Teacherease Update

Well I never thought I would say this...but BOY!!! I am so happy teacherease is back!!! I will continue to put the updates on the blog and directions for projects as well, but now you will have updates coming to you through email too. Grades closed today for progress reports, but grades will continue to be updated. I have handed out the October book orders. I am asking for these to be returned by Tuesday, October 14th. These orders are also online. You can order books online and pay with your credit card. When you order online there is also the opportunity for discount books not advertised in the flyer. If you do order books, they still come to school and I will hand them out. There are some important books this month. Grade 7 will need FEVER 1793 this year and this book is available in the TRC flyer. Grade 8 is because there are three books they need available. In TRC there is RED KAYAK (which is our next book) and TOUCHING SPIRIT BEAR. In TAB there is NIGHT. Ordering from Scholastic is easy and you dont have to worry about going to the book store and trying to find the book. There is also a great program in the CLICK flyer for both 7th and 8th grade. It is called INSPIRATION. Inspiration is a graphic organizing program that helps students to organize their information and also allows students to use visuals to help them study. YOu can check it out online first at www.inspiration.com. I really love this program. There are templates online for almost every subject. The program is $50 but it is money well spent if your child learns through visuals and organizers. Please take a look at these great flyers and see if there is anything you would like.

Grade 7: Well we are coming into the home strech of our first book. THE CAY is going well and students will have their first quiz this week. We also started to act out some scenes. Ask the kids about the tent and raft! The next book we will read is THE MIDWIFES APPRENTICE by Karen Cushman. We will start this in a few weeks. Mrs. Comer is coming in on Wednedays and will be co-teaching an enrichment unit on the newspaper. It is a great chance for kids to become more aware of world, national, and local happenings and to get a better understanding of the makeup of a newspaper. We will also- hopefully- be creating our own newspaper during our studies.
Homework:
10/6 - Read chapters 4 +5 and complete vocabulary for chapters 4-5
10/7 - Read chapters 6-9 and complete vocabulary for chapters 6-8 (this is due Thursday) quiz on Thursday
10/8 - ( homework is assigned by Mrs. Comer today)
10/9 - Newspaper vocab., Read chapters 10-13 and complete vocab. Complete setting cinquain/drawing. YOu will need watercolor paints for Tuesday. (This is all due on Tuesday)
10/14 - Read chapters 17-19 Study for test on Friday
10/15 - study for test Friday
10/16 - study for test tomorrow

Grade 8: THE GADGET seems to be a winner! The kids seem to like it and we are almost done. We read the book FAITHFUL ELEPHANTS today and got to watch a documentary on the atomic bomb and the distruction it caused in Japan. We have talked about the bombings and what their opinions are on using the atomic bomb. They have very insightful thoughts. We are going to be starting Speech next week, working on ADs and Propganda. The students will be creating a license plate encouraging education. We are also going to begin our next book in a couple of weeks. It is RED KAYAK. I loved this book and it took me all of five hours to read. It is non-stop mystery and action! I am excited to have added it to the list this year.

Homework:
10/6 - Read chapters 11-13
10/7 - Read chapters 14-16, complete elephants
10/8 - Read chapters 17-19
10/9 - 10/10 - study for test on Wednesday
10/17 - create rough draft of license plate


Okay...so that is it for the moment. If I think of anything else I will let you know. If you have any questions for me, please let me know. -Ms. P