week of January 4-8 2010
The lovely bag of papers to grade sent by Mr. V weighed nearly 20 lbs (I'm
not joking). I spent a couple of hours daily when I started to feel better
working on them. Based on some of the work I did my plan book realizing we
needed to review some material and in some cases backtrack a bit. In other
subjects the class is even a little ahead of where I had expected, so all
things considered we are in good shape.
Math- I graded the open book quizzes and overall they were not bad, this
was all material I had covered before I had gotten sick. However, I started
grading the open book chapter tests and soon realized they were not good.
They have been tossed out! On Monday I am spending the whole period
reviewing the common mistakes that I found on the test. (primarily mixing up
the GCF and LCD, and not reducing to simplest terms). HW on Monday night
will be to go home look the chapter over and study their problem areas. Come
armed with questions if still confused on Tuesday. Tuesday there will be
some kind of open book quiz on the same material. On Wednesday there will be
a brand new chapter test. It will not be open book and it will count. I
think this is a fair way of handling this chapter assessment. On Thursday we
will begin work on chapter 5 which deals with adding and subtracting
fractions.
Reading- I have a mountain of graded work in this subject to hand back.
However, when students walk in on Monday they will also see a board filled
with names of people who owe a lot of work in this subject. If you were late,
absent, or just not paying attention when HW was collected it is your
responsibility to complete this work and hand it in ASAP! If I don't have it
by this Friday a zero will go into my grade book. I think I am being more
than fair in this matter.
On Monday I will introduce the new vocab, genre and target skill for our new
story entitled, "Bound for Glory". HW on Mon. will be Wb.p. 112, HW on Wed.
night will be Wb.p. 117/118. The weekly assessment will be on Thursday 1/7.
Spelling- I have 2 graded tests to return to the students. On Monday we
will have the pretest of our new list words, HW that night will be practicing
these on Wb.p. 46. Because we have a lot of work this week I am not going
to assign further written work in this subject, please study your list
nightly for the weekly test on Friday 1/8.
Lang. Arts- (GR) We are seriously behind where I would like to be at this
point because the Pronoun test #3 was never given. I am going to review the
necessary material with the class on Monday to refresh their memory. They
should study and I will schedule this long postponed test for
Thurs. 1/7. I am confident they will all do well as we have covered all
this material before I fell ill. At the end of the week we will start the
new chapter on adjectives. (textbk pgs 362-363)
(WR) Mr. V. left me detailed grades on the oral presentations of the book
reports as per my instructions to him. I was a little disappointed to see
several students did not follow the instruction sheet on the presentation
aspect of their report. ( in character with props ) However, overall I
received rave reviews for the presentations.
Science- Mr. V, as per my instructions left me oral presentaion grades based
on the Biome projects. I am presently working my way through the written
reports.
I have made the decision to skip chapter 6 as it introduces no new material
beyond what was already covered in the Grade 4 Science textbook. With the
Terra Novas tests looming closer I think it is more beneficial to move into
the new unit of study on Earth Science. This will be chapter 7 where we will
start by learning about the hydrosphere and where fresh water can be found.
(approx. ppgs 199-207)
Social Studies- I will have to update after talking to Mrs. Cedeno on Monday.
Religion- I have 2 tests to return to the students (ch 8 ,9). We will be
working on chapter 10 this week, and at the end of the week I am going to be
sending home the chapter 10 test as a take home open book test.
I will also at some point either this week or next be sending home the
Family Life books for the parents to preview the material before we start .
By the end of the month you will be getting a letter from the school nurse
regarding the date that the visiting nurse will be coming to present the
puberty talk. So, parents if you haven't had that little birds and bees chat
with your child yet, I strongly advise you to set some time aside to have the
talk soon. Always remember that your childs most important teacher is YOU,
and that they truly would rather hear about this delicate matter first from
YOU.