Hollis Woods!

This afternoon, both classes submitted their final projects, Book Jacket Reports, for Hollis Woods. The books were collected and we were able to enjoy a movie based on the book. We all enjoyed seeing the movie, and Abby shared popcorn and a drink for her birthday. It was the perfect treat. Thanks, Abby!

Math classes started on their concession stands! They are looking good!

Homework:

Language Arts: Spelling and story quizzes for The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World will be given tomorrow. Study.
Science: Covalent and Ionic Bond Worksheet

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were truly amazing structures. Only one of the structures still stands today! We enjoyed learning about why and how they were built in our story today. Above, you will see The Colossus of Rhodes.

Math classes peer revised their concession stand problems searching for mathematical errors. We are ready to create our stands tomorrow!

During our center time today, we worked on a review of Geometry and Algebra, as well as a text structure activity and spelling review.

Homework:
Language Arts - Your book jacket assignment is due tomorrow. Spelling and story quizzes will be on Friday.
Social Studies - Quiz tomorrow. Study Ch. 2, Lesson 2.
Wellness (202): 107, 1-3

Bonding Time!

Science classes are bonding! Ionic and Covalent Bonding, that is! Continuing in science today, we explored how some elements form compounds. Using diagrams, we learned how some electrons can equally share electrons or take them away.

Math classes continued in their creation of their concession stands. We are creating problems based on our items. Today we worked on the bonus question! Tomorrow we will start "building" the stand. Stay tuned for pictures!


Today we built background knowledge and gained a better understanding of our vocabulary for The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. This story also fits in with the topics we've been discussing in Social Studies about the Ancient Egyptian Empires. We saw a film clip in class today about great Egyptians. We are amazed at the structures they we able to build by hand. The interesting work of archaeologists was also depicted in the film. Bits of history are pieced together through their findings!

Our D.A.R.E. essays are coming along fine! We spend a portion of our Writing class working on our paragraphs. Some of us have begun typing our drafts.

Homework:
Science: Covalent and Ionic Worksheet; Periodic Table Lab Sheet (graded)
Language Arts: The Book Jacket assignment for Pictures of Hollis Woods is due on Thursday (5/12/11). Complete spelling practice sheet (both sides) for tomorrow.
Social Studies: Quiz on Thursday for lesson 2. Please study your guides and lesson.

AR Reward!

It was a beautiful day for our AR Reward! The students enjoyed some free time outside. However, we only had a disappointing 5 people from Team Enterprise receive the award today! Even though the school year is winding down, you should still be reading. Remember to bring your AR book to school! Congratulations to Abby, Kate, Keegan, Conrad, and Kayla!


Science classes are learning about the way elements bond. We are understanding what a chemical change is and how it occurs. Mrs. Haddox also talked about Organic Chemistry a bit!

Math classes are creating their concession stands today. We have some very creative names! By working together in small groups, we are helping each other create and solve problems based on our items.

In Language Arts this week, we are studying text structure or the way an author organizes writing for various genres. Our new story, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is non-fiction, so we studied an example of non-fiction text organization today. The short article, Engineering the Land, was set up using section headings, as most of our text books are.

Our new spelling list is a group of words with double consonants. Some have more than one set of double consonants! We will have to apply ourselves this week.

Our study of early kingdoms and empires of Africa continued today. We learned what caused kingdoms to begin and grow, as well as the types of items that were traded. Some were obviously valuable in our eyes, such as gold, while others were surprising; salt. Our study and review will continue tomorrow.

Homework:
Science: Page E 33 questions; lab on Periodic Table due Wednesday
Language Arts: Share new Family Times. Complete both sides of your spelling practice sheet for Wednesday. Your book jacket is due this Thursday.

Happy Mother's Day!

A special thank you to all our moms! May you have a blessed and RESTFUL weekend!



Math classes are getting ready to open their fictitious concession stands. Starting Monday, we will be creating prices and items to "sell" at our stores. Students are encouraged to invent and name their store. So far, we have been quite impressive with our name creations! We will use our math skills to calculate the sales tax and discount on our items.
In Computer Lab today we discovered information about the atoms and elements. We ventured throughout the site http:///www.learner.org.interactives.periodic/. The site also had games for us to play that asked us to create atoms of the elements.
Nutrition is the topic for our Wellness class. We discussed the importance of knowing what is on our Nutritional Labels. After turning in our graphs, we discussed what is included on the labels and why it is so important to our health.

Station work continued today in Mrs. Mac's class. We visited our last two learning centers from Wednesday afternoon. In addition, we enjoyed working on our book jackets for Pictures of Hollis Woods. They are shaping up nicely!

Homework:
Wellness: (204) Nutritional Label Graph due Monday
Science: Periodic Table (from computer lab) graded and due Wednesday
Language Arts: Book Jacket due 5-12
A REMINDER TO ALL STUDENTS TO BRING YOUR OWN PENCILS AND ERASERS TO USE AT SCHOOL, IF YOU HAVE THEM.

Good Day, Sunshine!

It was so nice to see the sun shining through our windows all day! We were beginning to think we'd never see it again!

We were busy, busy, busy at school today! Our essays for D.A.R.E. are beginning to take shape, and we took our quizzes for the story 'A Brother's Promise.' We finished 'Pictures of Hollis Woods' and had our final discussions with our groups about the story. Many of us would definitely recommend the story to others. Quite a few students shared favorite parts with the group today! Our final project for the story is a book jacket report. We began to create it in our Cafe today!

Math classes worked hard today calculating the sales tax in different problems. We need to remember that we add the sales tax on to the subtotal and subtract it when we have a discount. Next week we will be starting our projects!

Wellness classes worked on graphing their nutritional information. Many of us were surprised to see the lack of nutrition in many things that we snack on each day. The graphing is coming along nicely!

Homework:
Language Arts - Book Jacket Report on Pictures of Hollis Woods is due May 12th.
Math: (202) Page 382 only Sales Tax problems; "It is a Bargain!" Worksheet
Wellness: (202) Graph due tomorrow
(204) Graph due Monday

Discount!

We are becoming better shoppers in Math class today! We are learning about how to find the sale price after a discount. I think we can use our knowledge to shop for some new summer clothes! Soon we will be using this information to create fictitious stores for our friends to visit!

Our D.A.R.E. essays are being worked on in Writing. We are thinking about all we've learned about drugs and negative peer pressure. We are forming our organizers with ideas from our books and experiences, as well as the lessons Sergeant Cross has taught. The essays are worth one hundred points in Writing! If we succeed in writing a solid essay and do well on our final exam, we'll be able to attend D.A.R.E. graduation at the Ice-o-plex at Southpoint. We're looking forward to this big event!

Tomorrow is our final discussion of Pictures of Hollis Woods! We have truly enjoyed this story!

Homework
Math: (202) Page 382, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12
(204) Page 382, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12; page 402, 1, 3, 5, 7
Science: (202) Element Scavenger Hunt
(204) Science Test
Wellness: (202) Nutritional Facts Graph (worth 30 points! Do your best!) Due Friday
Language Arts: Study your vocabulary for A Brother's Promise. Also, review the story and your spelling list. Quizzes will be in the morning tomorrow. Prepare your role based on the final pages of Pictures of Hollis Woods. Be ready for tomorrow.