Greetings on this gloriously gloomy Monday --- i gave quite a bit of info about this week in last week's blog - but just a reminder, there is a wsh quiz over chapter 3 on Wednesday and your student should also be researching PNW native tribes in order to pick a tribe for their diary/journal assignment. They have the info on this assignment if you would like to know the details - the due date will likely be November 13th - I know this a long period of time to work on this project, but the 1/2 days this week slow our progress.

10/19 - 10/23 --- Grades for 1st quarter went in on Wednesday - you should get a paper copy sometime soon (probably Friday) - This week we have continued reading short stories in class from our literature book - we have been doing short assignments from the book, in class and taking small quizzes at the end of each story. Next week we will spend most of our time for English looking at Edgar Allen Poe, which will culminate with "Poe Fest" on Thursday and Friday --- in Wa. St. History - we are reading ch. 3 in the book and the students with odd class numbers are doing the odd questions at the end of the chapter and vice versa for the evens - these are due tomorrow. We will continue with our study of Native Americans in the PNW for the next couple of weeks and will revisit this topic in Civics as well - including a look at a new video called "Shadow of the Salmon" and a fun Chinook Jargon activity. I'm looking forward to seeing folks at conferences - kw

Sorry this post is so late in the week - the good news is that there have not been any big tests or projects due this week. For the most part we are working in class out of the literature book (this is why you don't see assigned reading at home) although during times like this, the students should continue to do choice reading outside of class. We are working on the Big Question from Unit One of the lit book - "Is truth the same for everyone" - we are also looking at elements of plot (ask them to show you the hand motions for Conflict, Complications, etc...) --- Today we also jumped over to Civics to look briefly at juveniles in the justice system - we looked at the sad case of the boy who was set on fire by classmates in Florida yesterday and we read in our Civics text about legal policies regarding juvenile offenders. I asked them to talk with adults at home regarding their opinions on juvenile justice. They were very engaged and I'm sure have many more questions and ideas. We will occasionally make these jumps in curriculum when a current event fits with something we will cover later in the year - it keeps it so much more "real" for the kids rather than just listening to me drone or doing assigned text book reading. early best wishes for a good weekend :) kw

Happiest of Mondays to you all --- this a short week for the students - they earned it after working so hard on their writing last Thursday and Friday --- most students used both periods on prewriting, drafting, and final drafts --- many took at least 15 - 30 minutes more! I hope we get good feedback from the state so I can share the details with the students but I don't know the timeline for that return at this point.
Block 1 - this week we are working on test taking strategies for map tests - watching a video on mud slides in the Pacific NW -- finishing up a short novel in class and starting on a new unit in the Reader's Journey
Blocks 2 and 3 - we will review for tommorow's map test by going outside and locating map items on an oversized chalk outline of the region. tommorow is the test (54 points!) --- we will also be watching a video, finishing the scoring of their group maps, and working on the first unit in the new literature book -- other than preparing for tomorrow's test, not a lot of homework this week :) Oh, we will also do a group sharing of their book projects that were turned in last week.