A Frosty Friday

We woke up to a real feeling of winter today! Zero degrees! Brrrr! Luckily, school got us thinking, and we warmed up quickly.

Today was the last day of the second nine week period. We are half way to becoming seventh graders, and it's hard to believe. This also means that next week, in addition to receiving report cards, we'll be starting new related arts classes. Next Friday is the talent show too, so there's a lot to look forward to.

In Language Arts, we enjoyed talking about warmer places, such as southern beaches, where sea turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. Words for the day included jellyfish, driftwood, tentacles, wary, and spar. While we enjoyed the story, Mrs. Mac pulled students to listen to them read and test fluency.

We had a chilly fire drill in the afternoon, but everyone did a great job of exiting quickly! Please read the letter in our Friday communicator envelope from Mr. Chambers.

Homework:
Reading - Read through October in The Wednesday Wars and complete your role.
Math - Law of the Donut Fraction Hunt due Tuesday.
Social Studies - Dinner and Dialogue on Tuesday.
NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY FOR STUDENTS! TEACHERS HAVE A CLERICAL DAY. SEE YOU TUESDAY!

Paying Attention - Signs of Bullying

How can you tell if someone is being bullied? How can you help? Today's class meeting involved taking a closer look at obvious and subtle signs of bullying. We learned about questions we can use when we suspect bullying and how to be an active listener. Our responsibility extends beyond our group of friends, and there are so many ways to show someone we care. Showing someone kindness can produce a domino effect. Above are pictures of our class skits during our meeting today. We had fun acting, but we also learned how to pay attention to clues.

Our cafe went off without a hitch today! We enjoyed our Hawaiian punch and discussed September, the first section of our novel. It's easy to relate to Holling and all he is experiencing with his teacher. We had many thoughts about the "perfect house" he lives in and the feelings he has about his teacher not liking him. We're looking forward to reading on, and we hope that our thoughts about his teacher turn out to be wrong. Next week, we'll be starting a new fun project relating to the story called "For the Record!"

Homework:
Reading - Read October in The Wednesday Wars! Complete your new role for next Thursday.
Math - worksheet
Social Studies - Dinner and Dialogue due Jan. 24th. Study your lesson on the people of the Caribbean. Quiz tomorrow.
Science - Quiz tomorrow

The Day of the Turtle

Our Language Arts lesson today was about visualizing. When we were little, our stories were filled with pictures and very few words. Now, most of our stories have very few pictures, and some have none at all. Where are the pictures? They are in our minds! Authors use imagery or vivid words and phrases to create these pictures in our minds. Today, we studied examples of imagery, vivid words, and sensory details. Our new story, called The Day of the Turtle, is about a girl who tries to save a sea turtle. We're looking forward to the story.

Tomorrow, we will have our cafe! We'll be discussing the first chapter (September) of The Wednesday Wars. Everyone needs to be ready for their first role with their new group.

Students did a great job applying rules for forming possessive nouns today. This week, we'll move on to comma rules - commas with nouns in a series.

Our Dinner & Dialogue is fast approaching! Each group will need to include at least 20 facts in their dialogue! Be creative!

Homework:
Reading - Share Family Times paper! Be ready with reading and role for tomorrow's cafe discussions.
Spelling - Trace +2 practice
Social Studies - Dinner and Dialogue due 1/24/12. Study new study guide. Quiz on Friday.
Science - Quiz on Friday.

Cecil Intermediate's Geography Bee

Congratulations to Brad for his win in today's Geography Bee! We all enjoyed listening to the questions and trying to come up with the answers. All of the contestants representing each classroom did a fine job.

Today we used the mighty apostrophe to form possessive nouns in sentences. Possessive nouns show that one or more persons, places, or things have or own something. We focused on applying three rules: #1 - Add ('s) to form the possessive of most singular nouns. Ex.: The farmer's barn was in disrepair. #2 - Add ('s) to form the possessive of plural nouns that do not end in s. Ex.: Discovering the mice's nest was a shock to my mom. #3 - Add only an apostrophe (') to form the possessive of plural nouns that end in s. Ex.: My parents' reaction to my good grades made me happy. Many did very well with applying these rules. We are continuing our practice this evening.

Homework:
Reading - Read the first chapter (September) in The Wednesday Wars. Complete your role.
Math - Study for tomorrow's chapter test.
Writing - Grammar p. 38 (1-10) and 39 (1-15)
Social Studies - Dinner and Dialogue due on the 24th of this month.
Science - Extra credit due on Wednesday.
Related Arts - Pick painting or drawing to be in the art show.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

"At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mr. O'Grady's Visit

We were thrilled today to receive a visit from Cambria's dad, Mr.O'Grady, who has served our country for 20 years as a navigator and bombardier on B52s in the U.S. Air Force. Mr.O'Grady shared a Powerpoint presentation of pictures and film clips of the history of flight and his travels. He was once on a flight that went completely around the world! He says that his job in the Air Force has been very satisfying!

Thank you for sharing with us, Mr.O'Grady! Thank you for your service to our country!

Homework:
Reading - Read September in The Wednesday Wars and complete your role for Thursday.
Social Studies - Complete question #6 on pg. 72. Use a Venn Diagram to generate and organize your ideas. Answer the question in paragraph form. Dinner and Dialogue is due on Jan. 24th.

A Blast From the Past

Personalize your own free picture slideshow

Remembering the '60s was a big part of Language Arts today, as we enjoyed a kick-off to our new cafe novel called The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. Ms. Rader and Mrs. Mac combined our groups for this introduction. In the beginning, Ms. Rader and Mrs. Mac sat at a table in front and reminisced about attending elementary school in the '60s. Stories were told of how school was run, games that were popular, family schedules, television, music, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, and the Vietnam War that was seen and reported on the news. In addition, the slideshow above was shown, along with clips of the first Bewitched and I Love Lucy. We're excited to begin the book, which is divided into months for chapters. Next week, we'll have cafe and discuss the first month (September), as told by the main character Holling who is in seventh grade. We are looking forward to reading!

Today's class meeting was about courage and responding to bullying with courage. Since we are observing Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday and will not be in school, Mrs. Mac shared a story about this courageous man who led people who were being bullied. Dr. King believed in peaceful demonstrations during the Civil Rights Movement, as opposed to responding with aggression. He had a dream that everyone would be treated equally that was not fully realized before his death. In the face of bullying, we hope to show courage with options that were discussed in class today. Showing courage is difficult. Sometimes people feel that it's easier to do nothing than to do what they think is right. We hope to do what is right.

Group 308 visited Mrs. Shuman in the Library today for a lesson. Today is her birthday, and we all wish her a happy one.

Homework:
Reading - Please read September of The Wednesday Wars for next Thursday, Jan. 19th. Complete your assigned role.
Math - Finish benchmark practice packet
Social Studies - Study lesson on the Caribbean (section2). Complete Dinner and Dialogue for Jan. 24th.
Wellness - Toothpaste Drawing is due tomorrow.
Related Arts - Music Ace assignment is due tomorrow.