March 29- April 1

Monday: No School

Tuesday: This morning we took a quiz on vocab words we covered last week and corrected it in class.  We went over our new spelling list (correspondence, controversy, nonprofit, noncommittal, noncontagious, fatuous, jejune).  We will only have 7 words this week as it is a shorter week.  The last thing we did today was go to the computer lab to work on query letters and submissions for the children’s books we wrote recently.  We’ve talked through the process of getting published and now we are learning the steps to become a published author.  I think it’s important to demystify the publishing process (it’s really not that hard!).  Students need to print off one query letter and turn in their children’s book with illustrations by Friday of this week.

Homework: Spelling homework is due Thursday.  Query letter is due by Friday, April 1st

Wednesday: We examined what makes a sonnet.  We took some notes as a class looking for iambic pentameter and rhyme scheme.  The students made notes on two sonnets (identifying meter, line, rhyme scheme, quatrains, and couplets).  They also chose one poem to annotate.

Homework: Today’s annotations and notes are due tomorrow with spelling homework

Thursday: We listened to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 and examined its meaning.  We looked went through a packet and worked through a visualization activity.  In the second half of class, we met in groups to start working on writing a sonnet.  Each student was given a sheet of examples of stressed and unstressed words with different syllables.  They should use that sheet to help them write their sonnet in the correct iambic pentameter.

Friday: We took a spelling test and were quizzed on the definition of a sonnet.  Students met in their groups to continue working on their sonnets.  Most students remarked about the difficulty of sonnet writing, and I hope we learn to appreciate the work that goes into writing this type of poetry.  Shakespeare was incredibly talented

March 29- April 1

Monday: No School (Happy Easter Break!)

Tuesday: This morning we filled out a worksheet review of Jesus’ birth and childhood.  During language arts we worked on prepositional phrases and started poetry stations.  We will be working on these stations this week and compiling our best work for poetry books.  In grammar mini we worked on thinking through synonyms for “said” that would be more descriptive.  Students used thesauruses and their noggins and came up with some wonderfully descriptive words!  In Heritage we worked on John 3:16 in Ancient Greek.  We wrote down the verse in Greek and translated it.  We also read about education and drama in Greece and read pages 214-217.  Lastly, we read 142-145 in the new unit on biomes.  We used the Greek practice of democratic voting and decided to work in partner groups to read and talk about 2 things we learned about tundra and two things we learned about coniferous forests.

Wednesday: Today’s chapel speaker gave a salvation message.  She talked about how we don’t need to change anything before accepting God’s gift of salvation.  In language arts, we played a preposition game called “Clumsy Clem” and were reminded that prepositions are anywhere a squirrel can go (we also noticed that sometimes prepositions show time like during and after, but don’t forget that oddball preposition with!).  We completed two more poetry stations and shared with our groups.  During grammar mini, we started a grammar menu project.  We extended this project into science while still finishing the board.  Lastly, we read pages 221-222 in our Heritage textbooks and looked at Greek architecture.  We started planning for a project where we’ll be building Greek columns that need to support a textbook.  We’ll work on this tomorrow.

NOTE: Our class will be judged first for science fair.  Each student will be asked questions by the judges starting at 4 pm.  This should take about an hour.  If students want to be picked up around 5 and not stay the whole time, that would be fine.  After all the judging, there will be a time where families can view the project so you can either stay for that or go after being judged. 

Thursday: This morning we talked about baptism.  We will be filling out a reflection on either our memory of our baptism or our thoughts about whether we’d like to be baptized in the future.  Students have a few days to think about it, ask families about their views, and write their reflections.  During language arts, we finished the last of our poetry stations, updated our log books, and made sure we were ready for science fair by having a completed research paper.  In the afternoon, we practiced for science fair to prepare for questions the judges might ask and tested our Greek columns.  Everyone did wonderfully on being judged!  Great job 5th and 6th graders on making it through science fair!

