Weekly Assignments:  This has been updated on 10-28-10.

In LA we have read Boss of the Plains, it starts on page 219 in the anthology.  It is a story about John Stetson's life, the early western migration due to the gold rush. and the beginnings of the Stetson hat. The students have a homework packet (pgs. 114-128).  I have been going over every page in class, discussing it and having students check their work with the corrected answers.  I will collect it on Friday 10-30.  The nest story will be A Very Important Day pages 248-269, practice book pages 129-143.  Most students scored well on the comprehension testing.  I am working with students to learn how to complete the LA packet for the stories with accuracy and full attention to the instructions.

In Math we have moved through chapters 1-6 and now are working on the beginning of chapter 7.  We are on lesson 3 as of 10-30. We are working with equations, inequalities, and expressions.  I will be passing out multiplication/division fact family triangles to be used as flashcards.   Remind your students to keep practicing and memorizing their multiplication facts. I am asking all students to answer every work problem with a full sentence answer (this will help with their writing skills).

In CA studies we have read the first chapter introducing the students to CA.  I have assigned a report where the students pick one of the four regions (mountain, desert, valley, or coastal).  They are to describe the plants and animals, the industry, the location, and how their region is different from the other regions.  It was given last week and was due on Fri. 9-17-10.  The current report will be on a CA Indian tribe.  They will have to know: location; type of housing; trade items; foods; and be able to describe that tribe's life and traditions. This is due at the student's conference.  It is now past due.  The next report will be on one of the explorers, such as Columbus, De Gama, Cortez, Ponce De Leon and others.  Take your students to the library, or have them go to our school library for books on the explorer of their choice.  They can also get information in our Social Studies book.

For ELD we have been working on figurative language skills.  So far, we have covered smilies, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, and alliteration.  I am still reinforcing the concepts of subject-predicate, command (imperative), statement (declarative), exclamation (exclamatory), and question (interrogative) sentences