OCTOBER FAMILY PROBLEM

MULE DAY!

Did you know that October 26th is Mule Day? I never realized that animals get their own day.

What animal would you want to honor by giving it its own recognized day in the year?

With your family create that day and include the following in COMPLETE SENTENCES:

-The animal and a picture of it

-What date it will be honored each year

-How it will be honored on that day

-Where it originates and lives

-What it eats

-What you call the baby, the adult, the male and female, as well as a group of that animal

-Your reason for honoring it

-Any additional information you would like to include

This activity is due by November 1st and is worth 4 bonus points or chance tickets. 5 bonus points or chance tickets can be earned for decorative pieces.

October News!

Middle School Language Arts News

*The whole middle school will be taking a quest on the Weekly Reminders. This test will cover the first 9 reminders. Each quarter is cumulative, therefore the list grows bigger with each test.

*I have subscribed to a Scholastic News magazine called Storyworks. We will be using these throughout the year to practice reading aloud, grammar, and writing skills. Mr. Feece may also use them in his class for vocabulary and literature.

6th Grade
Writing

*We have finished our Coat of Arms. (6.5.7, 6.5.3, 6.5.6, 6.4.9, 6.4.8, 6.4.7)

*We will be writing prayers next.
Grammar

*We have finished prepositional phrases. Although it was a difficult unit, we have learned to identify the preposition and phrase. Labeling them, however, is still a bit of a challenge. Since this is the first year for this skill, it will not be the last time we work with prepositions. (6.6.6)

*We are moving on to clauses and sentence types. This will finish Chapter 20. (6.6.1)
Diagramming

*We just finished diagramming prepositional phrases.

*We will learn how to diagram compound subjects and verbs next.

7th Grade

Writing

*We have finished the picture books. They turned out beautifully. We will be sharing them with the lower grades. (7.7.8, 7.7.5, 7.5.6, 7.5.7)

*We will be working on genres next. We will be writing a back cover for our own original books. (7.5.4, 7.3.1, 7.3)

Grammar

*We finished adjectives and adverbs. (7.6.4)

*We will be working on hyphens, dashes, semicolons, and other punctuation next. (7.6.6)

Diagramming

*We just finished diagramming adjectives and adverbs.

*We will learn prepositional phrases next.

8th Grade

Writing

*We finished our letter to ourselves.

*We worked together to describe a collage in words and pictures.

*We will be writing an essay in response to the script, The Other Side of Life. (8.5.2)

Grammar

*We finished with direct and indirect objects.

*We will be learning phrases next. (8.6.8)

Diagramming

*We recently had a quest on diagramming direct and indirect objects.

*We will add prepositions next.

Speaking and Writing

*We finished the script The Other Side of Life. We will be taking a test on it. (8.7.5 and 8.7.10)

*We will also be either adding a scene or making a coming attraction for the movie. The groups will have to write and present a script. (8.5.7, 8.5.4, 8.7.10)

September Family Problem

Since the month of September is slipping away from me, I still wanted to post a family problem. This activity is due by Friday, October 1st for 5 bonus points or 5 chance tickets. If you have more than one middle schooler, you only have to do one activity for the whole family.


THE PROBLEM
The first day of autumn is on the 23rd of this month. I encourage you as a family to write a senses poem. Each line will be either some things you see, smell, taste, feel, or hear during the autumn season. The challenge is that each member must have their own line in the poem for each sense.


PARTIAL EXAMPLE
Mom sees the geese getting ready for their winter flight.
Dad sees the football games on Saturday nights.
I see the trees as they lose their leaves.
Mom hears the rustling of the leaves as they blow down the street.
Dad hears the grill sizzling the burgers for dinner.
I hear the rain pour down outside.
...This is the beginning. I would need to complete the poem with the senses of taste, smell, and feel as well.


NOTE: Decorative poems will earn an extra bonus point or chance ticket.

SEPTEMBER NEWS

I realize it is already more than halfway through the month, but I still thought it was important to share with yo what we are doing in language in the middle school this month.

All Grades
-Correcting sentences for spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc.

-Diagramming basic sentence parts (subjects, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs)

-Examining the use of 6+1 Traits in example pieces of writing and working in small groups focusing on one trait of writing.

6th Grade
Grammar

-We are studying prepositions, prepositional phrases, and the words they modify.

Writing

-We are working on a personal piece of writing examining our futures and goals.

-This piece of writing will also create a personal Coat of Arms.

7th Grade

Grammar

-We are finishing up on adjectives and ready to begin work on adverbs.

-As a review activity, we created descriptive ads with a small group.

Writing

-We are working in groups to write a children's story with one of 4 types of organizational patterns.

