Mrs. Varnell to the Rescue!

Hello Essentials families,
I missed all of you yesterday!  Thank you Mrs. Varnell for coming to my rescue!  What a blessing!  We are battling with a cumbersome cold in our family and we are looking forward to getting back to 100% and seeing everyone next Tuesday.

Please contact me if you have any questions about the completion of Unit IV - Short Report/Essay on the Wonders of Ancient Egypt.  Follow the "Teaching Writing Structure and Style Weekly Guide" to complete the assignment.

STYLE - Erin reviewed the Dress-up "Who/Which Clause" (with Grammar Rules) and Sentence Opener #2 "Prepositional Phrase".  Please include these style elements as indicated in your final draft checklist handed out yesterday and the sample essay that was included in your packet last week.

STRUCTURE - To complete the essay, please include an introductory statement and a final clincher about the wonders of Ancient Egypt.

IEW Vocabulary - Continue studying and using the IEW vocabulary words in your writing, Lessons 1-11.  To emphasize the concept of "reflecting" key words in our Topic Sentence/Clinchers and Introductory Statement/Final clinchers I have recommended looking up synonyms for each IEW vocabulary word in Lesson 11 this week.  Working with these words will strengthen and broaden their vocabulary use in their writing. 

If there are any questions or concerns please call or email me this week.

Next Week - For the final writing assignment of the semester, please have your child choose at least one picture to bring to class next week.  We will be using a picture for our final unit of the semester, Unit 5 "Writing from Pictures."  Please see the note at the end of the weekly guide as a reminder.  This assignment is characterized as writing an EVENT DESCRIPTION based on whatever picture your child decides to bring.  The event can be real or imagined (fiction or non-fiction), so the possibilities are endless.  Pictures that show emotion or action may lend themselves to an easier time with the assignment. I will bring some magazines with pictures and some IEW pictures for anyone who forgets or does not have time to collect one this week.  Many options will be available!  However, I wanted to give the students the option of bringing their own photo/drawing to make this assignment fun and personal.

END OF THE SEMESTER CELEBRATION:
I can't believe we are reaching the finish line on the fall semester!  To celebrate the close of our Essentials semester of learning, Erin and I are planning to have some simple refreshments coupled with math games at the end of class week 12. 

As she announced in class yesterday, the theme will be "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." I will have a sign up sheet next week for any of you that can contribute to the menu items:).

Have a blessed week,
Tina