WEEK OF DECEMBER 11th

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

HOMEWORK:     

Math: Remembering 3-10 due Monday

Reading: Read an average of 20 minutes each day.

MATH: 

Weare reviewing multiplying fractions and now have added in dividing fractions. This is when it can become particularly confusing for them, so it's important to be able to understand examples of situations where we would use multiplication and division and be able to model it.We won't take the test until after we come back from Christmas break and review.

 If you go to the math tab there are many videos and online practice things to do. It can be very helpful!!

WRITING:  

  Friday we began reading our snowman stories to the class. I was telling them that it is so fun to see the growth they have made with sentence fluency, using better word choices, adding in conversation, and just being able to read someone's writing and hear their voice in my head which is wonderful!

READING:

Next week we will read a Christmas picture book and discuss theme, character, mood, etc. 

SCIENCE:
I will grade tests this weekend and return them to students on Monday

 SPELLING: Students will bring their spelling test home on Monday. We will review grammar concepts next week, but no new lesson.

Week of December 4th

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

HOMEWORK:     

Math: Remembering 3-7 due Monday

Reading: Read an average of 20 minutes each day.

MATH: 

We have added in multiplying fractions by a fraction as well as multiplying fractions as scaling- how to tell if the product of a fraction products will be >, <, or = to one of the factors. We continue to review all concepts along the way. Next week we will begin dividing a fraction by a whole number.

WRITING:  

 We continue to work on a narrative writing project about a snowman. Students are writing from the snowman's perspective. We are focusing on sentence fluency- using short and long sentences and beginning our sentences with a variety of sentence types.

READING:

We are reading an article, "Race Against Death" a true account of the dogsled teams in Alaska who covered 700 miles in 5 days to bring  antitoxin to the town of Nome, Alaska to save the lives of children with diptheria. We watched a short video that mixed in the animated movie with a verbal accounting of the event. We are working on finding text evidence, vocabulary in context, and summarizing information, and text structure.

SCIENCE:
  We have done some investigations with magnetic forces as non-contact forces as well as electricity as a non-contact force. The test will be next Wednesday. Students have study stacks on Google classroom science.

 SPELLING: The Lesson 11 test over  apostrophes for contractions and possession was Friday. Our next lesson covers homophones.

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

HOMEWORK:     

Math: Remembering 3-8 due Monday

Reading:There is a text passage and questions due Wednesday.

MATH: 

We are continuing to work on multiplying whole numbers by a fraction and fractions by a fraction. We are working on problem solving with these concepts as well as creating visual representations of work.

WRITING:  

 We began a narrative writing project about a snowman. Students are writing from the snowman's perspective. We are focusing on sentence fluency- using short and long sentences and beginning our sentences with a variety of sentence types.

READING:

We will complete Literature Circles this week. We will move onto nonfiction articles through Christmas.

SCIENCE:
Students created paper airplanes, tested them, and then redesigned and retested after the lesson on forces of flight. We had a competition on Friday! Magnetic forces are next.

 SPELLING: Lesson 11 is about using apostrophes for contractions and possession. We will continue to learn more about this into next week and test on Thursday.

Week of November 6th

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

HOMEWORK:     

Math: There is a math review page due Monday.

Reading: Students have a text to read about the Arawak Indians and some questions to complete by Tuesday.

MATH: 

We have been reviewing concepts from the Place value unit and the test is Tuesday. We will go over the test on Wednesday and begin our next unit, Multiplying and Dividing Fractions. This will go through to Christmas break.

WRITING:  

 Students are working on a writing project given to them by Mrs. Maxson. They are taking information they learned about 5 Native American regions and organizing it on slides. They are writing paragraphs about which area they would prefer and why. These are due Wednesday. We will begin a persuasive brochure written from the point of view of a turkey not wanting to be eaten at Thanksgiving.

READING:

Literature Circles began last week. Students are reading in small groups, practicing comprehension strategies that we have been working on this year. I am sitting in with 2-3 groups each day for discussion and comprehension strategy assistance.

 

SCIENCE:   

This week we watched a Bill Nye video about simple machines. We continued our investigation of simple machines by creating ramps and measuring the amount of force it took to lift a wood block straight up as compared to pulling it up a ramp. We will be reviewing concepts this week and the test will be next week.

 

WORD WORK:

We will continue to learn about suffixes this coming week. Knowing the meanings of prefixes and suffixes can help students figure out words they don't know.

 

 SPELLING: This coming week Lesson 10 will focus on prefixes. We have a couple lesson pages that students can study from for the test each week. The test for Lesson 10 will be on Friday.

