Weekly Update: April 8th

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.

STATE TESTING  April 9 - 12th  

**Make sure your student gets a good night's sleep and eats breakfast!  Badgers will test beginning promptly after Advisory, so it is also very important that your student gets to school on time! We will have limited classes and homework this week to allow students to concentrate all their energy on the test.  

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students spent the week researching and investigating the Crusades. We spent a few days learning about the impact that the Crusades had on Medieval times but more importantly the influence that they have on our world today. Students were assessed on this topic on Thursday.

Science:  We've been busy learning about how fossils are formed and how scientists keep track of all of their information.  This week we'll put everything together and answer our question..... Are stink badgers really badgers?  Early next week will be the assessment.  Students should be studying their notes this week!

Literacy:  Friday was the test on Latin Unit 10!  Only two more units!  We've enjoyed putting a star sticky note on the roots around the classroom as we have learned them!  There are only a few left!  This week we finished reading about Mahatma Gandhi, and tomorrow students will complete a review assignment using the notes they have compiled.  This week we will run a very different schedule, because of the SAS tests, so we will only meet with each group for one double block. During that time, we will watch the last of the Teaching Tolerance movies, Viva La Causa, about Cesar Chavez.  

English: Presentations have commenced and students did a wonderful job!  Please check in with your student to ask what they presented to the class and why.  This upcoming week we will be finishing the remaining skills within our Giver unit in between SAS testing.  Students were assigned their April IRP (last one of the year- woohoo!) and it is not due until mid-May. For now, students should be focused on reading their independent reading books outside of school.  Students are asked to bring their April IRP book with them to SAS testing in case they finish early!

Math: Students have a test on probability Monday, April 8th.  Study guides went home last week.    As a light review, we are going to do a lab  on mean, median, and mode to prepare for our statistics unit.  Students will not have homework this week because of testing. 

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.  

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.