Sunday, March 31, 2019

Weekly Update: March 31st


Field Trip Information
The Badgers will be going on a field trip on May 1st.  Click here to download the information and permission slip.  Students all have paper copies.  Money and permission slips are due on April 12th.


Report cards were sent home on Wednesday, March 27th.  

Please return signed envelopes to advisories this week!



Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students spent the majority of the week learning about the significance and impact of the Magna Carta. The major focus of the week was connecting the Magna Carta today by disocvering how many future documents that it had influenced. Students were assessed on this topic on Friday. Check the gradebook! This week we will research and investigate the Crusades.

Science:  Is a stink badger really a badger?  We've started to get to the bottom of this question.  We are looking at the ancestors of the badgers first.  We'll be studying fossils and the fossil record. 

Literacy:  As we continue to explore the concept of social injustice, we began learning about Mahatma Gandhi this week.  Students are drawing parallels between the social injustices Gandhi protested in South Africa and India, and those that our heroes fought so tirelessly to rectify in the US.  We've also began Latin Root unit 10.  The mastery test for Unit 10 is scheduled for Friday, April 5th. 

English: We finished reading The Giver earlier this week and I think we all let out a unified gasp once we arrived at the ending.  Collectively, students told me they loved this book.  Between the plot, the theme, and the emotional attachment to the characters; students said they found the book meaningful and enjoyable.  Be sure to ask your student what he or she thought of the ending!  

Also, March reading projects were due this past Friday, and unfortunately, there are MANY students who did not submit them!  Students had five weeks to complete projects independently outside of school, and three checkpoints were given in school. With presentations beginning Monday, April 1st, I'm weary students may not feel prepared.  I'd like to remind and encourage all students that they should be practicing their presentations over the weekend.  For anyone who did not submit their assignment, please turn them in Monday!!  Receiving late credit is still better than taking a zero on a mastery assessment!

Math: At the end of last week we started our unit on probability.  This is a brand new math topic for students and so far they have enjoyed it!  We started off by learning the chances of something happening ranging from impossible (having math class on Saturday), to certain (school on Friday!). We will be spending the entire week working on different experiments and collecting data to compare what we think should happen mathematically.