We are off and running after break. Students seem rested and we have a lot to learn before the end of the semester.
Happenings on Campus
January 20--No school in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
January 25th--End of the first semester all grades are due therefore all assignments are in!
January 31st--Field trip will be held on campus as we enjoy a day immersed in the science fair. Students are expected to be here for regular school hours and in uniform. There will be no hot lunch that day, so pack a healthy lunch.
Calendar discrepancies--There will be no F.I.S.H. for the remainder of the year and Battle of the Books will kick off next week.
In the Classroom
Core Knowledge
We finished up our Judaism and Christianity unit and are now moving in our Enlightenment unit in history and our Energy unit in science. However, science in class this month will be taking a back seat to the science fair. Students should have done their experiment by now or should still be collecting data. We will be working together in class to ensure that their science fair paper is done and simultaneously making sure their notebook has the components it needs. If you do not have a computer, arrangements can be made to stay after school or before school and use the school's computers. Printing can happen at school as well if the assignment is emailed to me. A rough timeline of events is as follows:
- 1/7 Title page rough draft in class--Assigned final draft as homework
- 1/8 Question and Hypothesis rough draft in class--Assigned as homework.
- 1/9 Background research KWO in class--Rough draft and materials list due Monday
- 1/13 Edit rough draft background research in class--Final draft assigned as homework
- 1/14 Procedure rough draft in class--Final draft assigned as homework.
- 1/15 Results graphing lesson in class
- 1/16 Attempt to compile in computer lab--Assigned as homework as needed.
- 1/16 Boards started if they haven't already
- 1/20 Results narrative rough draft in class--Edit at home and final draft as homework
- 1/21 Conclusion rough draft
- 1/22 Conclusion editing and bibliography rough draft--Final draft at home
- 1/23 Bring it all together, board finishing--If missing something there is still the weekend
- 1/27 Turn in report, notebook and board! Presentations start in class.
- 1/31 Science Fair
Language Arts
We finished Tale of Troy and our first five paragraph creative writing piece. We will spend the next couple of weeks fine tuning IEW skills that we are lacking in our writing. This Thursday, students will bring home a reading log, like the one they did over break and it will be due every Thursday. In class our focus will be on poetry, using figurative language, writing and analyzing poetry this month.
Math
We are half-way through our math book! Some students are hitting a wall and need to really focus on correcting their mistakes on their homework and not racing through their work. I do sporadic notebook checks as it is time consuming, however it is my hope that parents are seeing notebooks nightly to sign and see how many problems were missed on the homework. Test 11 results should come home tomorrow. We are currently working on dividing, multiplying and regrouping fractions.
Have a wonderful week,
Miss King
