Happy Thanksgiving

   This week our CORRECT program is talking about the importance of having an "attitude of gratitude"!  What a great way to look at things.  Did you know that research proves a gratitude attitude helps students both at home and in school?  When we are grateful for what we have and not looking for what we don't have, we are more content and have more successful lives.  It's important to appreciate friends and family and be thankful for what we do have instead of always unhappy because we want more.  After all, the holiday is called "Thanksgiving" not "Thanksgetting".

  The ELA class is working with the "Into the Book" website.  This site has interactive features that explore important components of English Language Arts.  It can also be accessed at home and is free to use. (When logging in you do not need to create an account and can bypass most login prompts). We are learning about writing good summaries.  Summarizing is an important skill for the students to learn.  It will serve them in future grades and in life.  We will be summarizing a "Turkey" story.  Along the way we will learn many interesting facts about our "turkey" traditions (told from the perspective of the turkey).  Ask your student some fascinating facts they have learned about turkeys during Thanksgiving dinner.  They should surprise you with all that they've learned.

  We are once again using review words for spelling this week.  As we have practiced, many students are very comfortable with these words.

  Upon our return from Thanksgiving break we will go back to our Journey's textbook.  We will pick up with Unit 12.  We will also get back to our research projects (to be completed in school).

  Math students have put their "Favorite Number" project on hold.  We have currently switched gears to plan a Thanksgiving feast for our families.  Based on the number of persons they will be having dinner with, students are creating the menu, deciding how much of everything they need to buy, and costing out the price of the total dinner.  We will even break down the per person cost!

May you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and may your "attitude of gratitude"                 last all year long!
Mrs. Carr

November 16, 2015

The month of November is quickly passing by.  Before we know it the holidays will be here!

Math Class-  

     We are continuing our work with decimals and money.  This week we will be working addition, subtraction of decimals/money.  Our assessment this week will be held on Thursday.  We will be working with the Shop Rite circular planning and pricing a Thanksgiving Dinner.  Students will also be researching their "Favorite Number" project.

Homework:

Monday- Practice 5 & 6

Tuesday- Practice 7& 8

Wednesday- Practice 13 & 16

                     Review for assessment

Thursday-  Thanksgiving Dinner appetizers (list, price, total)

                   Favorite Number Project

Friday-  Favorite Number Project

English Language Arts-

     This week we are reading an article from our Storyworks magazine entitled "Malala the Powerful".  This article tells the story of a courageous Pakistani girl who risks everything to take a stand against the Taliban.  Malala inspires the world in her quest to gain freedoms for women; specifically for girls to be able to attend school.  As we examine the details of her story, we reflect on our freedoms and the benefits we as Americans take for granted.

Vocabulary:  

crusade- intense struggle for a cause you believe in

cultural- having to do with a group of people's way of life, ideas, and traditions.

defied-  resisted or refused to obey

determination-  a decision to keep doing something although it may be very difficult

extreme-  beyond the usual; drastic

forbidding-  threatening or scary

grave-  very serious; likely to do harm

tolerate- accept that other people have beliefs or behavior that is different from yours

   We will be working with figurative language with the companion poem "In the Darkest Hour" and comparing it to our reading of "Malala the Powerful". Writing activities this week include opinion writing and writing a summary.   

 

November 11- Veteran's Day

Today was a very special day here at OCS.  Veterans' Day!!!  It was a perfect day for our students to learn about the importance of respect and how that connects to our veterans and to the noble deeds and service to our country they took part in to insure we truly live in the "land of the free".  Our Red Ribbon Committee did a wonderful job inviting veterans to our school and having them, our heroes, deliver the message of making wise choices and saying NO to drugs, alcohol, and tobacco.  Thank you to all the veterans that came to share their stories.  We thank them for caring and serving our country.


Math class has been busy working with decimals and money.  Decimals add another whole dimension to place value.  Students should continue "fast facts" practice every day in order to make this skill an automatic part of our everyday life.  We will continue with decimals and money throughout this week.

Upcoming math project:  My Favorite Number
Students will represent their number in 50+ ways.  It can be your sports jersey number, your street number, your lucky number... only you can decide.  How creative can you be when you create "My Favorite Number" poster.  Resources may include the internet, magazines, newspapers, and your mind!!!!  Can't wait to learn your "Favorite Number".

ELA class has taken a different path these past few weeks.  With our shortened schedules and days off, instead of reading from our anchor text, we have been work from our Scholastics Storyworks magazine.  Storyworks is a wealth of reading material.  Last week we read a non-fiction piece about "Dolphins" and a story with a lesson (literature piece) "The Worm Turns".  This week we are working with a play based on Greek Mythology.  Our play "The Monster in the Cave" traces Odysesus's travels towards home after the Trojan War.  The class enjoyed taking on roles and reading through the play.  We also viewed a video that told the story from the monster's point of view.  The students were amazed how the same story could be seen in two completely different ways.  We will continue to analyze our "hero" and "monster".  Could they possibly change roles?  How would they measure up to our CORRECT traits.

Vocabulary words include:  legion, hospitality, sufficient, mercy, treachery, swift
We are enjoying learning them with "paint strips" that allow us to separate synonyms, antonyms, part of speech, and use in a sentence.  Our "double" index cards help us make sure we understand the definitions.

Writing-  due to the shortened classes and days, we have put our research report on hold.  Thursday and Friday this week we will revisit our rubric and checklists to make sure we understand expectations.  Next week its back to work.  It is important that we follow all the steps to turn out a quality report.

We will not have a spelling test this week.
Our grammar assessment will include the homophones their, there, and they're.
Our reading assessment will be on our play "The Monster in the Cave"