01/27/12: There will be a spelling test Monday… The spelling words are as follows: staffs, ourselves, pants, scissors, loaves, volcanoes, chiefs, buffaloes, flamingos, beliefs, echoes, shelves, quizzes, sheriffs, dominoes, thieves, measles, avocados, chefs, and pianos. Please have your child prepared to take this test and thanks for all you do!
01/17/12: I introduced students to fables today to help them better identify themes in the stories that we read. We will starts a new persuasive essay tomorrow.
01/04/12: We are trying to finish up Mastery #6 before next Thursday which is the end of the 2nd term. Today we read “One Eye, Two Eye and Three Eye” and summarized the story. We also started a new persuasive essay entitled, “Reasons I Need to Read Well.”
01/03/12: Welcome back students… I hope you all had good holidays! We now have the Kindle app loaded on our PC’s and will be reading more from the “classics” and working on our reading skills a lot more. Please encourage your kids to read at least 30 minutes each evening at home irrespective of how much they have read at school or elsewhere.
12/19/11: Students did very well on their spelling tests, especially considering it is the last day before Christmas break. On that note, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you on the 2nd of January, 2012.
12/16/11: Handed out spelling words and worksheets. I will give the spelling test next Monday. The spelling words for Mastery 6 are as follows: shovel, southern, northern, chapter, hyphen, chosen, establish, although, challenge, approach, astonish, python, shatter, ethnic, shiver, pharmacy, charity, china, attach, ostrich. Please review these words with your child before Monday.
12/05/11: Administered the spelling test and most everyone did very well! Students also took the comprehension test on Mastery 5 which basically finishes up this mastery. Start looking for packets for Mastery 5 to come home near the end of the week.
11/30/11: Assigned spelling words today which students will be tested on next Monday. They are all contractions and are as follows: they’re, you’ve, weren’t, needn’t, there’d, they’ve, mustn’t, what’ll, doesn’t, hadn’t, could’ve, would’ve, should’ve, might’ve, wouldn’t, who’ve, shouldn’t, who’d, this’ll, and couldn’t. Please review these spelling words with your child this weekend so they will be ready for the spelling text on Monday.
11/28/11: Had a very productive literacy session today. Started out with a story summary of the “Elves and the Shoemaker” and then learned a new word “extravagant” and reviewed previous vocabulary words. I taught students a new comprehension skill called “3-2-1 Strategy” to help them remember more when reading informational text. Finally, we started work on expanding sentences which we will pick-up on tomorrow.
11/22/11: We are working on a new essay “Why I Need A Bike.” the purpose of this persuasive essay is to learn to develop the supporting paragraphs with a topic sentence, supporting sentences and detail sentences.
Please make sure your child reads at least 30 minutes per day over the Thanksgiving holiday. Have a great time over the holidays and I will see you next Monday!
11/15/11: Students finished their poster presentations for “The Giver”. We are starting a new story today called “Shutting Out the Sky” and the vocabulary words for this mastery are as follows: advice, advised, circumstances, elbow, hustled, immigrants, luxury, newcomer, peddler. Please try to use these words with your children over the next week or two!
11/08/11: I assigned a new poem “My Shadow” which will be due before the Christmas holidays. We will be finishing up Mastery #4 Friday for students to take their work home for parents review.
10/27/11: I assigned a book report on “The Giver” which will be due this Friday. Students will be working in pairs on this assignment and the topics of the book report were specifically assigned by myself. We practice our keyboarding skills and finished reading “Satchel Paige.”
10/27/11: Spelling test #4 tomorrow. Also, tomorrow is the last day of the term and I need all work completed and turned in at that time. The first term has been a great start to the year and we have accomplished a lot. Comprehension is improving as well as reading rates. However, students need to do more reading at home to a parent or sibling… This will make a huge difference in getting students ready for Jr. High and for life!
10/25/11: Students need to finish reading “The Giver” before Thursday… We will then have the final quiz. Next Monday we will start a book report on “The Giver”, most of which will be done in class, and hopefully have it completed before the Thanksgiving holiday.
10/24/11: New spelling words were handed out today for Mastery #4 of which students will be tested on Friday. They are as follows: supplied, supplying, denied, denying, decided, deciding, included, including, admitted, admitting, occurred, occurring, qualified, qualifying, identified, identifying, delayed, delaying, satisfied, satisfying.
End of term is this Friday and students will need to have all their work in by Friday to receive any credit on the missing work.
10/19/11: Worked hard today to finish our essay on Utah Writes. Students will be bringing home their work on Mastery #3 with a checklist for parents to sign indicating that they reviewed their child’s work with them. This checklist will be due back to me next Monday. Have a great break!
