Weekly Update Dec. 15-19

Announcements:

-Math Study Group: Due to the number of responses I have received, I will be postponing the start of
the weekly math study group to January. However, I have scheduled a test review for Tuesday, Dec. 16th from 3:30-4:30. We will go over the study guide questions and prepare for the test on Friday. If your student will be attending the after school study session, please write a note or email confirming this and informing me of where your student will be going at 4:30pm. Thanks so much!



* Molly and Marcus for your excellent service at the Senior Holiday lunch last week!
* The whole class for an excellent band and choir performance!

What are we learning???

Math:
This week, we will be completing a fraction project in class as well as reviewing for the test on Friday, Dec. 19th. Review sheet for the test will be passed out today. Students that will be absent next week will present their projects on Thursday. All others will present next week. If you would like more information on the project, please ask your child to explain the requirements and show you the guidelines.

Science:
This week, we will be completing a Periodic Table Project. Students will research how they interact daily with various elements/compounds. They will be creating a periodic table complete with illustrations of the uses of elements along with an explanation sheet. Students that will be absent next week will present their projects on Friday. All others will present next week. A quiz on what we have been learning about the periodic table will be this Thursday, Dec. 18th. Students have received a slip informing them of what will be covered on the quiz.

ELA:
Spelling - The students have joined their new spelling groups. Everything will remain the same with their assignments for each week. Students will meet with their groups on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. There will be NO spelling the week of Christmas due to the two day school week.

Writing - We are in the final stretch with our literary essays! By the end of the week, they will be complete and ready to share next week!


Reading - We have been enjoying some short stories by Cynthia Rylant. Through these short stories, we are discussing theme. This will help in preparing the students for their next writing project which will focus around a theme of a story.

Between now and Christmas, we will be practicing our fluency skills through a couple reader's theater plays. The students have been given their second reader's theater play. Please ask your child to practice his/her lines at home to ensure adequate preparedness for presentation day. The goal is not memorization of their lines, rather smooth and fluent reading/speaking skills. The performance for this play will be Friday, Dec. 19th. This performance will be filmed and students will then view and self-score themselves on fluency next week.

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

Sincerely,
Mrs. Ball

mball@gibraltar.k12.wi.us

Weekly Update Dec. 8-12

Announcements:

-Shout out: I've added a new section to the blog titled "Big Shout Out". You can find it below the announcements section of the blog. I will be highlighting some awesome accomplishments to individual students, groups, to the whole class! Keep your eye out for student submitted shout outs as well!

-Band and Choir Concert: The Middle School concert will be TONIGHT, December 9th at 7pm. The students have worked incredibly hard for this performance and are eager to share their talents with us all!

-Math Study Group: Due to the number of responses I have received, I will be postponing the start of
the weekly math study group to January. However, I have scheduled a test review for Tuesday, Dec. 16th from 3:30-4:30. We will go over the study guide questions and prepare for the test on Friday. All the content for the test will be taught by the end of this week. Next week, we will be completing a fraction project in class. If your student will be attending the after school study session, please write a note or email confirming this and informing me of where your student will be going at 4:30pm. Thanks so much!



* Jack Minten for an EXCELLENT performance in A Christmas Cinderella!
* The whole class for your hours and hours of practice to prepare for the band/choir concert!

What are we learning???

Math:
As mentioned before, we will only be covering the first half of unit 4 before Christmas break. The content will cover simplifying, comparing, and adding and subtracting fractions. To help solidify our understanding of the content, we will also be completing a mini-project to directly relate fractions to daily life. The first portion of the test is still scheduled for Friday, Dec. 19th.

Science:
This week, we will be covering the following topics for our Chemistry unit: Elements we need to know, common compounds, organization of the periodic table, and element families.

ELA:
Spelling - The students have joined their new spelling groups. Everything will remain the same with their assignments for each week. Students will meet with their groups on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. There will be NO spelling the week of Christmas due to the two day school week.

Writing - This week, we will be taking extra time analyzing another mentor text to better understand the structure and appropriate content of a Literary Essay. Students have all crafted a thorough claim and are beginning an outline as they plan out their essay. By the end of the week, we should have our outlines complete and most, if not all, of our body paragraphs written! It is quite the challenging, but rewarding process!


Reading - We have finished Wonder and to celebrate/reflect, each student created a precept poster! Precepts, or words to live by, were mentioned throughout the book. The students enjoyed discussing the meanings of these precepts.

Between now and Christmas, we will be practicing our fluency skills through a couple reader's theater plays. The students will be given their first play Monday and will present Wednesday. Please ask your child to practice his/her lines at home to ensure adequate preparedness for presentation day. The goal is not memorization of their lines, rather smooth and fluent reading/speaking skills. The second play will be assigned Friday and performance will be the following Friday. This performance will be filmed and students will then view and self-score themselves on fluency.

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

Sincerely,
Mrs. Ball

mball@gibraltar.k12.wi.us

Weekly Update Dec. 1-5

Announcements:

-BOOK FAIR!!! Each student and teacher will get ONE free book at the book fair this week! The book must be $10 or less.  Also, if you have your wish list filled out don't forget to get it to Mr. Scoville.

-With the math units becoming a bit more challenging, I am looking at starting an after school math study group. The study group will take place once a week in our classroom for 45 minutes. The time will be spent reviewing the concepts learned, practicing together, and completing some of the homework. Please send a note with your student or email me if you think this would be helpful for your child. Also include the day of the week that you would prefer the group to meet. I will send out another message later this week with more details once I've received your feedback. I hope to start the group next week.

-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:
This week, we will be finishing up the test for unit 3 and taking the pre-test for unit 4. The next unit will cover comparing fractions, adding/subtracting/multiplying fractions, and converting between fractions, decimals, and percents. This is quite a long and complex unit. In efforts to not rush through it, we will only be covering half of the unit 4 material before Christmas break. We will take a test on half of the unit and then continue the second half of the unit in January. The test for the first half of the unit will be Friday, Dec. 19th.


Science:
Last week, students began researching an element of their choice. We will use the research collected to create a cube as a display for their work. The cubes will then be used to help students compare, contrast, and group the elements in various categories.

ELA:
Spelling - On Monday, the students will be assigned to new Words Their Way groups. Everything will remain the same with their assignments for each week. Students will meet with their groups on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday.

Writing - Our class has begun the process of choosing a claim to pursue with their literary essay. They created a list of 5 possible claims about a character in their short story. From that list, they had to see which claims encompassed the WHOLE character and the WHOLE story. Starting Monday, we will polish up their claim statements and begin the process of finding evidence to then construct our body paragraphs of our essays. This week, students will also be referencing a mentor text to see what the author did really well and then try to mimic that in their own essays.

Reading - We are on the verge of finishing our read aloud book Wonder! Students have thoroughly enjoyed it and through the reading, have sharpened their skills of determining point of view, character/plot development, narrator styles, and discussion techniques. They will each be assigned a mini project to complete in response to the book this week.

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

Sincerely,
Mrs. Ball

mball@gibraltar.k12.wi.us