Monday, October 27, 2014

Wow! NASA LIVE!

I never knew you could watch the control room at NASA! A launch scheduled for today was scrapped because there is a boat in the way of the "safe" area. This is SOOOOOO COOOOOLLL!!! Click here: NASA CONTROL

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Week of 10/27

This week begins our modified classroom. Because of our Day 2 lesson related to The Giver, our next novel, and our "C" day on Friday, this week will be a bit of a hybrid. Next week we have a field trip on Monday, but you will be able to take the Cumulative Vocab & Roots test over units 4, 5, and 6 on Day 2 or Day 3 - your choice.

Day 1 (10/27) : Guided instruction on vocabulary/root words, guided instruction on research/citing sources. Independent work on your essay. Easy Grammar pages 37 - 44 are due Friday. These pages are contractions and helping verbs, both of which are review for you.

Day 2 (10/28, 10/29): Introduction to The Giver. You will rotate between three activities. Everyone should complete all three activities.

Day 3 : Unit 6 vocab and roots test, guided instruction on essay

Day 4: "C" day - independent work on essay which is due electronically on Monday.

Remember that YOU decide what to work on in school and what to save for homework. I will be spot-checking vocabulary books on Friday for some of you to see that you completed work on Unit 6 words. This is "accountability."

Friday is "pink" day, a half day for you.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Tell us about Tellus!

CHECK OUT THE MUSEUM! Tellus Museum

This week we enjoy a trip to the Tellus Museum, after which you will compose an expository essay on a topic of interest to you. Tuesday and Wednesday (block day 2) you have the Unit 5 Vocab and Roots test AND I will be returning your Watsons essays and giving you the instructions for the Tellus Essay. We will review types of writing and purpose of writing on block day 3. On Friday, you'll have a brief (two paragraphs) written assessment of Out of my Mind and will turn in your book. You will need your book in class on Friday. I'd like for all slides for the OOMM Slides Project to be completed by Friday. The link is on the right side of the blog. Also take a look at the Weebly tutorial if you can't recall how to update your site.

Next week we begin reading The Giver, will continue in Easy Grammar with the verb unit, and Thursday will be the Unit 6 V&R test. (NOT cumulative)


IN CLASS:

Monday 10/20: Field trip. Wear teal/navy, bring lunch. If you previously ordered lunch for this day, your lunch will be a bag lunch. You will not be able to buy lunch in the morning.
Tuesday/Wednesday 10/21-10/22: Unit 5 V&R test, return Watsons essay, introduce Tellus essay
Thursday 10/23: Types of writing, purpose of writing
Friday: OOMM short assessment, slides due - you can do this during Study Hall or at home.

HOMEWORK:

Monday 10/20: Complete p. 292 in Easy Grammar (apostrophes) due day 2
Tuesday/Wednesday 10/21-10/22: No homework nights
Thursday 10/23: Review literary elements as they relate to Out of my Mind.



Thursday, October 16, 2014

If you are working on the OOMM Slides...

You might see a little speech bubble on the left:
This means I have left you a comment. Click on the speech bubble to read it. You may leave comments, too, as long as they are appropriate and helpful.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

A recap of today's lesson

Today we moved from simply finding evidence in the book to describe the main characters to introducing ANNOTATION. If you OWN the book you are annotating, write directly in the margins, circle words, highlight passages. If you do not own the book, use sticky notes to help you record important information. You may wish to transfer this information to a chart. Here is a quick PowerPoint of the main ideas we covered.

ANNOTATION
Disclosure: some information in this presentation originally appeared in a teacher's web-based resource.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Upcoming weeks 10/6 - 10/15

As our celebration of the fall haggim continues, we have several more non-block schedule days. We will soon begin reading The Giver, but you will need to have Out of my Mind AT SCHOOL to use as we continue our study of literary elements. If you were absent on Friday, October 3, be sure to watch the short video on diagramming. The link is listed under "Important Links."

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are taking the recovery version of the Prepositions Test, you must remember to come to Room 110 during Study Hall. I will give you a pass during your regular block of L.A.

IN CLASS
This week
10/6: Unit 4 Vocabulary and Roots test, work on Watsons Essay
10/7: "A" Schedule - Work on Watsons Essay, turn in TWO copies. If your essay is completed, you may get a head start on the next journal entry or work on punctuation note cards, which I will explain.
10/8: "A" Schedule - We will be in the Media Center, sharing our Parts of Speech projects


Next week
10/13: Easy Grammar - direct objects, "functions in a sentence" vs. "parts of speech"

10/14: Literary Elements, annotation (YOU MUST BRING OOMM TO CLASS)

10/15: Annual Simchat Torah celebration at Lower School "B" day - using Google Docs, MLA format/Tellus Essay, Weebly


HOMEWORK
Due 10/7: E.G. 299-300
Due 10/8: E.G. 301-303
Due 10/13: Edmodo Journal Entry #4
Due 10/14: E.G. 304-306
Due 10/15: E.G. 265-266 AND Unit 5 V&R exercises/cards

ALSO due 10/14: Create a set of notecards for the punctuation rules as follows:
- group by topic (all comma rules the same color)
- each card should have one rule
- each card should show three examples (examples do not have to come from E.G., but must be correct)
- I will give you a Ziploc baggie in which to keep your cards.