We will have a poetry reading in Language Arts tomorrow (Thursday). Feel free to bring a snack to share with classmates.

For Social Studies, we are working on class projects this week. We are building cathedrals and making stained glass. Reminder- there is NOT a Medieval Museum this Friday as seen on the school calendar. The Medieval Faire is Friday, June 5th from 8:30-11:30.

We played Kickball Madness this morning in Homeroom- so fun! For the Middle Ages Faire (JUNE 5), Duffield's Homeroom is working on creating a cathedral for their CLASS project; while Kruger's CLASS project is stained glass. EACH student also needs to complete work on their chosen "guild." A four page parent letter went home explaining this project/guild- please contact me with questions. 

Today, we looked at a form of personal narrative poetry. We brainstormed and sketched our thinking, as seen above. We will be outside for homeroom on Wednesday and Thursday, please dress for it.

Today, we continued writing poetry and working on studying the Middle Ages.

Homework:

* Make sure you know what your guild is for the Middle Ages Faire on Friday, June 5th.

For Reading: read all poems in the poetry packet, interpret 2 of them in your reading spiral, memorize 1 poem- DUE: Friday, May 22nd

Poetry has been a joy to write in our Language Arts class- please see some samples above from our class. The ropes course experience yesterday was magical. Thanks for being great kids!

Today, we BRIEFLY started to talk about the Medieval Faire. More information will come home soon. On Thursday, we have our high ropes field trip, please see the information below regarding this trip. 


Just a few reminders at the School Forest Course... 

• Each student will need to bring a signed Cautionary Statement (I HAVE THESE and you already signed them) with them to the course, staff will collect these in the morning of the  program
• There is no water available at the School Forest. Please make sure students bring a full water bottle and extra water as needed
• Shoes and socks are required, flip flops or sandals are dangerous on trails
• All trash will need to be packed out, please plan to bring trash bags for your group.

We are studying poetry in Language Arts and the students are learning to see ordinary objects through a poet's eye. It is exciting to see what they come up with when they have few standard writing rules to follow. Congrats to Shikoku in both Social Studies classes!

Reading Book/Movie Project is due: 5/28. We should be finishing up our Japan Warlords on Monday or Tuesday of next, we will then take part in a Socratic Seminar around the material we have studied.

In reading, we are doing a Book/Movie Project that is due on May 28th. Students are required to read and book AND see the movie (if it is PG-13 they need your permission). A list of choices was sent home ALONG with all the visuals and the requirements of the final project. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Realistic Fiction rough drafts were due today- we are now in the process of editing and revising. Final copies are due Monday, May 4th.

We have been working on the Badger Exam and Japan Unit the last few days. Sorry for the lack of posts.
Reading homework: Due 4/27/15- Realistic Fiction novel read with a 1-2 sentence entry for each chapter or section.
Language Arts: Due 4/24/15- Scene 1 in your realistic fiction story written

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We need Kleenex in our classroom. If you can send a box in, that would be very helpful. Have a great weekend!

Our work above is from our realistic fiction pieces- character development charts. We have to know our characters so well that we know how much money they are carrying in their pockets. In reading, I sent home a reading log with the students. They CAN, not required, take part in the program called Feed the Read. They need to chart their reading minutes for 4 weeks- starting on 4/19/15. If they read 150 minutes/week for 4 weeks, they are given a free Food Fight Meal from a couple of their restaurants and a free family week pass at the YMCA. This is optional. 

We are doing Reader's Theater in Reading currently- they will present them to the class on Friday. My Reading class has a realistic fiction novel due on April 22nd (with journal entries). We are also plugging along in our Japan Unit. Language Arts homework tonight is to get to know your protagonist REALLY well!

We have 1 more day of presenting our Maya projects and then we are back to realistic fiction writing in Language Arts. Our Japan unit is plugging along...........

The start of our Maya Projects are amazing!!!!!

While writing our realistic fiction pieces, it is good to pay attention to and hint at the main conflict or problem the protagonist has. We worked on completing a story arc for each each idea we had. Each fiction story will only contain 3-4 scenes.

Latin Stem quiz is on 4/13/15.

We started Realistic Fiction today in Language Arts and Japan Warlords in Social Studies. We have a TON to accomplish in the next quarter at school.... this is the reminder to kick it in for the rest of the year!

Alphabet books were due today and we started presentations. Our Maya Vocabulary is due THIS Friday or the Tuesday we get back from break.

Our Alphabet Books for reading are due TOMORROW. Here are come examples of what the covers and pages look like.

Homework:

Social Studies- Maya Project is due 4/9/15
Social Studies- Maya Vocabulary is due 3/27 OR 4/7/15

Reading- Alphabet Book is due 3/25/15

Here are some examples of Memoir visuals. They are due TOMORROW!

We are in the middle of editing our memoirs. What a fine example of some self-editing seen above. Social Studies Maya Project is due 4/9/15.

In Social Studies we are starting to study the Mayan Culture. Above is a poster example of what is expected in the group project. The questions are from reading class, please complete them IF you did not today in class.

Language Arts- memoirs are wrapping up and we start to teacher conference and edit tomorrow. They are due on THURSDAY, March 19th. Above are some examples of visuals, though they are not required in the final memoir, a visual may add to your theme.

Reading- HOMEWORK: Latin Stem quiz- 3/13 Close reading article- 3/14 Alphabet book- 3/25