November 19th, 2012

REMEMBER, TOMORROW IS THE LAST DAY OF THE WEEK FOR SCHOOL.  HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

A NOTE:  PLEASE LABEL ALL MERIDIAN HOODIES, AS MANY ARE BEING LEFT IN THE CLASSROOM AND COMMON AREAS.

This morning was the final rush to get most of our Global Scholar testing completed.  There are only a few stragglers left to finish tomorrow.

The focus in grammar is CV, or Compound Verbs.  When a subject noun does two or more things, we label the verbs CV.  They are usually joined by a C, or conjunction.  We also reviewed the spelling of some homonyms (its, it's; stationary, stationery; their, they're, there).  We also learned new antonyms and synonyms.  Students will go home with the vocabulary packets tomorrow.

Parents, please make sure your children are reading 30 minutes each day.  The difference between a child who regularly reads 30 minutes each day and one who doesn't is an average of 6 points on the ACT College test.  Read to them.  Read with them.  Have them take turns reading to you.

The Johnny Tremain Part III reading was to be finished by today.  STUDENTS SHOULD COME TO SCHOOL PREPARED TO TEACH THEIR GROUP ABOUT THEIR READING STRATEGY.  The students have had 6 days to read.  I have also given them ample time in class.

Math Test 3 will be tomorrow.  STUDENTS SHOULD HAVE THE REVIEW 3 DONE AND ANY UNFINISHED WORK FROM UNIT 3 COMPLETED.  I will be collecting math books tomorrow to examine neatness, consistency, etc. over the long weekend.  Next week we will begin our geometry unit.

During Writer's Workshop we worked  on Rough Draft Illustrations for our character descriptions.  THE FINAL COPY OF OUR ILLUSTRATIONS WILL BE DUE NOVEMBER 30TH.  Many students are plugging along  on their stories.  Please tell them stories from your family histories, your childhood, and funny anecdotes.  Describe interesting characters you meet.  Make them come alive.

In history we recounted the Battle of Bunker Hill, and followed a dot-to-dot vocabulary and event fun sheet.  The students were surprised to learn that the American colonists in Boston held the hill for so long without cannons or much ammunition.  In addition to that, they were all disgusted that the battle was misnamed, as all the fighting happened on Breed's Hill.  In a heated argument, they debated whether or not it could be labeled a 'victory' for the English, since "all they gained was dirt and over 1000 dead and wounded (1/2 of their troops who fought.  We will look up the area tomorrow in the computer lab and compare geographical topography with the fighting methods.