|
11/20/2008 |
|
ENGLISH: Students are working on
their writing skills, grammar, and sentence mechanics. The writing
process will be examined and students will have many opportunities to
write! Students will cover the writing of descriptive, expository, and
creative essays. Each student has a spelling book that incorporates a phonics based spelling list
with a cloze passage and a grammar lesson. Students work in their
grammar books on Thursdays. The writing portion of the
pet gourd project will be done at
school this week. Focus is on
descriptive writing with vivid words, using a thesaurus, and using
complete sentences with
correct capitalization and end punctuation. Students are also learning
how to use similes and metaphors in their writing. Please see worksheet
and
grading rubric for details.
Students
will be working on the middle school math curriculum, from fractions
and decimals to geometry, problem solving, and money skills!
Computer programs will offer additional support in both computation
skills and creative problem solving connecting with real life
applications. Students are
working on Chapter 2 - Connecting
Arithmetic to Algebra with a focus this week on algebraic
expressions.
Students will have a quiz on Friday and a unit test next week. There is
math homework most nights - please check assignment books. READING: Students will be practicing
specific reading
skills as well as reading class novels and short selections from our
literature
anthology. The focus will be on both fiction and non-fiction
materials
with an emphasis on phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, fluency,
cloze, and
vocabulary development. Students
will learn how to use graphic organizers effectively when reading.
Students will have all period Monday to begin working
on their
phonics lesson with teacher instruction. The
class is working in their Bridges
to Literature
textbook this week. They have read the first two reading selections, Midas and the Golden Touch and
The Green Ribbon.
This week's lesson will focus on cause/effect, story conflict, and
compound words. Students will complete The Fish Story and
accompanying workbook pages in class with a selection quiz next Tuesday. * Phonics tests are given at the end of each unit. Students should read something of their choice (newspaper, book, etc) every weekend! Notes: ** The second term ends on November 25th; report cards to follow on December 3rd. ** There will be a school wide assembly on December 22nd. ** Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on December 4th. **Please review our student handbook for information regarding Stafford Middle School policies and dress code. Good Links http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_1st.htm#lang
|