Good evening!
I just have to start off by apologizing for not getting a blog post to you earlier last week. With it being a short week and Labor Day, I completely forgot... I am truly sorry! However, we are off to a great start this week and definitely in the real game of "school"! Yay!
Listed below are some important dates to remember for all grades:
Important Dates
MAP Testing this week and next week
Kindness Adventure Assembly (K-6th) - September 20th
Student Council Meeting @ 7:05 a.m. - September 20th
Scholastic Book Orders Due to Ms. Bertram with a CHECK or online - September 26th
School Pictures - September 27-28th
Mid-Quarter - September 30th
Last Week
6th Grade ~ In 6th grade last week, we continued with our Good Habits Great Readers lessons. To begin this school year, we start off by discussing the different learning strategies and how to become better readers. We worked on Previewing and Selecting a "Good Fit Book" for each of us. On Wednesday, we started our new Shurley Grammar curriculum by taking a pre-test and starting on what makes up a complete sentence. I am very excited about this new curriculum and am anticipating an EXTREME improvement in your children's grammar ability :) I also met with each student individually to set a MAP testing goal for this Fall. You will be able to see those goals and growth at Parent/Teacher conferences. I introduced Book Talks to the students and we signed up for dates. A book talk is basically a oral book report but in digital form (Google Slides, PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.). Book Talks will begin the end of October. To access the rubric, you may either ask your child to locate it in their Language Arts folder OR find it on the 6th Grade page of my website.
7th Grade ~ In 7th grade last week, we practiced the Elements of a Story through a study guide and then took a quiz on those elements on Thursday. I was very pleased with the students' scores. However, if your child is upset with his/her grade, they may speak with me about getting extra credit. At the end of the week, we started discussing population growth and what would happen if the world exceeded it's capacity for people. This is to introduce our upcoming novel Among the Hidden, which we will begin reading this week! We also started our new Shurley Grammar curriculum by taking a pre-test and starting on what makes up a complete sentence. I am very excited about this new curriculum and am anticipating an EXTREME improvement in your children's grammar ability :) I also met with each student individually to set a MAP testing goal for this Fall. You will be able to see those goals and growth at Parent/Teacher conferences. Additionally, I introduced Book Talks to the students and we signed up for dates which will begin the end of October.
8th Grade ~ In 8th grade last week, the students got their first list of Latin/Greek Roots. Many parents and students wonder why we practice and test these. The reason we do is because we found that when our former 8th graders went to high school. that was one of the things that all of the other students from the area already knew and that OUR FILS students were lacking knowledge in. These roots get tested and practiced in the local high schools in preparation for the ACT/SATs. Because of that, we work with our 8th graders here so that they are not behind when they get to high school. Furthermore, the students received their first list last Monday and took their first quiz on Friday. I was SO impressed with their scores! On Wednesday, we started our new Shurley Grammar curriculum by taking a pre-test and starting on what makes up a complete sentence. I am very excited about this new curriculum and am anticipating an EXTREME improvement in your children's grammar ability :) I also met with each student individually to set a MAP testing goal for this Fall. You will be able to see those goals and growth at Parent/Teacher conferences. Mid-week, the students began writing their "What's in a Name?" Essay (the reason that they interviewed you over Labor Day weekend) in class. They had plenty of time to work on their essays throughout the week and were to be completed by this Monday. At the end of the week, I also introduced Book Talks to the students and we signed up for dates which will begin the end of October.
Wowza. That was a pretty packed week for 4 days! I hope you had a wonderful Labor Day weekend and week/weekend last week! Again, if you ever have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me!
God's blessings on your week!
Grace
