This Past Week...

The students enjoyed the production of Ruby, the Story of Ruby Bridges at the SteppingStones Theater this past Friday. Even though we are studying Slavery, the American Civil War, and Sharecropping currently in class, the theme of racial injustice in United States history is in common.

The students have finished the historical fiction novel, Sounder by William H. Armstrong, this past week. The students studied the plot line, theme, tone, and mood of the novel. On Monday the students will compare and contrast the book and the movie.

Next week Wednesday the fifth graders will be going to Starbase while the sixth graders will be studying economics (personal finance) and reviewing theme, tone, and mood at school.

This Past Week in Language Arts & Social Studies...

The students have been staying busy finishing up their compare and contrast objective and starting learning about literary elements. The students have started a historical fiction novel, Sounder, by William H. Armstrong. Sounder is a novel about a family who were sharecroppers in the late 1800's. The novel is a great way to understand the life of a sharecropper and then be able to compare and contrast sharecropping to slavery (what the students are learning about Social Studies). Additionally, we have learned and related the literary elements of: setting, characterization, and point of view to the first three chapters of Sounder this past week. Next week we will look at the literary elements of conflict, start the plot line of Sounder (exposition and rising actions), and continue studying characterization. The following week we will finish the novel and complete the plot line for Sounder.

Friendship Dance THIS FRIDAY (FEB 8TH)

There is a 5-8 grade dance this coming Friday, February 8, 2012 from 4:15-6:45 p.m. Please see details on the student's permission slip sent home. Students MUST have a signed permission slip to attend Friday's dance.

Language Arts 1/28-2/06

We have been reviewing compare and contrast in Language Arts. The students have had fun comparing and contrasting various nouns throughout the past couple of weeks, for example: seasons, animals, and relating the concept to American Civil War topics that the students are learning about in Social Studies. The students used various strategies and graphic organizers to demonstrate their ability to compare and contrast. The students especially enjoyed comparing and contrasting themselves with their fellow classmates. The students then wrote a paragraph using signal words comparing and contrasting themselves with two other classmates.

Bowling Field Trip

The students had a great time today on the bowling field trip!