As we head into the second half of the school year, I would just like to say how proud I am of all the students. They are working hard each and everyday; especially with our crazy schedule!

Reading: In reading, we spent two weeks on the main selection How Do You Raise a Raisin. With the snow and special events scheduled for the Holidays, I wanted to make sure we took the time to cover all the material. We focused on drawing conclusions using our own background knowledge and details from the text. We also discussed finding important ideas in a text. We will be working on an expository writing piece on the two days when we return from break. Our next story, Pushing Up the Sky, will begin the week of January 6th.

Writing: The students have FINISHED their personal narratives. Although the project went longer than I expected, the students were able to work through the writing process and come out with some wonderful pieces! I will be scoring all of those using the Writing Rubric and then they will be sent home.

Math: In math, we have moved our focus to geometry. We have explored different types of lines, rays, line segments, parallel lines, perpendicular lines, and intersecting lines. We have also looked at different types of angles and triangles. Triangles and attributes of different polygons will be our focus when we come back from Christmas break. Before the end of the second marking period, the students will be taking another Benchmark test which will cover all we have focused on for this marking period. I will be sending home topics which will be reviewed as we get closer to the test.

Social Studies: With our very crazy schedule due to the snow, we have had little time to work through our Social Studies unit on Communities. We have compared and contrasted suburbs, rural areas, and urban areas. We will continue with this unit when the students come back from break.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. I hope you are all enjoying the holidays with your families! Happy 2014!

Thank you,

Miss Gentile