Language Arts: Today we worked on the website Criterion. On this website we are able to answer a writing prompt and get an instant score and feedback. We also began grammar by taking a pretest on the parts of speech.
Homework:
Bring a chapter book everyday
Readers notebook due Wednesday
Social Studies: We did not have class today
Weekly Newsletter:
Each week we will be posting a letter about the previous week. The students will be in charge of this letter. A 5th and 6th grader will be in in charge each week of taking notes about activities in the classroom and current events. I wrote the letter for last week to show the students what will be expected each week.
Burns/Burdick Newsletter
September 12, 2011
Dear Parents and Students:
Welcome back to school. I just know that the 2011-2012 school year is going to be an amazing experience for everyone. It was great to see all those smiling faces enter BCS on Tuesday with students who were eager to learn.
Tuesday: The students worked together as a 54 for most of the day. They got to know Mrs. Burns and Mr. Burdick. The students went over class procedures and expectations. One of the best activities we did today was called “Famous People.” They had a famous or not so famous person taped to our back. They had to ask yes or no questions to our peers to try to figure out who we were. Some of the people included Jay Z, Oprah, Einstein, Mrs. Burns and Mr. Burdick.
Wednesday: The students gradually started to follow their “regular schedule.” They went to our co-curriculars and began language arts and math. As a group of 54 we created the “Burns/Burdick constitution. This constitution sets the expectations the students will follow in the classroom.
Thursday: The students started ENGAGE! Our focus for this unit is Towers. The students were placed in groups from both homerooms. Mr. Burdick talked with the students about working in groups. The students interviewed each and talked about their strengths and weaknesses. Once they completed that they were given their first task. They were to build a tower out of a deck of cards and see how high they could get their tower. After a few tries they were given tape to give more support to get a higher tower.
Friday: The students continued to build towers in ENGAGE. Today’s challenge was a little more difficult. They have to build a tower out of spaghetti and tape. It was great to see how creative they could get. Let’s just say we had a lot of broken spaghetti noodles! In language arts we were introduced to our writer’s workshop model and the expectations for that time were explained.
Current Events: Some events that happened for the week of September 5-9 are the Tigers won against the Twins, the Stock Market continued to have good and bad days and there was a lot discussion about upcoming events for the 10 year anniversary of 9-11.
Mrs. Burns
