Welcome Back!

Welcome back!  I hope everyone had a relaxing and restful break!  I cannot believe it is already January of this school year.  May will be here before we know it.  We have a lot of work to do before then.

The GA Milestone will begin after spring break.  More details will be made available as we get closer to the test.  However, students should be working on practicing keyboarding skills at home (if you have access to a computer).  Students will be taking the Milestone online.  One component of the test, is students will be asked to write explanations for their answers.  We have been working on these types of questions (and will continue to), but I want the students to feel comfortable with the keyboard.  My biggest fear is they have a great answer constructed in their head but cannot figure out how to type their answer out.  Here is a link to some keyboarding games that may help familiarize your student to the keyboard.

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/keyboarding_games.html

Reading:
We began our unit of context clues this morning.  Students are learning strategies they can use when they come to an unfamiliar word in their reading.  I also introduced a new set of roots this morning.  We will test over these roots is on Wednesday, January 14, 2015.  The students will be expected to complete a few extra homework assignments with their roots this nine weeks. Homework assignments could be putting their words in ABC order, completing a crossword puzzle, or putting each word into a sentence that shows they understand the meaning of the word.  The following is a link to the Quizlet that will help your child study for their test next Wednesday!  Remind them to study their N.E.W. (No Excuse Words) too:  information, January, Kimbell, Edenfield, and historical.

http://quizlet.com/64960177/roots-man-manu-flash-cards/

ELA:
Our focus this nine weeks is to prepare each student for the GA Milestone and how to properly answer the constructed response questions on the test.  We will work with practice questions and old tests to see how these answers should be written.  Also, we will be working on the Chrome books to help them be better prepared when they take the Milestone.  I absolutely don't want them to freeze on the test and not know how or what is expected of their writing.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please email me.  Thank you for your continued support.  Have a great week!

Samantha Kimbell