Tuesday, May 15
We are so close to the end of the year! Our lower school students are working on their exhibition presentations, as well as writing stories for a green screen technology-literacy project. We are so excited to use computers to bring our writing to life! My CPM math class has moved into probabilities of multiple events, and we expect to be experts by the end of the year. In music history, our cohort A students learned about Queen and had a Bohemian Rhapsody dance contest. What a fun few weeks it's been!
Best,
Ms. K
Friday APRIL 13
Happy Friday the 13th! In literacy, my students are wrapping up our unit surrounding The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton by completing a 3-part project. They are typing and editing essays, rewriting endings, and acting out original scripts based on the novel. In math, we've gone over Pi, area of shapes, and are beginning to work with ratios and decimal operations in chapter 5 of our CPM texts.
Everyone is working hard so far this quarter! Good work!
Best,
Ms. K
Friday, March 9
A great week for everyone. Our literacy class completed Outsiders character posters, and is close to the end of the book. We are also working on writing a perfect 5-sentence paragraph and looking at main ideas in preparation for our end-of-book essays. In math, students completed an assessment today on area of shapes, and we will be moving on to area of circles in honor of Pi day (3/14) next week. Our music history class has been learning about Woodstock, and will be learning about great musicians like Jimi Hendrix next week.
Have a great weekend!
Ms. K
Friday, March 2
What an action-packed month! We did some anti-bullying exercises, and some of our students were filmed for a KATU news special about bullying and how we can prevent it. Our whole school is so grateful that we can help others become educated about the dangers of bullying.
Literacy: We are halfway through our second class novel, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. We have created group projects illustrating the setting and characters, and will soon be working on our big project and essay about what it means to be an 'outsider'.
Math: We are learning about scaling and similar shapes, and have been demonstrating our knowledge of the formulas for area of different shapes. We have learned about angles and their effect on a shape, and will soon be returning to our textbooks for chapter 4.
Music History: We learned about the 1960s and protest music, and sang some songs with modern day lyrics created by our students. Soon we will be moving into the late 1960s and early 1970s.
I am so proud that our students are so focused and motivated- especially since spring break is right around the corner.
-Ms. K
FRIDAY, JANUARY 20th
Music History: We are getting ready to participate in a benefit for Trillium School, by singing the popular anti-bullying son "Don't Laugh At Me" with Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary)! The students are excited, and more details are soon to come via email to our lower school parents.
Literacy: We are wrapping up our unit on literary elements. Our students demonstrate understanding in our readings of imagery, irony, metaphors, and much more! This Monday we will have a classroom assessment, and students are allowed to bring in one index card of notes to use as reference.
Math: Our chapter 2 unit is coming to a close. We have learned scaling and graphing this week, and the students have also learned about negative integers, multiplying fractions, and mixed numbers. Our assessment will be on this coming Tuesday, Jan 24th. A review sheet will come home on Monday for the students to practice with.
Report cards are coming! The end of the semester is Thursday, January 26th.Have a great weekend,Ms. Kennelly
Wednesday, January 4th
LITERACY: We are beginning to learn about Literary Elements this month, including symbolism, similes and metaphors, point of view, imagery, and irony. Through fiction and nonfiction texts, we will explore, understand and identify these elements in our reading. We are also beginning our big grammar unit, and will be identifying and applying parts of speech and sentence structure strategies to our writing. Our assessments of these units will be just in time for upcoming report cards.
MATH: Our Core Connections 2 class just did very well on our mid-unit assessment, which included the distributive property, number lines, and mixed numbers- pretty tough stuff! This pre-algebra unit will continue as we move into graphing this month, as well as multiplication of fractions. Our Chapter 2 unit assessment data will be available in time for report cards.
THURSDAY, December 8th
No school tomorrow! Use your time wisely. Read a book!
Next week we will finish chapter 2 of our CPM MATH course. Everyone will get review sheets on Monday to work on in class and to use to study for our chapter assessment on Thursday.
Our Literacy class is halfway through our class book, Monster, by Walter Dean Myers. We should complete it next week, and students will be responsible for writing a one page essay over the break, as well as completing 2 reading log worksheets.
Our high school writing workshop has been revising our memoirs and sharing our writing as a whole class. We will be well into the editing process in time for holiday break. Students will bring me their final copy when we return to school, focusing on editing for fused sentences, comma use, and punctuation.
In comics & sci-fi class, our middle and high school students are working on turning their original comic strips into finished posters. We hope to begin presenting on Thursday. Our high school students have also been presenting the new media topic of their choice as a powerpoint presentations, and have done a great job teaching their peers!
