January 14-25... These Past Two Weeks...

These past two weeks the students have been studying Slavery in America and the causes of the American Civil War. Specifically, through learning our language arts standard of cause and effect relationships the students have been able to identify the causes and sequencing of events prior to the Civil War. Additionally, the students read captivating historical novels to engage further in the content during literature circles. Every student read one of the following books:

A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl

Letters From a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet Jacobs

... If you Traveled on The Underground Railroad

Freedom Wings: Corey's Underground Railroad Diary

This week the students are working on a project; their group picked one of the following options:

Poster of Heros

Timeline of Events prior to the Civil War

Underground Railroad Map

Write a Children's Book

Comic Book/Strip of a Slaves Journey on The Underground Railroad

Diary of a Slave

Next week the students will start studying the American Civil War in Social Studies and review compare and contrast in Language Arts.

February Field Trips

The 5th and 6th graders have two field trips coming up:


Ruby: Story of Ruby Bridges
SteppingStones Children's Theater
Friday, February 22, 2013
Cost- $3


Bowling
Sun Ray Bowl
Friday, February 1, 2013
Cost- $5

Please return the permission slip and monday as soon as possible.

Social Studies Chapter Two Assessment Today!

Hello! We have had several busy weeks reviewing and preparing for our chapter two social studies assessment. The students have been studying Slavery in America and the causes of the American Civil War. We had fun learning our social studies content by: our literature circle books, social studies textbook and notes, various vocabulary activities, many small group and whole class discussions, picture books, and the implementation of studying strategies. Good luck to all the 5/6 students on their assessment today!

CNN Student News

As you know the students watch CNN Student News daily during Social Studies. Today Achieve Language Academy is the shoutout! Below is the link.

http://www.cnn.com/studentnews/index.html

Camping

Camping is coming up in a couple of months. I want to remind families to continue the discussion on attending. Please turn in your camping forms and money as soon as possible. The students will have the option of writing a letter to family and friends for financial support in the next couple weeks at school. Also, I will be sending home another copy of the camping information and forms with Weekly Reports on Friday.

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone had a great and safe winter break! Last Thursday and Friday the students finished reading Dragonwings by Laurence Yep or Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr. Both books were captivating reads which lead the students to exceptional discussions.

This week the students will begin reading various books surrounding the Civil War and slavery for literature circles while we are studying the Civil War and slavery in Social Studies. I anticipate the next few weeks of content to be extremely interesting and thought provoking.

In addition, the students will continue to practice their word work spelling strategies and review similes, metaphors, and idioms.