Nets For Life

International Day will also be the kick-off for our special outreach project, Nets for Life. The Episcopal Diocese of Texas has asked each parish community and each Episcopal school in the Diocese to participate in this very beneficial program to help stop malaria on the African continent. We are asking each family to donate $12 which will buy one malaria net that can save three lives from suffering and death. Look for a brochure in your child’s backpack on Wednesday. Donations are due by Tuesday, January 31. Join us as we move whole communities from sickness to strength. For more information visit: www.epicenter.org/netsforlife/.

LITERATURE & HISTORY: January 17-20

This is a short week, and we will be finishing up our study of the MesoAmerican cultures and their interaction with the Spanish explorers and conquistadores.

There will be no reading assignments outside of class. However, you still need to be reading at least 30 minutes every night and filling in your Reading Logs.

Your spelling words this week are taken from a list of words every 6^th grader should know. Your test will be on Monday, January 23.

Your will have your spelling test (last week's words) and History test on Tuesday, January 17.

Wednesday is International Day—after Chapel, you will hear about Japan, Africa, and Nets for Life.

Thursday is our Mayan Feast and you will be reading two articles about the Incas before you eat.

Friday, we finish the Spanish explorers in North America.

SPELLING WORDS for TEST on Monday, January 23: Those words that are *--you will need to learn the definition

activity

bench

contest

depth

distance

exercise

farther—(adverb) in or to a place, or a time that is more distant

further—(adv. or adj.) a longer distance; to a greater degree

modern

muscle

"Further" Versus "Farther"

The quick tip is to use “farther” for physical distance and “further” for metaphorical, or figurative, distance. It's easy to remember because “farther” has the word “far” in it, and “far” obviously relates to physical distance.

For example, imagine Squiggly and Aardvark are flying to a galaxy far, far away, but Squiggly gets bored and starts mercilessly bugging Aardvark. "How much farther?'" he keeps asking in despair.” Did you hear that? Squiggly used “farther” because he was asking about physical distance.

If Aardvark gets frustrated with Squiggly, which he surely will, he could respond, “If you complain further, I'm going to shoot you out the airlock.” Aardvark used “further” because he isn't talking about physical distance, he's talking about a figurative distance: the extent of Squiggly's complaining. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/further-versus-farther.aspx

January 17-20: Bible/Science/Latin II

Bible: This week we will be using our Bible time to work on our Gala project.

Science: Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion
• Friday
o DUE: Experiment sheets for Newton’s 1st and 2nd Law Experiments with corrections
o IN CLASS: Newton’s 3rd Law experiment

Latin II: Chapter 11—1st and 2nd declension adjectives
• Tuesday
o DUE: Be studying your ch. 11 vocab
o IN CLASS: ch. 11 worksheet (pg. 67)
• Thursday
o IN CLASS: ch. 11 quiz

January 9-13: Bible/Science/Latin II

TBA...

LITERATURE and HISTORY, Week of January 9-13

This week, we will be studying the Incas and the Spanish Conquistador, Pizarro, in History class.

You will also be getting a study guide for a major test on the Maya, Aztec, and Inca and the Spanish conquistadors which will be given on Tuesday, January 17.

In Literature, we will be thinking and reading about the theme of Journeys and Quests (or Conquests) as we read a few “stories” from the Odyssey, by the Greek poet, Homer. Our question for the week is: What makes a person decide to leave the known for the unknown?

Your spelling words will be based on nouns that end in ‘y’ but add an ‘s’ when made plural. They are on the back of this handout. Your test will be Tuesday, January 17.

