Vocabulary: The vocabulary skill for this week is synonyms. A test will be given on Friday covering this skill as well as all of the vocabulary from Unit 4.
Spelling: We will be working on verbs ending in -ing and commonly misspelled words. The spelling words are: advising, balancing, declaring, emerging, exhibiting, governing, insisting, justifying, mentioning, oppressing, prohibiting, persuading, rebelling, revolting, vetoing, principle, principal, pleas, please. The spelling test will be on Friday.
Grammar: Students will be working on using the present-perfect tense and using forms of Be and Have. There will be a test on Friday on all of the grammar from Unit 4.
Writing: This week students will be completing a research report. The prompt is as follows: Write a report about an event in U.S. history when justice was achieved. This report is due Friday, November 21st.
Math: We will be working on our Go Math series. We are doing Chapter 6 this week. It is about adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. We will complete lessons 6.9- Chapter Review this week. Students will take the Chapter 6 Test on Thursday. There will be one page of math homework assigned nightly, except for Thursday and Friday. Each Friday, students will also take a multiplication timed test. It is very important for students to be fluid with their multiplication facts. Daily practice of multiplication facts is encouraged.
Social Studies: We have started a new unit on The Civil War. To help us learn about the war, we are reading the book Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt. Students have been assigned a copy of this historical fiction novel and be answer questions about the book.
Summary of Across Five Aprils: Drawn from family records and from stories told by the author's grandfather, this deeply moving novel conveys the bitterness and drama of the Civil War through the lives of an ordinary family. The story is told through the eyes of young Jethro Creighton, who lives with his closely knit family in a farming community in southern Illinois. In April of 1861, Jethro is nine years old, and too young to understand the meaning of war. By the second April, Jethro has watched his older brothers go off to fight-- two for the North, one for the South. His parents are stricken by grief and suffering as the neighbors take revenge. As the seasons change and the years pass, the family closeness dissolves, one brother is killed, and a cousin deserts the Union Army. By April of 1865, the meaning of war has become all too clear to Jethro. Although still a boy, he is forced to leave his boyhood behind. (From The Civil War: Literature Units, Projects, and Activities by Janet Cassidy)
Science: We will begin a new unit on classifying living things into kingdoms. Students will be working cooperatively in their groups to take notes and present their notes to the class in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. Notebooks will be graded weekly.