Monday, October 15, 2012

Happy Monday to you! What a great day it has been! The kids were energetic for a Monday, I thought--ready to learn and discuss all kinds of important things.

Guided Reading:  Tomorrow we will switch groups, so the students who were in art will now be in Guided Reading (which used to be Grammar).  Those students are reminded to please bring a novel for silent reading, as well as their grammar notebooks.

Math:  Students were supposed to finish up Investigation 1 today.  There WILL BE a quiz tomorrow, based on the assignment Exercises on page 3-4, EVENS only (odds are optional).  A few students had questions today, but many had to be talked to for socializing.  I am assuming that those students will ask questions via Edmodo tonight if they have any.  Lastly, students need to send me their teams for the Amazing Race, a contest that will be taking place outside of school hours on Edmodo.  Once I get the teams set, I will post a problem that teams need to solve and a random time that they need to try to post their answer by.  Teams that post their answer nearest to the randomly assigned time without being before the time will gain the most points.  The questions will all be based on things that we are studying or have studied in class.

Language Arts:  We had a great discussion on foreshadowing today!  First we discussed the definition of "foreshadow," basing it on what would it would mean if we were sitting at a table near a window, and all of a sudden there was a shadow on the floor next to you.  We talked about what that might be a clue to--someone's arrival? An intruder?  Then we watched an awesome short film entitled Alma by Rodrigo Blaas, which has a good amount of foreshadowing for a 5.5 minute video.  (You can see this video here:  http://vimeo.com/4749536)  Lastly, I read aloud from author Ray Bradbury's short story, "The Emissary," having students stopping to make predictions as we went along.  A copy of this can be found on Edmodo.  Since it isn't a text that is readily accessible on the WWW, I didn't want to put it out there for a free-for-all.  Language Arts homework for tomorrow:  Be ready for the "its" vs "it's" quiz via noredink.com, finish reading "The Emissary" so you can write down the foreshadowing examples from it (and so you can figure out what happened to Martin and Dog), and --if you have time--add an example of foreshadow to your own spooky story.  I plan to have feedback regarding spooky stories for all of you tomorrow.

Social Studies:  Be sure to make up and/or retake quizzes.  I know some of you have asked for a hard copy of the map test.  I made one using a screen shot last time, and if you are not willing to wait for me to get around to doing this again, you are welcome to make one for the group.  I've been busy reading your spooky stories! :)  Otherwise, my social studies groups have been working on their city planning projects.

Be sure to check in with Mr. Sprain for his math, science, and social studies assignments.

Parents, if you want a parent code for Edmodo, please let me know.