January 11th, 2010

A fresh start this week for the new quarter. Students will receive their second quarter report card in their Thursday Folders this week.



Social- We are covering the Punic Wars and Julius Caesar this week. Be sure to re-read anything you didn't understand. Be ready for a small pop quiz.



Science- Students will finish sharing their Disease Posters on Tuesday and get their next big project for third quarter. The next project is science biographies. Each student will be assigned a scientist in class Tuesday. They are then required to complete a project following the criteria from their explanation sheet. A copy of this sheet will be in their Thursday folder. This project is not due until Tuesday, February 23rd.



Language Arts- Spelling 14 and 4, lesson and test, and Grammar Rule 19 are due on Thursday due to incentive day, Friday. We are still working on descriptive writing, including similes, metaphors, alliteration, and adjectives. Be sure to know the different areas of figurative language.



Math-

Ms. Wallwork's class is working on unit multipliers, with a test on Thursday. Don't forget we take the NWEA math test this Wednesday. Get plenty of sleep and eat a fabulous breakfast. We have a regular math test on Thursday.



Mrs. Swanson's class is working on subtracting mixed numbers with regrouping, classifying quadrilaterals, prime factorization, division by primes, and factor trees. Students will take another assessment on Wednesday and complete an enrichment day on Friday. The focus for the enrichment day will be decimal numbers. Students will complete a variety of operations using decimal numbers.



Reading- We learned today that Miep Gies died in Amsterdam at the age of 100 on Monday, January 11th, 2010. She was the last known person alive to have helped Anne Frank and her family while in hiding. She worked for Anne's father and found ways to get extra ration cards in order to get the Franks food. As a class we made a rubric for a poster presentation each student will do. Each student will research a person involved with the Franks and present to the class. We also continue to expand our vocabulary, be sure to go over a few words every night.

Next up Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck.



Updates and Reminders:



The next round of NWEA testing is taking place this week and next week. 6th grade students will test in math on Wednesday, January 13th and Reading and Language on Wednesday, January 20th. Be sure your child gets a good night sleep and eats a healthy breakfast.



The next school board meeting is taking place on Tuesday, January 19th at 6:30pm at STRIDE.



There is NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 18th.



Students who completed all academic and behavioral expectations are participating in an incentive day on Friday, January 15th.