April 25-29

Monday: Our new spelling list is List 18: #21-30.  We worked on apostrophes today, read, and completed a comprehension guide with our reading.

Homework: Spelling homework is due on Thursday

Tuesday: We worked on capitalization and took notes.  We also listened to the audio for most of Act 2, pausing for clarification and to react.

Wednesday: We worked on capitalization this morning, finished the first two pages of a listening and responding, and almost finished Act 2.  The students asked today why we’re working on listening activities.  They are part of language arts standards to help up us become effective communicators.

Homework: Finish Act 2

Thursday: We worked on grammar and then read the rest of Act 3 together.

Friday: Students took a spelling test and we did a final worksheet and discussion activity on the play.  We won’t meet together for language arts until May 9th due to Iowa Basics.  When we meet again, we’ll be watching the movie.  Take this time off to get caught up in any missing work.

April 25-29

Monday: This morning we read about the circumstance of Jesus calling the disciples and did a journal entry.  The students noticed that a number of people in the Bible have more than one name, like Matthew… or is it Levi?  In language arts, we read chapter 8 and worked on a worksheet for chapter 8 (don’t do problem 3 until tomorrow).  Later we practiced spelling (list 13: #1-10).  We read about the fall of the Roman republic and the Ides of March.  We watched the video below and filled in thought bubbles for the famous painting “The Death of Julius Caesar” by Vincenzo Camuccini.  Afterwards we worked on our science projects (either the Cup Song or the skit).

Homework: Spelling homework is due on Thursday.  Remember to stay caught up in your reading and worksheets for The Bronze Bow.

Tuesday: We finished the last story in our journal unit on Jesus healing on the Sabbath.  We talked about the Pharisees and their strict reliance on the law instead of making their hearts right before God.  Next we read about Judas Maccabeus, completed a characterization activity, and had a little time to free read.  In grammar mini, we played a game to work on a new set of vocab words (remember that these may show up on Friday’s spelling test- hint, hint).  After that we were very luck to have the BSU girl’s soccer team come work with all the students.  What fun!  If you’re bored tonight, take a look at this silly Bronze Bow game.  I wonder how many students can get to the end?!

Wednesday: Our chapel speaker shared about her families’ mission work in Turkey.  She used Luke 10 for a model we can follow to evangelize to other (bless, fellowship, meet needs, and share the good news) and asked that we pray for a house church to start with a family they met this past December.  Later we worked on capitalization and read chapters 9-10 in The Bronze Bow.  We presented on the water cycle and wrote about what we’ve learned.  Then we learned the difference between then and than, making a quiz for a friend.  Remember that then has an e and so does time.  Than has an a and so does comparison.  I would rather be hugged (then, than) be eaten.  Which is correct?  Lastly, we read about Octavian’s reign during Pax Romana.  We made paper doll Roman soldiers and listened to the legionaries’ equipment.  Did you know that their whole gear weighed about 90 pounds?  Crazy!

Thursday: This morning we wrote our own study guide for tomorrow’s Bible quiz.  We read chapter 11 in class together and worked on more grammar skills with capitalization.  In the afternoon we finished reading the unit on Rome and filled out study guide pages 140-141 in the workbook.  We also completed stations on the nitrogen cycle.  The stations showed us how nitrogen can move from place to place.

Friday: We took a Bible quiz today using our study guides and Bibles.  We also had reading buddies, a spelling and vocab quiz, followed by going over

April 18-22

Monday: This morning we started a new unit.  We did research on the Victorian Era.  This will provide context for the play we’re going to read next.  7th graders need to write 2 paragraphs and 8th graders 3 paragraphs on marriage, engagement, and society in the Victorian Era.  Luckily they’ve already learned about much of this in history with Mrs. J!  We also looked over our spelling list for this week (List 18: #11-20).

Homework: Spelling homework is due Thursday

Tuesday:  We watched the Horrible Histories below and worked on vocab words that will show up in the play.  7th graders picked 7 words to make flashcards for and 8th graders 8 words.  We also discussed a little more about Victorian society.

