Ms. Tovey's Blog

English
I was unable to start the chapter last week on adjectives so we will begin it on Monday. I hope to cover pages 292 - 295 in the book. The chapter begins easily enough but as we progress through it the material does become more difficult. Any additional help you can provide your child will help tremendously.
Writing
The children will continue working on their compare and contrast essay this week. If you get a chance ask your child to read the rick Reilly article they are using to write their paper. It is an excellent article.
Science
We will continue our study of the solar system. To date your child should have the vocabulary words and notes on the sun in his/her notebook. I hope to cover Mercury and Venus this week.

English
To date we have covered pages 292 - 295 on adjectives. I tend to go a little slower with this chapter because adjectives are so important to the spoken and written language. Each day I do different activities (that don't come from the book) with the kids to try and drive this point home. This week I hope to cover pages 298 - 301 in the book.

Writing
The children will finish up their compare and contrast essay this week and hand write their final copy. They will be given some class time to write the final copies but any that are not completed in school will be due Friday, February 19th. I hope to begin descriptive writing this week as well.
Science
To date we have covered the sun, Mercury, and Venus. I hope to get to Earth and Mars this week. As soon as we complete the inner planets there will be a quiz. This should be sometime next week. The quiz will only cover the notes on the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars and will not include the vocabulary words. It is a good idea to save the quizzes to use as review sheets for the test. There is an extensive amount of notes with this chapter, so any additional review you can do with your child will make preparing for the test much easier.

English
We will continue on with the chapter on adjectives this week. To date we have covered pages 292 - 295 in the book.
Writing
This week we will continue to work on descriptive writing. The writing assignment will be introduced at the end of the week and has the children working with a partner to plan a planet vacation. Each group will be assigned a planet, make a brochure that includes a cover, the spaceship that brought the vacationers there, the hotel visitors can stay at, and three activities to participate in on the planet. The writing assignment will be a seven paragraph paper: introduction, five body paragraphs, and conclusion. The children will be expected to use as much detail as possible to describe their hotel, spaceship, and three activities.
Friday the children will work on their "Book of Possibilities."
Science
We finished up the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) on Thursday. A quiz will be given next Friday on these four planets and the sun. The first part of the quiz will be divided into four sections: true and false, fill in the blank, multiple choice, and matching. These questions will come from the children's notes.
The second part of the quiz will be harder because it has five short answer questions that must be answered in complete sentences. These questions come from our class discussions and slideshows. They are as follows:
1. Mercury has a very thin atmosphere causing the surface to be covered with many craters. Explain how this happens. The thin atmosphere cannot create enough friction to break down the meteor so it hits the surface at about the same size it entered the atmosphere.
2. Earth is the only planet in our solar system known to have life. Give three reason Earth is able to support life. Three reasons Earth can support life are it has oxygen in the atmosphere, water on the surface, and the temperatures are just right.
3. Mars has a longer year than Earth. Explain why. Mars' year is longer than our year because it is further away from the sun so it takes longer to orbit the sun.
4. The sun has been burning for about five billion years but one day it will die out. When do scientists think the sun will stop burning? Scientists believe the sun will stop burning in five billion years.
5. Explain why Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system. Venus is the hottest planet because it has a very thick atmosphere that traps the sun's heat.

English
We will continue on in the chapter on adjectives this week. To date we have covered pages 292 - 299. I hope to finish up the chapter next week and test the following week.
Writing
The children will begin to work on their "Planning a Planet Vacation" project. This project is a descriptive writing assignment so the children will be graded on how much detail they put into their writing and how well they follow the directions.
Science
We began the outer planets with Jupiter on Friday and I hope to cover Saturn and Uranus this week.