Reading, Economics and Research Writing

Spelling
We WILL have spelling this week.  Menus are due on Thursday.  Test day is Friday.

Reading
We have been mixing things up in reading.  I have used our last set of benchmarks to target student needs.  Our groups have been changing weekly as we work on poetry, expository, biography, summary, context clues, cause and effect, procedural texts, etc.

When they are not in a small group with me, they are working at stations designed around what concept they need reinforced.  

Reading passages are still coming home each week.  They should be in the homework folder on Monday and are due Friday.  It is IMPERATIVE that everyone practices the format for the test.  We have SUPER readers this year and I don't want the format of the test to hinder their ability.

Also, we still have 20 minutes of nightly reading for homework.  Many students have been letting this slide.  Please help your child stay strong in his or her commitment to homework for these last few months of school.

Writing
Students selected three planets that they would be interested in researching and writing about this 9 weeks.  Everyone has been assigned a planet, the sun, or the moon.  We have now spent two weeks learning about researching and researching.  Last week we working on writing our introduction paragraph for our research paper.  This week, we will learn about topic sentences and begin writing and revising the various paragraphs that will make up the body of our paper.

SOCIAL STUDIES
ECONOMICS

Our test on personal economics will be Tuesday, April 15.  Review sheets and vocabulary will come home Tuesday, April 8.  Students are welcome to take home Social Studies Journals to help them study each night.  Please make sure that the journals come back to school.  We will add notes and ideas to them each day.