What's Happening?

This has been one busy week!

On Monday we looked at chemical formulas and how to model them. Students learned to embroider and we spent extra time with Riggs. We've been focusing not only on our spelling words, but also on recognizing and using complete sentences, and pronoun antecedents.

Tuesday we practiced our expository writing skills. Students were asked to explain, in detail, how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They discovered it wasn't quite as easy as it sounded! Students created a key word outline and a rough draft. When they had a complete rough draft, they brought it to my desk where we tried it out. As they read their essay to me, I completed the steps with actual materials. Olivia P was the only one to recieve a completed sandwich on her first try. Everyone else had the opportunity to go back and add pertinent details. Ask your student how they did! Tuesday afternoon we had the pleasure of talking with Mr. Hammersly about the stock market. He was able to help students understand how brokers make decisions about when to buy or sell and how the global market affects us locally.

Wednesday was full of group activities. After math we challenged 8th grade to a game of Rounders. Rounders is the medieval precursor to baseball. Although we fought valientaly, eighth grade won this round. We'll challenge them again in the spring, and I'm sure we'll win. While warming up from our rousing game of Rounders, silent film groups were given an hour to work on their scripts.

Tomorrow is buddy time, all school assembly, and science. During buddy time we will be creating gingerbread houses while practicing our math skills. If you're available to help from 12:45 - 1:30, extra hands make things go much smoother. Also, if you happen to have white frosting or small candies that could be used on tiny gingerbread houses, please send them in.

Over the break there will homework. My math class will be expected to complete lessons 55, 56, and 57. Students will also be asked to write one paragraph a day. These paragraphs should include a strong topic sentence, 4 - 6 details sentences, and a clincher. Each paragraph should contain 3 dress ups and 3 sentence openers. The idea behind the daily paragraph is to keep them in the habit of writing without having it impact family time. Students that do not continue to read and write over the long break often have a skill setback. Just 30 minutes of reading, one paragraph of writing, and half a lesson of math can keep skills fresh and help continue the upward path everyone is on!