Language Arts: Due
to the shortened week, we will not complete the next chapter of Growing Your Vocabulary. (This will
provide your child more time to prepare for the history test on Wednesday.) We
will continue moving forth with chapter 4 of Shurley English by working on identifying sentence fragments,
run-on sentences, and compound parts. You should see your child classifying
parts of sentences with labels suchas: CSN (compound subject noun), CSP
(compound subject pronoun), CV (compound verb), SCS (simple sentence with a
compound subject), SCV (simple sentence with a compound verb), etc. The
children will work on correcting fragments by identifying which of the three
core parts is/are missing. Ask your child to explain his/her reasoning for
identifying a sentence as a fragment; I guarantee you will be impressed. J
I hope you’ve had the opportunity
to join us in following Milo and Tock on their silly, semantic adventure in The Phantom Tollbooth! We will be
reading chapter 14 this week and focusing on the poetic devices of hyperbole and symbolism. We will use mentor texts like John Henry, The Bunyans, and Johnny Appleseed to model these literary concepts. The
students will also continue learning Latin and Greek words as well as the idiom, “sit
on the fence”.
History/Geography: We
have nearly wrapped up our study of the Age of Exploration! On Friday of last
week, the students experienced a compelling lesson about Slavery and the Middle
Passage. On Monday, we will take a closer look at this unfortunate time in our
world’s history by reading a primary source from an eleven year-old African
slave named, Olaudah Equiano. The students will reflect on this person’s
mortifying experiences as a victim in the African slave trade. This will prove
to be a valuable and moving lesson for our students, due to the age
similarities they share with Olaudah. The students will also analyze a timeline
of events that took place in the Atlantic Slave Trade. Last week, your child
received an Age of Exploration study guide (printed on yellow paper). The test
is on Wednesday of this week. If your child will not be at school on Wednesday, please let me know so we can arrange for him/her to take the test after school on Tuesday. The students can prepare for this test by rereading the sections, studying the notes, memorizing the vocabulary, revisiting the accomplishments of each explorer, and looking over the worksheets completed throughout the unit. The children will be expected to explain the hardships and accomplishments of the Age of Exploration in writing, so practicing by making rough drafts would be a wise decision. :)
Science: Your
children brought their Animal Cells quizzes home on Friday. Please sign the
sheet to affirm that you’ve seen the grade. The students are expected to
complete test corrections for the questions they answered incorrectly; these
are due on Wednesday, November 21st. The students must correct their
errors on the labeling section of the quiz, which should be done on a blank
cell sheet (which I have provided the students).
This week in science, the students will learn about the
functions of the organelles within plant cells. They will make a plant cell
foldable to house their organelle flashcards. Please study the functions and
location of interesting organelles alongside your child!
*The students have
been assigned a cell model project. These are due on December 4th.
