This Week

Its another week with a heavy emphasis on reading. We will probably move the reading re-test up to Tuesday.

We are also going to continue working on creative writing. On Sunday our class will complete their holiday proposals and we will take them to the Pioneers Empire Senate next week.

The students who wrote the best essays last week will be practicing them as speeches.

We will also continue working on measurements. Last week we started working with centimeters and distance measurement. We also worked with liters and milliliters.

This week we will probably get to volume a little and how to measure it. We will also do some work with pounds.

Last Week's As

Students did very well on the story definitions. The grades are as follows

There were 20 points. 10 spelling and 10 for definitions.

A+
Safa
Waleed A.
Waleed T.
Sindi
Khaled

19
Dawood
Rawya
Noor

18
Ahmed K.
Iyad
Sami

17 (A-)
Imad
Abdallah
Ghaith
Jihad
Omar

Retest Next Week

The scores were ok on the test this week. No student missed more than four questions but in the high group no student scored perfectly either. It is entirely possible that the extended celebration that preceded the test distracted the students.

In either case there will be another reading test next Thursday and I will take the higher of the two scores. I will not be in school today but Mr. Curtis will be teaching, always a treat for the students.

Palestine, Tests, and Results Generally

The "What Makes You Palestinian" essays were excellent. I have chosen six to go in the Encyclopedia. They are the essays written by:

Waleed T.
Karma
Iyad
Rawya
Sarah
Imad

Great work!

This week's reading test was probably our hardest test of the year. In the top group no student scored a 100%. Khaled Abu Gosh scored the highest with a -1.

In the second group both Imad and Iyad scored 100% Great work by both of these excellent students. Full lists of As will be up this weekend along with last week's As. (Sorry these are so late)

The students whose essays were chosen for the Encyclopedia will be practicing them next week. At the end of the week they will give them as speeches. We will record the speeches and post them for parents to see.

Today in 5A

We got a lot done today. We worked on our reading for the first period and then began this week's essay. The topic was "What Makes You Palestinian"

We talked about who is and isn't Palestinian. Why is Mohammed Sindi Palestinian and Mr. Canavan isn't? We all agreed that Mr. Canavan is American and Sindi, Dawood, and Anibtawi are Palestinian but it was harder to pin down why.

All four lived most of their lives in another country and then moved here. Some things we identified that make a person more Palestinian:

Parents and ancestors
Culture and heritage
Where they live
Arabic language
What they think of themselves as

There were many other things too. We had reading homework and the students who didn't finish the essay had to finish that too.

All the students who went to Balata today, Bilal, Dianna, Rawya, Dana, and Roa, did a good job. We are starting to see some good progress in the students we teach. Girls like Rahaf, Tasneem, Mais, and others are learning a lot from our students.

Four Day Week

I had forgotten this when I posted previously. The reading test will be on Wednesday. There is still no way to study for it other than practicing reading so don't worry.

Some Things You Need for This Week

Spin E

Rulers

You need to know what these words mean by Wednesday:

Centimeter
Meter
Liter
Milliliter

This Week in 5A (We Won!!!!!!!)

The singing contest is over and we shared first prize with Ms. Kaitlin's Class.

This week is going to be heavy on reading. Every day this week we will be working with stories from the Scott Foresman books.

The 3.1 Group will be working with:

Catch It And Run
Night Letters
Volcanoes

The 3.2 Group will be working on:
Goodbye 382 Shin Dang Dong
What Does a Baker Do
Biscuits for Breakfast
Jalapeno Bagels

There will be a reading test for both groups on Thursday. Other than practicing reading there is no real way to study for it so don't get too worried about it.

There will also be a big surprise for the students this week. Test scores from last week should be up later today, if I get in to school. If not tomorrow.

Wrapping Up a Solid Week in 5A

Today we are going to work through wishes. This is not new material and we should cover it quickly.

If your child has Spin E at home please send it with him/her next week. We will be starting it soon.

After we complete the wish exercises, we will play an expanded version of our review card game. The winning group will receive a flower for their poster and will be chosen to teach in Balata Camp next week.

Another Good Day in 5A

We reviewed some grammar, talked about use of the words already, could and must.

Also Safa, Waleed, and Anibtawi visited Balata with Ahmed, who returned for his second time. The students did well. Ahmed demonstrated the methods we have been using to the new students and the litte girls we are teaching showed some improvement.

Great Day Today

So far this week we are right on schedule.

our fish have been named. They are"

Ms. Semaca
The Golden Fish
The Blue-Toothed Shark Fish

Dianna is taking care of them this week and Karma will next week. The names are from Iyad and Abdallah.

Today Abdallah, Sindi, and Ahmed Kharouf went with me to Balotta Refugee Camp. We taught a group of 5-10 year old girls about adjectives, questions and answers and some other things.

They did a great job and I was very proud of our boys.

This Week in 5A

It is going to be a week heavy on grammar. We are almost finished with Spin F and should complete the book soon. this week we should get 6-10 pages done.

We are going to study unreal conditionals.

Example: If I didn't love the students, I'd leave Palestine.

There is nothing very complex about this or the negative so that should be fairly easy.

We are going to do degrees of certainty with must, could, will and going to.

We are going to do some practice with more, fewer, most and fewest.

We will continue working on our study of measuring, land use and food in science. We are a little ahead of schedule in science so we can afford to divert a little extra time in setting up this experiment.

We will continue working on logic problems.
Example:

Dianna has two friends

Noor has one friend.

Sarah has two friends.

None of the girls have the same friends

None are friends with boys.

Dianna is only friends with people who have family in our class.

Sarah has no friends who have family in our class.

THE ANSWER

Sarah's friends are Karma and Noor.

Dianna's friends are Rawya and Safa

Noor's friend is Sarah

Technical Difficulties

Have been deleting posts. We are working to get this resolved

This Week in 5A

We are going to be working on story structure. Each student is going to write a fictional story. We are going to do this step by step, first outlining our stories, then writing, then re-writing.

We are going to continue working with active and passive sentences. This also includes more of the past participle.

An active sentence is one where the subject (the noun the sentence is about) is doing something. A passive one is where it is not.

A simple example: Omar kicked the ball. Thats an active sentence. Omar did something.

The same sentence in passive form. The ball was kicked by Omar. Now the sentence is about the ball and the ball is doing nothing. It is passive.

We are also continuing our work on food and land use to build up to a big surprise.

This Week's Words

This week in 5A we are going to be learning more about story structure. Many of these words are ones we know. Students must be able to spell these and know what they mean:

1. Villain - The most important evil person in the story.
2. Hero - The good person the story is about.
3. Setting - Where it happens.
4. Motivation - Why someone does something.
5. Fictional - Not real. (This is an adjective)
6. Supporting character - Someone in a story who is not the main hero or the main villain.
7. Summary - A short description of something longer.
8. Conflict - The problem the story is about.
9. Scene - Part of a story.
10. Nonfiction - Real. A nonfiction story is something that really happened.

There are only ten words this week so I want at least 17 students to score perfectly on the definitions and at least half on the spelling. Good luck!

This Week in 5A

We have started our new group project. We are studying information about food, calories, and how much we eat.

We are also practicing writing, singing, welcoming new teachers, and getting used to being back in school.

Today's drama writing was excellent. Waleed Titi's group wrote an excellent encyclopedia story about Mr. Tim. Sami Kilani's group won the drama competition and received one "Timkel" for their poster.

New Homework Sheet

At the front of each child's notebook is a homework sheet for the first two months. This semester each child must complete at least 35 assignments to qualify for an A.