4/7/2008

Dear Families,

I hope that you all had a wonderful and restful Spring Break.

Thank you for all of your kind thoughts and prayers in the wake of my “episode” last week. I am fine and I am so grateful to be in good health. We are lucky to belong to such a wonderful community.

� ACADEMICS

HISTORY

The Washington state map test is Tuesday, April 8.

RELIGION

The students are working on Chapter 12 and have artistically expressed their version of a holy place. We said a decade of the Rosary together and plan to do so again this week.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Spelling Test - Lesson 24. Workbook p. 105 A, B, p. 106 C.– due Thursday. Spelling Test - Friday.

Term Paper –

I spent my weekend grading the “dummy” term papers. The most common challenges were in the outlines, bibliography, organization and position/thesis. I reviewed these issues with the kids and explained again this is a difficult process. Also, I complimented the students on their effort. I am impressed with their research and desire to tackle this new and challenging assignment.

The term paper is due Friday, April 11 – no exceptions. We will celebrate with an end of day ice cream buffet.

Once the papers have been turned in, I will need some help checking bibliographies. If any of you need volunteer hours or just enjoy this sort of task, please let me know. You can work at home- - no previous experience needed!

I hope you all have a chance to come view our Fantasy Dinner Party. The kids did a great job with this assignment!

LITERATURE

Today I introduced our last short story, “Flowers for Algernon.” The work for this story will be done almost exclusively at school.

After the short story unit is complete, we move on to non-fiction and then poetry.

The second and final book review of the year is due Friday, May 16, 2008.

MATH

Algebra: This week, we will continue working on multiplying polynomials.

Math 8:  This week the students will be working on the following consumer topics:

· Simple and compound interest

· Comparison shopping

· Discounts

Both classes will receive their math progress report on Wednesday, April 9.  This needs to be signed and returned by Friday, April 11.

SCIENCE

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

COMMUNITY UPDATE

The class has chosen a mascot, colors and motto. From here, each student will design a shield. Once the shields are complete, the students vote and voila, the Class of 2008 has a shield!

I continue to prepare for Mt, St. Helens, the carnival and graduation. More details to follow later this week.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

Ann Christianson

annc@saintbrendan.org