A Look Back...

Here's a little re-cap of what we were up to in ELA before winter break! Take a look at all the photos and read through to see what we are currently working on!

We finished up our unit on American Civilizations: Aztec, Inca, Maya. We learned a lot about the different civilizations and used the information to work on ELA skills such as: quoting from the text and answering text dependent questions, inferencing, developing paragraphs, integrating technology, researching, and so much more!

We are learning to read and comprehend complex text through a variety of strategies and classroom discussions. You saw a lot of fluency readings come home in December so that we can help students increase accuracy, pace, and decoding skills (word attack/figuring out unknown words using strategies) in order to better read and comprehend.

When students struggle over the words too much, it becomes a barrier to reading to learn. At this age, it is still important to have your child read frequently and even out loud to an adult. Developing reading fluency is an important skill so that students can read and dig into the comprehension piece of grade level text in all the classes (math, science, social studies, etc.)

At home, families can help by ensuring that children read at least 30-45 minutes daily at home. A couple of times each week, ask your child to read out loud to you. Is their reading nice and smooth and expressive? If not, let me know and I can help with some tips for your individual child.

We had a GREAT time taking a virtual field trip to Mexico and South America to see the places and pyramids that we learned about throughout our unit! It was so much fun to see areas where the Aztec, Inca, and Maya lived. Ask your child about the virtual field trip! It was AWESOME!

Dallace felt like she was falling off the side of a mountain that we were learning about! Virtual reality is so much fun!

We played some friendly competition games before our unit assessment!

Aaron has been saving his VIKES tickets and purchased this MTMS T-shirt! Has your child told you about the VIKES tickets and how we earn them? Ask your student what they have purchased, and encourage them to keep making good choices at school!

Our classroom book exchange was so much fun! Thank you to those of you that sent a book in with your child. We had a great time with this game, and hopefully your child is enjoying another new book to add to their home library!

We also took time to do a little art work on the last day before break! Not too shabby for an ELA teacher trying to guide students through a drawing project! They turned out really cute!

We also enjoyed a YUMMY hot cocoa bar and a movie! Relaxing and hanging out with friends is just what these middle schoolers needed! They have been working so hard every day!

Moving forward, we are diving into a unit on poetry! Stay tuned, as there may be an opportunity to invite parents in to our "Poetry Cafe" at the end of the unit! We just need time to develop some very confident poets!