October 3rd-6th

Welcome back Bighorns! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Here's what we will be working on this week:

Projects: We continue with our ecosystems unit. This week, students will select an endangered species and begin researching it. The research project will include an infographic component as well as a presentation on a recovery plan for the endangered species. I can't wait for students to get started researching and putting their project together!

8th Writing: Students continue to write informational/explanatory essays, specifically this week students will write a compare and contrast essay about two animals. Students will answer why one animal is not the other. For example: Why is a butterfly not a bird? This is a writing assignment that last year's 8th graders completed.

6th Writing: Students will also continue to write informational/explanatory essays. Sixth grade writers will be writing a cause and effect essay in which they describe and explain two causes that led to the Civil War. As a reference, students will be using our text Two Miserable Presidents. Students will continue to build upon their knowledge of writing an essay by creating an outline and making sure that their essays have an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. However, this essay is a little different in that the body paragraphs will follow a specific structure: cause, cause, effect.

6th Reading: We are moving forward in our text Two Miserable Presidents. We are practicing writing short responses to answer questions based on the text. Students are expected to create responses in complete sentences and making sure they cite at least one quote in their short written response and then explain how the quote relates to their response.

HOMEWORK: Students must read each night and summarize what they read. Please remember that students are graded based on the following criteria: 3 pts for a several-sentence summary that gives a clear idea of what was read that night, 2 pts for capitalization and punctuation. Thus, each day of summarizing is worth 5 points (20 points for the total reading log ). It is so important that students read daily at home to help them become better readers. As with anything, practice helps with improvement!

GRADES: Please check Infinite Campus regularly. Missing or incomplete homework has caused reading grades to decline, especially in Reading. Please remember that overall grades fluctuate as new assignments are entered and based on the grade a student earned on that new assignment. Graded work is sent home every Thursday so please ask your child to view it.