LA: Animals that Lie

If you were absent or just need the instructions again, here is a link to the requirements for the Animals that Lie presentations (click here).

Now that you have read the article "Do Animals Lie?" in the literature books, do some research on your own to try to find more examples of animals that "lie." You must find at least four examples that have not been included in the article you read. Presentations will be on Friday. This is a quick and fun assignment. There will be a prize for the most unique animal/lie that is presented (unique means no one else in the class found it), so don't give all your best information away to your neighbors. Make them do their own research.

Social Studies: Revolutionary Thearter

We are about to start one of my favorite units of the year, Revolutionary Theater! I know, it sounds intimidating, but it actually is a lot of fun and a great way to learn about a pretty heavy topic. Your group will be assigned one of the lessons from the book. For that lesson you will need to create a short play, that involves everyone in your group, and teaches us about what happened in the revolution your group was assigned.

Here are some resources to help you out.

Revolutionary Theater Instructions (click here)
Revolutions Coversheet (click here)
Revolutions Vocabulary (click here)



*****A note on visual aids:*****

Visual aids/props are a must have for this project, but don't feel like you have to be extravagant. If you cut it out of cardboard and wrap tin foil around it, you can make just about anything. We will have a week to put things together. Part of that time can be used to create your visual aids. I have a few things we can work with, but you are free to bring whatever you would like to class (within reason).

Also, to make life simple for me, don't plan on bringing any plastic "weapons" to school. If your play needs a weapon (we are talking about revolutions after all), than plan on it being a nice piece of cardboard that no one will have any questions about. Thanks.

Social Studies: Exploration PPT

The PowerPoint for the exploration unit is now posted. We will be taking the test on Thursday, March 24. Make sure you know your vocabulary--the test questions will all be from those terms. The research cubes look great. If you have not turned yours in yet, make sure you do as soon as possible.

Unit notebooks, and bellringers will also be turned in on Thursday. If you missed any bellringers, you can get them at the end of the PowerPoint. You can also use the PowerPoint to get any notes you may have missed.

LA: The Giggle Prescription

Read the article, "The Giggle Prescription" from Time in our literature book on page 384. Before you read, make a list of the text features that you see (ie. charts, pictures, titles, subtitles, etc.). While you read, write down the main point the author is trying to make and at least three facts he uses to support his ideas.

So your paper should include:

Text features:

Main Idea:

Fact to Support Main Idea 1:

Fact to Support Main Idea 2:

Fact to Support Main Idea 3:

Make sure your name is on the top of your paper and turn it in.

LA: Sentence Combining for Band

Everybody who missed class for band, here is the sentence combining activity you missed. We've been working with these all year, so you should be familiar with what you need to do. Since you missed all of the class discussion, just have someone at home look over your sentences to make sure you have combined them in an acceptable way.

Click here for sentence combining.

Social Studies: Exploration Unit

We are changing pace during this unit with a research-based project. Students have chosen an explorer that they would like to learn more about. They will present their research in the form of a research cube (click here for link to instructions). There will also be a test on the vocabulary for the unit, which they will get Wednesday.

So far we have already spent Monday and Tuesday working on the research projects. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are all working days. We will be making the cubes in class on Thursday. I'll take some time Monday, and whatever is left will be open for wrapping things up--but I can't guarantee we'll have too much time, so make sure not to leave everything for Monday.

Students will present their cubes to the class beginning Tuesday, March 22. These are not huge presentations like the country reports at the beginning of the year--mostly impromptu. They will just need to tell us a little bit about what they learned, but mostly they will be telling us about the symbols (see instructions) they have placed in their boxes and why they have chosen those symbols.

If you are working on it at home and want to access Pioneer, remember you need the login and password.

Login: pioneer
Password: search

LA: Parts of Speech Cinquains

A cinquain is a type of form poem, like a haiku, that follows certain rules for each line. Our students stretched their creativity to write poems about nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns--making them think about the ordinary in a way they probably never have before. Check out some of these great poems.

