8SS-I introduced the unit project and students had work time.  They needed to choose between working alone and working with a partner and they had to choose between two projects.  We will have class work time tomorrow and Thursday.  Students will need to complete the work during their long weekend (there's no school on Friday).  Monday's class will be for final touches and coordinating with partners regarding the work done over the weekend.  NO HOMEWORK.  PROJECT WORK ONLY.

8ELA-We had time for peer conferencing and editing; our classmates reviewed our work and gave us both compliments and critical suggestions on how to improve our work.  HOMEWORK:  SPELLING UNIT 5 AND SKILLS PAGES 148-151 DUE TOMORROW.  NON-FICTION FINAL COPY DUE THURSDAY.

**PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THERE IS NO SCHOOL ON FRIDAY.

8ELA-I handed back marked Spelling Tests today--students need to put more effort into preparing for these large, multi-unit test.  We have discussed a study strategy so I expect marks will be better in the future.  We worked on Unit 5 Spelling today and a grammar booklet focussing on irregular verbs.  I assigned four pages from the booklet.  This was followed by Reading Class.  HOMEWORK:  SPELLING UNIT 5, GRAMMAR BOOKLET PAGES 148, 149, 150, 151.  NON-FICTION PARAGRAPHS-ROUGH DRAFTS-DUE TOMORROW.

8SS-We reviewed the concept of What is History? and Why Study History?  We also reviewed the idea of primary and secondary sources when studying history.  Students were assigned a Vocabulary Circle which reviews these ideas (great preparation for next week's test)--it is due tomorrow.  HOMEWORK:  VOCABULARY CIRCLE.

7SS-We orally reviewed the physical features of North and South America and did our Weekly Updates.  We then shifted gears and started our continent projects.  NO HOMEWORK.

**Please remember that there is no school on Friday.

8ELA-We had Reading Class today which was followed by a theme class during which I introduced the non-fiction writing assignment.  Students must choose between four types of non-fiction and create a paragraph on a specified topic.  HOMEWORK:  SPELLING TEST TOMORROW.  NON-FICTION PARAGRAPH ROUGH COPY DUE MONDAY.

8SS-We discussed sources of history and the meaning of history.  We made notes and read our text on the topic.  NO HOMEWORK.

7SS-We did a quick oral review of the physical features of North America then "explored" South America in our atlas.  We learned that lakes there have funny names.  Based on this quick look at maps, we made predictions on our worksheets.  NO HOMEWORK.

Welcome Back!
We had no Internet yesterday, so I wasn't able to update my BLOG--don't worry--we still did lots of work!

8ELA-We worked on our Units 1-4 Spelling Review unit yesterday and corrected it today.  We worked on verbs and tenses and corrected it today.  "Tell the World" was corrected today as well.  HOMEWORK:  SPELLING TEST FRIDAY.  JOURNALS DUE FRIDAY.

8SS-I collected Pink Questions and I made a cursory review of them and returned them students.  I discussed formatting rules and the general "how-to" of paragraph writing.  We corrected our Jericho lesson.  HOMEWORK:  PINK QUESTION RE-DO.

7SS-I collected the signed tests.  We reviewed North America geographic features on the wall map, then reviewed them again while corrected our worksheet from class.  NO HOMEWORK.

Happy Thanksgiving!
This coming weekend, we'll spend time reflecting on the good things in our lives and hopefully, celebrating with family and friends.  There was no homework assigned in my classes so I'm sure the students are thankful for that.

8ELA-We did the Unit 4 Spelling Test then used the remaining time for Reading class.

We were in Mass today and had a joyful celebration.

Early Dismissal Tuesday

8ELA-We had our Reading Class today.  We also continued our study of non-fiction literature with the article "The Mighty Mekong" by Adam McCulloch.  HOMEWORK:  SPELLING UNIT 4.  MEKONG QUESTIONS 1-7.
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8MSS-We corrected most of Meso and Neo Times lesson.  We'll finish next class.

7SS-We used this is a study class for the test tomorrow.

A Busy Monday

8ELA-Skills Tests were reviewed in class and were sent home today for parent signatures.  We did Spelling Unit 4 with a focus on silent letters.  We'll be correcting on Wednesday with a test on Friday. These were hard words and will need students applying the Key Concepts we learned in class.  I returned two poems we worked on. Several students were asked to redo their work because so much of the criteria was not met.  All redo work must be turned in by Friday.  There were many excellent poems; some were moody and sad while others were calm and peaceful, some were about wonderful fall scents and some were about the sounds of autumn.  We then corrected questions on the short article "Survival Shelters".  Students are learning the characteristics of strong expository writing.  HOMEWORK:  SPELLING UNIT 4.

8SS-This was a class dedicated to answering the questions from last Friday.  The topic is Mesolithic and Neolithic Times.  HOMEWORK:  MESO AND NEO TIMES Q 1-6.

7SS-We used this for study time.  A test on unit has been scheduled for Wednesday.  Students need to be confident in their knowledge of latitude and longitude, map projections, and time zones.  HOMEWORK:  TEST PREPARATION.

**Please remember to bring in your can of stew or chili for our Student Council Food Drive.  Only four days left!  The house to bring in the most donations gets 25 points!  Good luck!