April Newsletter

6th, 7th, and 8th GRADE GRAMMAR CRATE
The students are given 10-15 minutes every Monday to work on these. Please check Power School to see your child's progress this trimester with these 5 activities. They are due no later than May 17, 2013. Students are allowed to stay after school from 3-4 on Tuesdays through Fridays to work on these if necessary.

6th GRADE LANGUAGE ARTS
GRAMMAR
*We are continuing to work on nouns and pronouns.
*Chapter 14 and 23 should be complete by the beginning of May.
*We will be making a flip chart of the various pronouns and a wheel for the nouns as a way of reviewing and studying for the unit test.
*There will be various workbook pages and worksheets to aid in learning the various skills for these concepts.
WRITING/SPEAKING
*April is National Poetry Month. We will be memorizing and presenting poems as partners. The poems are all about bugs and are poems for 2 voices. This will be a challenge, but the performances are sure to be very interesting.
*We will be writing a research paragraph about a bug. This will accompany the poems we will be presenting. Even though the poems are presented with a partner, the writing is individual. The students will share the information they learn before their performances.
*For the 6+1 Trait writing this month, we will be writing a response to literature. During the week of April 15th, the students will be exposed to various short stories, and they will then write a compare and contrast literature response, in class on Friday, April 19th.
DIAGRAMMING
*We will learn to diagram predicate adjectives and distinguish between predicate nouns/adjectives and direct objects. This concept will be practiced the week of April 8th, and the test will be on Friday, April 12th.

7th GRADE LANGUAGE ARTS
GRAMMAR
*We just completed and had a quest on Chapter 24 which focused on subject and verb agreement.
*We are beginning to work on Chapter 20 covering phrases and clauses. There will be many workbook pages and worksheets to help learn this difficult chapter.
*We will also have quizzes and quests along the way. This chapter will hopefully wrap up at the beginning of May.
WRITING/SPEAKING
*We have been journaling on various researchable topics. The students will then write a research essay about the topic they choose.
*Look for these essays to be due by the end of April.
*We will also be presenting the information in a presentation. Students are encouraged to make Power Points, displays, graphs, etc. to enhance their presentations.
*We will also be doing an in-class 6+1 Trait writing piece the week of April 22nd. During the week, the students will be exposed to various poems and on Friday, April 26th, in class, they will write a thorough analysis of one of the poems.
DIAGRAMMING
*We will learn how to diagram appositives and appositive phrases the week of April 15th.
*There will be a quest on Friday, April 19th.

8th GRADE LANGUAGE ARTS
GRAMMAR
*We are continuing to work on Chapter 20 covering phrases and clauses. We are working quite slowly in order to master these concepts through workbook pages, worksheets, and activities.
*We should wrap this chapter up by the end of the week of April 22nd. There will be a test over this unit.
*We will then be working with verbs in Chapter 22. This chapter will practice some very practical writing skills that should help the students in all areas of their future writing.
WRITING
*The students are currently working on a persuasive essay. This is a research based essay that requires MLA documentation within and at the end of the essay. These are due by Friday, April 26th.
*There will be a rough draft due date for in-class peer editing. This due date is Tuesday, April 23rd.
*We will also be writing an analysis of a short story. The students will be exposed to various short stories throughout the week of April 8th and then write a summary and an analysis of one of the characters. We will write this response in class on Friday, April 12th.
DIAGRAMMING
*We will learn to diagram infinitives the week of April 29th. We will practice all week and have a quest on Friday, May 3rd.

8th GRADE LITERATURE
*We are reading Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night Dream. We will be reading this in class as it is the first time we have read Shakespeare, and it can prove to be pretty confusing.
*There will be quizzes, activities, and a test for this classical piece of literature.
*We will continue to do activities to prepare for the May ISTEP exams as well.