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

Scholastic Book Orders

Our online code for ordering is NFVJ8. Thanks!

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

Weekly Update Nov. 10-14

Announcements:

-Thank you all for taking the time to attend Parent/Teacher Conferences! Our class had 100% parent attendance! I hope you found it helpful and encouraging as we continue the year working together for the benefit of your student! Please continue to let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

-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!

-Scholastic Order forms will be coming home this week. I will be submitting all orders November 20th.


What are we learning???

Math:
We have finished up Unit 2 and will be taking the pre-test for Unit 3 on Monday. Between Tuesday and Friday, we will be completing lessons 3.1-3.4. The week will focus on using one/two variables to represent expressions. We are hoping to test for Unit 3 before we break for Thanksgiving.The anticipated test date for Unit 3 will be Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 24th-25th. They will be given a study guide the Thursday before the test to prepare for the test and answers to the study guide will be handed out Friday, Nov. 21st.

Science:
The students greatly enjoyed a mini-project last week where we focused on the evolution of inventions. They answered various questions about popular inventions like cell phones, computers, and cars. In addition, they created a timeline that included significant stages in the inventions evolution. Presentations on this project will be on Monday. For the rest of the week, we will be diving into our new unit on Chemistry!

ELA:
Spelling - We will be back to our normal Words Their Way schedule. Students will meet with their groups on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. The homework expectations return to the usual three required activities. We will not be having spelling the week of Thanksgiving due to the short week.

Writing - On Monday, we will begin our second writing unit. We will be writing Literary Essays. This will be quite the challenging, but rewarding process for your student! We will keep you posted on our progress!

Reading - Through our writing unit, students will be challenged to use textual evidence to support an opinion about their book. We will be practicing 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

Weekly Update Nov. 3-7

Announcements:

-There is no school Thursday or Friday of this week.

-Parent/Teacher Conferences are right around the corner! Please let me know if you forgot or need to reschedule your scheduled time. I look forward to seeing you all again THIS Thursday, November 6th!

-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!


What are we learning???

Math:
Last Friday, your student received the Unit 2 study guide. We will review the study guide on Monday. They will be able to compare their work to the answer sheet Monday night as a way of studying for the test. Unit 2 test will be on Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday, Nov. 10th, we will dive into Unit 3 (Variables, Formulas, and Graphs).

Science:
We will be completing a mini-project this short week on how inventions evolve. Students will be researching an invention that has changed over time. This will all be completed in class and will be displayed for Parent/Teacher Conferences.

ELA:
Spelling - Due to the short week, there will be NO spelling this week. It will begin again as usual on Monday, Nov. 10th.

Writing - We learned some great things from visiting author, Katie McKy. This week, we will be flash draft writing in various ways and then choosing one to polish up and publish. Through these flash drafts, they will be focusing on improving 1-2 self-created goals. As Katie believes, you become a better writer by writing, writing, and writing some more!

Reading - Students are thoroughly enjoying our read aloud! We are continuing to sharpen our skills on asking critical questions about plot, character development, and narration through Wonder and their individual DEAR books.

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

Sincerely,
Mrs. Ball

mball@gibraltar.k12.wi.us