Weekly Update 1/29/18

Good morning Families!

On Friday, your son/daughter should have brought home the progress reports.  
The reports assessed the "transferable skills" (ie. work habits and participation).  
Those are the boxes that you see checked off.  The standards assessment (content),
which you see on the report cards, was not on these progress reports.  
Please initial the colored half sheet to confirm that you saw each progress
report and return it to advisory teachers by no later than this Friday.  

Another quick note......please check with your son or daughter to ensure that they have pencils.
 We are finding a large number of kids showing up without pencils to class.

This is a very busy week as your child nears the deadline for the science fair project.  
Students should be wrapping up experiments and writing conclusions in preparation for the
Science Fair on Thursday, February 8.  

Morning math with Ms. Johnson will be held on Mon, Wed, & Fri 7:00-7:30 focusing on
geometry and statistics.  Please contact Amy if you are interested in this opportunity for your
child. ajohnson@mymtsd-vt.org

In Math, students will have a quiz on division of fractions on Wednesday.  On Thursday,
students will begin decimal operations. Most students have daily Math homework,
please check in with them.

Social Studies:  This week we are continuing with the first English settlements in the colonies.
 We will finish with Jamestown and move on to Plymouth.  

To Do This Week in Social Studies:

1.  students will need to complete the Jamestown worksheet based on the web game we
played in class

2.  a worksheet with questions related to Plymouth

3.  a Venn diagram worksheet comparing and contrasting Jamestown and Plymouth.  

Language Arts:  Students are reading the novel The Sign of the Beaver which will result
in another opportunity to write an informational paragraph using evidence from the text.  
Each day that we read in class, students are expected to write a summary of what is read.  
What is not completed in class for whatever reason will become homework.

As always, let us know if you have any questions. Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Team Independence

Thursday 1/11/18 Homework - Language Arts

Students will be asked to finish answering a series of questions based on a NEWSELA reading on Jamestown.  The assignment will be started in class. Students can access the article through Google Classroom if they did not take a hard copy.

1/9/18 Weekly Update

Happy New Year and Happy January! 1/8/18

Calendar Sales: Student have been asked to participate in a fundraiser for their 8th grade Boston field trip.  The calendar sale is the most profitable for students (their account receives 9 out of every $10 calendar sold).  Mrs. Endres has the calendars to be sold.  Tickets and money are due to Mrs. Endres ASAP.

Progress Reports will be sent home on January 19th, delivered by your student.  Grades and other information that are reflected on the progress report will be from the last 6 weeks, through January 12.  

Science & Literacy:  Students are preparing for the science Fair that is quickly approaching. “How To Do” necessities such as background research and writing, procedures and experimentation is introduced in science class and continued in Literacy.  The hope is that students have more time  and guidance and support to complete each portion of their project.

Social Studies:  Last week we started a unit called Colonization and Settlement.  Most of our focus will be on the early colonies in North America before the American Revolution.  We will examine the various cultures that settled here and reasons why people left their home countries.  We will also look at the challenges colonists faced as well as conflicts with the Native Americans.  This week students will have three worksheets that will be homework if not completed in class (The Early Colonists chart, The Early Colonists questions, and Graphing European Immigration questions).  Lastly, before Christmas break, many students wrote letters to 6th grade students in Hyderabad, India.  The letters were delivered over the break and the Indian students wrote back.  These letters just arrived and will be handed out on Tuesday.  Hopefully this will be exciting for our students!

Language Arts: students have created and designed a PLP (Personal Learning Plan) blog and will write about themselves this week.  They will also begin to examine Jamestown and New England settlements through primary and secondary sources.  We will hopefully begin reading The Sign of the Beaver, a book about a young boys settlement experience in Maine in the 1760s.