Grades, Vocabulary Assignments and First Set of Notes Over Brazil

This weekend, I submitted grades for the UIL grade check. This grade check marks the end of the 6th week for this 9 week grading period. There are only 3 weeks left for students to get their averages where they need to be. Today, each student was given the opportunity to hear their up to date average for my class and was given a list of what assignments, if any, they were missing. Please check with your student as to what they are missing and go online to view their grades. Time is quickly running out on this grading period.

In an effort to get the students a couple of easy grades to raise their averages, I assigned the vocabulary from Chapter 9. This chapter has an unusually high number of vocabulary words so I decided to break the vocabulary assignment in half and make it two grades, the theory being two good grades will raise a low average faster than one good grade. The vocabulary assignments are below. Please do each assignment separately as they are two individual grades.

Below the two vocabulary assignments are the notes from Chapter 9, Lesson 1 over Brazil. Please make sure your student copies these notes or prints them out for study.

Chapter 8, Lesson 3 Notes

As promised, here are the notes from Chapter 8, Lesson 3. The students need to copy or print these notes and have them ready for review on Monday.

Chapter 8 Lesson 2 Notes, Chapter 8 Vocabulary Builder

Today, we finished up discussion over the Chapter 8, Lesson 2 notes. The notes are below in case anyone did not quite get finished copying them. I also handed out a short worksheet which is due on Monday 11/23. Many of the students finished it up in class already.

We remain on track to have the test over Chapter 8 on Tuesday 11/24.

Internet Problems

For some reason, the Blogger server was unavailable to me until after 10:00pm. That being the case, I was unable to post the notes for Lesson 2. Please let your students know that I will not be holding them accountable for having the notes tomorrow. We'll just get the notes tomorrow. No worries.

Chapter 8 Vocabulary Assigned, Field Trip

The vocabulary assignment for Chapter 8 was assigned today. The students had some time to work on it in class and some finished before leaving. The assignment is due Tuesday 11/18 at the beginning of class for those who did not complete it today (classes not affected by the field trip - see below). The assignment needs to be ready on Thursday 11/19 for classes I do not see tomorrow. The vocabulary is posted below.

The 6th grade will be taking a field trip tomorrow and will be gone most of the day. Please make sure your student has their vocabulary assignment completed and ready to turn in when they get back to class Thursday.

Chapter 8 - The Caribbean Islands Started

I started the day today by notifying the students of the grades they made on the Chapter 7 test last Friday. The grades have been entered into the grade book should you want to check them out online. I have not yet returned the tests to the students as I had several that were absent Friday. I don't want the tests floating around until everyone has taken them. Once returned, the kids can do test corrections in order to improve their grades.

Next, we started the notes for Chapter 8 - The Caribbean Islands. The notes can be found below. Key items discussed were the three island groups found in the region and the two ways islands can form. I showed the Pixar short "Lava" to the kids as it actually does a fairly good job of illustrating the life of a volcano from birth to extinction... plus it is fun. Check it out for yourself. The Lesson 1 notes are below as well.

Link to the "Lava" video: http://dai.ly/x354ycl

Chapter 7 Test, Progress Reports

Friday, the students took their exam over Chapter 7 - Central America. The tests have been graded and the scores posted in the grade book.

Progress reports were handed out on Friday to most classes. I have one class that did not get them as I wanted them to concentrate on the test and not use up class time discussing the progress reports. The thing about progress reports is that they are obsolete by the time you, the parent/guardian receive them. I would encourage you to go to the EHMS school website and check the grades there. That is the way to get the most current and up to date grades for your student.

One more thing, just for fun, I gave the students a bonus question on Friday. If they got it right, they would have received five bonus points on their test. I put the picture below on the screen. They bonus question was "What is this animal?" For the answer scroll down below the photo.

Answer: A lamprey

Finishing Up Chapter 7 Over Central America, Test on Friday

Tuesday, we finished up our notes on Chapter 7 - Lesson 3 over Central America. This concludes our notes and work for this chapter. We will review on Thursday and the students will take their chapter test on Friday. The lesson 3 notes are below. Notes on lesson 1 and lesson 2 can be found by scrolling down to earlier blog posts.

Please make sure your student studies and is as ready as possible for the exam on Friday.

Maps/Art Assignments Due, Week at a Glance

The map of Central America was due today at the beginning of class. Students were to have labeled and colored the map provided on Wednesday of last week.

As I'm sure you all know, this Wednesday is the Veteran's Day holiday and there will be no school.

The week sets up like this:

Tuesday: Chapter 7 Lesson 3 Notes over Central America
Wednesday: Holiday
Thursday: Chapter 7 Review
Friday: Chapter 7 Exam over Central America

Please encourage your student to get any late and/or make-up work turned in ASAP and to start studying for the test this Friday.

Multiple Items...

There were several things going on today. I'll give you the run down.

First, a map assignment was given to the students. Basically, the job is to label and color a map of Central America. The student were instructed to make it look as close to the map on page 233 of their book as possible. The map can also be found in the online textbook in Chapter 7, Place and time section. This map will be due on Monday 11/9.

The students also received their Chapter 7 Vocabulary Builder worksheet assignment. The vocabulary builder will be due on Friday 11/6.

Finally, the students began copying the notes from Chapter 7 - Lesson 2. This is a long section so they likely did not finish in class. They were instructed to finish the notes at home. The notes and the map assignment can both be found below.

Chapter 7 - Lesson 1 Notes, Chapter 6 Test Corrections, Chapter 7 Vocabulary Due

Today, we completed the notes from Chapter 7 - Lesson 1. The notes are below in their entirety.

The Chapter 6 Test over Mexico was returned to the students. Students may make test corrections in order to recapture half of the points they missed on the test. Corrections should be done on a separate piece of paper and stapled to the original test and turned back in to me. The corrections will be graded and test scores adjusted accordingly. Students will need to make corrections on their own time as no class time will be available for this activity.

*HOMEWORK ALERT*- The Chapter 7 Vocabulary assignment is due tomorrow at the beginning of class. Please make sure that your student has completed the assignment and is ready to turn it in tomorrow. The vocabulary terms are available on the post from yesterday.

Chapter 7 - Central America, Vocabulary Assigned

Today, we started our journey through Central America (Chapter 7). We read Lesson 1 in class together and will start summarizing the information with notes tomorrow.

I did assign the Chapter 7 Vocabulary. The terms and full instructions are below. The vocabulary assignment will be due on Wednesday 11/4 at the beginning of class.