September 21-25, 2015

Happy New Week Parents and Students!

Last week's field trip to Stone Mountain was a great success and students had a great time! This week will be pretty action packed as we approach the close of the first quarter of school. Students will be bringing home midterm reports today in an envelope. Please sign and return those forms by Wednesday of this week. 

This week's lessons in  Language Arts will center around what makes a complete sentence, the understood subject of imperative (commands and directives) sentences and subjects of interrogative (questions) sentences. We will also be learning more about prominent individuals of Hispanic heritage during Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept 15-Oct 15) and the Ancient and Modern Olympic Games (7-8).  We are also reviewing Author's Purpose (all grades).  5-6th Graders will also be working on creating a Spanish/English Picture Dictionary as they encounter Spanish words from the story (Esperanza Rising) and in their environments. This is an ongoing project until the theme story concludes.

In Social Studies, we will be wrapping up Chapter 1 for all grades and preparing for a Test on Next Tuesday (September 29, 2015).  7-8th graders have a project in which they must create a Personal History which includes the 5 themes of Geography: Location, Place, Regions, Movement, and Impact/Interaction with Environment. Students may create a PowerPoint Presentation, a monologue, a poster, a video or other way to present the information. Students will be graded on Presentation (participation and involvement--25 pts), Display (25pts), Creativity (25pts), Focus on 5 themes (5 pts each--25 pts total). 

5-6th Graders will be living like a Geographer this week and creating a map or other type of representation of a place of their choice on earth using the tools Geographers use such as globes, photographs, or GIS (Geographic Information Systems). Students will choose a location in the world to create a map, image or other type of representation (globe, relief map, replica of satellite imagery) of that place on the earth. They may use Google Earth, Maps online, satellite imaging, globes and Photographs of those places. Students will be graded on accuracy (as much is as possible--25pts), use of resources (cite where information was found--25pts),  Creativity (25pts) and Appearance (Don't repeat--be neat!--25 pts). Please include the following: compass rose, scale, type of map/projection. Latitude and Longitude are welcome, but not required. Please do not print out a copy of a map made by someone else as it will not be accepted.

In Spanish we are still on Lesson 3 about enfermedad y salud (illness and health). We will have a quiz this week on Lesson 3. Please be sure to watch the videos on Ser and Estar on Last week's blog post. You can go to the post by clicking here.

Videos:
 This week's videos will focus on the use of Primary Sources...

  And our featured person of Hispanic Heritage for Hispanic Heritage Month:
 

Here is a quick video on how to cite sources for Internet and other uses:

Homework for this week:

Study for Vocabulary and Bible this week (Tests on Friday)

Complete Social Studies Projects (7-8th due Wednesday (Sept 23); 5-6th due Wednesday (Sept 30)). Watch the video on Primary Sources posted above and bring in a personal primary source (from your home, heritage or family) to share with the class by Wednesday of your project's due date (E.g. Ms. Wilson's picture of her Great-Grandmother from earlier in the school year is a primary source).

Watch the video posted above on Sonia Sotomayor (first Hispanic Supreme Court justice). Write a short summary of what you learned about her accomplishments and her heritage.

Complete Study Guide (to be given this Wednesday) for Chapter 1 in Social Studies (all Grades). All Test will be on Tuesday (Sept 29). 

Be on the look out for some other videos later this week!

 
English Homework:
Students will complete p.40-55 this week (7^th)
Students will complete p. 37-49 this week (8^th)  
Students will complete p 37-43 this week (5^th) 
Students will complete p35-48 this week (6^th)