The teachers have a meeting after school on Monday. I will be after school on Tuesday & Wednesday.
Weather permitting, l will be after school on both Tuesday & Wednesday... for extra help or if anyone needs to catch-up. There will a INB check on Tuesday, January 14th, so make sure you are ready to turn in your best work, the best of you & earn yourself a decent grade. FIRST: If there is no school on Friday, Jan. 3rd, the Egypt HW assignment will be due on the next school day. You were given a handout before vacation w/ all the details & you may also find it on parent portal. Hopefully you have already completed it! The CYOAs I have seen are phenomenal! SECOND: Most of you took your INB home before vacation. All INBs MUST be in school. There will be an INB check next week. Be prepared! THIRD: Jan 7th: Stone Age & Mesopotamian Test: Studying 10 minutes a day over 6 days is better for your brain than cramming for 60 minutes the night before.
Thank you for all the holiday gifts. I hope that each of you enjoys your time off from school. See you at the start of the new year. Make the most of 2013.... & 2014 Studying 10 minutes a day over 6 days is better for your brain than cramming for 60 minutes the night before. Study: In INB p 30 - 51 In text book review p. 42 - 63 & 102 - 119 Make use of class web site: Survivor & If You Build It They Will Come Sections Make use of Spelling City Survivor Words & Mesopotamian Words Studying 10 minutes a day over 6 days is better for your brain than cramming for 60 minutes the night before. My cousin Timmy is a navy pilot stationed on the USS Cowpens. When they are not trying to avoid confrontation with the Chinese, he & his crew have been part of the humanitarian aid mission to provide relief & medical evacuation since super Typhoon Hayian hit the Philippines on November 7th. This video was shot by one of his men w/ a helmet camera.
It's a good thing you have this week's reading assignment already! Now you have something to do while you are stuck at home, missing school! Lucky you! Just in case you don't have it: TEXT BOOK – Due Wed., Dec. 11 Read p. 102 – 117 Questions - Answer in complete sentences on lined paper using best ELA skills:
I will reschedule Extra Help for Wednesday this week. Next week I have a meeting on Monday, so Extra Help will be on Tuesday. (If this doesn't work for you, let me know. It's not like I am not after school every day anyway!) The Spelling/Vocab/Map Test has been moved from Dec. 11th to Dec. 16th. (We are bowling on Friday so we can't have it then.) If you want a head start on the words, check out Spelling City & use the Mesopotamia List. This Friday is the 5 week mark for the second quarter. Interim reports will go out next Friday (right at the start of the winter break!). No concerns if you kept that 100 you started with 5 weeks ago. Did you? This is a good time to clean out your binders, folders & lockers. Remember this post? Political Cartoons are a fun way to keep on top of what is currently going on in the world (although the prehistoric ones are pretty funny.) The ability to look at a political cartoon, rip it to pieces (not literally!) & explain it, is a skill & one that will be worked on all year long. Check out our Current Events Page for more information. Feel free to bring some into class.... many of you already are... thanks! If you choose to do it, the CYOA 5 point Advantage Assignment on one of the books you read about ancient Egypt is due Dec. 16th. There will be one more Advantage Assignment coming up. It will be due Jan. 2, 2014, the day we return from vacation. ADVANTAGE ASSIGNMENT: (NOTE: You must complete regular work in order to get credit for ADVANTAGE POINTS!) Advantage Assignments are HW that YOU CHOOSE to do; it’s optional. If you want to do the activity on your own time, go right ahead. When you are finished turn it in to your Class Period Basket. Credit earned for Advantage Assignments will be reflected in your end of the quarter grade. This assignment is worth 5 points & is due December 6, 2013 CYOA = Choose Your Own Adventure – Look on the class web site & pick a 5 point assignment & complete it for 1 of your Egypt Books. Look at the Master Adventure List to see a description of each choice. You heard about it in September. You asked what the heck it was. And now you shall know! CYOA - Choose Your Own Adventure - is a way for YOU to take control over your work. When you complete a CYOA you pick the way you want to complete an assignment. Adventures are designed so that you can find the one that helps you learn best. Happy Travels! Do you know HOW you learn? Take a quick quiz & find out. One you know HOW you learn, you will be able to better choose the adventures that are right for you.
