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.
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
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