Good Afternoon! This week we are starting a new theme book for both Language Arts classes. 5th and 6th grade are reading about Lewis and Clark's expeditions across America and 7th and 8th grade are reading about the Rain forest and scientific discoveries made about the animals that live there. Today we learned about the steps to determining how many syllables are in a word. Have your students review those steps to better understand how to attack words that are unfamiliar or otherwise challenging.

1. Count the number of vowels (a, e, i, o, u) in the word
2. Eliminate all of the silent vowels (silent e at the end of a word or the second vowel when two vowels are together)
3. Eliminate the second vowel of a dipthong (two vowels that are together in a word that make one sound eg. boy, you, rough,etc.)
4. The number of vowels sounds left is equal to the number of syllables.

Eg. knap-sack (two syllables) , fore i gn /for-eign (two syllables), com e come (one syllable, congressi o nal con-gres-sio-nal (four syllables).


7th and 8th grades are working with Social studies themed spelling words this week. 5th and 6th grades have words with digraphs that where the first or second letter is silent(Eg. kn, mb, wr, gn). Please make sure that your students are careful to include the "silent" letter when writing or practicing Spelling. /kn/ make the sound of /n/, /mb/ makes the sound of /m/, /gn/ makes the sound of /n/ and /wr/ makes the sound of /r/. The challenge words for both classes are a part of the vocabulary found in this month's reading material.

5th and 6th Grade words:

tomb
gnarl
knack
wrath
knelt
wrench
knead
knitting
foreign
knapsack
wrapper
knuckle
shipwreck
doorknob
wrestled
designed
climber
breadcrumbs
grumbling

Bonus:

keelboat
Sacagawea
Shoshone
planter
reservation

7th and 8th Grade words

caucus
grievances
Arabic
discrimination
navigation
referendum
Louisiana Purchase
enslavement
propaganda
calligraphy
urbanized
magnetic compass
abolitionist
keelboat
Spaniards
circumnavigate
Portuguese
Tasmania
boundaries
secessionist

Bonus:

raucous
emerging
foil (verb)
flourish
intrigued

Please also remember to complete your Vocabulary Note Cards!

5th and 6th

Mississippi
keelboat
Sacagawea
pirogue
Missouri
expedition
Shoshone
planter
corps
reservation

7th and 8th Grade

foliage
lure
reside
muggy
intrigued
tumultuous
scraggly
emerging
flourish
raucous
foil (verb)

Good Evening! We have announcements: Week of prayer is this week with Pastor Greg Nelson of Huntsville, AL. Parent-Student-led conferences are this Thursday, October 24, from 1 pm to 6 pm. Please don't forget to contact us with a time that you would like to attend if you have not done so already. Remember to send in funds and permission slips for the 6th Grade Outdoor Education trip (Camp Wewa) coming up in a couple of weeks. Important: P.E. Uniforms are in and parents must pick up and sign for them. Students will not be allowed to pick up the uniforms.


Here are this week's Spelling Words:

7th and 8th Grade:

hardy
hearty
phenomena
phenomenon
envelop
envelope
moral
morale
substance
substantial
analyses
analysis
rational
rationale
invade
invasion
criteria
criterion
stimuli
stimulus

5th and 6th Grade:

install
broad
humid
youth
mutual
false
beauty
launch
continue
educate
museum
scald
produce
faulty
volume
community
astronaut
applaud
dinosaur
exhaust

Don't forget to write your words 3 times each and follow the regular schedule for Spelling word work: Definitions, sentences, Spelling pre-test.

Have a great evening!

Buenos tardes! I hope that everyone has enjoyed our Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations! We really have celebrated with fun activities including the field trip to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL. This week we are concluding our Hispanic Heritage month with a fiesta. Students have signed up to bring in a food or dessert/drink representative of Hispanic heritage, which includes Caribbean Spanish heritage. Our party will be during lunch on Friday (tomorrow). Thank you for supporting your students and allowing them to participate in these activities.


Spelling words this week are the following:

5th and 6th(no bonus)

1. glisten
2. accident
3. Ezra
4. vegetable
5. Canada
6. peaceful
7. Leviticus
8. possible
9. umbrella
10.opossum
11.between
12.credit
13.complain
14.classify
15.diamond
16.Reuben
17.Kentucky
18.parachute
19.Hawaii
20.design

Things to Remember...

Hello everyone! As you know this week I will not be in for the entire week but things will go on as usual.

Please remember to research Salvador Dali and share your information in Spanish Class with Mrs. Escalante (Moises S.'s Mom) who will teach Spanish this week! Also, figure out who will bring what Hispanic dish for next week's Hispanic Heritage Appreciation Celebration!

Remember that there is a field trip this Thursday, October 10, 2013, to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL. The cost is $7 for the trip and students must bring a lunch. Please come in your regular school uniforms as found in the school handbook (navy slacks, white oxford shirts, black or navy neckties, and black socks for boys and plaid skirts, white "peter pan" styled collared shirts, navy criss cross ties and black, white, or navy socks for girls with black shoes for both boys and girls). Do NOT wear jeans or other non-uniform attire (including sneakers) or you will forfeit your opportunity to go on this field trip.

Tag Day is this Friday October 11, 2013, so save your jeans and other favorite clothing items for that day. Speaking of Friday, since we have completed the book The Tale of Despereaux, we will watch the animated film during lunch time in the classroom as well as celebrate Kayla's birthday, which will be this Thursday, October 10. Feel free to wish her a happy birthday and share in her joy :-)