Weekly Update Nov. 17-21

Announcements:

-Gibraltar Elementary is working with the Door of Life Food Pantry in Sister Bay and the Door County Community Resource Program Feed My People to help stock the Food Pantry shelves with items for local families. Starting November 3rd to November 21st, we will have a food we will have a food/personal care item drive to help local families in our area. Each grade level will be responsible for collecting a certain item. Please, if you are able, send that item to school to have your child put in the appropriate container in their classroom. There will also be a container in the lobby of the school to collect additional donations.  6th graders are responsible for bringing in peanut butter. Thank you for your support!

-My apologies for not sending the Scholastic Order forms home last week. They will be given to your student on Monday and orders will be due next Monday, Nov. 24th.

-With the new quarter underway and after receiving some feedback from conferences, I have decided to implement a few changes this quarter. First, your student is required to read at least 20 minutes three nights a week. To confirm that they have read, I ask that you sign their planner in the ELA section. Second, On days when tests are returned, your student will be required to get a parent/guardian signature on the test and return it the following day. Thank you for your continued support!


What are we learning???

Math:
Last week, we learned about variables in expressions. This is a difficult concept for many that requires practice for understanding. I have added helpful links to games and lessons on the Student Links page to assist your student with reviewing and practicing the skills we are learning in class. As planned, we will finish Unit 3 this week focusing on formulas, tables, and graphs. The test for Unit 3 will be Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 24th-25th. They will be given a study guide this Thursday before the test to prepare for the test and answers to the study guide will be handed out Friday, Nov. 21st.

Science:
At the end of last week, we hand a slight change of plans with Philae landing on a comet. We read the
Science World article to gain background information about the journey and mission. The students thoroughly enjoyed researching this topic as a class and seeing history being made! On Friday, we created a twitter board in our classroom in response to the successful landing on the comet. Here are some of their tweets:

• "I think that this expedition is going to open so many new doors to the universe's life." #rubberducky
• "I hope Philae will be able to maneuver enough to get the sunlight it needs."  #Philaecomet
• "It was so cool that it didn't break when it hit the comet going at that speed."  #cometsarecool
• "It's really cool that we are going to make history with Rosetta."  #Ilikecomets

This week, we will do one final wrap up conversation about Philae and Rosetta on Monday and then continue our Chemistry unit focusing on the periodic table and the elements.

ELA:
Spelling - We are continuing our normal Words Their Way schedule. Students will meet with their groups on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. We will not be having spelling the week of Thanksgiving due to the short week.

Writing - The students have been introduced to the Literary Essay unit and have already completed two challenging writing tasks this week. First, they had to write a flash essay (an essay written in one sitting) about a topic that really mattered to them. This will serve as a pre-assessment to see their growth as writers at the end of this unit. On Wednesday, we began writing an essay as a class about the classic tale, The Three Little Pigs. Our claim was that the third little pig was admirable because he was a hard worker, brave, and outsmarted his enemy. The students did an excellent job applying the structure of an essay and were able to complete two drafts all in three days!
       This week, we will be looking closely at a mentor text titled "Raymond's Run". We will begin the process of creating a claim for a literary essay and finding textual evidence to support our claims.

Reading - Through our writing unit, students will be challenged to use textual evidence to support an opinion about their book. They will also be doing this with a short story that will later be used when they write their very own literary essay. We will continue to practice this tricky skill as a class, in groups, and independently.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Ball

mball@gibraltar.k12.wi.us