This week....

It is hard to believe we only have a little more than 4 weeks together!  There willl be a lot of material covered in that time!  Some of the things going on this week in class include:

Social Studies:  We will get into our final chapter on the Civil War.  While the book covers a good deal about the events, people, and effects of the war, I will supplement with many resources from the public library, magazines, websites, and video clips.  We will do some fun activities in class to really demonstrate the division of the country back in 1861.  Be sure to ask your child about the day's activities.  We will focus on the lessons for this chapter this week and next week, with our last chapter test late next week.  We will have mini-quizzes over the chapter lessons and some of the study material (all kept in a Civil War folder).

Math:  My math class continues to work on rates, ratios, and proportions.  This week, we will continue incorporating story problems with these concepts into our daily lessons.  It is important to look at a story and figure out how to solve the answer by creating a ratio or proportion and think about the unit rate that can help us solve these problems. 

Science:  Today, we began our unit on magnetism and electricity by talking about matter.  Specifically, that matter is composed of a variety of elements.  We watched several short videos on the scientists who discovered the elements.  Some of our vocabulary for this week in science is: elements, molecules, protons, neutrons, electrons, nucleus, atoms, and matter. 

Language/Writing:  We will continue our study of poetry, with much time devoted to the actual writing of poetry.  Moms should look forward to some lovely prose this weekend!

Reading:  Genre projects are complete!  Each day, a personal reading book should be present in class to read when time allows.  The log should be filled out most days of the week at home.  Some kids need to get a daily signature, some kids should get a signature only some days.  In middle school, there will be reading goals every quarter, so this expectation will be carried over to next year.

Word Work:  The list we are working on this week will be tested on Friday.  We continue to study how words change when suffixes or prefixes are added.  Word work for the week is due Friday.  There will be independent work time given in class.

Please check out the Upcoming Events tab at the top of the home page for....well, upcoming events!!  Here is a picture from our fun trip to Granger last Friday!  The kids had a great time, and I did too!

Only about 20 more school days and they will all be 6th graders!!!

Have a great week!