10/14/11: Finished up Mastery #3 and will start Mastery #4 Monday. Our new story is about a baseball legend, “Satchel Paige.” Vocabulary words for this story are: confidence, fastball, mocking, outfield, unique, weakness, windup. Please use these words in conversations with your child over the next two week period.
10/12/11: The comprehension test for “Island of the Blue Dolphins” will be administered tomorrow. Students who have not passed off the sight words or vocabulary words will need to do so before Friday. Mastery Test #3 will be due Friday.
10/10/11: Reviewed vocabulary words for the new story “Island of the Blue Dolphins” which are: gnawed, headland, kelp, lair, ravine, shellfish, sinew, brackish, cove, deafening. There will be a quiz on chapters 13 & 14 of “The Giver” tomorrow. We also began a new writing assignment with an emphasis on organization and outline.
10/06/11: Spelling test tomorrow. We are progressing slowly but surely on “The Giver” and should have it completed by the end of next week. The students will then prepare a report on it to present to the class.
10/05/11: Worked on 4-part letter and had a lesson on theme and setting. Spelling test for Mastery #3 will be this Friday. The new poem was assigned and is due before Thanksgiving break. The assigned poem is “Little Boy Blue.” Congratulations to Micah who has already passed it off!
10/03/11: Spelling words for Mastery #3 are as follows: coast, feast, speech, wheat, Spain, paint, arrow, needle, charcoal, praise, faint, maintain, crease, groan, breeze, willow, appeal, bowling, complain, sneeze. Spelling test will be this Friday. Quiz for “The Giver” covering ch. 8-10 will be administered tomorrow.
09/29/11: Practiced our keyboarding skills and worked on reading comprehension skills while reading chapter 6 of “The Giver.” Students will be given a quiz on chapters 6 and 7 tomorrow.
09/28/11: Most all students did well on the quiz for the first two chapters of “The Giver.” At the end of this book students will be required to complete a book report and present to the class with either a poster of PowerPoint. Students will be given a quiz on chapters 3-5 tomorrow.
09/27/11: We will take a pause in our routine to read “The Giver” and work on comprehension skills. A quiz on the first two chapters will be given to students first thing in the morning.
Hope to see all parents tonight and tomorrow night for parent/teacher conferences… I highly recommend you attend and I look forward to seeing you there!
09/22/11: We’ve accomplished a lot this week… Mastery 2 is due tomorrow. I will also administer the comprehension test and have Mastery #2 packets ready for Parent/Teacher conferences. See you then parents!
09/16/11: Administered spelling test. We had many 100′s and the rest did really well! We worked on our essays and had Power Hour. Have a great weekend and go Cougars!
09/15/11: Practiced keyboarding skills, then worked on comprehension skills to include story summary and outline. Sight Words-1 words are due tomorrow as well as the spelling test.
09/14/11: Worked on reading comprehension skills for most of the day and then typed our writing assignment into Word. Students are starting to become better readers… However, I need parent’s help to ensure their child is reading at least for 30 minutes each evening. For many students reading at home is not taking place.
09/12/11: Spelling test for the new mastery will be given next Friday. The spelling words are as follows: fever, broken, climate, hotel, basic, vocal, native, silent, labor, spider, label, icon, agent, motive, vital, acorn, item, aroma, legal, solo. Vocabulary words for this mastery are as follows: branded, constructed, daintily, devastation, lullaby, pitch, resourceful, thieving, veins. Please make sure your child knows how to spell the vocabulary words and can use them in a sentence correctly. Also handed out Sight Words-1 which will be due Friday.
09/09/11: All but a few students finished their Mastery 1 on time. They will be bringing home a checklist for parents to sign and return for full credit. I highly encourage parents to look at their class work and discuss it with their child. Monday we will start on our next story, “Thunder Rose.” Have a great weekend!
09/06/11: Congratulations to Micah… He memorized and passed off our new poem “Invictus” over the weekend! We reviewed for the comprehension test on “Frindle” which will be given tomorrow. Mastery 1 is due this Friday.
09/02/11: Most all students did well on the spelling test… Congrats! I handed out a new poem to be memorized, “Invictus,” which will be due by the end of September. Have a great Labor Day weekend!
09/01/11: We are in the process of completing our first Mastery. The first spelling test will be tomorrow… Students have been taught the words and completed worksheets to better learn the words and how to spell them. If you would like to review the spelling words with them this evening, they are as follows: distance, method, anger, problem, butter, petals, enjoy, perhaps, figure, channel, admire, comedy, husband, tissue, mustard, shuttle, advance, drummer, regular, and denim.
I don’t see spelling words.
Ok – I found them. Don’t know what I did wrong the first time.
Thanks for checking updates… Bailey is doing well in Literacy and I enjoy having her in my class!