It is so hard to believe we only have this week and half of next until Thanksgiving Break! Please remember students will be dismissed on Wednesday, November 27 at 11:55 a.m. for the long holiday weekend. School will resume Tuesday, December 3.
If you have not yet logged in to Veracross to see your student’s report card and comments, please do so. Your child now receives letter grades for all core subjects. It is important that students understand how their daily homework, classwork, and assessment grades affect their overall letter grade this year rather than next year in middle school. You should have received an email from Mrs. Estes on Friday with directions for accessing the report card. If you need help logging in to your Parent Portal, please let us know.
Along the lines of grades and report cards, please help us support your child by signing their agenda each night after looking to see that they have completed their homework. The homework we assign is not lengthy or difficult. Many times, when we sign off on students’ agendas in the morning, we find agendas are signed even though homework is not complete. As we discussed with the class during our morning meeting today, it is not necessary for you to check for accuracy, but we would like homework to be completed before they ask you to sign their agenda. Thank you so much for holding our students accountable with this.
Here’s what we have planned in our classes between now and Thanksgiving Break:
Reading: This week, we’re recapping last week’s eight chapters of Holes in a slightly different way than before; your students will be acting the chapters out for each other, giving their own personal spin on the main events we read about. Much of today was spent on the limitations, angles, and opportunities each group has with their material, as well as rehearsal time. We aim to have each of the groups present for their homerooms tomorrow, allowing us then to smoothly move onto the selected chapters for this week.
Additionally, in the same groups, the students will be collaborating on a project that allows them to research various peach-themed recipes and come up with their own new spin. In Holes, one of the characters was “small-town famous” for her spiced peaches. This research/creative project will not only allow each group to add a new layer to the story, but it also may result in some tasty treats before we head off for Thanksgiving.
Lastly, we’ll be introducing the concept of irony (and its variants) and applying it to the major events and locales of the story. Holes is simply teeming with irony, and while many of the students have picked up on some of its various absurdities and misnomers, I’d like to focus on extracting these moments so that we can work through their implications before we finish the book next week.
Math: This week we are continuing to work on solving word problems. We are building on this skill by writing expressions and equations that represent these word problems. Students are beginning to grasp the concept of using variables in place of unknown values. When given the value of a variable, students are learning they can substitute that value in for the variable in order to evaluate the expression. Many students have enjoyed seeing the trajectory of math ahead of them as we have solved a few tougher equations. We have also reviewed the commutative and associative properties (of addition and multiplication), as well as the distributive property. These mathematical properties will serve as basic tools in students’ toolboxes not only in mental math, but also as variables become more prevalent in students’ future math work. As a former middle school math teacher, it is exciting to see students constructing an understanding of basic algebraic foundations.
Science: We are wrapping up our scientific method unit this week with a quiz on Friday. Students will be given a list of terms they must be able to define, identify, and use in context in order to help them study. Please know, one of the questions will be to place the six steps of the scientific method in order. All concepts should be found within the science section of their binders. Next week we will do a few fun activities to discuss safety as well as learn some of the names for common tools used in science.
S.T.E.A.M.
This past Friday the class was given a challenge to work in groups to create a marble run that could reach the length of their tables using only paper towel cardboard rolls. It was so fun to see the kids attempting this team building S.T.E.A.M. exercise! Although no team officially conquered the challenge, it was a good way for them to see firsthand the importance of listening to each other and working together. We are looking forward to challenging them again soon, and we are especially excited to see their teamwork grow throughout the year!
Have a great week and a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!
Kimberly & Tim
