Busy Friday!

Today was the end to a busy week! Friday's are busy for our team (especially group 204), as we have Art (204), Foreign Language (202), Lab, Phys. Ed. (204), Chorus, and McD's Cafe! The day moves so quickly!

In McD's Cafe, we practiced spelling words for the week with a soup activity. We had fun working together to build each word using the alphabet soup in our bowls. Afterwards, we listened to The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (told from the wolf's point of view). We will practice applying our new literature circle roles next week using this short story. Cafe was a lot of fun!

In Lab, we sharpened our keyboarding skills; reviewing the home keys and typing without looking at our fingers. Some of us found this extremely challenging!

Today in Math, we reviewed exponents by having a quiz. We also compared and ordered whole numbers on the board.

We enjoyed exchanging our posters with our partners today in Science, and found observations and inferences. Many of the posters were quite creative and imaginative. We look forward to Monday, when we start uncovering the earth's layers.

Homework:
Please share your Friday folder with your parents, and make sure they take a close look at all of the important papers going home today.
Language Arts - Continue to study your spelling list. Test on Tuesday.
Social Studies - Group 204 should have four picture examples for each theme brought in on Tuesday.
Math - Workbook pg. 3, front and back
Health - (202) Pg. 319, items 1-3

Missing Mrs. Haddox!

Today, Team Enterprise was missing Mrs. Haddox. We wish her all the best and hope she returns soon. Although she was gone, our team carried on!

In Language Arts, we enjoyed the story "Tony and the Snark." The story was a bit long, but we enjoyed finding out about Tony's adventure with his snark. We even discovered some new and interesting words that weren't a part of our vocabulary list. Tomorrow, we talk more about the story, and we're looking forward to McD's Cafe! Don't forget to bring your plastic mug!

In Social Studies, group 204 learned more about the Five Themes of Geography. We discussed many examples of these themes and concluded work on our study guide. Group 204 is to search for pictures relating to the themes. The pictures can come from magazines (old ones, not your dad's new Sports Illustrated), or the computer, or your own artistic ability! Each student is to bring in 4 pictures for each theme! We will use them for group collages depicting the Five Themes.

We are very inspired by David Wisniewski's book The Secret Knowledge of Grown-ups: The Second File. It is so much fun finding out about all this TOP SECRET grown-up information!! We feel so mature!! Since our brains are filling with IDEAS, we can hardly wait to begin writing!

Exponents continues to be the hot topic in math! We practiced more today, and we're sure that Mrs. Haddox will be impressed tomorrow!

In Science, we began learning about the layers of the Earth! Is a field trip to MIDDLE EARTH in the works?? We'll see, when Mrs. Haddox returns!

Homework:
Language Arts - Study spelling on the blog! Test next Tuesday.
Math - Page 12 (1-24)
Social Studies - Find or draw 4 pictures per theme for next Tuesday.
Science - Finish science packet
Don't forget Chorus and Phys. Ed. forms!

Over the Hump Day! Already?

The week is flying by! I guess it flies when you're having fun!

Team Enterprise participated in many exciting activities today. Mr. Abbondanza, who just returned this week, met with us in the gym to review his expectations for the year. He reviewed our values, privileges, bus conduct, and other important items to remember. He caught us first thing in the morning, while our minds were fresh!

In Writing, we're talking about the secret knowledge of grown-ups!! We're very excited to learn this top secret information that all parents know, since we've never been informed. Grown-ups have always given us reasons for things that they want us to do, so we're very excited to discover the "real" reasons behind their requests! The story Mrs. McIlvaine is sharing for this activity is "The Secret Knowledge of Grown-ups: The Second File" by David Wisniewski. It's a great story, which will help us to generate ideas for our first writing assignment. You'll love it!

Today in Math, we reviewed exponents and discussed how to write a number in expanded form using exponents. There may be a pop quiz tomorrow on the first two sections.

In Health, we started Chapter 10 and learned that knowing your strengths helps you feel good about yourself and improve your weaker areas.

Science was a time of review of the terms observation and inference. We finished our posters. Tomorrow, we plan to exchange our posters and try to find the inferences.

Our story "Tony and the Snark" is coming up tomorrow! We have practiced our skill and new words. We can't wait to see how these words will play into the story. We've made some predictions and will have to read to see if we're correct.

The learning stations we visited this afternoon helped us to review important language and math skills! What a busy day we had! It's no wonder it was over before we knew it!


Homework:
Language Arts - Spelling City on blog! Study! Also complete p. 2 in practice book to review vocabulary. Tests on Tuesday!
Math - R1-2 and P1-2
Wellness - p. 315 1-3
Science - poster should be colored
Social Studies - examples for Place
Remember your chorus and phys. ed forms!

Rested and Ready!

Team Enterprise returned to school after the long Labor Day weekend, rested and ready. We followed our regular schedule today! As teachers, we continue to be impressed by the students. We have settled in with daily procedures, and everyone is trying to be prepared with papers and materials.

In Language Arts, we began our first skill lesson and received our first spelling list. The skill we will practice throughout the week is sequence. Today, we applied this to a short story, and we found clue words to help us find order. Our first story is Tony and the Snark.

The 6+1 Traits of Writing were introduced today! They are ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. Our focus in the beginning will be ideas. We are looking forward to writing and becoming better writers.

Our focus in Social Studies today was on The Five Themes of Geography. We reviewed each theme and discussed examples of each. These themes will apply to all we learn throughout the year in Social Studies. Themes and map skills will be reviewed and practiced as the month goes on.

During Exploratory, this week and next, our sixth graders will visit each sixth grade teacher to become acquainted. Following this brief rotation, the students will be scheduled for their true exploratory sessions. Sixth grade has chosen Wednesday as a make-up day.

In Math today we were introduced to exponents. Remember that an exponent tells us how many times to multiply the number to itself. We also reviewed the many different ways to write numbers.

Today we enjoyed working on the Promethean Board exploring the meaning of observation and inference. The students then created a poster reflecting an inference. Tomorrow we will continue working on the posters and then exchange them.


Homework:
Language Arts - Share "Family Times" paper with your parents! Complete trace +2 for spelling tomorrow. Your quizzes will be next Tuesday.
Social Studies (group 202 only) - Give examples for the theme of "Place" and begin looking for examples from magazines.
Math- Page 10 7-26
Science- continue working on your posters.

Chorus - Bring in form.
Phys.Ed. - Bring in form.