebrate, arthropod, amphibians, birds, and mammals. Each student will choose a favorite animal, and then we will build the classification system of that animal using an internet resource at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html. This exciting project will culminate in an impressive visual that show pictures and important facts for the student's chosen animal.

This week Ms. Clark’s Science class began Unit A, Chapter 2, Lesson 1 on communities and populations in the environment. The students created a flip chart with new vocabulary words within the chapter and practiced highlighting skills within their textbooks. The class also compared the types of populations or communities that you would find in different habitats using Mindwing ThemeMaker graphic organizers.

Mrs. Lewis' Science class: We are beginning our final project in our study of the Five Kingdoms of Life this week.  The students are choosing an animal and researching it's species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, and kingdom. This project will be graded for a test grade.  They are also preparing for a vocabulary quiz, which has been postponed for Monday. This will cover all of the words we have studied so far.

Miss Southard's Science class completed chapter two in their Real Science textbook on Communities and Ecosystems last week. Students participated in a vocabulary matching activity on the Promethean Board, used a Venn diagram to determine similarities and differences within habitats, and discussed carrying capacity in ecosystems and habitats throughout the world. This week, students will begin Chapter 2, Lesson 2 on Biomes. Vocabulary for lesson two includes: climate, latitude, abiotic, biotic, and biomes. Students will be given an opportunity to explore, compare, and contrast the differences between numerous biomes in the text and on Miss Southard's wiki. Students will also participate in a virtual activity where each individual will be given the opportunity to build his own virtual biome. Finally, students will continue to use the new vocabulary skills from last week to complete their vocabulary words this week. Vocabulary skills focus on: locating the page number for the vocabulary word, highlighting the word and definition in the text, and providing an example for the word. This skill will assist students with comprehension of the term and teach him new study skills which will translate to all academic subjects.

5^th-Grade Social Studies

Mrs. Hayes' Social Studies class is continuing to identify where states are on a map and learn the U.S. capitals.  Our next region of study will be the Northeast states.  States in this area include Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.  Students will be learning about time zones in the United States as well as latitude and longitude.

Ms. Rigdon's Social studies class is focusing on The Road to Revolution in their Social Studies text this week. Each student has researched their character and have been using their Wiki pages to pull facts about their person.  The students have written letters to King George III concerning the new taxes. The Stamp Act, Townsend Act, Quartering Act, Boston Tea Party, and the Boston Massacre have been the topics of discussion.  The class is using the facts put forth on Choose Your Own Adventure to better understand the political climate of the era and fuel the passions put forth in their letters to King George III.  The students are learning that sometimes you need to band together and support one another for the greater good.  There is strength in numbers.

Mrs. Rose’s Social Studies students did an excellent job wrapping up their last unit on The Revolutionary War. This week, students will complete their Who’s Who projects they began several weeks ago. The students will be given the opportunity to present their project in class later this week. Technology Integration: The students have been working hard in technology with Mrs. Prewitt. They are beginning to insert their research into their Keynote presentations. The students will begin to edit and revise these slides over the next few weeks. There have been a wide range of resources available to the students for research including the Tennessee Electronic Library, TEL, and the Encyclopedia Britannica. The students have enjoyed learning some very interesting facts about their states. Did you know that Alaska had their first winter snow this week or that US Secretary of State William H. Seward paid only 2.5 cents an acre for the entire state in 1867?

6^th-Grade Social Studies

Last week's study of Ancient Egypt in Ms. Bennett's Social Studies class focused on the landscape of the region and the importance of the Nile River. Now our attention turns to the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt and the rulers called Pharaohs. These two important topics although for the study of the important vocabulary words: unification, pharaoh, and economy. Students will be adding information about various pharaohs and their significance to the Ancient Egypt Portfolio they are creating.

This week Ms. Clark’s Social Studies class continued learning about the government and religion in Ancient Egypt. The students leaned about the mummification process. They used several websites to go through this process and create their own mummies. The class also explored Pharaoh's tombs and discussed the types of possessions they believed to be taking with them to their afterlife. Hieroglyphics and Egyptian writing was also a focus this week. The class will conclude Lessons 1 and 2 this week and there will be a quiz over this material next Monday.

Mrs. Lewis' Social Studies class: We have finished the first two sections in our textbook for Egypt.  This week we are doing some exploration of Ancient Egyptian religion, tombs and mummies.  They are producing helpful study tools in their homework, and exploring interesting websites in the classroom. During our technology integration time, the students are creating their own movies. They are researching a topic of their choice and working on gathering and organizing information this week.

Miss Southard's Social Studies class completed their quiz on Ancient Egypt Lessons 1 and 2 last Friday. This week, students are focusing on Lessons 3 and 4: Ancient Egyptian Civilization and Daily Life in Egypt. The class will explore mummies, the Hyksos, and Egyptian tombs on Miss Southard's Wiki. Students will also complete an Egyptian Challenge to review all Ancient Egypt lessons. Vocabulary this week and next will include: empire, expedition, social pyramid, and slavery. We are also focusing on famous Egyptians like Ahmose, Hatshepsut, and Tutankhamun. Miss Southard will use a Keynote presentation to explore King Tut's tomb even further and students will complete a research activity to explore other hidden treasures of the king. Near the end of the week students will also construct an Egyptian social pyramid and explore the daily lives of those individual Egyptians.

Tutorial

This week in Tutorial, Ms. Bennett's class is learning a helpful acronym for editing writing. CUPS: Capitalization, Usage, Punctuation, Spelling. This week's overview of proofreading strategy hits the highlights for each of these four items. All four items are accompanied by a list of seven to ten most important rules pertaining to that item. Each student is being encouraged to employ their creativity with visual reminder for which items to capitalize, proper verb usage, how to properly punctuate, and the most often used spelling rules.

This week in Ms. Clark's Tutorial the students began the first draft of their research papers. They will begin creating their papers one paragraph at a time. The class will be learning new strategies to practice editing and revising their own papers and their classmates’ papers as well.

Students in Mrs. Hayes' Tutorial class are using their note taking, highlighting, mnemonics and text skills as they work through subjects in Science and Social Studies classes.  Students use highlighting skills to find important information in their Social Studies book, note taking skills to learn new vocabulary in Science, mnemonics to learn states and capitals and continue to use their text skills as they use different components of their textbooks.

Mrs. Lewis' Tutorial class: The students have made wonderful progress in their writing so far this quarter.  They are now learning and applying revising strategies.  We have learned about adding, deleting, moving, and re-writing content in essays. We are learning about self-statements to use when we get stuck in our writing and revising.  

Miss Rigdon's Tutorial class has been using the facts of their characters to make a matching game out in the hall.  The characters include: King George III, George Washington, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, Betsy Ross, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and Benedict Arnold. The students are matching their characters with their researched facts out in the hall and are becoming familiar with their key people through matching games. Three of the students asked to use the ThemeMaker manipulatives to make sure they were including all the key parts of the informational piece their are responsible for on their character. I love seeing a technique introduced then independently used in the classroom.

Mrs. Rose's Tutorial students learn how to create note cards in order to help them study more effectively. The students will use grids that have been preprinted with the definitions. The students will then cut out the definitions and match them up with the Science term they are studying. This week’s tutorial focus will be preparing for the Science test which has been rescheduled for Tuesday, October 5. The students also plan to create several origami books to help them review information from their science study guide.