What a great week! It is always amazing to me how quickly the students are able to jump back into the swing of things and get down to learning.
This week the 5th and 6th Graders began their first novel. We are reading Catherine Called Birdy. Many were surprised at the everyday life of people during the middle ages. One student commented, "I can't imagine taking a bath once a month. People must have smelled really bad." We will be tracking theme and symbolism as well as character relationships. Students will have the opportunity to practice these skills independently while reading their lit circle books. We had our first independent discussion group yesterday and I was blown away by the students ability to lead a meaningful conversation without the help of a teacher.
In 7th and 8th Grade we continued looking at various aspects of war. We read national anthems from Mexico, Japan, Germany and many more. We looked at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations as well as various speeches made by US Presidents.
In spelling we covered the suffix -tion and -sion. Students worked in Words their Way connecting base words to their suffix.
What a GREAT start to the school year!
