Weekly Preview: 12/12-12/16, 2011

First of all, this week brings many performance & audience opportunities. Auditions for this year's school play, Number the Stars, take place on Monday and Wednesday from 3:40-5:00. The annual Drama Club Christmas party featuring Sing Along Sound of Music takes place on Tuesday after school. And, the always entertaining FMS Talent Show happens on Friday at 1:45. What a fun week!

Here are the happenings in room 101 this week:

6th GOAL: Students are beginning their first mock trial on Monday... the State vs. Hansel and Gretel Schmidt. Depending on when the first trial ends, I hope to fit in at least one more before the holiday break. All their work has led up to actually acting out the trial. Learning fun!

7th GOAL: Students are presenting their literature circle projects this week. We'll also be finishing up our read aloud book, The Cardturner. Before the holiday break next week, I hope to begin brainstorming about possible History Day topics as well as do some jigsawing of epidemics books to prepare the students for the upcoming 7th grade interdisciplinary unit.

8th GOAL: Students are finishing literature circle project presentations this week. We finished our read aloud book, To Kill a Mockingbird, so before the holiday break, we'll be watching the movie with the amazing Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch.

7th Language Arts: Final drafts of pen pal letters are due Tuesday. On Wednesday through Friday, we'll be talking about the sentence fluency trait of good writing. We'll do an in-class activity with sentence fluency involving the book Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices. Spelling list 15 is full of frequently misspelled words. It will be a challenging list. Pretest corrections and book page 94 are due on Wednesday. We'll take the posttest Friday.

Week 15 Spelling Words

breathe

usually

vacuum

picnicking

bouquet

annually

pursuit

bouillon

actual

league

mimicking

variety

coupon

maneuver

curiosity

peculiar

visually

courtesy

initial

pursue

Weekly Preview 12/5-12/9, 2011

We're having our first snow of the year today, and it's beautiful. Here's what else is going on in and around room 101 this week:

GOAL Parents: Don't forget Tuesday's Parent Meeting in the FMS Cafetorium at 7:00. Ann Hektoen and I will be giving overviews of our programs, plans for future parent meetings, information on characteristics of gifted learners, and resources for families of gifted learners. There will be other meetings throughout the year, and more information will be presented on our Fairfield TAG website, which is currently under construction.

6th GOAL: Students are preparing for their first mock trial. Parts have been assigned, and we hope to start the trial on Friday. This week will be spent preparing opening statements, questions for witnesses, witness testimony, and evidence.

7th GOAL: Students are working on their literature circle projects which will be presented on Friday. This project will compare and contrast the different culture clashes the students read about in their literature circle books.

8th GOAL: Students will be finishing their literature circle projects and will be presenting on Wednesday. These projects will show what they learned about the Holocaust during their literature circle unit.

7th Language Arts: Students will be working on pen pal letters this week. Typed, conferenced second drafts are due for teacher edit at the end of class on Thursday. Week 14 spelling words focus on the suffixes -able and -ible. Pretest corrections and book page 88 (1-20) are due Wednesday. The posttest will take place on Friday.

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT: The first meeting of the Fairfield Middle School Rabid Readers Book Club will be on Wednesday, December 7, 2011, after school in the band room. Any FMS student in grades 6-8 is welcome to attend. Refreshments will be provided, and we'll be choosing our first book of the year.

Weekly Preview: 11/28-12/2, 2011

Goodbye, November, and hello, December! Here's what's happening in room 101 this week:

6th GOAL: Students are starting their Mock Trial unit this week. On Monday and Wednesday, they will learn the basics of the American Judicial System. On Thursday and Friday, they'll be prepping for their first trial. Mock Trial is always a hit with GOAL students, so this should be a fun few weeks!

7th GOAL: Students are finishing their last week of literature circles. Their final discussion will be on Friday, and they'll start their cumulative projects next week.

8th GOAL: Students will have their last literature circle discussion on Monday, and the rest of the week will be spent working on their cumulative projects. There is room for a lot of creativity on these projects. Already in the works, we have a news broadcast, an iMovie, and a song parody. These projects take the place of a unit test and will show what students learned during their study of Holocaust literature.

7th Language Arts: Students are finishing up RAFT stories. We'll have a group edit on Tuesday in the lab, and final drafts of RAFT stories are due on Wednesday. If students get done early, they should start working on their 2nd pen pal letter of the year. Rough drafts are due Friday. Week 13 spelling is centered around the suffix -ly. Pretest corrections and page 82 (1-20) are due Wednesday.

Week 13 Spelling Words

absolutely

briefly

vague

fortunately

urgent

particular

instantly

necessarily

deliberate

particularly

immediately

urgently

accurately

deliberately

presently

readily

approximately

vaguely

positively

absolute

Weekly Preview: 11/21-11/22, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! It's a short week here at FMS, and then we'll all have some time off with friends and family. There are so many things for which to be thankful!

