Monday, April 18, 2011

Objectives

This Week’s Objectives:
Reading: We will continue Reading Detective Academy this week. It is our intensive review camp to ensure our students are ready to do their best on the TAKS test at the end of the month. This week’s focus will be on comparing and contrasting characters, settings, and story plots. We will continue to work on test taking strategies.
Science:  We will continue investigating the water cycle and weather patterns, including measuring and recording changes in weather and making predictions about the weather using weather maps and symbols.
Social Studies:  Students will continue their investigation into the causes of the Mexican War. We will also integrate history through our research topics in reading.
Writing: We will continue our on poetry writing where students will investigate and write various forms of poetry. Poetry Café April 29th.

Math:  Students will review objective 3 which include the attributes of 2 and 3 dimensional shapes as well as fractions and decimals on the number line.  They will be assessed on these skills Friday. 

SPELLING!

There will be NO SPELLING TEST the week of April 18th!

Friday, April 15, 2011

The Clockwork Three


The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby was a complicated story of three children. The three kids have some problems, big problems. One supports her family financial, and the other two are orphans, eventually their stories intertwine and they solve a mystery... 

The book is a tough read, but I definitely recommend it for someone looking for an interesting challenge.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Social Studies Vocabulary!

Chapter 7 Vocabulary
Quiz on April 15


Debt: money owed to someone else

Term: a set period of time

Redback: a kind of money created by the Republic of Texas; it was red in color

Archive: a collection of government records

Slave state: a state in which slavery was allowed

Free state: a state in which slavery was not allowed

Abolitionist: a person who worked to end slavery

Manifest Destiny: the belief that the United States was meant to stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean

Public lands: the land that people of a state or country own

Negotiate: to discuss a problem to try to reach an agreement

Invasion: an attempt to take over a place by force

Cession: land that is given to another country

Diversity: the state of being made up of different kinds of people

Stagecoach: a horse-drawn, four-wheeled vehicle that carried passengers and mail on a set route

Descendant: a person’s child, grandchild, and so on

Monday, April 11, 2011

Spelling Words- Test on April 15th!

Spelling Words
Unused
Refresh
Dislike
Replace
Unpaid
Redo
Disorder
Unplanned
Distrust
Rewind
Untrue
Unload
Recall
Displease
Uneven
Rebuild
Restart
Uncover
Untidy
Discolor

GIGANTIC

MINIATURE

ESPECIALLY

DELIBERATELY

JEALOUS

Objectives for the Week of Aprill 11

This Week’s Objectives:
Reading: We will begin Reading Detective Academy this week. It is our intensive review camp to ensure our students are ready to do their best on the TAKS test at the end of the month. This week’s focus will be on context clues, figurative language, main idea and test taking strategies.
Science:  Students will review the science District Assessment that we took in March. They will also continue investigating the water cycle and weather patterns, including measuring and recording changes in weather and making predictions about the weather using weather maps and symbols.
Social Studies:  Students will continue their investigation into the causes of the Mexican War. We will also integrate history through our research topics in reading.
Writing: Students will complete their research papers using the “Stop Light Writing” format. We will also begin our unit on poetry writing where students will investigate and write various forms of poetry.

Math: Students will continue our TAKS Test review.  This week we will focus on Objective 6. We will focus on making generalizations, missing info, time and elapsed time, and reviewing our strategies. We will complete review packets and another TAKS Release Test in class during small group, as well as play review games.  Students will also have a homework packet for review each week.  We will check 2 pages each day.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Objectives for the Week of April 4 - 8

This Week’s Objectives:
Reading: This week we will finish our research on extreme bullying. Bullying can be linked to oppression, wars, and anytime a group of people are without rights. The students will choose a topic of extreme bullying (Holocaust, Slavery, Women’s Suffrage, etc.) to research. We will then begin practicing our strategies for the TAKS test in April.
Science:  Students will begin investigating the water cycle and weather patterns, including measuring and recording changes in weather and making predictions about the weather using weather maps and symbols.
Social Studies:  Students will continue their investigation into the causes of the Texas Revolution. We will also integrate history through our research topics in reading.
Writing: This week students will be participating in STAAR field testing for the state of Texas.  We will be using “stop light” writing and expository writing techniques to write our research papers.

Math: Students will continue our TAKS Test review.  This week we will focus on Objective 2.  Our focus will be on describing the relationship between two sets of related data such as ordered pairs in a table, using compatible numbers and rounding to solve problems, and using patterns understand basic fact patterns.  We will complete review packets and another TAKS Release Test in class during small group, as well as play review games.  Students will also have a homework packet for review each week.  We will check 2 pages each day.

Spelling Test on April 8th!

Glance
Marriage
Manage
Judge
Baggage
Palace
Damage
Office
Bandage
Package
Message
GRADUATE
Twice
Bridge
SYMBOL
Stage
Chance
DISOBEY
Carriage
Notice
CONFIDENCE
Since
Ridge
CEREMONY
Practice