Students have been doing a lot of writing lately, and I have seen huge improvements in their work. We finished a 5 paragraph writing on their goals for the future.  When they turned it in, I signed their planner.  I have also written in their planner if they did not turn it in.  This is as big project and is worth a lot of points. 

This week, Jan. 28- Feb. 1, we will be doing review for unit 3. Before we start another story we will review and then take the Unit 3 Post Assessment on Monday, Feb. 4.

January 2013
In Communication Arts, we will be reviewing verbs and helping verbs for grammar.  The comprehension strategies will be evaluating fact and opinion while reading a nonfiction article.  This is a skill we have explored before, but is very important when examining nonfiction.  Students will need to look for facts/certainties, and opinions/disputable information. Students have already learned signal words when evaluating passages, and are pretty good at it.  Please reinforce this skill with them throughout your conversations.  

The next section will be making inferences and analyzing while using the strategy of compare and contrast.  We will be using a fictional story while doing our classwork.  

Please remember that students are not to do the “Practice” and “Grammar” pages in the packet as homework.  These are guided practice pages for the week.  We rarely do them according to the directions and therefore, I quite often make them erase their work.  We do not grade those pages, so it is more important for them to do each page in class.  If they are absent on the day we did the pages, they may do them as the instruction states.  Spelling and Vocabulary pages may be done at any time.  These pages are for a grade and are important to have completed.  If you would like to help your child with these, I would greatly appreciate it.

Spelling Bee - We have a few students from our team that will move forward with the District Spelling Bee on January 23 at the High School.  Congratulations to Jaden G., Emily P., Morgan W., Maggie T., Wyatt P., Bethany L.,  and Jayden R. Good luck on January 23.