Verbs
active, involved
doing, showing, acting
the main action words
sentence-makers

by: Nathan Wenger


Pronouns
different, switchable
confusing, helping, replacing
words that replaces names
replacer

by: Makayden Lofthouse


Adjectives
descriptive, explanatory
describing, helping, categorizing
illustrative word
description

by: Russell Floyd


Adjectives
descriptive, explainable
helping, describing, specifying
word that describes something
helpful

by: Guillermo Fuentes

Social Studies: Unit Grades

Everything that has been turned in for the Renaissance and Reformation unit has been scored and entered into PowerSchool. If you are missing an assignment that you are sure you turned in, check the "corrected" box for your hour under the table in the back of the classroom. There are some assignments with a high number of "no names," like the unit notebooks and bellringers.

The Leonardo da Vinci video assignments will be the last assignments entered for 3rd quarter. Our next unit is discovery based (you'll get more info next week) and we'll start presenting right as the quarter ends. That means you have about a week to make sure your grade is where you want it to be.

Social Studies: Vocabulary Cinquains

The cinquain is a five line form poem that can be written about any noun. As a class we wrote one together and a similar example from Hamlet (Hamlet Cinquain Example) is posted in the links. Students were required to write a cinquain for three of their vocabulary words from the Renaissance/Reformation unit. The most difficult part is sticking to the form while trying to think of words related to the topic. There is also a template posted in the links (Cinquain Organizer).

LA: Contender Newspapers

There are still a couple of newspapers in the "working" pile in the back of the classroom. Remember, if you want your project graded, you need to put it in the second drawer. If you aren't finished, you should stay for the after school program to get finished. It will take me a little while to get through the grading of these projects, so you will see a green check mark in PowerSchool until your score shows up. That green check mark means I have it, and I'm working on it. If you see a 0, it means you haven't turned it in yet, so get it finished as soon as possible.

LA: Parts of Speech Cinquains

You should turn in a final, typed draft of your cinquains TH 3/10 at the end of 4th hour. You will have one class period in the computer lab to finish. Remember, the class example does not count as one of your poems. You should follow the rules for each line of your poem (see Cinquain Organizer in the language arts links). Remember that line 2 is the probably the hardest, so if you have to, skip it and come back to it later.

Helpful hint that works most of the time to figure out if a word is a noun, adjective, or verb. It's not a guarantee, but try it out if you're stuck and you might end up unstuck:

It is a ___________. (noun)

It is __________. (adjective)

It _________. (verb)

Social Studies: Leonardo da Vinci Activity

One of the most interesting people to come out of the Renaissance was definitely Leonardo da Vinci. Part engineering, part art, Leonardo's works still fascinate people today from all walks of life. To give you an idea of some of the things he did, we watched the video Leonardo's Dream Machines. This is a PBS documentary that follows two groups as they try to build two of Leonardo's inventions--a glider, and a giant crossbow.

If you missed class TH 3/10 or F 3/11:

Watch what you missed of the video (click here)

******We skipped several sections during class, so skip what you

don't want to watch. Just make sure you can answer the questions.*********

Day One: Watch first 28 minutes (to 28:28). That's all we watched in class.

Day Two: Watch the following segments (31:30 to 37:00) AND (39:50 to 43:41)

AND (1:00:00 to 1:11:48) AND (1:19:00 to 1:23:37) AND (1:38:00 to 1:43:45) AND

(1:47:01 to End) to see if she flies.

--It's on Pioneer so you'll have to log on if you're at home.

Login: pioneer

Password: search

Complete the video guides found in the social studies links section:

Leonardo da Vinci Video Guide 1 (TH 3/10)

Leonardo da Vinci Video Guide 2 (F 3/11)

Launching A Blog

I am launching a blog for my classroom. I'm new at this, so mostly I am testing to see where things go. I will be trying to figure out how best to make this all work for me and my students. Here goes nothing.