Suddenly Monday!

Welcome back to another great week!  We had the privilege of being coached this morning for Literary Cafe.  The students had a great time, and our coach was AMAZING!  We learned to turn the  butterflies (not cockroaches) in our stomachs into positive energy.  It was very exciting to learn about presenting to an audience.  We will be using this information to practice for Literary Cafe.  Also, Students should all be working on memorizing a piece for Literary Cafe.

Biography Project
We will be presenting these projects to our classmates next week after Literary Cafe.  Grades on these projects will be sent home on December 2 in order to ensure that all students have been able to present.  The projects all look amazing, and I'm very impressed with all the time that students put into this project.

Information about Graded Work
Students received their graded assessments in their red folders today.  Please sign and return those papers so we can create our portfolios next Monday.  Many students did not have their binders in class today, so we had to move the portfolio creation to next week.  Please remind your student to bring their binder to class.

As you review your student's graded work, I ask you to think about the level of analysis that is being completed for each question.  Is your student identifying the answer, but not applying the facts to that answer?  Many students are very good at stating the answers to questions.  I need to see more answers that show me why the answer is correct.  Students will be expected to do higher levels of analysis on their assessments to receive 4s.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  I can show you exactly what I'm expecting.

New Adventures

S.S. - We are officially driving cattle into the west.  We learned today that cows can drive cars (not really) :)  Seriously, we worked on developing an understanding of the reasons behind the cattle drives and how the desire for beef and cattle skins led to the creation of towns throughout the western plains states.  Tomorrow your student will get the opportunity to "herd" cows.

Math:  We are starting to work on adding fractions with unlike denominators.  Students will begin with models, and we will slowing move to finding the least common denominator.

ELA/Reading:  We are working on making inferences while reading fictional text.  Students are using their own fictional books to do the activities that we are working on this week.  Students are also working on their Social Studies brochure during reading block.  In writing, we are working on research based opinion writing.  As always, we are working on grammar and spelling everyday.  We do not have any new vocabulary words this week because we are working on practicing for Literary Cafe.

Science:  In science, we are working on electricity.  Students will be completing a lab on static electricity on Thursday.

Parent Reminders
TYBEE MEETING TOMORROW NIGHT (6 pm - 7 pm)
LITERARY CAFE - NOVEMBER 19 - If you would like to help set up our classroom, please let me know.  I will be out of the building during the day of the 19th for a mathematics training, so I really could use a lot of help.

Here's to another great week of learning!

Mrs. Prophet