Wednesday: We went through a pre-reading activity discussing a few questions and trying to find personality traits solely based on the character’s names.  We also started reading the play, noticing Wilde’s wit and subtle humor that comes through in his writing.  We left off on a cliff-hanger, not knowing who Jack, Earnest, and Cecily truly are.

Homework: 2 paragraphs of writing on the Victorian Era are due, flashcards are due

Thursday: We made cucumber sandwiches in class today for a Victorian snack (and they keep talking about it in the first act!).  We also read more in the book and discovered that Algernon also has a secret friend named Bunbury, just as Jack has Earnest.  We finished the period with working through a comprehension/visualization sheet on this section of text.

Homework: Spelling homework is due.  Sheet from today is due tomorrow.

Friday: We took a spelling test and read to page 15 in The Importance of Being Earnest.  We completed a worksheet and took home an apostrophe worksheet for homework.

Homework: Apostrophes

April 18-22

Monday: This morning, we started a new unit, but we’re just continuing without taking a unit quiz.  We covered Jesus’ second miracle in Cana where he heals an official’s son.  We noted how his miracle at the wedding helped strengthen his disciples’ faith while this miracle strengthened the faith of the gentiles.  In language arts, we continued to work on who vs whom and started reading chapter 5.  This afternoon, we read pages 176-178, viewed a PowerPoint and a video clip, and completed notes and a worksheet.  Lastly, we did spelling practice in groups.  Our list is List 12: 31-35, 5, 9, 16, 17, and 18.

Homework: Spelling homework is due Thursday

Tuesday: We read about how Jesus drove out demons and healed Peter’s mother-in-law.  This unit we are completing journal entries with our reactions to the stories and we did that as well.  In language arts, we finished reading chapter 5 and writing our 3 paragraph essay.  The students worked on a peer editing sheet to help correct mistakes in a friend’s writing.  In the afternoon, we finished up our vocab flashcards from last week and the food chain pictures we started in art.  I will give a small grade for this art project since it relates to what we’re covering in science. We also played a game simulating the ecosystem and how over/under population affects a small scale ecosystem.  We reflected on that with an exit ticket and then worked on Roman roads for the rest of the day.  We made an edible model of a Roman road, took notes on what the layers of our model represent, and we read about how the roads were built.  We viewed some pictures, and predicted what the larger stones in the middle were for.  Some predictions were a walking path or to prevent horses to enter an area.

Wednesday: This morning we didn’t have a chapel speaker so we worked on the next story of Jesus’ ministry: when he healed a paralytic who was lowered through the roof of a building he was teaching in.  During language arts, we read chapter 6 with a friend and worked through comprehension task cards as we read.  In the afternoon, we read pages 182-185 in our science textbooks on adaptations.  We then created a creature coming up with our own adaptations and created an image of it with torn construction paper.  We also worked on adjectives in grammar mini and finished our court case in Heritage even though one of our defendants was absent.  Packets on this case should be turned in, completely filled out.

Mystery Revealed: The raised stones on the road were stepping stones for pedestrians.  On some roads, they made small grooves in the road so carts would follow the intended paths around the city.  The grooves were probably deepened through years of use.

Homework: Make sure Heritage court case packet is completely finished

NOTE: Tomorrow we will be watching a video on Rome in class.  Students may bring blankets or a snack to share.  Both are optional, but I will be providing popcorn for a fun mid-week pick-me-up!

