Weekly Update: March 24th

Trimester 3 begins with new classes!
 We've decided to mix things up a bit.  Students started their new academic and UA classes this past Tuesday.  This change will help everyone get into the mindset that we are starting fresh with the new trimester.  We still have an entire trimester to go!

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 will be sent home on Wednesday, March 27th.

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: We wrapped up the first segment of our Medieval Europe unit with an assessment on the early Middle Ages on Friday. Be sure to check the gradebook! We will continue our journey through the Middle Ages on Monday by researching and investigating one of the most influential documents in history!

Science:  Monday we will have our unit test.  We will start a new unit on Tuesday.  Ask your students about the phenomenon that they will be working on figuring out. 

Literacy:  Every student turned in their Omictionary for the benchmark gallery review!  The projects are looking really fantastic!  We began Latin Unit 10, can you believe it?  Next week we'll review the two Civil Rights movies that we watched with an in-class writing assignment, and do some close reading about Gandhi!  

English: Students did a wonderful job this week writing their argumentative essays.  Between writing workshops and peer editing; students really grasped the concept of persuasive writing, and I want to commend them for how well they worked learning this new material.  Mrs. Kauffman, our technology integrator, was equally impressed while students were practicing a persuasive writing module in the computer lab this past Tuesday.  Next week, we'll be finishing The Giver and preparing our March reading projects.  Just a reminder: March IRP projects are due on Friday, March 29th!

Math: Monday we are finishing up our percents unit by working with tips and gratuity.  Students will get this units study guide for Wednesdays test.  We will end the week starting our probability unit.  This will be the first time students have learned about probability, and everything will be new and exciting.  

Weekly Update: March 17th

Trimester 3 begins with new classes!
 We've decided to mix things up a bit.  Students will start their new academic and UA classes on Tuesday.  This change will help everyone get into the mindset that we are starting fresh with the new trimester.  We still have an entire trimester to go!

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.

T2 report card grades close tomorrow, Monday, March 18th!  Report cards will be sent home on Wednesday, March 27th.

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students learned about the early part of the Middle Ages this week. We were able to cover a lot of different topics such as the rise of the Catholic Church, Charlemagne's empire, and ultimately what happened next after Charlemagne's death. We took a little bit of a detour on Friday and investigated the Vikings. We will continue next week discussing Feudalism and how it relates to what the Japanese practiced in a similar time period. 

Science:  This week we will develop a model of natural selection and test it.  Students will receive a blue study guide for the test next week.  They should be studying a little bit each night. 

Literacy:   Be sure to ask your children what they learned about Selma, Alabama in 1965, and who John Lewis is!  Our discussion of social injustice will continue next week. Additionally, we will begin the next unit of Latin roots!  We have adorned with stars all of the roots the students have mastered this year, so far, and they are amazed by how much they have learned! 

English: Students chose persuasive topics this week and began crafting their six-paragraph essays.  Be sure to ask your student what topic they chose!  Overall, I am extremely pleased with how well students grasped the concept of thesis statements, claims, and counter-arguments.  Next week we'll find ourselves in the computer lab again to work on another practice module - this time focusing on the art of persuasion.  Students will also have an opportunity in class next week to start typing their final drafts.

Math: Overall everyone did VERY well on Friday's quiz. This week we will be continuing on with percents learning how to apply percents to our daily lives.  We will be talking about discounts, markups, tip, and tax. The percents test will be on March 27th.

Weekly Update: March 11th

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.

T2 report card grades close on Monday, March 18th!  Please be mindful of your school work as this date approaches!

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Timing for vacation definitely worked out well for us in Social Studies as we were able to start a new unit when we returned--the Middle Ages. Students spent most of the week watching videos, analyzing maps and paintings, along with question storming. We will begin the early part of the Middle Ages, often known as the Dark Ages, when we come back next week.

Science:  This week in science students have spent some time researching adaptations.  We finished the week figuring out that organisms have traits that help them survive.  Next week we will dig deeper and look at historical examples of adaptations;  the peppered moth and Darwin's finches.

Literacy:   As always, the Badgers are aligned, as Literacy class also completed a practice module for the statewide assessment.  Students read a couple of nonfiction articles, and then completed a writing assignment.  Their work was submitted and graded by the state, and we can then go over their results, so that they will have a firm idea of expectations when they take the real assessment in April. Dashing through Latin Unit 9, and the Mastery test will be Friday, March 15.  Next week, we'll continue our unit on Social Injustice reviewing Mother Jones, the Triangle Fire and they'll see the Teaching Tolerance movie, SELMA: The Bridge to the Ballot.  

English: Welcome back, Badgers!  We  stopped by the computer lab this week to practice a reading module for our statewide assessment.  We also continued reading The Giver and discussed simile, metaphor, and personification during class.  Students also received a new project for the month of March called "Book in a Bag."  Please ask your student what this project entails.  Students should be reading their March independent reading books at home in order to prepare for this project.  Next week we will shift gears and work on narrative and persuasive writing.

Math: We will continue to work on the percent equation this week, this is a topic that benefits from lots of practice.  We use the percent equation for the entire percent unit, so having a solid understanding now will be to your benefit.  Later this week we will learn about percent of change.  Students have a quiz Friday, March 15th on both the percent equation and percent of change. 

Weekly Update: March 4, 2019

Happy Vacation!

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.

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: S

Science:  This week in science students have figured out that individual organisms do not adapt, only their populations do.  We'll continue looking at examples of this after vacation.

