February is flying by!

Upcoming events:

• Monday Feb 9: Vocab Quiz #5 (see words on last week's blog post)
• Tuesday Feb 10: Guest Speaker Larry will demonstrate a slide rule in Math class!
• Friday Feb 13 and Monday Feb 16: No school for President's weekend
• Thur. Feb 26: Field Trip to Mt Soledad War Memorial 11:30-2:30(need drivers!)
• Sat. Mar 7  10:00-2:00: Field Trip to Vista- Civil War Reenactment (need drivers!)

Our War: What is it good for? Project is in full swing.  We have taken a crash course in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 and will continue into the Civil War this week. We are already able to see how military tactics, artillery, communications and  medicine evolved quickly because of the wars in the early history of our country.  Students are now able to visualize the sequence of war events with our classroom timeline.


During Writers' Workshop last week students finished the Final drafts of their "A Separate Peace" novel reflections.  We will begin reading "The Book Thief" this week.  This week the kids are writing a paper in regards to a strong connection with a song, whether it is because it's soothing, calming, reminds them of a loved one, or a memory. I would just name the assignment "Connecting with a Song." They have until next week,Tuesday, since we have Friday and Monday off.

We are also focusing and learning about different types of nouns: abstract, concrete, possessive, and plural. Students will take vocab quiz  #5 on Monday.  (The words can be found on last week's post)  Below are the words to study for next week:

Vocabulary Quiz #6

Quiz #6 will be next week, Tuesday the 17^th of February (No school Monday!)

1. Allusion: (N.) Reference to a well-known person, place, thing, idea, event, etc.
   Sentence: While the president’s speech seems original, it contains an allusion to a speech made by another world leader.
2. Bard: (N.) An ancient poet; A person who created an epic poem.
   Sentence: Shakespeare is sometimes referred to as the bard.
3. Cliché: (N.) An overused, predictable, and therefore uninteresting expression or idea.
   Sentence: Adam Sandler’s movies are always so cliché.
4. Connotation: (N.) meaning suggested by a word beyond its definition, what a reader believes the word means.
   Sentence: Steven provided a connotation for the word, Colloquial.
5. Denotation: a dictionary definition.
   Sentence: What is the actual denotation for “elegy?”
6. Farce: (N.) Literature based on a highly humorous and highly improbable plot.
   Sentence: Shakespeare used such vulgar farce in, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Ready for the after Valentine’s Day Bonus!

1. Weren’t: Contraction of Were Not.
   Sentence: Weren’t you surprised after you opened your gift?
2. Couldn’t: Contraction for Could Not.
   Sentence: I couldn’t believe him after he lied to me.

In math, we continued practicing and applying exponent rules.  We played Exponent War and an exponent version of the game "24". On Tuesday, our volunteer math tutor, Larry, will show us an early form of math technology called the slide rule.  (Any parents out there even know what that is?)
We will revisit exponential growth and decay and finish our unit by the beginning of next week.  Our final unit test on exponents will be Thursday Feb 19.