I apologize for not posting yesterday - I was in a meeting until 4:45...

Math: Our unit assessment will be next Friday, February 29th. Between now and then we will have one, cumulative quiz to help assess exactly where we are with respect to 4 weeks of content. I feel pretty good, though...

Tonight's homework is a solid figures packet. Shouldn't be too much trouble since they seemed to pick-up rather quickly today with the models, video clip, and cooperative explorations. To give you an idea of the terminology, please check out their math section in the binder for the definitions/examples.

Language Arts groups:

Anna... - We finished reading the story, shared our responses from last night, and explained tonight's homework in depth. Tonight, they are to complete the story map I provided them in class today using illustrations. The sections should be labeled already (settings, characters, problem, and solution that matches the problem). Have fun!

Sword... - We explored some of the vocabulary prior to reading the chapters aloud. Tonight they should complete the reading (chapters 8 + 9) and the organizer in their novel folder. There are TWO sides to this organizer!

JGB - They shared their directed notes responses prior to working collaboratively on the interpretive words activity. I did not have a chance to meet with them but my observations led me to believe that all went well...

W&M - We shared our responses to last night's prompt. I have to admit, I was extremely pleased with how they synthesized each piece of the prompt into a well written paragraph. Thanks for supporting this at home... Tonight's homework is to put the finishing touches on their Change Matrix which we started in group and continued in pairs.

Science: We began making our two-string harps today. We didn't have much time to play them with our band assembly in the afternoon but we'll pick it back up tomorrow.

Spelling is due tomorrow!

On a side, the spell check function on my blog is acting up lately so if something "slides/translates" through I apologize...

Math: Hopefully everyone had a chance to look over their student's quiz from last Friday - we did pretty well overall...

Today, we paired up the concepts of slides, flips, and turns with more advanced vocabulary (translations, reflections, and rotations) . There homework reflects this tonight, as well as a notes page that will be in their binders tomorrow.

Langauge Arts:

Anna... - Read chapter 6 aloud and responded to the prompt, "Anna was afraid to climb down the ladder. How was she convinced/encouraged to try?

Sword... - Read chapter 5 and responded to the prompt, "The title of chapter 5 is "The Sword." Explain why this title was chosen by the author."

JGB - We listened to the story for the first time today. Tomorrow we will meet and delve into the Directed Notes examination of Jean LaBadie's Big Black Dog.

William & Mary - We read Shells, by Cynthia Rylant. We began exploring the text through the use of a literature web. Specifically, we highlighted Key Words to help construct our meaning of the story.

Science: We struggled through an ear drum lesson today but seemed to find our way eventually...I could have done without the headache though.

Social Studies: We shared our brochures last Friday. These should have come home over the weekend with a rubric describing how they were graded. Please take some time to go through their research folder because the learning really took place during the process (although the products looked nice!).

Spelling due Friday!