10/22/2007

 

Dear Families,

 

Thank you for sharing your children with me.  I enjoy their energy, humor  and appreciate the work they do here at school.  I especially value the support I see them give to one another.

 

Eight graders will assist with our school earthquake drill Tuesday, October 30.  Students received assignments today.  Mr. Schwartz and I will do a walk-through of the drill, Friday, October 26.

 

¯ ACADEMICS

HISTORY

The Revolutionary War has begun!  Eighth graders will be hard at work this week creating pro-Colonist propaganda and taking a closer look at the Declaration of Independence.

 

Students began reading the historical fiction novel, My Brother Sam is Dead by James and Christopher Collier.  We read this book as a supplement to our history class rather than to learn about literary elements.

 
RELIGION

The students will be learning about St. Francis, patron saint of animals and ecology.  I have asked students to bring pictures to school so we can create our own Blessing of animals and environment service.

 

The students will begin contemplative prayer this week.  St. Gregory defines contemplative prayer as “resting in God.”  Contemplative prayer is about centering ourselves and opening our minds and hearts to God.  Contemplative prayer is a different style of prayer.  I am introducing it to the kids as an addition to their prayer life.     

 

LANGUAGE ARTS

Students have chosen a topic for their feature articles.  They will turn in a first draft by the end of the week.

 

 Our Monday Spelling test is not working for me or the kids.  We will return to the traditional Monday to Friday Spelling program.  If we never try anything new, we don’t know what works and what doesn’t.

 

LITERATURE

Students presented their The Light in the Forest  theme song, chant or rap last week. I was impressed with their performances and creativity.

 

The last assignment from The Light in the Forest is to write an original ending to the story.  A first draft is due Wednesday, October 23.   

 

MATH

I do quizzes a little different.  The students take a quiz three weeks in a row (same material, different problems).  They get the highest two scores of the three. Each Friday, there are three quizzes on one sheet of paper.  Each quiz is for one week of work and counts as 5 points.  There are never more than 3 quizzes or 15 problems on a Friday.  If you look your child’s quiz from last Friday, you will see quiz 4-3, 5-2 6-1. It was the last time for quiz 4, the second for quiz 5 and the first for quiz 6.

 

8th grade math will be working on the following:

·        Adding and subtracting fractions

·        Multiplying and dividing fractions and mixed numbers

 

Algebra will be working on the following

·        Adding and subtracting rational numbers

·        Multiplying and dividing rational numbers.

 

SCIENCE

Updates about Science are posted in the Science section of school web page.

 

ü CLASSROOM COMMUNITY

The students and I had an enlightening (for me) and informative discussion about the upcoming Thanksgiving Assembly planned by Eighth Graders.  In a respectful manner, the students let me know they would like to make significant changes to that assembly.  We are hard at work keeping the elements of the assembly they see as valuable and brainstorming new ideas.

 

The students have embraced the modified parliamentary procedures and have held several successful class meetings.  Each student deserves a compliment for his or her behavior!

 

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

Ann Christianson

annc@saintbrendan.org