Mrs. Riemenschneider's Classroom

Saturday, November 23, 2013

How was School Today?

If you ask this questions, you likely get a one word answer: "Fine" or "OK". Help your child talk about their day by knowing a little about what we're learning:

Religion: We are studying the tabernacle and God' leadership of the Israelites. It was wonderful to connect the term "tabernacle" which means "dwell with us" to Jesus - Immanuel - God with us! It is pretty cool to look at our leadership in worship for our Advent service as we see how the Israelites worshiped. Together we thought of these things to honor the Sabbath and help make worship a meaningful experience.

*pick out clothes the night before
*get a good nights sleep and eat breakfast
    *help get a sibling ready for church
    *pray
   *read the bulletin/wall prayer
    *participate: sing, read the liturgies
   *listen
   *turn off electronics
   *look at art, paraments, symbols and think about what they mean
*think about why a hymn fits with the Bible verses or message
   *take the bulletin home and read the Bible verses for the next week

Social Studies: Great Lakes Ecosystems and Urban Sprawl - After finishing our Great Lakes study, students presented views on pollution, invasive species and habitat loss in an online Prezi - a more advanced form of powerpoint, with the capability of inserting photos, graphs, and video. Now we shift focus to looking at the problem of Urban Sprawl and investigate city planning. Students are taking on the role of city planners as we investigate 3 North American cities.

English: Verbs, Verbs, Verbs! Did you know there are 6 verb tenses? past, present, future, past perfect, present perfect, and future perfect tenses? Confused? Us too! But as the meanings come clear - we are seeing just how specific communication can be. Imagine coming from a foreign country where verbs do not change for time or in subject/verb agreement!!

Literature: Our second half of the Short Story unit has us explore theme - a message about life conveyed in a story. We are currently reading a Jack London story set in the Alaskan Gold Rush and will be writing newspapers to reflect the historical setting and review the plot.

T-Math - Understanding variables and one step equations. We will test after Thanksgiving on the second half of chapter 2. This Thursday, students registered for the online resources our text has to offer and had a chance to view a few homework tutorial videos. They located the online version of the text, workbook, and practice worksheets as well. Great resources available for extra practice!!