Friday, March 7, 2014

March 10th-14th

Here is a look at our week ahead!

*Math:  Students will continue to work on their individual concept areas: money, place value, or division.
*Reading:  We are beginning our Persuasive Unit this week!  Monday, we will spend time defining what it means to persuade someone and take a look at both commercial and magazine advertisements for a variety of products/places.  We will view a short video titled, "Media Wise" on Tuesday and the finish the week analyzing a few stories, such as the True Story of the Three Little Pigs, to determine the types of persuasion being used to appeal to its readers/viewers.
*RtI Reading:  Tying in with our Persuasive Unit, the practice skill for RtI Reading will be Fact and Opinion.  We will begin the week taking a closer look at some advertisements and identifying facts and opinions within them.  We will finish the week having a debate on our "Favorite French Fries".  Students will need to research two facts about their favorite fries and then form one to two personal opinion.  We will share/debate this in class.
*Language Arts: Nouns, verbs, and adjectives will be reviewed this week.  We will spend one day reviewing each of these parts of speech and then play a review game at the end of the week.
*Social Studies (7/8 grade only):  This week, we will continue to discuss the environment and lifestyles of those colonists living in the 13 colonies.  We will talk about how the Revolutionary War affected the lives of the colonists and the first steps taken to write the Declaration of Independence and, eventually, the Constitution.

Have a wonderful week!!

Friday, February 14, 2014

February 18th-21st

Here is a look at our activities for next week!

*Reading: We are continuing with our Literature Circles this week.  Things have been going very well and the students are all very engaged and wonderful contributors to the group discussions!
*RtI Reading:  We are working on Fact and Opinion this week.  Students will be reading the story "Take A Hike" and identifying facts and opinions within the story.  We also will be playing a facts and opinions game before finishing up the week working on Lexia.
*Math: Students are continuing to work on their individual workbooks and activities.
*Language Arts: We are starting adjectives this week.  We will begin by defining adjectives and locating them in sentences.
*Social Studies (7th/8th grade only): Students will finish the presidential reports that they began last week and share them will the class.  We also will be viewing a video about the presidents and discussing how events during their presidencies have affected our lives today.

*Reminders*
-No school on Monday, February 17th
-Community Trip to Walmart on February 20th 9:15-10:30

Have a great weekend!

Friday, January 31, 2014

February 3rd- February 7th

I hope that everyone has found a way to stay warm over this cold week!  Here is a look at next week's agenda!

*Reading: Due to the cold weather days, we are reading the Readers Theater plays from last week "The Alien" and "Falling Asleep".  We will finish the week learning about literature circles and the roles that students have while participating in them.  We will be starting our own literature circle the following week.
*RtI Reading:  We are continuing to work on Comparing and Contrasting this week.  We will be reading the stories "Kid Inventors" and "Adam and Kevin" and answering comprehension questions.
*Language Arts:  Students will be finishing up their short stories and sharing them with the class next week.  Afterwards, we will be starting our homonyms/homophones unit.
*Social Studies (7th and 8th grade only):  We are continuing our Native American unit.  We will be discussing the Southwestern and Northwestern Native Americans tribes.

*Reminders*
-Tuesday, February 4th-Early Dismissal Day
-Wednesday, February 5th- Spirit Day: Sports Day
-Thursday, February 6th- 80s Day
          -8th Grade Cap and Gown Measuring 8:30-11:00am
-Friday, February 7th- Pajama Day

I hope everyone has a great Super Bowl weekend!

Friday, January 24, 2014

January 27th-January 31st

Here is a look at our activities for next week!

*Math: Students will continue to work in their individualized packets again this week.
*Reading: We are reading Readers Theater plays this week!  Students will be divided into groups, reading either "The Alien" or "Falling Asleep".  After practicing all week and completing fluency and comprehension activities, students will be presenting their plays to the class.
*RtI Reading: Our skill of the week is Comparing and Contrasting.  We will be comparing house cats and tigers, inventions, and personalities using various stories and articles.
*Language Arts:  We have finished up the verb unit and are spending the next week writing short stories.  We will review the components of a short story and begin independent writing from there!
*Social Studies (7/8 only):  We are continuing the Native American unit.  We will be viewing a video on recent discoveries about who the first Americans may have been and discussing the impact that this may have on our understanding of the original Native Americans.