Literacy:   We 

English: We focused on skills this week found in The Giver, specifically hooks, cliffhangers, allusions, similes, metaphors, and personification.  Students also wrote different journal entries relating to the characters and situations in the novel.  On Friday, we gathered in the library to choose independent reading books for March.  Students are able to read over February vacation in order to get a head start if they wish!  Project guidelines won't go home until Monday, March 4th.  Enjoy your break!!

Math: Las

Weekly Update: February 18th

Happy President's Day!   Enjoy the day off!

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students wrapped up Ancient Rome this week and learned about the collapse of the Roman Empire. Students will have an assessment on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we will be doing a massive review going all the way back to Greece and reviewing materials about Athens, Sparta, Alexander the Great, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire. On Thursday and Friday of next week, students will be working on their performance task to demonstrate their mastery of the Classical Civilizations unit. 

Science:  This week in science students have figured out that organisms have adaptations for survival.  Ask them about the butterflies in our classroom.  We ended the week researching different biomes in an effort to figure out if our wrinkled fingers are an adaptation.  Here's an idea for a great at home science experiment:  Students can do the dishes!  First they should try to pick up wet dishes in the sink with dry hands.  Then when their fingers get wrinkled/prune-like from doing the dishes, they can try picking up wet dishes again.  Do their fingers have better grip when they are wrinkled?

Literacy:   We presented most of the Historical Fiction presentations this week. Your students have learned some great technology skills this year! Students continue learning about how and why ordinary people have worked so hard to protect and defend human rights in America.  They will be reading about heroes like Mother Jones, and her work as an activist for workers' rights.  

English: We're about halfway through The Giver right now and students are coming to class ASKING to read (a teacher's dream)!  We've been discussing how wonderfully the author Lois Lowry builds suspense in her writing.  Ask your student which assignment Jonas receives in the book and why there is so much suspense around it.  Next week we will dig deeper with select reading skills, including: allusion, hooks and cliffhangers, similes, metaphors, and personification.  

*Note: there is NO February IRP due this month!  Students may begin reading their independent reading books for their March IRP if they want to get a head start!  I will be taking classes to the library on Friday, February 22nd.

Math: Last Friday we finished surface area and volume, overall students did very well on this unit!  Nice work.  We are going to start scale next week, students will learn about enlargement and reductions and how scale relates back to our proportions unit.  

Weekly Update: February 11th

Progress Report Envelopes are due to Advisories!
Advisories are also collecting Box Tops!

Book orders are due to Mrs. McGuire on Wednesday, February 13th!

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students spent the week researching a topic of their choice in relation to Ancient Rome. As they gathered research, students were asked to put together a slide show to display the new findings on their topics that they acquired via research. This was due on Friday. Please check the gradebook! Next week we will learn what ultimately caused the Roman Empire to fail.

Science:  This week in science students took the Genetics Assessment.  We started a new unit too.   Students are working on a real world science problem, "Why do our fingers and toes get wrinkled when we put them in water?"

Literacy:   Work focused on structure of the text in informational text, using Junior Scholastic Magazine. Students worked hard to convert facts into key concepts, or big ideas. Working from the same materials, we analyzed primary source materials, like editorials and historical journals.  Their Historical Fiction projects were due Friday, by 11:59 pm!  If they were not turned in, they will be marked as miss in the grade book.  I will certainly accept them late, but they will not receive full credit. Presentations begin on Monday! Latin 8 Mastery Test, Friday, February 15th!   

English: This week classes were busy in the world of Study Sync, and more specifically, analyzing point of view.  Ask your students about the different points of view authors use in a text.  Together we discussed the point of view Lois Lowry uses within The Giver as well as the benefits and limitations.  Next week we'll dive back into the book!  There will be a quiz on the point of view skill on Friday, February 15th.

*Note: there is NO February IRP due this month!  Students may begin reading their independent reading books for their March IRP if they want to get a head start!  I will be taking classes to the library on Friday, February 22nd.

Math: Students are wrapping surface area and volume.  We have learned about nets and surface area of rectangular and triangular prisms and will finish up with volume of rectangular and triangular prisms.  The study guide for this unit will go home on Monday and the test is Friday, February 15th.  Extra study materials are on Google Classroom.

Weekly Update: February 4th

The progress report window closes on Thursday, January 31st.  Progress reports will be sent home with students on Monday, February 4th. 

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: We spent most of the week learning about what everyday life was like for boys and girls in Ancient Rome. Ask your child about it! Starting Tuesday we will be beginning our first research project covering anything related to Ancient Rome!

Science:  This week in science we made babies.  Ask your student to explain the activity to you.  Look at pictures of some of the babies here!  Next Wednesday we will have our genetics test.  All students should have a purple paper in their binder to help them focus their studying. 

Literacy:   Structure of the Text and Analyzing Primary Source Material were the focus this week!  We've started notes for Latin Unit 8, but most importantly, your students should be working on their Historical Fiction projects, due Friday, February 8th.  All information necessary to complete this project is on Google Classroom under the banner HISTORICAL FICTION! 

English: We shifted our focus to a new science fiction unit this week. Students began reading The Giver and seem to be enjoying it so far.  Next week we'll dive into Study Sync, focusing specifically on the narration and point of view within chapter two.  Book orders will also head home this week and are due back on Wednesday, February 13th!

*Note: there is NO February IRP due this month!  Students may begin reading their independent reading books for their March IRP if they want to get a head start!

Math: Students tested last Thursday on circles, grades are posted in X2.  Next week we are going to start learning about surface area through nets of solids. Be sure to check the agenda nightly, we do have homework for math most nights.