Spartan students show their team pride on November 12th by participating in Team Tee-shirt Day!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Team Tee-shirt Day!
Spartan students show their team pride on November 12th by participating in Team Tee-shirt Day!
Language Arts: Nonfiction Unit
Students are beginning a unit on nonfiction to kick-off the second nine weeks. We started the unit by studying several nonfiction terms to review and expand our knowledge of this genre.
With a strong background in nonfiction terms, students are now competing to be the survivors in Mrs. Wright's Survivor Reading Challenge. We are reading a journal called "Survive the Savage Sea" about a family's struggle to survive after a shipwreck. Which tribe will be named the survivors of the challenge? We will find out soon! After the story, we will read several news articles of real survivor stories.
Before Thanksgiving Break, we will be joining Mrs. Drakeley's English classes to investigate on-line news writing on a website just for middle school students called TweenTribune.
When we return from the holiday, students will read a personal narrative called "Where Are You Now, William Shakespeare?" to explore this nonfiction genre. We will follow-up this story with some encyclopedia articles on Ronald Reagan, an important person in the story.
After all of this experience with nonfiction writing, students will have the opportunity to try their hands at writing a nonfiction book review on a library book. The book review will be written in the style of a news article, using features and techniques discovered in this nonfiction unit.
To wrap up the unit just as we are wrapping up our holiday gifts, students will participate in a Reference Material Scavenger Hunt in the library. This will be the perfect way to ring in the new year, with new knowledge from books!
With a strong background in nonfiction terms, students are now competing to be the survivors in Mrs. Wright's Survivor Reading Challenge. We are reading a journal called "Survive the Savage Sea" about a family's struggle to survive after a shipwreck. Which tribe will be named the survivors of the challenge? We will find out soon! After the story, we will read several news articles of real survivor stories.
Before Thanksgiving Break, we will be joining Mrs. Drakeley's English classes to investigate on-line news writing on a website just for middle school students called TweenTribune.
When we return from the holiday, students will read a personal narrative called "Where Are You Now, William Shakespeare?" to explore this nonfiction genre. We will follow-up this story with some encyclopedia articles on Ronald Reagan, an important person in the story.
After all of this experience with nonfiction writing, students will have the opportunity to try their hands at writing a nonfiction book review on a library book. The book review will be written in the style of a news article, using features and techniques discovered in this nonfiction unit.
To wrap up the unit just as we are wrapping up our holiday gifts, students will participate in a Reference Material Scavenger Hunt in the library. This will be the perfect way to ring in the new year, with new knowledge from books!
Monday, November 8, 2010
Upcoming English Units
The Spartan students are finishing up their five paragraph essay about the Glopsnerch that they each created. These essays are due tomorrow, November 9.
We will be starting a unit on nouns, pronouns, and adjectives next. This should be a review unit for the students. This unit will begin on Wednesday, November 10 and take us through the week before Thanksgiving.
During the week of Thanksgiving, English and Language Arts classes will be teaming up to bring you an exciting project involving the use of editorials! Stay tuned for more information!
We will be starting a unit on nouns, pronouns, and adjectives next. This should be a review unit for the students. This unit will begin on Wednesday, November 10 and take us through the week before Thanksgiving.
During the week of Thanksgiving, English and Language Arts classes will be teaming up to bring you an exciting project involving the use of editorials! Stay tuned for more information!
Friday, November 5, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Spartans of the Month: October
The Spartan Team would like to congratulate Zack and Kari, our Spartan Superheroes of the Month, for excellent work in October. Keep it up!
Spirit Day
Students in Mrs. Wright's homebase participated in a school spirit day by wearing the new 2010-2011 Spartan tee-shirt.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Olweus Anti-Bullying Program
Spartan students participated in the first classroom meeting of the Olweus Anti-Bullying Program on Friday, October 29th in homebase. CMS adopted this program this year to stomp out bullying at our school. Each month, students will join in a discussion in homebase to raise awareness of anti-bullying techniques and empower students to take a stand in stopping bullying at CMS. Here are some images of the shields we made and the pledge we signed as part of our commitment. Our Spartan Superheroes will Shield the School from Bullying!
Seeing Double in Red Ribbon Week
Here are some Spartans participating in Twin Day Red Ribbon Week. The week features theme days to remind students to say no to drugs!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Language Arts Update
FICTION SHORT STORY UNIT:
In language arts class this month, students practiced literary analysis of story elements while reading fiction short stories. We read the following stories this month: "Young Ladies Don't Slay Dragons,""Collecting Team," and "Three Skeleton Key."
Students got to demonstrate their plot-writing skills by completing a creative writing assignment on the short story "Collecting Team." Students wrote the next episode of the story, casting themselves as characters to help save the day for the Collecting Team!
We will be reading one additional story next week to conclude the unit before the end of the nine weeks grading period.
NOVELS FOR THE FIRST NINE WEEKS:
In addition to the short stories, students have been reading an independent novel from the library, due November 1st. When the books are due, we will complete a book project on the novel and take the Accelerated Reader test.
The SSR bell-ringer book that students have been reading for the first nine weeks is the novel Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie. The novel is due October 27th, and we will be taking the AR test then. Many students have already finished this book and gone on to the second novel, So B. It.
EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY:
Mrs. Wright's "Prepare-y for Harry: Reading Can be Magic Challenge" is underway. For the next month, students are invited to read the novels in the Harry Potter series to prepare for the seventh and final movie. Students were given the official rules for the challenge in class.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Spartan Tee-Shirt Sale
Spartan students are invited to purchase a tee-shirt to show their Spartan spirit! We will be wearing our shirts on School Spirit Days and during team activities such as our field trip. The sale ends Friday, October 1.
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