Week of December 6th-10th

I hope that everyone is enjoying the busy month of December. In Language Arts, we are continuing our study of pronouns. Our focus is on subjective and objective case pronouns.

In writing, the students are continuing to explore the informational genre. We are completing our how-to essay on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday, the students will begin their informational research paper on Holidays Around the World. The students will be placed in a group to research their country's holiday. Each group will compose a five paragraph essay on their topic.

The students will not have any spelling words until after we return from Winter Break. All students will go to the library on Thursday. Please remind your child to bring his or her library books to school.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!

Week of November 15th-19th

In language arts this week, we are beginning our study of pronouns and antecedents. The students will have a quiz over the list of pronouns. The students will have to fill in the missing pronouns on the quiz. We do not have spelling words this week. In writing, we will finish our narrative essays on Monday. Any student that does not finish in class Monday will need to finish on their own. Tuesday, we will begin our study of tall tales. The students will create their own tall tales. This assignment will be completed in groups. We have a busy week ahead of us!

Monday--Narrative Essays Due
Thursday--Daily Proofreading Checkpoint #3
Pronouns Quiz
Friday--Tall Tale Due

Week of November 8th-12th

• Monday--Lesson 15 Spelling Pre-test, 5 Paragraph Narrative Essay--finish graphic organizer & begin drafting introduction
• Tuesday--Daily Proofreading, Singular & Plural Nouns and Possessive Nouns Practice, Continue working on narrative essay
• Wednesday--Daily Proofreading, Plural Nouns Activity, Finish composing draft and begin writing the final draft of narrative essay
• Thursday--Daily Proofreading, Lesson 15 Spelling Test, Narrative Essays are due today
• Friday--field trip

I am looking forward to another wonderful week! Next week, we will not have a spelling test. We will study a list of Thanksgiving words in class.

Week of October 25th--29th

I hope that everyone is enjoying Fall. We will be deepening our understanding of narrative writing this week by writing our first big narrative essay. The students will be given two topics to choose from for their essays. All writing will be done in class. In addition, we will focus on Lesson 13 Spelling Words. All students will be given a pretest on Monday. The post test will be on Friday. Lastly, we will be working on prepositions and possessive nouns this week. The students will have a quiz over prepositions on Wednesday. Please remind your child to study. I am looking forward to another wonderful week!

Week of October 11, 2010

Hope everyone had a great break - it definitely came at the perfect time! For this week's grammar lesson we'll be taking a look at the roles of independent and dependent clauses and using them in a variety of ways. We will also be drafting a Halloween writing piece in which students get to choose what activity they'd rather participate: finding their way through a corn maze or haunted house...our spelling lesson # 11 backs up to vowel-consonant-vowel patterns for review. ***PLEASE NOTE: we will be having another Daily Proofreading checkpoint on Friday, October 15, so I'll be reminding students that all DP entries (#s 37-47) should be organized for an easy participation grade.***

Week of September 27, 2010

Hello All! Six more days until our Fall Break arrives and we have much to cover! We'll be working on our Lesson 9 spelling words which stress vowel-consonant-consonant-consonant-vowel (vcccv) patterns. Spelling pretests are given each Monday and posttests are assessed on Fridays (if needed). Our grammar lesson explores prepositions and independent/dependent clauses. We have had and will continue to have interactive fun with our prepositions throughout the week! Lastly, we'll be creating biographies in class as part of a writing assignment. We hope to utilize www.readwritethink.org and our mobile laptop computers as we interview each other along the way to complete our writings. Have a safe and restful break!

Language Arts Happenings - Week of Sept. 13

We've just created newspaper stories in groups using Microsoft Publisher and the students are so proud of their writings! Currently, we are working on our L7 Spelling list: vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel (vccv) word patterns. Our grammar lesson explores compound subjects and predicates within sentences and conjunctions which join both. We will revisit a journal entry at week's end. I'm very proud of the progress we're making!

Week of August 30, 2010

Daily Proofreadings # 18-22 (completed in class)

Language Arts:

Monday--Students will be pre-tested on Lesson 4 Spelling words (those ending with inflections, i.e. - ed & -ing) Please note any student who scores below a 90 will take a post-test on Friday of each week. The concepts of word choice will be introduced as partof autobiographical narrative writing. Lesson 4 practice book exercise in class to follow.

Tuesday--Students will begin a group assignment in which they dissect a newspaper article provided to them in class by identifying the 5 w's & will create their own stories by week's end. BLACK FOLDERS GO HOME TODAY - PLEASE SIGN & RETURN BY THURS.!

Wednesday--Students will continue grammar skills: simple /complete subjects & simple / complete predicates. PROGRESS REPORTS GO HOME

Thursday--In-class activity: create 5 sentences using at least (1) spelling word. Sentences must be a minimum of 8 words.

Friday--Lesson 4 Spelling Post-Test / share newspaper articles
*** PROGRESS REPORTS DUE BACK SIGNED

What's going on in class this week?

Week of March 15-19th

Language Arts:

Daily Proofreading 14 (completed in class)

Introduce & Practice Perfect Verb Tenses
Classwork--Practice-Grammar Practice pg.85, 86, & 87
Assessment pg.144

Writing:

Monday--The students will compose a persuasive journal entry to a given prompt.
Tuesday--The students will begin a narrative essay on a topic of their choice. The essay must be between 1 1/2 and 3 pages written.
Wednesday--The students will continue composing their narrative essay.
Thursday-The students will continue composing their narrative essay. (Edit/Revise)
Friday--The students will finish their narrative essay and turn it in for a grade. Any student that finishes early will read an AR book.

Grammar Assessment over Perfect Tenses on Friday!