Math
Welcome back from winter break!! I hope that everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing time with friends and family this week. Today, we are starting a new chapter in math. Chapter 7 is another algebra chapter, but rather than focusing on expressions, we are going to begin solving actual algebraic equations. This week students will begin learning how to solve one step addition and subtraction equations. The online tutors and videos in math/science links can be a helpful review for students and parents who might want a refresher. Science Science Cell Projects are due March 2nd! Students should be spending some time each night this week working on their projects. Projects will be presented in small groups, so students should be sure to practice reading their project out loud a few times before next Monday. This week we are finishing up chapter 6, lesson 2. This lesson focuses on cell structure and organelle function. We will be wrapping up content Monday and Tuesday, and playing Cell Jeopardy on Wednesday. There will be a short quiz on Friday. This quiz focuses on organelles such as vacuoles, mitochondria, ribosomes, nucleus, chloroplasts, cytoplasm, and prokaryotic vs. eukaryotic cells. It is made up of 3 multiple choice and 6 matching questions. There is no diagram on the quiz, but students should expect one in a few weeks on the chapter 6 test. English Language Arts, Reading and History Writing:We probably will begin our fictional narratives that we graphed out before vacation. Persuasive Writing done before vacation was very well done. Grades are in Power School and the writing is in google classroom. Grammar: We review the 8 parts of speech and will begin to focus on linking verbs. Reading: Students will review author's purpose and point of view as we read the short excerpt called the The Dreamer Who Dug For Troy. We continue book groups practicing reading fluency and collaborative discussion in Massachusetts Book Award groups. Students just read the inciting incident in Tom Sawyer. Graveyards will never be the same again. History: I will be assigning a map of Greece and some questions about the Parthenon. Math- TEST THURSDAY
We are finishing up chapter 6, expressions, this week. Tuesday and Wednesday this week will be review days. We will use fun games and well as 2 practice tests to make sure that students are prepared for their test this Thursday. Extra credit is due by 9am Friday morning, but is preferred Thursday, the day of the test. Science By the end of this week, students will be 2 weeks into their at home cell project. By now students should have begun researching their 10 organelles and getting supplies (as needed) for their projects. This Friday will be a check-in day. Students must provide evidence that they are working their way though their projects. Work should be 30-40% complete, as about half of the allotted time will have passed by Friday. Evidence can be photos of the project so far (email, Remind, or on phones), the actual notes or project itself, or sharing a Google doc or slide show. This check-in IS part of the overall final grade, so it should not be missed. Please refer to the assignment for all the details. English Language Arts, Reading and History Writing : "My Opinions" looks great in Google Classroom. I really hope to have them all graded by February vacation. Our next writing in on writing fiction. Before vacation, I would like students to complete a story map of a story they plan on writing in class as a 5 paragraph story. The story map will make them identify the most important parts of a story like characters, setting, inciting incident , events in rising and falling action , a climax and a resolution. This is a fun writing assignment to do in class because students can write whatever type of fiction they want. Reading: Students will be reading the poetry of and inspired by the Harlem Renaissance. They will be identifying important literary elements and figurative language in this work. We continue reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The universal themes in this important curriculum book shine through. We've learned about whitewash, met Huckleberry Finn and gone on Tom and Becky Thatcher's first date! History:The Illustrated Greek Timeline is due on Tuesday. The remaining part of the week will be about Greek gods and goddesses and the mythology of the Trojan War. Math- QUIZ TUESDAY
In math this week, students will continue to explore algebraic expressions. Monday will be a day of review, where we will go over powers, order of operations, and solving/writing expressions. This will lead us to a mid-chapter quiz on Tuesday. The quiz practice sheet from Monday will be a great source of review on Chapter 6, lessons 1-4 concepts, and should be in binders. For the rest of the week, students will be using the associative, commutative, and distributive properties to simplify more complex expressions. We are aiming to have our chapter 6 math test on Wednesday, 2/12. Science A quiz bright and early on Monday will get us started this week! Chapter 6, lesson 1 was a short lesson which focused on the three parts of cell theory, and the 4 macromolecules within cells. For the rest of the week we will start chapter 6, lesson 2. This is the most important lesson of the chapter, in which students will learn about all of the organelles within the cell. Students will be receiving information about a take home project this week and shouldn't waste any time getting started. Here is a link to the cell rap! English Language Arts, Reading and History Writing: Students will be finishing up their five paragraph argumentative/persuasive essays in Google classroom. Great job on forming opinions and developing arguments. Now, just some fine tuning for revising and editing! Reading: We continue with Massachusetts Book Award book groups and the novel "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". Students have been practicing figurative language and poetic devices and will demonstrate their understanding as we finish the poem "The Road Not Taken". Grammar: There will be a brief reminder of the 8 parts of speech followed by a survey for the different kinds of verbs there are. HistoryWe begin the study of Greece with designing an Illustrated Timeline of some of the important events of Ancient Greece. Typically, I have broken the larger project into shorter due dates but the overview of the entire assignment is to find the required dates from the textbook or internet by Thursday and write the dates out as a rough draft due Friday. The completed final copy on oak tag is due on Tuesday. I will have the assignment paper posted in the Google classroom. |