Week of January 26th, 2009

I wanted to share something will every family, that I showed the children last week. Below you will find an internet link to an extraordinary video. It is a 3 minute piece on a man who is extremely disabled. He is speaking to a group of students in Europe, about not giving up. Trying and continuing trying is his message, along with, “How are you Going to Finish?”
I showed it to my class on Friday to prove a point. They sometimes give up to easily and don’t even want to try. They are smart, capable, and can do it. All they have to do is try. In school all I ask of them is to read the directions, look over their work, give it their best shot. Check their bag of “tricks” and attack the obstacle or problem that lies directly in front of them. Be it schoolwork, homework, a sport, a chore or whatever it is in life, keep trying and learn from your mistakes. “How are you Going to Finish?” I think they all got the message. This made me very happy and proud that they were respectful and listened to the message. Now, I hope they all act on his message and believe in themselves. I know that I believe in them.


Http://www.maniacworld.com/are-you-going-to-finish-strong.html

Spelling: We will be working on pages from our workbooks, from the story. We are back to the regular list of bonus words. The children are working at their own pace to complete the 8 bonus lists.

Reading: We finished our timelines on Amelia Earhart. I told he children that we first took notes for each chapter, then we selected the most important dates and facts, and finally we created a timeline of her life. This is basically what they need to do for their book report written piece. Take their all their notes and then pull out the most important. Put the ideas in order; early life, middle life, and later years. (death?)

Written Language: We will be continuing with our survival stories this week. Hopefully, by Friday some of us will be ready to begin typing our third day. Again, we will be writing an 8 page diary of our survival on an island or something like that

Math: We will continue with more advanced division and work on figuring basic averages. We are still going to spend some time working through some word problems, two over two multiplication, and I will start going through some sample MCAS math problems on Friday.

All our math concepts, will not be taught in isolation. Everything in math builds on the previous day or concept. That is why it is still imperative to stay focused and participate.

DCR UPDATE: This is an independent math packet that reviews all the concepts and skills we will be using throughout the year. The children should be pacing themselves, 3-5 pages per week. I give them a weekly check on the board and they should be on pages 68 - 90 (book #2) as of Friday 1/30/09. There are 3 packets, one for each term. I decided to give everyone, done with Book 1 or not, a cop[y of Book 2. Everyone by now should have completed Book 1, and fixed all their errors.

Science: We will then continue with our unit on Electricity & Magnets. We spent time last week working with static electricity. We also tried and were successful in getting a regular 60 watt bulb to glow with ordinary 1.5 volt D batteries.

Social Studies: I gave all the children a set of handouts to use as a study guide for this region (Midwest). I will be creating a simple test based on their posters and the handouts. They should also look back in their books for any clarification or missing information that the didn’t quite understand. I am not looking to trick anyone, they need to learn and understand the information that we gathered on the Midwest. We will have a short quiz next Monday or Tuesday. (February 2,3) Again, it is their choice as to which date they will take the test.

Thanks, Mr. L.