Thursday: This morning we read about 1st century fishing and the miracle Jesus performs with the disciples.  We talked about the act of faith it would take to leave everything behind and follow Jesus.  We  reflected on the story with journal writing and prayed in small groups.  Later we learned about apostrophes.  Some rules seem easy, but it gets complicated!  For example:  When talking about plural possessive of Jones, we would be correct in saying Joneses’ – isn’t that crazy!  We also did a worksheet on chapters 6 and 7 of the Bronze Bow.  We watched a documentary on the Punic Wars with blankets and popcorn!  We learned about the amazing bravery and determination of Hannibal’s march through the Alps with elephants to get to Rome.  We also worked on adjectives for Grammar Mini and learned about the water cycle.  Students acted out the cycle in partner groups and we’ll be learning a version of the cup song on the water cycle tomorrow.  Get excited!

Friday: The first thing we did today was 3rd quarter honor roll.  Congratulations to those who made it, but the year isn’t over.  We still have an opportunity to finish strong if making honor roll is important to you.  We worked through Matthew’s call and practiced ancient banquet etiquette.  We had reading buddies, finished writing in our Bible journals, took a spelling test, and did apostrophes.  In grammar mini, we wrote a short story using at least one singular possessive and a plural possessive.  The kids came up with some very creative pieces (from vengeful hamsters to cucumber giraffes).  We read pages 236-241 in our Heritage textbooks reviewing the Punic Wars from yesterday and did workbook pages 134-135.  Students can do the essay for extra credit.  Lastly, we split in two groups to either do a Water Cycle Cup Song or create an interview with different parts of the water cycle.

Homework: Heritage workbook pages if not finished in class

April 11-15

Monday: Welcome back students to the last quarter of school and a chance to finish strong with a blank slate!  This morning, we read the passage on Jesus’ first miracle at Cana.  Last Friday we read about marriage during Bible times and learned that people could get married really young!  During language arts, we worked on subject and object pronouns to warm up and all the work with chapters 1 and 2 of the Bronze Bow.  I assigned a new activity of drawing a map of ancient Israel and surrounding area so we can get an idea of where the story is taking place.  In the afternoon, we worked on spelling list 12: #21-30.  We took an exam in Heritage and turned study guides in.  We also finished our biome projects and put them together.  Tomorrow we will share facts on our biome with the class and move on to ecosystems.

Homework: Students need to be finished with chapter 1 and 2 work of the Bronze Bow and the map for tomorrow.  Spelling homework is due Thursday.  

Note: Permission slips for Wednesday’s field trip are being sent home today.  If your child did not receive a permission slip, they did not have all their work turned in by the end of the 3rd quarter.  Students staying behind will be required to work.

Tuesday: This morning we read about the pharisees, Sadducees, and the Sanhedrin.  We learned that the pharisees followed the written law and an oral law of additional rules to follow (for example, they weren’t allowed to swat flies or comb their hair on the Sabbath).  We ended with reading about Nicodemus and taking a pop quiz.  We covered more on pronouns and how to use them correctly after linking verbs.  Did you know that the sentence, “The winner of the election is he” is correct?  Remember to switch the sentence around to check if it fits (The winner of the election is he.  He is the winner of the election.).  We also discussed the chapters we read in The Bronze Bow and completed a review of chapter 2.  During grammar mini, we worked on vocab flashcards over 6 words in the first two chapters.  The students shared their biome projects after that, and we started the unit on Ancient Rome with a look into the geography.  We read about Romulus and Remus, geography, and worked on an ad to come to Rome.

Homework: Biome projects need to be turned in now.  We’re moving on from chapters 1&2 tomorrow.

Wednesday: Our chapel speaker talked to us about the promises of a long, happy life if we obey our parents in the lord and keep from telling lies and speaking evil.  For language arts, we went over a formative assessment on pronouns.  We also read chapter 3 of The Bronze Bow with a partner.  After that, it was off to the play!

 

April 11-15

Monday: Today we looked at how white space affects a poem’s rhythm, flow, and meaning by reading the poem “Foul Shot” in paragraph format and how it was originally written.  The students did a short assessment on the poem, which we corrected together in class.  For the second half, the students finished up poetry stations.  There should be 6 sheets of paper that they filled out along with writing on the world’s longest poem (Jabberwocky poem, annotations on Jabberwocky, stream of consciousness poem, figurative language colored paper poem, found poetry, smart station vocab).  This is the last day we will work on stations in class.  Expect the poetry exam on Friday of this week.