We will be concentrating on editing and correcting our writing assignment from last week—and, yes, writing it in cursive. Do you remember me telling you about the state educational objectives for 5^th grade and what they include about writing? I have stated them below:

Writing/Writing Process. Students use elements of the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text. Students are expected to:

(A) plan a first draft by selecting a genre appropriate for conveying the intended meaning to an audience, determining appropriate topics through a range of strategies (e.g., discussion, background reading, personal interests, interviews), and developing a thesis or controlling idea;

(B) develop drafts by choosing an appropriate organizational strategy (e.g., sequence of events, cause- effect, compare-contrast) and building on ideas to create a focused, organized, and coherent piece of writing;

(C) revise drafts to clarify meaning, enhance style, include simple and compound sentences, and improve transitions by adding, deleting, combining, and rearranging sentences or larger units of text after rethinking how well questions of purpose, audience, and genre have been addressed;

(D) edit drafts for grammar, mechanics, and spelling; and

(E) revise final draft in response to feedback from peers and teacher and publish written work for appropriate audiences.

Oral and Written Conventions/Handwriting, Capitalization, and Punctuation. Students write legibly and use appropriate capitalization and punctuation conventions in their compositions. Students are expected to:

(A) write legibly by selecting cursive script when appropriate

HOMEWORK for this week:

For Tuesday evening: Read pages 294 to the top of 301 in Collections for Young Scholars, Vol. 5, Book 2 and answer the reading questions from the packet I will give you in class. These are due on Wednesday morning. Be ready to discuss them and the reading.

For Wednesday evening: Read pages 301-303 and answer the reading questions. Due Thursday morning. Be ready to discuss them and the reading.

For Thursday evening: Read the last two stories about Odysseus, pages 303-309, and answer the reading questions. Due Friday morning. Be ready to discuss them and the reading.

Your corrected final draft of “The Angry Elf” story is due on Thursday morning, January 12.

There will be a SPELLING TEST on Tuesday, January 17.

There will be a HISTORY TEST on Tuesday, January 17.

SPELLING WORDS for Test on Tuesday, January 17.

(If the singular noun has a vowel before the 'y,' just add an 's' to make it plural)

(If the singular noun has a consonant before the 'y,' drop the 'y' and add 'ies' to make it plural)

1. attorneys

2. essays

3. turkeys

4. valleys

5. fairies (fairy)

6. universities (university)

7. histories (history)

8. secretaries (secretary)

9. symphonies (symphony)

10. varieties (variety)

11. victories (victory)

13. trophies (trophy)

14. injuries (injury)

15. colonies (colony)

LITERATURE: Week of January 3-6, 2012

Happy New Year, Students!

I hope that you had a restful and fun Christmas vacation, and are ready for the downhill ride toward 6th grade! We have a great deal to learn before the end of May, so put on your goggles and helmets for the ride!

These next three weeks, we will be finishing up the Native Americans of Central and South America and their encounters with the Spanish explorers, Cortez and Pizarro. Then, we'll be ready to briefly discuss French colonization in the New World, and finally. . . the British and the 13 Colonies. Since our next novel, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, takes place during the era of British colonization, we will wait for several weeks to begin reading it.

In the meantime, we will be reading several primary source documents and some legends, short stories and poems. You will have several writing assignments each week that you may not be able to finish in class that will be homework. There will be no assigned reading, but you will still need to be reading 30 minutes each night from a book of your choice.

We will also be concentrating on some of the more confusing grammatical issues in the English language. This week, we will discuss the differences between punctuating plurals and possessives. Our spelling list, which is below, will be taken from that grammar lesson. There are 30. . . yes, 30 words. But before you faint, look them over--they're really easy and should be review words in most cases. Your test will be Monday, January 9.

We will also spend this semester practicing our cursive writing. My goal is to bring my only C in elementary school up to an A--and learn to write in cursive! One is never too old to learn, right?

See you tomorrow!

SPELLING LIST for Test on Monday, January 7, 2012

echo, echoes

hero, heroes

auto, autos

memo, memos

potato, potatoes

pimento, pimentos

veto, vetoes

tomato, tomatoes

man, men

woman, women

fungus, fungi

thief, thieves

species, species

medium, media

person, people

January 3-6: Latin II/Science/Bible

Latin II

· Tuesday: review ch. 6-9

· Thursday: review ch. 6-9

Science

· Friday: begin physical science unit

Bible

· Wednesday: Eucharist Chapel; begin reviewing cards #97-111

· Friday: con’t reviewing cards #97-111