Greetings Everyone,
I thought I would just type my update in an e-mail to everyone and I will also post it on my website.
Ms. Wheeler and I started an integrated reading/social studies unit this week. I am teaching the social studies class where the students are learning about the history of Ellis Island and creating a journal/diary as if they were an immigrant traveling to America in the late 1800's, early 1900's. Ms. Wheeler is teaching the reading class where the students are reading Letters from Rifka, a novel about a young girl and the hardships she faces as she leaves her homeland of Russia to travel to America. We anticipate that the unit will last roughly a month.
In Math we are in the final week or so of our Geometry unit. The focus has been on naming and measuring angles, and naming and studying the properties of triangles and other polygons. We will finish up the unit in the next week and a half or so learning about and creating tessellations. The students continue to work on Aleks 15 minutes or so a night. I am typically assigning Aleks homework when they don't have a study link. I will continue to assess their progress as they go along.
In writing, we are moving through the genres in the writing program and are currently working on personal narratives. The students are continuing to learn ways to include more details in their writing and at the same time are working on their sentence structure and editing skills. I anticipate this unit to be finished before the holiday break.
In addition, as many of you saw, we will be having our first school store on December 21. Also, just a heads up, we typically have a holiday breakfast on the last day before vacation and you will be getting more news on that as the time gets closer.
Thanks for the continued support of your students learning and this year continues to be an excellent one with a wonderful group of students!
Beth Westra