I am testing out a new TIMELINE PROGRAM and would really like some feedback. If it seems to be a worthwhile program we will make use of it this year. If it seems like its not helpful, I will look for something else. Go to the website & play around with the controls & different views you can make use of. Let me know what you think. Is it helpful? Confusing? Useless? Just what you needed to see? Anything else? You can contribute your helpful comments right at the end of this post. Thanks! This third chapter will have us covering a few million years in a few short weeks. There is a lot of new vocabulary to learn and AGES to put into chronological order. You will find using the websites Spelling City & Kids Past to be very helpful. These sites will give you easy to understand definitions.... much better than your textbook & a dictionary.("Dictionaryese" is not a language that is easy to understand!) Don't forget to make use of our Survivor Page, too. There are a lot of great videos & interactive to help get your brain going. DON'T FORGET:
At the beginning of December we will begin discovering Ancient Egypt. In order to help you become more knowledgeable on this fantastically amazing subject, you are going to make at least one trip to the Mahopac Library. (Ah, yes! This is why I needed to have my own library card!) On November 8th, we will be learning how to use the MidHudson Library System to locate & order library books on Egypt. These books will be delivered to the Mahopac Library where you will then go & pick them up. In order to do this you need a library card & an email address that is checked on a regular basis. The number on the front of the card is your library account number. This number will allow you to set up an online library account. To set up an account: 1. Go to the Mahopac Library Web Site located at: http://mahopaclibrarysite.org/ 2. On the left hand side of the screen, click on VIEW YOUR ACCOUNT 3. If you don’t have an online account, choose: FIRST TIME LOGGING IN? 4. This takes you to a page that explains how to set up an online account for your library card (and lots of other things). 5. Once you have set up the account write down your account number (this is your card #) and your password (maybe write them in your HW planner?). Bring them to school on Nov. 8th. Do NOT bring your actual card. On November 8th classes will meet in the computer labs (P1 & 3 in the Dell Lab, P4 & 8 in the Mac Lab). We will then learn how to search for books & other materials that you never knew the library had. The books & other materials will come from over 70+ libraries in the Hudson Valley that are linked into this amazing library system. They will be delivered to the Mahopac Library. An email will be sent to you when the materials arrive & you can go & pick them up. Between now & December first, you need to read a minimum of TWO non-fiction books on Ancient Egypt. Now the Mahopac Library doesn't have a ton of books on Ancient Egypt, but the library is connected to 70+ other libraries that you are entitled to take books out of, so the choices abound. A quick search on the site for ANCIENT EGYPT tells that there are over 800 books on the subject! WOW! We certainly can become expert archaeologists on this subject. Additionally, I spoke with Mrs. Croshier & she has agreed to let you use these books as part of your reading log. (Aren’t you working on biographies? Maybe you can find a biography on a famous Egyptian…King Tut… Queen Nefertari, Queen Nefertiti, Queen Cleopatra VII, Queen Ankhesenamun, Queen Hatshepsut, Rameses I, Rameses II, Rameses III… and lots of others!) You have a week to get ready for your second social studies test. Study INB pages 16 - 27. Review: scale (also in the textbook), all vocabulary, time, geological time, cultural questions & creation vocabulary. Also check the website pages CAN YOU DIG IT & SURVIVOR Remember a few minutes for a few nights is a better way to study than trying to cram it all in the night before! How did the universe, our planet & life come to exist? There are theories, beliefs, myths. Regardless of what you think, it is important that respect is extended to others & what their thoughts are. As we travel through this year we will learn the viewpoints of many different cultures. We may not agree with what they thought/think, but we need to respect what we learn & what they thought/think. Have a conversation with your family & see what they think about how the universe, our planet & life come to exist. If your locker is starting to look like a landfill & your binder has more paper in it than the classroom recycling bin, then its time to do something about it. You can make your life easier if you keep either a second binder or a set of folders (one for each subject) at home. As items are returned to you, take them home (not stuffed in your locker) & file them away until you need them again. (Helpful Hint: The midterm & final exams are cumulative, meaning your tested on everything from the beginning of the year forward.) Some things may just need to go directly to the recycling bin. If your not sure what to do with something... ASK! Yes! The first 5 weeks of school ends on Friday, October 11th. Middle school students receive an interim report @ every 5 week mark. This gives students 5 more weeks to improve before the quarterly report card comes out. 5 weeks is a lot of time to turn it around (if you need to) or hold onto & improve the great grades you earned the first 5 weeks. It's up to YOU! As we begin our next unit, CAN YOU DIG IT? (aka... WHY do we study the past & what exactly do archaeologists do???) it is really important that everyone can identify, label & correctly spell all the continents & oceans. (ELA all the way!) The pretest we took helped each person identify what he/she knows & what needs to be learned. Some need to do some extra work so that they can reach the level of MASTER. This means an extra spelling activity, maybe an extra map activity & a follow-up test on Wed., Oct. 9th. By Oct 10th everyone should be able to identify, label & correctly spell all the continents & oceans... as well as spell & define the 7 other archaeological words. All the words are in the INB as well as on Spelling City. Letterboxes are almost complete. Weather permitting we hide them & then find them next week! Then P6 will find us on Mars... yes, the planet Mars.
Study NOW! Geography Test October 1st. Spending 10 -15 minutes a night for several nights in a row is a better way to study than cramming for an hour the night before. Use the following for studying for the test:
Extra Help is Monday after school. The Homework Center is open Monday - Thursday after school & there are always people who can help. Remember it is up to YOU to ASK for help! |
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Archives
June 2014
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