Good morning!
First of all, I would like to start off by apologizing for not posting assignments on RenWeb last week. Life was crazy and I wasn't feeling well, and I just completely forgot. It is 100% my fault and my sincerest apologies. This week's assignments will definitely be up! Secondly, I just want to remind everybody to be washing their hands and getting enough sleep. Unfortunately, I fell to the plague this past Friday, and when I went to the doctor they told me this year has been extremely horrible for sickness. I know we had many students out sick a few weeks ago, but it is not too late to still get sick. Please take care of yourselves!
Important Events
February 27th - Book Orders Due
March 1st - Knowledge Bowl at LWLHS
March 7th - Student Council Meeting @ 7:05 a.m.
March 16-17th - Scholastic Book Fair
March 17th - Grandparent's Day!
March 17th - End of 3rd Quarter
March 17th - Early dismissal @ 11:10 a.m.
Last Week
6th Grade ~ Last week, the 6th graders continued watching the author videos that they have worked extremely hard on. The students really enjoyed seeing what everybody did their project on, and we as a class definitely learned a lot about our favorite authors. In grammar, the students continued working with conjunctions. On Thursday, the students had the opportunity to participate in my first annual "Book Tasting" to kick off Literature Circles. Instead of just telling the students about the books they would be able to choose from and read, I set up the classroom like a restaurant. They then circulated around the room, getting a "taste" of the different books and ranked which ones they wanted to read from most excited to least. This coming week, the students will be put into their Literature Circle groups and start reading their novels. I have also given each student a packet of "jobs" that they will be completing while they read with their groups - these jobs will be assigned on certain days via RenWeb. I look forward to starting this unit with the 6th graders, as it is my favorite unit we do this year :) On Friday, the students did a creative brainstorming assignment that went along with the author visit we had a few weeks ago. This was NOT homework. Just for fun :)
7th Grade ~ Last week, the 7th graders discussed chapter 5 of The Outsiders, and then we did some practice with inferencing and finding the theme. In chapter 5, one of the characters references a poem by Robert Frost, "Nothing Gold Can Stay." As a class and with partners, the students looked at this poem, practicing making inferences, and coming up with the overall theme of the poem. The rest of the week, the students worked with that same theme to find and analyze other poems with similar themes. Definitely a more challenging task, but this class can definitely handle it :) In grammar, the students continued working with conjunctions.
8th Grade ~ Last week, the 8th graders finished up Part 7 of The Book Thief, and did a journal prompt about irony. They then spent the rest of the week working on a RAFT assignment in the form of a letter from one of the characters from the book. In grammar, the students continued working with conjunctions. On Thursday and Friday, the students read Part 8 of the book and worked on their letters.
All ~
Just a reminder that if you are ordering book orders, please order by tomorrow (Monday, February 27th). My classroom code is: PBKZC.
Also, if your child is participating in the Chinook's Reading Challenge, keep working hard! This Sunday was technically the end of the "first base" prize. However, please keep reading wherever you are. I will be allowing the students to turn in their sheets for prizes whenever they reach the goals. As a fun and added bonus, Gill will be visiting tomorrow to get the students hyped about the reading challenge!
God's blessings to all of you this sunny Sunday!
Grace
