Math and Science
Happy Monday! This week in math and science we will be spending some time preparing for our standardized tests coming up on May 10-11. As we have only fully finished 9 of 12 chapters, we will be previewing chapters 10, 11, and 12 over the next week and a half. This week our topics will include measures of variation and deviation from chapter 11, as well as line plots, histograms, and box plots from chapter 12. Of course, once testing is over, we will fully cover all of these chapters as usual. For now, consider it a preview of things to come! In addition, we will be spending time each day reviewing math skills from the whole year. Not only will this help students prepare for testing, but for their end of year math exams as well. Spiraling back helps keep all math concepts fresh and current! English Language Arts, Reading and History We are starting our last writing project, the Spring Interview Project. Students will be interviewing a person born in the last century on 3 main topics: childhood, school and life. Due this Friday is only the name of the person to be interviewed and the list of questions from the handout. I would like the questions to be arranged with plenty of space to take notes between each question. Students will have My Green Home and fictional narratives in writing folders this week. Excellent job! Grammar this week demystifies the pronouns and the antecedents We finished "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" last week with some end of book activities this week including a "one pager" explanation of the book. We'll work on this is class on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and students will have the option of bringing it home on Thursday to make any finishing touches. The directions will be on the reverse side of the handout. There are some last parts of ancient Greece to tidy up: a video of the Greek alphabet to make and a discussion of Alexander of Macedon and then onto Rome! Math and Science
Welcome back to school! We hope you all had a great April vacation week off! This week in math and science we will be spending some time preparing for our MCAS tests coming up on May 10-11. As we have only finished 9 of 12 chapters, we will be previewing chapters 10, 11, and 12 over the next two weeks. This week our topics will include volume and surface area from chapter 10, and mean/median/mode from chapter 11. Of course, once testing is over, we will fully cover all of these chapters as usual. For now, consider it a preview of things to come! In addition, we will be spending time each day reviewing math skills from the year. Not only will this help students prepare for testing, but for their end of year math exams as well. Spiraling back helps keep all math concepts fresh and current! English Language Arts, History and Reading For the record, there will be a modest amount of homework this week. Taking the standardized tests so soon after a vacation, almost requires some brain exercise! In English Language Arts, we will skim over a review of some of the basic skills that they may see on the upcoming test as well as take another peek at the open responses and how they are graded. This year, I am not giving a test to get ready for a test. They are ready. We've gone over all the material and skills they need. I trust them to try their best and that is all anyone can ask. Double reading slips are due on Wednesday. We finish Tom Sawyer this week. There will be a short "single page" assignment on the novel that will be announced at the end of the week. We are wrapping up Ancient Greece with some short assignments about Trade, the Alphabet and War. In addition, we are beginning Ancient Rome with a wordsearch map due on Friday. Math and Science
Happy vacation week! We are going to be wrapping up 2 chapters this week, one in math and one in science. Math tests will be on Friday, April 13th. This test will cover chapter 9. Chapter 9 has a focus on geometry, and specifically area. Students will need to be able to properly apply formulas to find the area of parallelograms, triangles, and trapezoids. Students will also need to understand how area and perimeter change as the dimensions of shapes change. A practice test is available on the McGraw-Hill website, and will give students 5 extra credit points if completed. In science, we are finishing up our study on adaptations and evolution. Students will have a choice whether to take their test Wednesday or Friday, depending on their readiness. Either way, this test will be OPEN BOOK. Students should be sure to reread the chapter and study vocabulary. The book is there as a tool, but hopefully not needed for every single question. English Language Arts, Reading and History The theme for the week will be Cause and Effect. We'll be talking about energy and resources, and cause and effect in the story "Building Green". Instead of the traditional vocabulary and Friday test it has been fun and different to work on a diagram with accompanying paragraphs about "My Green Home." This will include vocabulary.The website I used last year is gone but just google designing a green home for all kinds of good ideas. We'll use some class time to do some research on this idea. This is due on Friday. Cause and Effect will also come into play when we discuss Greek Science and Greek philosophy as class actiivities. Students are beginning the next pen pal letter process. The pen pals from Israel are asking for a connection to social media with your children. If you are ok with your child communicating with the student in Israel, please send an email or a note indicating your permission. We continue with Massachusetts Book Award Books, and Tom Sawyer, about to read the most famous scene in all American literature. The cave section. Math and Science
This week in math we are beginning our unit on Geometry! Students will be working to find the area of parallelograms, triangles, and trapezoids this week. As part of our geometry goal this year, we have actually already previewed each of these lessons already throughout the year. These should be a piece of cake! Students should expect a quiz on Friday. In science we will be reading section 2 of of chapter 5 in our science books. This section focuses on how fossils are created, and how their ages are determined by scientists. A reading assignment will be sent home on Monday and due on Wednesday. On Tuesday, we welcome special guest Mrs. Marino, who will speak to both classes about her work at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We are very excited for her to join us! English Language Arts, Reading and History We've been focusing on completing our fictional narratives on the Chromebooks and reviewing how to write an open response compare and contrast essay on Athens and Sparta. Preliminary results look good. If further review is needed, we'll do some additional work on this important skill. In Reading , we'll be reading "The Emperor's Silent Army" as an example of information non-fiction with skills of summarizing and identifying key details. We continue in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and practice reading fluency with Massachusetts Book Award books. In English Language Arts we continue with the perplexing world of subject and object pronouns In History, we practice with making inferences with primary and secondary sources using examples of Greek pottery. |