Happy New Year

Hopefully, you had a wonderful Christmas and have given some thought to your packet which is due January 5, 2010. I have included sparknotes for "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" just in case you want to get a jumpstart. We will need to finish "Song of the Trees" when we get back to school. Have a great rest of the vacation!

Today, You Did A Great Job

We finished our games for a review of " A Christmas Carol" today. Each student got a chance to participate in four of the five games. We learned about Mildred Taylor, the author of "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" and began reading "Song of the Trees" today during class. After discussion about the Great Depression and financial hardship during this historical period in the 1930's, we came to realize how much worse your situation was if you were an African American.

We will continue learning and reading after the vacation.

The only homework over the Christmas break is to read and answer seven multiple choice questions and an open response for the MCAS excerpt "A Walk to the Jetty" by Jamaica Kincaid. Please make sure you and your parents carefully read the letter before you complete the assignment on the answer sheets provided. Please do not write on the actual packet (the excerpt and the questions). Bonus points will be awarded for a parental signature and a job well done! Remember the FCA's are pretty consistent throughout the year. Use a good topic sentence, supporting details from the excerpt, a strong conclusion and proofreading for appropriate conventions.

Make Your Game Challenging

Today we finished the open response questions for "A Christmas Carol." We will continue to work on posing challenging questions for the competition next Tuesday, December 22nd before the "GeoBee." Maybe you can stump your classmates!

Tonight we will find out three interesting facts about The Great Depression before reading "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" by Mildred Taylor.

Thanks For Being A Good Audience

Today we saw a wonderful presentation of "A Christmas Carol" at the Stoneham Theater in Stoneham, MA. The seventh grade students were a wonderful audience. We even had a chance to ask questions of the cast after the play was over. Well done, kids!

Field Trip Tomorrow

Just a reminder that the field trip to "A Christmas Carol" is tomorrow, December 15, 2009. Please remember to bring a bag lunch (no glass bottles) and eat a good breakfast. We will promptly leave TMS at 8:00AM. Please be on time for school. You represent the school tomorrow so it goes without saying that you must demonstrate good behavior. No hats allowed in the theater,and please NO GUM!

BULLETIN BOARD LOOKS BEAUTIFUL. THANK YOU!

Final On Monday, December 14.2009

Just a reminder that the final will be on Monday, December 14, 2009. Study all your work, questions, and tests and quizzes for " Christmas Carol."

Please remember to color and decorate your literary devices tonight for the bulletin board. Cut out the figures of speech as neatly as possible. Please, check spelling and punctuation!!!!

WELL DONE TEAM 7-2

We finished "A Christmas Carol" today and I believe it was a record! Hopefully, by using two different versions of the book, everyone understood the theme of this wonderful story. We will be tying up some loose ends in groups tomorrow and finding as much figurative language as possible throughout each stave. You all did a commendable job on quarter notes and answering questions. I am soooooo proud of you.

Homework tonight is only one page of quarter notes for Stave Five. Try to find at least one example of a simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, idiom, and a hyperbole in any stave from the book.

Period Six will get caught up tomorrow. We have about four more pages to read and discuss.