6th GOAL: 6th graders finished their read aloud book on Monday and are completing an activity to go along with it. Next week, we'll get started with our popular Mock Trial unit.

7th & 8th GOAL: Literature circles are still going strong. 8th graders will have their last discussion on Monday, November 28, and 7th grader will have their last discussion on Friday, December 2.

7th Language Arts: No spelling this week. RAFT stories are due for teacher edit before student leave on Tuesday, November 22. Final drafts are due Wednesday, November 30.

6th Grade GOAL Models & Design Unit

6th grade GOAL classes have been putting their engineering skills to the test with their Models and Design unit. Students began by exploring the concept of a black box in science... a system that we cannot see inside, so we have to theorize about how it works. They made conceptual models and physical models of different black boxes to try to figure out the systems in each.

Students then took the idea of building a physical model to create a rubber band-powered car. Groups had to plan how their system would work and build a working model. Cars will enter a competition for distance as the final activity of the unit.

Weekly Preview: 11/14-11/18, 2011

Happy American Education Week! We are celebrating at Fairfield Middle School in the following ways:

Monday = Student Appreciation Day! Staff will wear school shirts; treats in homeroom for our Magnificent & Most appreciated students

Tuesday = Parent Appreciation Day! Staff will contact a parent to thank them for helping on a regular basis or for attending conferences. Students will write thank you notes in homeroom to an adult who has been instrumental in their education.

Wednesday = Support Staff Day - Our building will thank our support staff by providing a special luncheon for them.

Thursday = Educator for a Day - Staff will trade classes with a colleague or have a guest speaker.

Friday = Sub Day - We will thank our substitutes! Staff will also wear college alma mater shirts and talk about the importance of higher education &/or why we went into education.

As for regular weekly business, here is what's happening in room 1o1 this week:

6th GOAL: Students are finishing the Models and Designs unit by building rubber band-powered cars. We'll have our distance competition on Thursday and our unit wrap-up on Friday.

7th & 8th GOAL: Students are working hard on their literature circles, discussing and reading every day. 7th graders are reading books under the Culture Clash theme. 8th graders are reading books under the Holocaust theme.

7th Language Arts: This is a maintenance test week in spelling, so there is no pretest. On Friday, students will be tested over the words from weeks 7-11. See past Weekly Previews for those lists. To practice, spelling book pages 75 (1-20), 76 (1-20), and 77 (1-10) are due Wednesday. We will be starting work on the Voice trait of writing this week. RAFT stories will be assigned with rough drafts due by the end of class on Thursday. Stories will be due for teacher edit (revised, typed, 2 peer conferences, & fixed) by the end of the day on Tuesday, November 22.

Weekly Preview: 11/7-11/11, 2011

Here at FMS, we've all enjoyed a three-day weekend. I hope yours was as restful and rejuvenating as mine was! Here is what we will be doing this week in room 101:

Tuesday morning before school is the last time this year's Book Fair will be open. There are tons of great books this time... I know. I spent WAY too much money for my class library!

6th GOAL: This class is finishing up their conceptual models of the Humdinger. On Wednesday, they'll actually see inside the Humdinger, and they'll be able to compare their models to the real thing. From there, we'll move on to rubber band cars as the last activity in the models & design unit.

7th GOAL: On Monday, I'll be booktalking books for the upcoming literature circles around the theme of Culture Clash. Students will also be presenting their campaign posters from the Big Science activity that finished up last week. Literature circles will start on Wednesday, and this will be the only time during the year that students will have a daily assignment.

8th GOAL: Literature circles are continuing this week with books centered around the theme of the Holocaust. Remember, this is a daily assignment!

7th Language Arts: On Monday, students will work on Week 11 spelling. Pretest corrections and p. 70 (1-20) are due on Wednesday. For the remainder of the week, we'll be discussing the trait of word choice in writing. We'll have some in-class activities related to word choice. By the end of the week, we'll be discussing the trait of voice in writing, and that will lead to our upcoming RAFT writing assignment next week. Stay tuned for details.

Week 11 Spelling Words

wrestle

scenic

guarantee

descendant

knoll

align

spaghetti

herb

sought

honesty

schedule

thoroughly

gnarled

hustle

descend

scenery

exhibition

resign

gauge

jostle

Weekly Preview: 10/31-11/3, 2011

Welcome, November! It's going to be a crazy, short week here at FMS. Don't forget Parent/Teacher Conferences Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 4:00-7:30. If you want to see all the teachers at once in the Commons, come on Tuesday. If you'd like to go to each teacher's individual classroom, come on Thursday. And, don't forget, there's no school on Friday!

Here's the scoop for this week in room 101:

6th GOAL: We're looking at the contraption called the Humdinger. We're figuring out this black box and making our own physical models to recreate our own Humdingers.

7th GOAL: We're finishing up our Big Science activity by narrowing our class's choices (debating and arguing and coming up with a consensus is hard work!). Then, we'll be making campaign posters for our personal choice. Next week, we'll start literature circles.

