ELA Update

Students and parents,

As we head into the first week of May, we have our Buy One Get One Free book fair.  Summer is a great time to encourage students to read, and this is a great way to get great books in their hands! We'll be sending flyers home this week and taking a preview day on Tuesday for the students to look around.

In Miss Rajewski's homeroom, the students play "bingo" with their PBS cards. On Thursday, they voted to make a giant bingo board for the month of May. Every time they get 5 stars, they get to choose the number they think will win them the prize. Any students who bring in a prize or prizes for the class drawing will automatically get a name on the board. We have 150 spots on the board. That's 750 stars!

Seventh graders have been working hard to revise the literary analysis arguments they've been making this month. Above, they are working on finding stronger verbs to take the place of many of the "be" verbs. We're excited to finally type up our hard work. 

7th graders also got to spend Tuesday with the third graders teaching them how to annotate. We had fun getting to partner with another classroom and share our expertise. 

In 8th grade, we finished up our test on complex sentences. We'll continue to work with compound-complex sentences and incorporate them into our writing so that the students can create excellent writing as they head off to college. Thanks to all parents who purchased a class magazine. It raised a lot of money for our school. If you haven't had the chance to order one yet, I'll be placing the order this week. 8th graders are also listening to the book The Princess Bride. We're in the middle of the action! We'll be applying Joseph Cambell's archetypes of a hero's journey to the story, as well as finding lots of other books, movies, and stories this pattern applies to. We will continue our discussion of what makes a hero.  

Thanks!