Homework: All poetry stations finished and turned in

Tuesday: We talked about parallelism in Hebrew poetry.  We talked through synthetic, antithetical, climactic, and synonymous parallelism and examined how those forms of poetry are used in scripture.  The students completed a worksheet to practice.  These concepts will show up on the study guide for the poetry exam tomorrow.  It’s important to recognize these literary features as we study scripture and appreciate the psalms and other poetry.

Wednesday: The students wrote thank you notes to their science fair judges.  We also worked on study guides for the poetry unit.  Here is a brief explanation of the impact of white space.  You can read it for a simple review before the exam if that’s a concept you struggle with. One of the more difficult concepts is voice.  This is a long lesson plan, but it would be beneficial to look over if you struggle with voice in poetry.  I like their explanation of voice, that it’s “your personality and resonance flowing in print.”

Homework: Poetry exam on Friday

April 4-8

Monday: We went over the video below to review everything we’ve learned about sonnets.  We also viewed a section of a Ted Talk on how iambic pentameter is used in music today.  The students have an opportunity for extra credit by identifying iambic pentameter in song lyrics of their choice.  This will be due Friday.  For the rest of the day, we reviewed our spelling list for the week and spent our last days working in small groups to write our sonnet.

Homework: Spelling homework is due Thursday (list 18: #1-10) and extra credit is due Friday.  Students need to print their query letters by the end of the quarter if that’s missing.

Tuesday: We watched two poetry presentations and noticed how different it is to watch poetry being performed than to read it.  We met in groups to warm up our bodies and voices, we chose a poem to perform, and we practiced our performance.  Each group was given a chart to think through their performance (what they’ll do for intonation, gestures, etc) and that is due tomorrow when they present.

Homework: Presentations and presentation packets are due tomorrow

Wednesday: We performed our poetry (the groups did amazing!), and we started poetry stations.  Students were put into groups of 2-3 and will be working on these stations for a few days.

Thursday: We warmed up with comma practice and then moved into stations.  Students should be finished with the world’s longest poem station, the Jabberwocky, and a stream of consciousness poem.

Homework: Spelling test is tomorrow.  Make sure everything is in for the end of the quarter tomorrow.  Check Engrade at home if needed

April 4-8

Monday: This morning we talked through our baptism reflections.  If this hasn’t been filled out, it needs to be turned in tomorrow.  In language arts, we wrote down points that will be on tomorrow’s poetry exam.  We practiced finding elements that will show up on the test, like figurative language and rhyme scheme.  In the afternoon, we worked on our new spelling list, made sure we finished all the poetry stations, and we went over the poetry study guide.  Our last Greek column group presented, we read to the end of the chapter, and we started research for a biome project.  I had the students each draw an animal cookie to determine what type of biome they’ll have.  We did research in the computer lab today, and we will start the project tomorrow.  We’ll be making a tunnel book with a haiku poem (a great connection between Heritage and language arts!).  Here is what they’ll look like:

Homework: Poetry stations and study guide are due tomorrow.  Spelling list is 12: #11-20 (homework is due Thurs)

Thursday: This morning we read about the temptation of Jesus and started working on a worksheet to go along with it.  We also completed an adverb practice and continued to read and work on a packet for the Bronze Bow.  We are starting this new unit to coincide with our upcoming unit on Rome.  The story is a Biblically-based historical fiction that I hope we really enjoy!  We also spent a little time working and getting caught up during grammar mini for the end of the quarter tomorrow.  We worked more on our biome projects and Heritage study guides.  Students who finished the guides early studied with a partner.  The exam will be tomorrow.

Homework: Study guides are due tomorrow after the exam

Congratulations to one of our own for making it in the Sunday paper!  The 5th graders submitted their Create-An-Ad project a few weeks ago and the results are in.