8th GOAL: We're starting literature circles this week. Our theme is the Holocaust, and this is the only time in GOAL when we will have a daily assignment. Groups are decided based on book choices, and each group will decide how much they will read for the next day.

7th Language Arts: Final drafts of our Grown-Up Rules stories are due Friday. Some students will need to work outside of class to get this completed on time, whether it's at home, in study hall, or before/after school. With shortened periods this week, our typing time in the lab is limited. Spelling p. 63 is due on Wednesday along with pretest corrections. The posttest will be on Thursday this week due to no school on Friday.

Week 10 Spelling List

demonstration

concentrate

issuing

believable

excuse

communication

comparable

endure

appreciation

ignorance

concentrating

examination

likable

concentration

excusable

receiving

organization

endurance

celebration

achieving

Weekly Re/Preview: 10/17-10/28, 2011

I got out of the blogging routine last week when I was attending the Iowa Talented & Gifted Association's annual state conference in Des Moines on Monday and Tuesday, so I'll recap what happened in class last week AND preview what's to come in the week ahead. Hang on for the wild ride!

Remember that Wednesday is the last day of the quarter. My students need to have all work in by that day to be counted for this quarter's grades.

LAST WEEK'S REVIEW:

6th GOAL: The class continued its exploration with black boxes, conceptual models, and coming to consensus decisions.

7th GOAL: The classes looked into past government-funded science programs like NASA and the Manhattan Project.

8th GOAL: The classes continued reading the play of The Diary of Anne Frank as the introduction to their Holocaust literature circle unit. The entire 8th grade got the opportunity to go to the high school on Friday afternoon to see portions of the Fairfield High School Drama production of the same play. If anyone is interested in seeing the play in its entirety, they can see it on October 28, 29, 30, or November 8. It should be a great show.

Language Arts: Classes worked on finishing their pen pal letters and being introduced to the Ideas trait of writing. Week 8 spelling words included: encouragement, idleness, canoe, manage, forgiveness, acreage, outrageous, management, forgive, canoeing, inventiveness, encourage, acre, commencement, advantageous, commence, fierceness, amazement, awareness, and announcement.

THIS WEEK'S PREVIEW:

6th GOAL: Students are continuing with their Models & Designs unit. This week, they're designing conceptual models of their own black boxes in science. These are creative and entertaining to see! They'll be trying to figure out and recreate the Humdinger invention later in the week.

7th GOAL: Students are still working on their Minds-On Science: For the Sake of the Nation. This week, they'll be looking into biogenetics and its role in society.

8th GOAL: Students will be finishing up reading The Diary of Anne Frank, and then they'll start their literature circle unit on Holocaust books.

7th Language Arts: For the writing assignment to go along with the Ideas trait of writing, students heard the book The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups. They are now creating their own secret rule. Rough drafts are due Tuesday, teacher edit drafts are due Friday, and final drafts are due next Thursday, November 3. Week 9 spelling words center around the suffixes -tion and -ation. Pretest corrections and page 58 (1-20) are due on Wednesday.

Week 9 Spelling Words

recognize

recognition

decoration

decorate

combine

combination

determination

determine

graduation

graduate

hesitate

hesitation

education

educate

compete

competition

eliminate

elimination

admiration

admire

Weekly Preview: 10/10-10/14, 2011

Here is what's happening in room 101 this week:

6th GOAL: We'll be finishing up our comics unit on Monday with final sharing, and then after library day on Tuesday, we'll be starting our Models and Design unit. We use the Foss kit for Models & Designs, and it's always a great way for kids to get hands on experience with engineering skills. This week we'll be exploring the concept of a black box and how it relates to science.

7th GOAL: We'll be finishing up our comics unit on Monday with final sharing, and then after library day on Tuesday, we'll be starting our unit called Big Science: For the Sake of the Nation. This unit centers around government funded science projects. Students will use video and pamphlet information to debate what the next government funded big science project should be.

8th GOAL: We'll be finishing up our comics unit on Monday with final sharing, and then after library day on Tuesday, we'll be starting our Holocaust literature circle unit. We'll begin by reading the play The Diary of Anne Frank this week. Next week, we'll begin reading and discussing our literature circle books.

7th Language Arts: Pen pal letters are due Wednesday for teacher edit. 2 peer conferences are required before that point, and envelopes must be included. Final drafts are due by Monday at the latest. Spelling Week 7 pretest will be Monday. This week's lesson focuses in different affixes. Pretest corrections and book page 46 (1-20) are due Wednesday. Posttest will be Friday.

Week 7 Words

fearlessness

requirement

extremely

reconsider

thoughtfulness

inability

disappointment

unexpected

surname

alphabetical

reappearance

surprisingly

agreeable

regardless

unemotional

adventuresome

thoughtlessness

underestimate

improvement

emotional