Today in 6A!

RELIGION: Today was a review session for tomorrow's open-book test on Passover and the Eucharist.

ENGLISH: Today was all about drilling our vocabulary terms. We began with flashcards, demanding the definitions for given words. The we did a rapid-paced quiz to practice the terms. Finally, I read sentences aloud to the class and requested they fill in the blanks with the appropriate vocabulary term. This series of exercises helps students experience the usage of their terms in different contexts.

LITERATURE: To wrap up our short story "Stray", students were asked to develop a poster to help locate a missing pet. After students made their posters and submitted them, we showed a few and judged whether, based on the design, it would be likely or unlikely that this sign would help locate the missing pet.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Students were given their assignment that will span the next several classes. Students chose a Sumerian God to research. They will create a slideshow presentation that illustrates the significance of that God within Sumerian culture. the details of this assignment are posted on Google Classroom, where students will submit their slides prior to the start of Monday. They will have class time tomorrow to work on their research/presentation, but what is not completed in class, will be weekend homework.

MATH (8:00 class) pgs 90-91 1-21  (9:00 class) WS 2-5 & 2-6

SCIENCE Chapter 2 Test Tomorrow

Today in 6A & 6B

ENGLISH: After reviewing our flashcards (without our word lists) students practiced identifying sentence errors. Here it is crucial that students understand that, while getting the correct answer is helpful, knowing why it is correct and how to fix it is the key. We then practiced our Antonyms and Synonyms for our vocabulary words.

RELIGION: Today we continued with our look at Passover and the Eucharist as celebrations of difficult events for our ancestors. Students wrote about traditions in their own families and the ways in which they celebrate.

SOCIAL STUDIES: After taking up the homework, students conducted some research on the ancient Sumerian King Ur-Nammu. With this information, students will write either an obituary or eulogy that recounts the achievements and significance of this king's life. As an added challenge, some students may want to assume a personal relationship with the deceased king. The voice that they choose to employ should reflect that relationship. This is due prior to the start of class tomorrow on Google Classroom.

MATH  (8:00 class) WS 2-3  (9:00 class) pg 91 4-30

SCIENCE Chp 2 Test on Friday

Today in 6A!

ENGLISH: We started today with our flash cards, asking the word from a given definition. We then practiced our vocabulary in context and did some passage based reading from the Sadlier website. Grades for the Unit 3 Vocabulary and Chapter 7 Grammar are now posted and I am pleased to announce that nearly all students saw a tremendous lift in their scores from this test. Consequently, students wrote short reflections on their studying process to capture what was different about this period from the last few. I gained a lot of great feedback from the students about what they liked and what they didn't like about the test which should inform me on future testing as well.

LITERATURE: In keeping with our short story "Stray" we looked at the literary analysis skills for mapping the plot of a given story. The example I drew for students was similar to what is shown on page 22 of their text, with a few differences, however the 6 key features of a plot are consistent. Students then worked on questions 1-5 on page 28. If this wasn't completed in class, it is homework.

SOCIAL STUDIES: In today's lesson we took a specific look at the Sumerian people, their accomplishments as well as their social structure, the emergence of Kings and the role of priests in daily life. Students were assigned questions 1-6 on page 75 for home work.

RELIGION: In lieu of classwork today, students participated in a prayer walk on the field at the end of the day.

Today in 6A & 6B

ENGLISH:Today we started our Unit 4 iWords which asks us to establish definitions and associations for each of our 20 words.

LITERATURE: Today we read the short story "Stray" from our literatrue textbooks. We worked on establishing predictions and examining how our life experiences help to color what inferences and predictions we are prone to making. This exercise was helpful for students to apply some higher order thinking skills but to also, subtly, review different perspectives on a given issue.

RELIGION: We begin a new session today by looking at Passover and the Eucharist as celebrations within the church and how these events are in-memorium of some tragic events. Students shared some of their own family traditions that might not jive with the way others in society celebrate. For example: In my family, New Years Eve isn't quite as big a deal as New Years Day. We usually have a large family party on New Years Day while our NYE is more subdued. Additionally, we eat foods that hearken back to a poorer time in our ancestor's lives.

SOCIAL STUDIES: We continue with our exploration of the Fertile Crescent and ask, how it was that geography encouraged the rise and growth of civilization? Students were asked to compile 3 pieces of evidence that suggest geography's role in this and to explain their reasoning. This was due at the end of class on Google Classroom.

MATH (8:00) pg 85-86 1-17 odds  (9:00) WS 2-3 & 2-4

SCIENCE pg 71 1-4