Plymouth Church Field Trip Pics

Rocky Monday

Kids had a rough first day back... wanted to talk instead of work... this can't happen when we are on the home stretch to the NYS ELA Test!  501 was so talkative that I almost cancelled their trip today and just took 502.

We did lesson 2B.8 with a focus on main ideas and supporting them with details.  We focused on just the introduction of our new text "Great Migration".  This powerful poem is made even more amazing by the artists paintings which tell the story in vivid detail.

Tomorrow is our visit to Plymouth Church.   We will be leaving the school between 9:15 and 9:30.  We are taking a school bus to Brooklyn Heights.  Our tour starts at 10:45 and will show us around the church, take us to were Rev. Henry Beecher gave his abolitionist sermons, we might get to sit where Abraham Lincoln sat (actual seat still there!)...Look at the stained glass windows which also tell a great story about the church and it's place in history, and finally, we will get to go under the church to the basement where actual escaped slaves used to hide on their trip on the underground railroad.  The tour should be over about 11:45, so we should be back to school between 12:45 and 1:00.  We will eat lunch in the classroom (bag lunch provided by school).  If you want to bring your own lunch you can.  Also, you MUST wear your school uniform to go on the trip.  NO EXCUSES!  If you have not paid your $1 for children, $5 for adults for the trip, please bring it tomorrow! Students can bring a camera to take pictures, but they are responsible for it... NOT ME!

Homework:

1. Reading for 45 minutes
2. Double Sided  Reading Comp / Vocab practice
3. Writing - Paragraph on artist process

ELA Academy

Today was day 3 of the Mid-Winter ELA Academy.  We worked on using questions to answer our short response sections.  Then we did another sample test and spent an hour going over the questions and figuring out why one answer was better than another.  I was asked which type of question is the hardest... and I said today.. the hardest question is the one that comes from a text you understand least...so it is important to read, reread, and even possibly read a text a third time before you truly UNDERSTAND the text... once you understand the text, the questions become easy!  The moral here.. READ!!!!!!!!!!

See you next week!

Enjoy the rest of your vacation!

ELA Mid-Winter Break Academy

It was so nice to see many of you today for our first day of ELA Test Prep Mid-Winter Academy.  Ms. Cruz and I were excited to go over the 2015 ELA State Test with our groups.  As stated before, they tend to use the same text so reading it before hand will give you a benefit.  Hope to see even more of you tomorrow!

Willy Wonka Pics