Our music history classes have been learning about the 1950s. We listened to rock and roll, learned about Elvis and Johnny Cash, watched an episode of father knows best, and completed lots of worksheets and illustrations based on the history of the decade. Parents, feel free to continue educating your kids by playing them lots of 50s rock!
Have a wonderful holiday season, and let's work hard this last week before break!
-Ms. K
MONDAY, November 28th
I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving break!
In our Literacy class, we have started our class book, Monster, by Walter Dean Myers. This will be the impetus for our literature circle talks, as well as wrap up our author study unit.
We're into chapter 2 of College Prep Math, and our students continue to amaze with their grasp of fractions and pre-algebra.
Comics and Sci-Fi class is in the middle of our first big project, an original comic strip with accompanying character maps, sketches, and script. Our high schoolers are also taking the reins in December, leading a mini-lesson and presentation on a class-related topic of their choosing. Looking forward to learning from them!
We've moved into the birth of rock 'n' roll in American Music History! We've learned a lot about Elvis, and will soon be taking a look at Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, and the Big Bopper.
Writing workshop is going very well, with most of our students revising their memoir pieces with the help of peer conferencing and directed lessons. We will be starting the editing process this month, and will hopefully learn much about the mechanics of writing and grammar by winter break.
So proud of you all!
Ms. K
TUESDAY October 11th
We've finished our first full month of school, and I continue to be impressed with the hard work of all my students.
In our literacy block, we are continuing our author study of Walter Dean Myers using short stories, poems, and biographies. We are also becoming experts on setting, characters, and plot as story elements.
In Math, we had our first quiz, and almost every single student got a B or higher! Good job guys, probability and fractions are tricky.
In writing workshop we have been prepping for the PSATs and are ready for them tomorrow! We have also been working on Memoir, and will begin brainstorming and prewriting this week for our personal narratives.
Our comic class is focusing on the background of the comic book industry, and learning how this art form was developed in WWII-era America.
Here's to a great first month!
Ms. Kennelly
MONDAY October 3rd
This week in literacy, we are researching story elements using the short works of Walter Dean Myers, and creating story webs and plot pyramids.
In math, we are learning the difference between theoretical and experimental probabilities, as well as beginning to look at graph scaling.
Our writing workshop is focusing on reading and identifying elements of memoir, as well as continuing our practice for the PSAT on October 14th.
In Comic Relief, we are exploring and comparing the DC and Marvel universes, and discussing the various forms of media that comics have influenced in the last 50 years.
In music history, we are starting to listen to and write our own blues song.
Looking forward to seeing you all at Back to School night tomorrow at 6:30!
Best,
Ms. K
TUESDAY September 27
Another great week! In literacy, we are working on our personal maze projects, and beginning our author study of Walter Dean Myers. In math, we are learning probability and percentages with great results. Music history class is focusing on Jazz and the Harlem Renaissance. Comics class is going strong! And in Writing Workshop, our high schoolers are learning about memoir (and practicing for the PSAT on October 12th). Great work so far this year everyone!
-Ms. K
REMINDER: Parents, please check your student's planner and yellow folder each night. Any homework or papers they need to have signed will be there.
FRIDAY September 16
Our first full week is complete! We have learned how to make written predictions, connections and inferences with our reading this week, and have begun our journals. Remeber: the Reading Log needs to be filled out 5 times a week! So make sure your student is reading something for 20 minutes on those nights. Reading Logs are due every Friday, signed by a guardian.
Next week, we will be working on our A-Maze-ing Me projects, where students will be using symbols and personal writing to create a maze. It's started out great so far!
Have a great weekend,
Ms. K
9/12/11
What a great first few days! Parents, here are some things you should know:
Lower school- Students will be bringing home their planner and their yellow folders EVERY DAY. Please check them for papers you might need to read or sign. My literacy class will have a reading log for homework each week, so make sure your child always has it in their yellow folder! My math class will have weekly assignments as well, but we should be working on the majority of those in our separate study class, Math Lab, so there should be very little work done at home. In music history, we will be learning about different types of American music, and applying our writing skills to songwriting.
Upper school- This year in writing workshop we will be devoting half our time to independent writing projects chosen by the student, and half looking at writing styles and conventions, with an emphasis on revision and self-editing. In my Comic Relief class, we will be covering the history and origins of comics, reading different genres, writing about what we learn, and creating our own story lines and comics.
I'm very excited and feel lucky to have each and every one of you in my class!
9/7/11
Hello to students and parents!
I hope you had a wonderful summer. This year is going to be exciting and challenging! Every week, I'll be updating you about projects, important dates, announcements, and anything else that our class wants to share. I can also be reached via email through this website if you have specific questions or comments.
I'm looking forward to meeting all of you!
Best,
Ms. Kennelly