8th Grade

Grammar

-We finished finding subjects and verbs. This quest proved to be very difficult for some students. I am a bit concerned, however, we are always practicing the skill of finding subjects and verbs with other aspects of grammar throughout the year. I hope with practice comes better understanding.

-We are working on direct and indirect objects.

Writing

-We finished writing personal letters to our future selves.

Speaking

-We are reading a movie script entitled The Other Side of Life.

-We will be working on this script for several weeks and will incorporate some literature concepts into the regular language work as well.

FAMILY PROBLEM

Since I did not post an April problem, I will post two family problems each worth 5 bonus points/Chance Tickets. Both Family Problems will be due no later than Friday, May 28th.


FAMILY PROBLEM #1
Prayer can be a powerful way of bringing us closer to God. With your family, write a prayer for the family.


FAMILY PROBLEM#2
All this year, I have been using the various unique holidays from my calendar to come up with your family problems. Now it is your turn to create a holiday. What is its name? What day would it take place? Would there be a special celebration? Foods? Mascot? Symbols associated with it? etc. Be creative! Pictures and decorations on the family problem will earn an extra bonus point/Chance Ticket.

April/May Newsletter

I realize the month is almost finished, so I decided to give you an update for the rest of the year. If something changes, I will update the blog.

All classes will have the final Weekly Reminder Test the week of May 17th or 24th. This is a cumulative exam and covers all the Weekly Reminders from the beginning of the year until the test date.

6th GRADE

Grammar

*We are wrapping up the unit on capitalization. There will be a test on it, Tuesday, May 4th. 6.6.4.

*To get a jump on next year's grammar standards, we will be working on direct objects, indirect objects, predicate nouns, and predicate adjectives.

*We will also be memorizing the definitions of all the parts of speech.

Writing

*We are continuing to work on our business letters. We will be mailing them out, and using home return addresses since responses may come during the summer.
*With AR, the students have read many different books. Their final piece of writing is to research a writer and tell why his/her book(s) are one of the best. 6.5.4, 6.5.5, 6.5.8, 6.4.6, 6.4.7, 6.4.8, 6.4.9, 6.4.10, 6.4.4, 6.5.3, and many aspect of standard 3

Speaking

*We will be having a bug poetry recitation. This is done with a partner and must be timed well.

*To piggyback the AR essay, the students will present it to the class in order to share ideas for future books to read. 6.7.11, 6.7.12, and 6.7.13

*If we have time, we will have debates, both impromptu and planned. 6.7.13. and 6.7.14

7th GRADE

Grammar

*We are working on prepositions, participles, and infinitives. 7.6.2

*We will then work on sentence structure and work on placing modifiers correctly, as well as using active voice. 7.6.1 and 7.6.10

Writing

*We are working on topics that we want to know more about. We will then be writing an essay about it. 7.4.1, 7.4.2, 7.4.4, 7.4.5, 7.4.6, 7.4.7, 7.4.8, 7.4.9, 7.4.10, 7.5.3, 7.5.6, and 7.5.7

*We will then be reading magazine articles, summarizing, and reflecting on our readings. 7.5.5, 7.5.7, 7.5.6, and 7.5.2

Speaking

*We will be reading "Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" in class. If we have time, we may add a scene to the script. We will be watching the Twilight Zone episode and discussing the way it was presented by Hollywood. 7.7.7, 7.7.2, and 7.7.1

*We will present information gained from the research essay. 7.7.10

*We will share the information learned in the magazine articles. 7.7.9

8th GRADE

Grammar

*We have wrapped up a rough unit on verbals. Although the skill was not mastered by many, it is a difficult concept that will be developed further in their education. 8.6.8

*We will work on sentence types and parallelism. 8.6.1, 8.6.2, and 8.6.3

Writing

*We took a break from the technical documents but we will be finishing them up in May. 8.5.5, 8.5.6, 8.5.7, 8.4.1, 8.4.2, 8.4.10, 8.4.6, 8.4.7, 8.4.8, and 8.4.9

*In a group or alone, students will be reviewing a picture book series. 8.5.2

Speaking

*The group will present their review of the book series. 8.7.11, 8.7.7, 8.7.9, 8.7.12, and 8.7.13

MARCH FAMILY PROBLEM

WORLD POETRY DAY IS MARCH 21ST!

With your family make up a poem about each other using a couplet rhyme (pairs of lines rhyme)or alliteration (repeated sounds). The poem can be about the entire family or each person in your family. Maybe you could do a pair of lines for each member or an alliteration line about each member. For an added bonus point/Chance Ticket, you can include a picture to represent the poem. These are due by Wednesday, March 31st.