Dear Room 705 Families:
Three weeks remain in the second quarter of school. Next week we will have a short assembly on Thursday, December 3 from about 8:30-9:00 AM regarding sixth grade camp. All parents are invited to attend, watch a brief video about sixth grad camp, and ask questions. A list of camp supplies went home with students today.
Social Studies: Ancient China Abecedarian
Project guidelines for this long term assignment may be found on my classroom website. Each Monday 6-7 summaries and colored illustrations are due. Although students will have little daily homework for social studies, they should be averaging/completing about one (1) letter a night for homework. The final, complete abecedarian (ABC book) is due on Monday, December 14, 2009.
Despite working on them in class during the week of November 16, I was quite surprised at the amount of students who did not have their ABC book finished this past Monday. These letters were done together in class. All students should have uniform summaries for letters C, M, Q, R, S, W, X, Y, and Z.
Students are given ample in-class time to work on this project. In fact, this week, students had at least 105 minutes during class time to work on their abecedarian. The ancient China, open-book, written test will occur on Friday, December 11.
Math
Students took their Chapter 8: Algebra and Functions post test today. Next week, we will briefly cover Chapter 7: Measurement and Conversions. Chapter 7 post test will be given on Friday, December 4. The following week will be spent reviewing chapters 6, 7, and 8 in preparation for the CVESD Math Benchmark 3 on Friday, December 11. parents can preview next week's math lesson's by taking a look at the Re-Teach pages posted on my classroom website.
Language Arts: Persuasive Writing
Our next writing topic will focus on persuasive writing. Students will complete an in-class essay before the winter break. They will start a small (pair/duo) project before the break, which will be presented and evaluated after the break. Persuasive writing will conclude after the break with an on-demand writing assignment on Wednesday, February 3, 2010.
Theft Update
Dr. Winters came and spoke to my class this past Tuesday and relayed that the theft investigation was inconclusive. It truly is an unfortunate thing that I have a thief in my classroom. Sadly, no student has come forward and turned in the stolen item.
As you can image, students in my class should work as a team and it may have seemed unfair for all students to receive negative consequence. However, it is a difficult task for me to remain unbiased toward all students. Even though there are students who are innately well-behaved all the time, even without an adult's watchful eye, I cannot in good conscience say any student is better than another and exclude her/him from the class consequence. Likewise, I cannot place suspect on students whose families are economically less fortunate than others, students who often get out of their seats and wander around the class, or those who routinely borrow other students' belongings. I know it is difficult to fathom that one's child would steal. In some cases, it is the person we least likely suspect to be the culprit. Placing a consequence on all students was the only way to remain objective and not show favoritism toward any students.
Anyway, I sincerely thank all the families who supported my decision to withhold students from their recess on Thursday, November 19. Despite having lost their recess, students were still able to sit outside, eat their snacks, and take restroom breaks. Because of the discord that my email caused with some families, students received their recess on Friday, November 20.
