(Tuesday, August 30)

Good evening Lodge students and families,

If you need a reminder for tonight's homework, it is: Word Wisdom p. 9. It is due tomorrow (Wednesday). To do the assignment, you only need to write down the Word Wisdom words in the left column, your prediction for meaning in the middle column, and the book definition in the right column. You can find all of the book definitions in the back of the Word Wisdom book. Some words have multiple definitions; you only need to write the definition that fits the story on the first page of that part (p.6 in this part). There are two words on your list that have check marks by them. You do NOT have to do these two words (because they were already discussed on pp. 7-8).

In class today, I passed back the students' Word Wisdom pre-tests. They get 10 points of participation, just for TRYING. If they leave any of them blank, they will miss those points. I do still grade them to show the students what they missed, and then I put the correct answer by it. So, don't be confused if I put (-5), and you get a 10/10 score. You get all the points just for trying. I will also give bonus points for high scores in the class. Please use the pre-test as a tool to study for the upcoming Word Wisdom quiz, which will be on Friday. Quizzes will be worth ten points. They will assess the students on their understanding of the ten Word Wisdom words for the week. The homework throughout the week should help the students with understanding.

In science, we continued with our note-booking. We finished our template today, and the students should start remembering the seven steps of our scientific process:

1) Focus Question

2) Prediction

3) Procedures/Plan

4) Observation

5) Claims and Evidence

6) Conclusion

7) Reflection

Before the 9 weeks are over, I will give the students a quiz to name the seven steps of our scientific process. I also showed the students a neat plant cell animation. On their science pre-test in week two, there was a question asking about the size of the plant cell. This animation shows that the plant cell is smaller than the head of a pin. Using the animation, we were able to see a magnified view of the plant cell in which the human eye cannot see without the magnification. I compared the animation to looking through a microscope. The students really enjoyed looking at this animation, and plan to share it with you. The website is below:

http://www.cellsalive.com/howbig.htm

Click the link above for the neat plant cell animation!!

That's all for today!

~Mr. Polk