Weekly Update: November 19th

Report Cards: The end of the trimester is quickly approaching.  Grades close November 30th.  Students, please check the grade book and ensure your work is submitted. You only have a few weeks left!

Team Donations: Our team supply of tissues and hand sanitizer seems to be dwindling, especially as we approach flu season.  If you would like to donate these items, please send them to school with your child.  Thank you to the families who have donated supplies thus far!  We are most appreciative!

Field Trip: Information went home this week with students regarding our upcoming field trip.  On Wednesday, December 12th, our team will be traveling to The Palace Theatre in Manchester to see a live performance of A Christmas Carol.  Permission slips and payment are due to Mrs. McGuire by Tuesday, November 20th!   Thank you to all students who have brought in their paperwork already!  We also appreciate the extra donations that have been made!  

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students did a great job this week researching the Persian Wars. Students discovered the main themes behind the wars and ultimately why the Persian invasion of Greece failed. We will be starting a new topic on Monday! 

Science:  We'll have our quiz on Tuesday.  Study the Levels of Life.  There are links to the Quizlet from the google classroom to study or you can study from your notes. 

Literacy: Students had a great week in the library with our amazing librarian, Mrs. Sand. They began the Atlas Obscura project from Google Classroom, went shopping in the Chrome Store for an extension for building bibliographic citations, and learned lots of new tech tricks.  Because of our unexpected snow day, we missed our day in the computer lab with Mrs. Kauffman to learn the narration tool for the projects, so schedules have been adjusted.  The Latin 5 test will be pushed to Tuesday, so that students will have time in The Mansion to work on projects with Chrome Books.  Students should check Google Classroom for announcements about a new due date for the project.  It's been pushed into Trimester Two!

English:  We continued working on grammar this week, focusing mostly on subjects, predicates, fragments, and different types of sentences.  The quiz originally scheduled for Tuesday, November 20th will be pushed back due to the snow day.  Please be aware that the November independent reading project deadline is quickly approaching.  Students should be nearly finished reading their books and moving onto the interview component.  An example has been posted on Google Classroom.

Math: Due to the snow day on Friday, our test on Multiplying and Dividing Rational Numbers will be on Monday, November 19th.  Be sure to look over the study guides!  We will be starting our Expressions and Equations unit when we get back from Thanksgiving break.

Weekly Update: November 12th

Reminder: There is no school on Monday, November 12th in observance of Veteran's Day. View our Pennichuck Band as they march in the parade downtown!

Report Cards: The end of the trimester is quickly approaching.  Grades close November 30th.  Students, please check the grade book and ensure your work is submitted. You only have a few weeks left!

Team Donations: Our team supply of tissues and hand sanitizer seems to be dwindling, especially as we approach flu season.  If you would like to donate these items, please send them to school with your child.  Thank you to the families who have donated supplies thus far!  We are most appreciative!

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: This week we took a break from researching and discussing Persia and the Ancient Greeks and learned a little bit about Greek Mythology. Students spent the majority of the week writing their own Greek myth. This was due on Friday. Ask your child about it! Next week we will begin to answer the question: How did the Greeks successfully prevent a Persian invasion?

Science:  We finished our unit and answered our question..... Why are bones hard?  Ask your students to explain it to you.  Next week we will introduce our new phenomenon.  

Literacy: It will be a very busy, short week ahead!  Students will finish Latin Root 5 independently,  and prepare for the test on Monday, November 19th, while spending the week in the Library with Mrs. Sand and me, and in the computer lab with Mrs. Kauffman, learning some wonderful tech tools!  Students will begin their Atlas Obscura projects, using all the cool, new tools they learned!  

Meanwhile, to build upon our Growth Mindset Passport theme, ask your students about the Famous Failure stories on the Badger Board!  

English:  We shifted gears a bit this week and reviewed grammar exercises, specifically those relating to subjects, predicates, and fragments.  Next week we will continue practicing and expanding upon these skills.  Additionally, students should be reading 30 minutes per night for their November independent reading projects.  Ask them what they have to do this month on their projects! 

Math:  Last week we learned how to convert a fraction into a decimal. Students learned that decimals either terminate or repeat.  This week we will be reviewing multiplying and dividing fractions and decimals with negative numbers. The unit test will be Friday, November 16th, study guides will go home early this week.  Check the Google Class for extra help.

Weekly Update: November 5th

Parent/Teacher Conferences: Our second and final round of conferences will be taking place this week on Thursday, November 8th from 4-7:30 PM.  Please use the link below to sign up for a conference if you haven't already done so.

Parent Conference Sign Up Link

Team Donations: Our team supply of tissues and hand sanitizer seems to be dwindling, especially as we approach flu season.  If you would like to donate these items, please send them to school with your child.  Thank you to the families who have donated supplies thus far!  We are most appreciative!

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students learned a lot about Ancient Greece's major rival: The Persian Empire. We did a lot of investigation and researching in class this week and capped it off by graphing the populations of Persia, Athens, and Sparta. Next week we will take a step back and focus on Greek Mythology. Students will spend a few days in class reading Greek myths and ultimately will create their own myth!

Science:  Check out students learning about cell membranes on our science blog.  Ask your student why we used bubble membranes to figure out what cell membranes are like.  Students will have a quick quiz on Monday on the 6 organelles that we've learned.  Quizlet will help them study.  We will put all of our investigations together next week and be able to answer our question, "Why are bones hard?"  This means we'll have our final test at the end of the week.

Literacy: Latin root Unit 4 is a wrap!  I'm quite pleased that students are finding that when they study the material, they do well on the tests!  We are continuing to read The Omnivore's Dilemma, and are discovering that we are all eating a great deal of corn and we don't even know it!  

English:  Students submitted their first independent reading project this week!!  There are still a few missing; please check to see whether your student turned it in!  Students visited the library on Friday and chose a new book for their next IRP, which is due on November 30th.  Be sure to ask what book they chose!  All project requirements can be found on their orange handout.  Lastly, students will have a quiz on Call of the Klondike and The Cremation of Sam McGee on Monday, November 5th.  Vocabulary words can be found on my Quizlet page!

Thank you for all the book orders that came in this week!  Orders were placed and should arrive within 7-10 days.  

Math:  Fri