Monday, August 29, 2016

Test tomorrow in projects! We will have both a vocabulary and a constructed response section. Study, study, study!

These 7th graders ROCKED their first project on cells! I am so proud of them and really impressed with their work and work ethic!

This week:

Projects:
Test Tuesday over structures and functions of cells and their parts
Wednesday we start human body systems and will study the respiratory, nervous, excretory, muscular and circulatory systems for the next couple of weeks.

7th Grade Reading
This week we will continue to pull main idea out of informative texts. We will also read and annotate poetry, as well as texts related to the Antebellum Era.We continue to do our Daily Three routine with Read to Self, Work on Writing (reading response) and Word Work (Root of the Week),

Writing:
We are starting our first big writing assignment! Students will write an informative paper on the Electoral College (it's a big topic, but they'll do great!). We started today with looking at examples of informative essays written by 7th graders. Tomorrow we are going to focus on what a thesis statement is. Students will start note taking and working on informal outlines on Wednesday and Thursday. Also, students will work on IXL WW skills (organizing writing) and do some free journal writing.

8th Grade Reading:
This week we will continue to identify main ideas and details in informative texts. Students will also read and annotate articles relating to early farming throughout the world. We continue to do our Daily Three routine with Read to Self, Work on Writing (reading response) and Word Work (Root of the Week).

Homework this week:
7th and 8th grade reading--20 minutes of reading and fill out reading log every night. Parents sign every Sunday.

Monday, August 22, 2016

It was great to see all the parents at Back to School Night last Thursday. Please, please send back any outstanding paperwork by the end of this week.

This week in a snapshot:

Projects: Students will work all week on their group cell projects AND study vocabulary for a quiz this Thursday.

7th Grade Reading: We will focus on pulling main idea and details from informative texts dealing with current events. We will also look at how to determine cause and effect while reading texts surrounding the topic of Antebellum America. Poetry Wednesday will be fun! We will read a poem called "Abandoned Farmhouse" and students will learn to annotate poems! Yahoo!

Writing: Today students wrote a narrative as an unassisted writing sample for their files. I will look at these and use them as a guide for improving writing and as a beginning of the year unassisted benchmark. Later this week we will look at the 6 writing traits, make booklets to reference all year and move into our first informative piece of writing.

8th Grade Reading: Students are focusing on pulling out main idea and details, as well as writing about characters, plot and setting with their own read to self book. Later this week we will look farming in early civilizations and read informative texts about that topic. We will also read a ballad poem and use plot boxes to comprehend it. I'm hoping for a replay of them when they performed "The Wreck of the Hesperus" last year!

Homework:

7th Grade--20 minutes of reading each night/fill out reading log (students can study cell vocabulary words as part of this this week)

8th Grade--20 minutes of reading each night/fill out reading log

Please send in items for our class auctions if you're able. Anything goes--kids love candy, $5 gift cards, fun socks, homemade items, and the list goes on!!!!

Monday, August 15, 2016

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

What a wonderful day we had together! I have a class full of sweet, smart, kind children. I am thrilled that I get to spend a whole year with them.

Please don't forget Back To School Night this Thursday, August 18th at 5:30. We will start in the lunchroom and then go to my classroom from there. Please bring all completed paperwork to me that night.

This week in school we are:

Projects: Learning about structures and processes of cells. This week we will frontload information by looking at websites, reading passages and watching short videos.

7th Grade Reading: Students will work on Reading to Self every day and building reading stamina. We will start reading about the Antebellum Era Tuesday and look at some poetry on Wednesday.

Writing: Students will write short samples for me and we will make bookets that cover the 6 traits of writing for us to keep in our folders all year. We write, write and write some more in my class and I will provide them with as many tools to make them successful as I possibly can think of.

8th Grade Reading: Love having these guys and gals back this year! We will start reading about early civilizations and preagrarian societies through reading. We will also start poetry this Wednesday. As always, students must have a book that they are excited to read in class every day so they can Read to Self and build that stamina.

Homework:
7th and 8th Grade Reading--20 minutes of reading every night (This will not be their homework every night. There will be many times that students come home with Flocabulary homeowrk or have IXL practice in lieu of reading.