12.8.14 - Day SEVENTY-FOUR

Happy Monday, all!  I hope your weekend was sensational!  Mine?  Well, any with THREE UK wins is a total slam for me :)  (Texas on Friday, UofL [Women's] on Sunday, and EKU on Sunday). We are dropping like flies around here- so many of our babies were out today/ left early with sicknesses, so be on alert and take every precaution necessary in order to avoid coming down with something during this eventful and wonderful time of year!  We are getting so very close to Christmas and the end of school in 2014 which is just bat-crazy, but I want you here and I want you healthy!

Our day was flip flopped with Thursday because of our school Liturgy for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Thus, we followed our normal Thursday schedule and not our Monday schedule and will not be having Mass this Thursday since we had it today.  Confused?  Don't be...we just switched Thursday and Monday- got it?  Good.  :)  Also, congratulations to any 2nd grade aged siblings of ours on Reconciliation!

ADVENT DAY 8 (Monday, December 8, 2014)

Take a familiar Christmas story and adapt it into a reader's theater piece. Enlist the aid of friends or classmates to perform it.

If you did not get a chance to check out some of our Santa Stories (Advent Day 2) that we composed last week, please click HERE.  Students are adding to these as we can per our schedule!

LANGUAGE ARTS BLOCK:
LEARNING TARGET: I CAN analyze and describe the characteristics of a memoir.
Since we just completed a unit in Reading, I did not feel it would be best practice to start a brand new one here in these last few days before Christmas break.  Thus (and since we needed to anyway), we are learning about the Memoir writing piece.  Today, students learned that memoirs describe an author's memory of an important event or series of connected events.  They share the author's experience (most important point/ characteristic of noting) and make better sense of our own lives or feelings through the author's telling of that time.  As readers, we need to consider more than just the events (what happens in the story or to the character/ author) in a memoir; we also need to think about the author's experience (thoughts and feelings) of those events.  An event is something that happens, but an experience is is how the author feels about what is happening and is the most important concept and characteristic of a memoir.  This is difficult to differentiate and move to doing, so we spent today just discussing what memoirs are in this capacity and read an of example one, noting the author's feelings through his experience.

the students recorded this in their Writer's Notebooks

HOMEWORK: Literature Circle readings and roles due by THIS Thursday, Dec. 11th

SCIENCE:
Students in 5T had a quiz, but students in 5S did not, otherwise the majority of focus was within Social Studies.
HOMEWORK: 5S may have a quiz on Wednesday

SOCIAL STUDIES:
Students reviewed and compared the Incas and the Aztecs
HOMEWORK: none

MATH:
LEARNING TARGET: I CAN demonstrate division concepts and my understanding.
Students took their summative assessments over Division.  Skills addressed: Dividing Multi-Digit Whole Numbers by 1- and 2-digit Divisors (with and without remainders); Divisibility Rules; Dividing Money; and Order of Operations.
HOMEWORK: none- we will be beginning FRACTIONS on Wednesday!  MATH 2: Grocery Store Prices Project DUE FRIDAY (Dec. 12th)

RELIGION:
Students went over the Advent of the day and went over a story from the Bible (Luke Chapter 3, verses 1-20).
HOMEWORK: Complete activity on page 319 

REMINDERS:

*READING LOGS are ONLINE this week!  PLEASE be sure to get online and log those minutes and summaries/ comments!
*Chick-fil-A day is Dec. 10th
*Barnes & Noble Book Fair is Dec. 12th (we earn 20% any purchase that uses a voucher.  NOTE: Voucher is attached below!)
*Christmas parties - Dec. 19th (10:45 - 11:45)
*Half-Day of school - Dec. 19th (Dismiss at 12:00 PM)
*Christmas Break is Dec. 22nd - Jan. 2nd (Back at school Jan. 5th, 2015)

Have a magnificent Monday!
Tomorrow is RESOURCE DAY!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas

Christmas is in 17 days and only 8 1/2 days until break!