A Visit from Miss Ellis!

Beginning today, and in the coming weeks, we are happy to welcome Miss Ellis to our classroom. Miss Ellis is a senior at Washington High School and a member of Future Teachers of America. She aspires to be a teacher and is visiting to gain experience and insight into the workings of an intermediate school. She will observe and be involved in our learning activities.

Today, Miss Ellis visited Team Enterprise during McD's Cafe. She took part in Warm Up with Soup, our first menu item of the day. She called out spelling words and we practiced spelling them in teams using our alphabet soup. The winning group won a round of Campbell's Soup in Hand! Our second menu item was a special treat of Chinese cookies from Mr. Hoo's restaurant. Mrs. McIlvaine and Mrs. Haddox were very happy with our great effort in the Wanted poster project, so this was a little reward. As we enjoyed our treat, we listened to Mrs. McIlvaine and Mrs. Haddox discuss the story using their prepared roles, and then we enjoyed our own discussions.

Group discussions were very lively today! Since we are well into the book, many of us are becoming excited about how Mr. Westing's game will end. When Mrs. McIlvaine closed class with a review of roles, we had trouble stopping the discussion. Many hands were in the air, and everyone had something to add. It was great!

Homework:
Language Arts - Read p. 103 - 140 and stop at Ch. 23. Complete your new role.
Room 204 Tech. - Forms are due on Monday.
Science - Balloon-powered cars are due Feb. 7th.
SHARE THE CONTENTS OF YOUR TAKE-HOME ENVELOPE!

Thanks, PFO!

Yesterday, our school was invited to an assembly where we met Jim Basketball Jones. He entertained us, made us think about ourselves, and shared his inspiring story. Rather than give a summary of this story, you can hear it for yourself under links on our blog! We truly enjoyed his visit! Thanks to our P.F.O. for bringing this program!

More news to follow....as our day continues!

In Language Arts, our team practiced identifying details in a passage that were not supportive of the main idea. We looked at a letter sent to the director of a camp by a student having hopes of a counselor position. The student had some supportive details, but at times got off track. We eliminated sentences to help maintain the focus of the letter. We will continue practice with this important writing skill tomorrow.

We read this week's nonfiction selection called Saving the Sound today. It is from a story called Spill! The Story of the Exxon Valdez by Terry Carr. The story helped us to understand the effects that an oil spill has on the environment. The results are truly devastating. Throughout the selection we looked for the use of loaded words that cause an emotional response in the reader. These words are persuasive devices used by the author.

This afternoon, our team took our second benchmark test in Math. We were anxious to show what we know.

Homework:
Language Arts - Be prepared with your reading and role for McD's Cafe tomorrow!
Science: Balloon Cars Parent Slip, signed and returned
Math: R 3-7 and P 3-7

Balloon Cars!

It is the event Team Enterprise has been looking forward to all year! The creation of the Balloon Cars! You can build your car out of anything. It must be able to travel 7 feet, have at least three wheels (wheels are defined as anything that goes around), it must not leave the ground, and be powered by at least one balloon, no more than two. If you follow the guidelines, you will be qualified to enter the race for the best looking car, the fastest car, and the car that travels the farthest! The cars and the green packet that was sent home is all due on February 7th! Be creative and be inventive!
Math classes today reviewed answering open-ended questions. Remember to construct the t-bar and list your work and your explanation. Remember to make a prompt with the label at the end of your answer. Tomorrow we will be putting all our Math knowledge to the test, taking our second Benchmark!

Station time today enabled us to practice fractions, persuasive devices, work on our reading and roles, and vocabulary.

In the afternoon, we were able to vote for our favorite posters! Winners will be rewarded tomorrow! We also attended an excellent assembly that left us inspired about who we are and what we are capable of. Look for more about this assembly on tomorrow's blog.

Homework:
Math: R 3-7, P 3-7
Language Arts: Reading and role for McD's has been pushed to Friday, due to tomorrow's Math Benchmark test. Keep reading!!!

Wanted....Suspicious Characters!

Our team's Wanted posters turned out beautifully! They are on display and will be judged later today by our team, the 6th grade teachers, and Mr. Abbondanza. Many characters are suspected of murdering Mr. Westing for a variety of reasons. We are looking forward to seeing how this game created by Mr. Westing ends.

In Language Arts today, we practiced recognizing special techniques an author uses to persuade, convince, or influence a reader's beliefs. We've learned that they appeal to us through their use of facts and ideas, and they sometimes use loaded words that appeal to our emotions. To practice, we used a short story about humans and how they affect the environment. The author used words that we identified to help us feel a sense of sympathy towards the environment. We identified powerful words in the document and discussed why they had power and how they made us feel. In our next lesson, we will further practice the skill by taking a closer look at Martin Luther King's speech, and we'll identify phrases he used that evoked emotion in those who heard his words. Our next story is about an oil spill, and this new skill will be applied as we read this story.

In Math today, we discovered the many different ways in finding equivalent fractions. We can find equivalent fractions using multiplication, division, and finding the least common denominator. Remember to multiply or divide the numerator and denominator by the same number. Using the Promethean Board, we found success in trying our hands with the different ways.

Team Enterprise is very excited to start building their balloon cars! Today, we will come home with packets of information explaining what Mrs. Haddox expects when we turn our cars in. The cars are to be completed by February 7th. Please read the information in the blue packets and sign the bottom.

Homework:
Math: Practice 3-4 worksheet
Science: Balloon Cars due February 7th. Signed parent letter due Thursday.
E 74- 75 Reading Diagrams
Language Arts - Share "Family Times" paper with your family! Complete trace +2 for your new list of spelling words. Read pages 68-103, stopping at Ch. 18, and complete role for McD's on Thursday.

Yoi.....Double Yoi!! Pittsburgh's going to the Super Bowl!

Everyone is so excited about our Pittsburgh Steelers advancing to the Super Bowl! We were also a bit tired since the game took a lot out of us and ended late. It was a wonderful surprise to have a two hour delay due to the frigid weather.

When everyone arrived, we were excited to find out that our new Exploratory schedule would begin today. We were organized into new groups and visited our first stop in the rotation schedule today. The new Exploratory Stations are Wii/Knitting, Gym Games (dodgeball), School Blog, School Spirit/Fast Math, Board Games, and Math Puzzles.

Since our new nine week period has begun, today was Accelerated Reading Reward Day. Those of us who met our goals went to a movie in Mrs. Dombrowski's room. We saw Night in the Museum 2.

Our special project for The Westing Game was due today! Everyone submitted their Wanted posters, and many of the final products look amazing! Due to the delay and our schedules today, Mrs. Mac will display the posters for voting tomorrow. Everyone will receive a grade based on the elements of the rubric, and the top two posters from each Enterprise room, based on votes, will win gift certificates to Barnes and Noble. Look for a slide show of the posters on our blog tomorrow!

Homework:
Language Arts - Read pages 68-103, stopping at Ch. 18, in The Westing Game. Complete your role for Thursday.