Friday: In the morning, we read about the history of John the Baptist and his background recorded in Matthew and Luke.  What an interesting man!  During language arts, we looked over our judging sheets (these can go home now), we had reading buddies, and we chose a poem that we’d like to publish in a class book.  In the afternoon, we watched a Bill Nye video on climate (noting how climate is affected by mountains, oceans, and how directly the sun hits a particular latitude).  We read the rest of the biome unit; this is mostly information that we’ve learned in previous years, but we read through the unit to review.  Finally, we made sure we recorded and measured everything we needed for our Greek column project.

Homework: Baptism sheet is due on Monday

March 21-24

Monday: This morning we read page 89 in our Bible textbook about education in Jesus’ time.  We also read the section in the Bible about Jesus’ visit to the temple and completed a worksheet.  One question that came up in our discussion is why Jesus’ parents didn’t know he was lost right away.  According to Bible Gateway’s commentary, the trip to Jerusalem was an annual event for Jesus’ family.  Only the men were required to make the pilgrimage, so Mary comes shows her dedication to her faith.  Since Jerusalem is 80 miles from Nazareth, it would have been a 3 day journey.  Possible answers for why his parents didn’t notice he was gone is that they assumed he was with friends/relatives.  Some also suggest that the children traveled separately from the men.   This morning we took notes on mood, tone, and personification.  The students chose a tone and wrote a short stanza in that tone for a friend to identify.  We have wonderfully creative students, and I hope they share these poems at home!  We also worked more in-depth on personification with a partner activity and an individual analysis of a couple poems with personification.  This afternoon, the students started putting together a short lesson on complex, compound, and simple sentences.  They will share these lessons with the rest of the class this week.  We also finished reading through the weather unit.  This is a challenging unit that’s been interrupted with science fair.  I encourage students to be skimming through the unit on their own to do well on the upcoming exam.  Finally, we compared and contrasted the Persian Wars with the Peloponnesian War.

 

Homework: No spelling this week, personification worksheet is due on Wed., Science exam will be Thursday of this week

March 7-11

Monday: This morning we started a kindness week in Bible class.  Each student drew a name of someone in the class to bless this week.  They don’t have to buy anything, but I would like them to show acts of kindness in their speech, serving others, and praying for that classmate.  My hope for our class is that we’ll slowly shift our focus to others and grow in self-awareness.  During language arts, we started a new unit on poetry.  We filled out an anticipation guide, wrote a bio poem, and talked through the characteristics of poetry.  In the afternoon, we started another new unit on ancient Greece with an introductory poem “To Helen” by Edgar Allan Poe.  We also read in our textbook describing the geography of Greece and filled out wb page 115 section B.  Finally, we watched a Bill Nye video on the atmosphere and filled out new learnings.

Homework: Bio Poem is due tomorrow, spelling homework Thursday 

Tuesday: We viewed a slideshow on Kindness to give some concrete examples of how to show kindness this week.  We also filled out a quiz on how much we knew about the Christmas story.  There were some surprises in there (like the number of wise men).  In the morning we also looked at the parts of a poem and had some time to free read poetry.  In the afternoon, we learned five new vocab words and wrote a story using the words.  We also did some reading, workbook pages in science and in Heritage.

Wednesday: This morning our chapel speaker spoke to us about the helmet of salvation and how it’s something we don’t have to earn but receive.  In language arts, we paused our poetry unit to participate in the Create-An-Ad contest.  We are working on advertisements for local businesses that may show up in Bemidji’s Pioneer.  During grammar mini, we took notes on subordination conjunctions.  We will take a quiz on them next grammar Wednesday.  Next we viewed a PowerPoint on the Trojan War and took notes.  We finished the day with reading about clouds and precipitation.  I hope we can finish this unit with an appreciation of the beauty of God’s creation and how AMAZING it is!  Check out these snowflakes and upward lightning

Thursday: Click here for Spanish lessons

Here are the requirements for the cloud project: Go into PowerPoint.  You will need a definition of your cloud type, a description of what it looks like and it’s general altitude, any interesting facts you can find on your cloud type, five photo slides, and one video.