Oct. 31st to Nov. 3rd

Hello families of Oasis Academy!

We had a great week back from fall break. Below, please find important information regarding what we will be learning this week as well as important upcoming events.

Projects: We will finish presentations on endangered species. Students have done a great job putting together plans to help their chosen species, I can't wait to see the rest! We will move onto our next unit on genetics and heredity.

6th ELA: Students are finishing their cause and effect essays on causes of the Civil War. We've spent quite a bit of time on this assignment because I keep asking students to go back and revise for clarity of an idea, explanation or elaboration of quote, or just overall coherence of the ideas presented in their essays. We have a lot of work to do in Writing and I ask that students have a cooperative, hard-working attitude to make the gains needed. I will be supporting students all the way but their cooperation is important. In addition to continuing work on our cause and effect essays, students will also start learning about pronouns.

6th Reading: We continue to read Two Miserable Presidents. Students are enjoying the book and are working through some comprehension activities. The last activity was a summary and visual representation of the start of the Civil War which was the conflict at Fort Sumter. Students are working on editing and revising their summaries so they can be displayed in the hallway. We hope to complete them this week so visitors can enjoy reading them.

8th ELA: Students are working on writing argumentative essays. They are learning vocabulary pertinent to this type of writing. Last week we learned about debates and analyzed both sides of current issues that pertain to middle school students. On Thursday, we had a practice debate in which students practiced arguing both sides of an issue and giving a rebuttal to the opposing side. This is exactly what students will be expected to do when writing an argumentative essay.

REMINDERS:

Homework: Please remember that students are to complete 20 minutes of reading homework each night. They need to read their book and summarize what they read. Students who continue to not complete their reading homework will be ineligible for P.E.

Halloween: Students are allowed to wear their Halloween costumes tomorrow, Monday Oct. 31st. However, they must be appropriate for school. No weapons and face masks. Please remember that we will be having a costume parade so that everyone can see each other's costume. After the costume parade, our class will have a snack and activity in the classroom that I've prepared for them. Students who choose to not wear a costume must still wear the required school uniform.

Book fair: We will be having a book fair this week. Thank you to our wonderful volunteers for setting up this event. Our class will be visiting the book fair at 10:30 on Monday, Oct. 31st but the book fair will be open all week including Family Night on Wednesday afternoon.

Parent-teacher conferences: I e-mailed a sign-up genius for conferences which will take place on Nov. 4th. If you did not receive the e-mail please notify me at Mrs. de Leon's e-mail and I will resend the sign up genius. Please include your e-mail so I know where to send the invite to.