Stay warm this weekend!

Friday, January 17, 2014

January 20th-January 24th

I hope that everyone had a great week and are looking forward to a three-day weekend!

Here are the activities for next week.

*Language Arts: On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we will be devoting Language Arts time to discussing/learning about Martin Luther King Jr.  In addition to watching the video, "Our Friend Martin", we will be having class led discussions about his achievement and the impact he had on our current society.  The remainder of the week will be spent finishing up our verb unit.  There will be a short quiz on Friday.
*Reading: Students will be finishing up their novels this week and working on a project on a character of their choice from the book.
*Math: Students will continue to work on their current math units.
*RtI Reading: We will continue to work on inferencing this week. Using stories such as Monopoly-Atlantic City and The Mystery of the Great Stones, students will use this skill to answer questions and complete additional activities.
*Social Studies (7/8th grade only): After finishing up Jamestown last week, we begin our unit on Native Americans this week.  We will begin with learning about Native American migration to America and discussing the Northeast Woodland Indian tribes.

*Reminders*
-No School Monday, January 20th
-Encore switch Wednesday, January 22nd
-8th grade graduation pictures Thursday, January 23rd

Have a great 3 day weekend!

Friday, December 20, 2013

January 6th-January 10th

We have reached the end of 2013 and completed the first four months of school!  Although most of us aren't thinking this far ahead just yet, here is a look at our plan for the week we return from break!

*Math: Our first week back from break will be review of the material students were working on before we left. Students will be working individually with a staff member.
*Reading: Students will begin reading their second novel of the year.  We will start on Monday with previewing the individual books and then read throughout the rest of the week.  All students will be completing comprehension activities each day.
*RtI Reading:  Our skill of the week is "Making Inferences".  We will be reading several stories during the week and answering questions that draw inferences from the text.  These stories include "Final Exam", "The Mystery of the Great Stones", and "Monopoly on Atlantic City".
*Language Arts: We will begin our unit on verbs.  This week we will focus on actions verbs, past, present, and future verbs, verb endings, and singular/plural  verbs.
*Social Studies (7th and 8th grade only): Student will be learning about the settlement at Jamestown in 1607.  The timeline of events we will be following can be found at http://cnino66.edu.glogster.com/jamestown

Have a wonderful, relaxing holiday and winter break!

Friday, December 13, 2013

December 16th- December 20th

Here is a look at our schedule for next week!

*Math: Throughout the week, students will be working through individualized math packets that will serve as a review of the math that they have been learning/practicing since the beginning of the year.
*Reading:  This week, students will be reading two different Readers' Theater plays, "Redheaded Robbie's Christmas Story" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".  For each of these plays, students will be completing pre-reading activities (i.e. predictions, text-to-self connections, etc.) and comprehension activities while reading.
*RtI Reading: Students will be writing their own holiday stories this week using the 5 story elements that we have been practicing all year.  They will be sharing these stories with each other following their completion.  Students will also be reading a passage titled, "Holiday Traditions" and making text-to-self-connections with the stories.
*Language Arts: Students will start off the week completing a holiday scavenger hunt within the school!  They will be using grammar clues from popular carols/holiday movies to find their "treasure" at the end!  The rest of the week, students will be working through an individualized vocabulary packet and then Thursday and Friday watching, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", which is in conjunction with the Readers' Theater play they are doing in reading.
*Social Studies (7th/8th grade only): Each day this week, the students will be learning about a winter holiday celebrated in various countries throughout the world.  They will be using Google Earth to located these countries on the map and then making inferences about the country's culture based on what they have learned.

Have a wonderful week!

*Reminders*
-11:30am Dismissal on Tuesday, December 17th
-Community Trip to Five Below on Thursday, December 19th