For the week of Feb. 23 - 27

Social Studies:

This week and next in social studies we will be looking at the five largest world religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Students will learn about the history, basic beliefs, traditions, practices, sacred writings, and major holidays of each over the next several days. We have discussed in class how three of these religions evolved in the Middle East and the other two in South Asia—our current and next regions of study. I believe it is important for students to understand the basic concepts of these five religions in order to fully understand the impact of religion on daily life and culture in these parts of the world. Students are encouraged to talk with you each evening about what they have learned that day.

During this process, students are taking notes on each religion. There will be a test next Thursday and Friday over this material and they will be able to use their notes on it. (A great lesson that the better their notes, the more helpful they will be to them!) If a student is absent on any of these days, he/she needs to get the notes from a friend.

Also, students do have a current event due this Friday. For period 1, the format remains the same as it has been all year. For periods 3 & 6, there is now a worksheet to complete about a news article instead of the former write-up; an article still needs to be attached.

Language Arts:

This week we are wrapping up a few loose ends, going to the library in search of AR books, and doing some practice test-taking and scoring for the reading portion of the WASL. We are also going over some strategies for success on the reading WASL.

For all classes:

This is a fairly light homework week, so it’s a great time to help your student get caught up on any missing work!

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Where has the last month gone?

To say that I've fallen a little behind in updating this page is a bit of an understatement.

I'd like to fill you in...The district computer filter has prevented me from updating this blog from school so I have to do it from home. Normally this would not be a big deal, but as some of you might have heard from your students, I'm now about 4 months pregnant. As parents yourselves, I'm sure you know how exhausting the first couple months of pregnancy are. Throw a three year old in the mix and I just haven't been nearly as efficient in the evenings as I usually am. Anything “extra” got knocked down the priority list for the last couple weeks. Happily, the fatigue is now waning and I'm feeling more like myself again so I hope to be back to my regular weekly posts. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

My big question is...does this website help you? Please zip me a quick email or post your comments here (anonymously if you'd like) and let me know if this blog is a useful tool for you to keep up with the goings on in my classroom.

Thanks! Hope you are all enjoying a beautiful, sunny week off! We'll get back to the swing of things on Monday.