Week of October 30

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

HOMEWORK:     

Math: Lesson 34 - 5 word problems

Spelling: Complete spelling Lesson 7- compound words          Writing: Some students need to finish final drafts.                                                

  Read: Reading an average of 20 minutes daily is an ongoing homework assignment.

MATH: 

We learned about the associative property and rounding decimals. This coming week we will add in graphing decimals and then review for the test. The test will be Friday.

WRITING:  

Students finished their "Spooky Stories" and we read them to the class- I love that part and the kids really enjoy hearing other's stories as well. 

READING:

We finished reading the article Burning Town about the Peshtigo fire in WI back in the 1800's. This week we will begin literature circles. 

SCIENCE:   In science we have been investigating simple machines. Yesterday we made marshmallow catapults - levers in the simple machine family. Students tested and adjusted their catapults to make the marshmallow go the farthest. We will continue this on Monday.

 

WORD WORK:

We have been working on prefix meanings and usage. We will add in suffixes this coming week. Knowing the meanings of prefixes and suffixes can help students figure out words they don't know.

 

 SPELLING: The test over compound words is Tuesday.

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

HOMEWORK:     

Math: Multiplication and division review page

              Lesson 2-5                                                             

 

Read: Reading an average of 20 minutes daily is an ongoing homework assignment.

MATH: 

In our Place Value Unit we have learned about the value of digits in each whole number and decimal place as well as what this looks like using pictures- tenths are like dimes in a dollar, hundredths like pennies, etc. Students are practicing comparing and ordering decimals, writing decimals in three ways and adding and subtracting decimals.  We will begin rounding this week. There are video tutorials on the blog and students may want to watch how to write decimals in 3 ways.

WRITING: Students began writing a "Spooky Story" last Thursday. They are to show they know how to write a simile and use onomatopoeai's (sound words like, WHOOSH!) as well as use descriptive language.

READING:  

 Students are reading 2 short articles in groups of 3 and practicing responding to text questions in a complete way by paraphrasing and/or quoting.  They will read the next article on their own and work on these comprehension strategies.

SCIENCE:   We have been learning about balanced and unbalanced forces and Newtons' 1st & 2nd Law of Motion. The activities for this are fun and help student experience these concepts. And I found a couple NFL videos that explain these concepts which many kids love and can relate to!

 

WORD WORK:

We have been working on prefix meanings and usage. Knowing the meanings of prefixes and suffixes can help students figure out words they don't know.

 

 SPELLING: Our spelling test tomorrow is over the homophones there, their, and they're.

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

HOMEWORK:     

Math: None                                                               

Read: Reading an average of 20 minutes daily is an ongoing homework assignment.

MATH:  Students took the Adding and Subtracting Fractions test on Friday. We will begin our Place Value unit on Monday.

WRITING: Thursday students chose from 4 articles in order to begin their own opinion writing piece. The last one we practice together. They read their article and chose the side of the argument that they would write about. They will complete plans on Monday.

READING:  

We will finish reading Guests on Tuesday, There will be an assessment on the following Tuesday that we will be studying for.

We will then read non-fiction articles and work on reading comprehension strategies in this area.

SCIENCE: 
 The test was Friday over motion and graphing. We will begin our unit on Balanced and Unbalanced Forces next.

WORD WORK:

We have been reviewing what nouns, pronouns, and verbs are. Next week we will do some more activities around those. We will also focus on prefixes and their meanings.

SPELLING: Next week's skill lesson is the various ways of spelling the /k/ sound.

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.    

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

HOMEWORK:     

Math: Complete Lesson 2-1  (ALL)                                                               Read: Reading an average of 20 minutes daily is an ongoing homework assignment.

MATH:  We have been practicing adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators as well as estimating to see if our answers are reasonable. We have been reviewing all concepts and working on word problems as well.

See the math tab for tutorials when needed.

WRITING: We continue to work on complete sentences and paragraphing as we write our Opinion Piece: "Should Fidget Spinners Be Banned?" We read an article giving both sides of the argument. Students chose a side and we worked through the structure of the plan which they are using to write their paper.

READING:  

We are reading the novel, "Guests". It is a historical fiction book from the perspective of a Native American boy when the Pilgrims arrive for the first Thanksgiving. This ties in with our U.S. History unit.
We are studying/practicing theme, comprehension strategies, vocabulary in context strategies and character traits. We are also focusing on writing a summary and finding information in order to respond to text questions.

SCIENCE: 
  We have done a couple of investigations using the movement of students. They are jogging, skipping jumping, etc down a ten meter path and recording their times. They graphed their results of the distance and time. We will continue to practice creating a graph and studying for the test which will be Friday next week.