Happy Easter

I was very impressed with your resurrection items today. Well done everyone.
I hope you have a blessed Easter.

Resurrection Basket Due Thursday

We will be putting together resurrection baskets this Thursday. This will count for a language grade. Students will think of a traditional or non-traditional item found in an Easter basket. The important aspect of the item is that it must connect symbolically to the passion, burial, or resurrection of Christ.
 I gave the example in class that the grass in the basket may represent the rebirth of spring. Just as the grass dies in the winter and revives in the spring, so did Christ die and come back.

• Students will need enough of the item chosen to share with the entire class. 
• We have 11 students in our class. 
• Students will need a small basket for their items. 
• I will provide the grass.
• Students will take the basket home on Thursday and explain the symbolism of each item to you. Then again they may have to recall, as I am sure they will want to eat any edible items.
• There will also be a writing assignment. 
• Absent students will be excused from this assignment.

Map Games

http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/toolsforadventure/games/index.html  Several games and activities from National Geographic.

homophones

http://www.gamequarium.org/dir/Readquarium/Vocabulary/Homophones/

Test Prep

During the next two full weeks we will be reviewing and covering material for our standardized testing from April 15 through the 19th.  I ask that all parents participate in sending snacks during testing week. I'll send a sign up sheet  home early next week.
Homework will not be as heavy. I will however post sites often for review. It is in your child's best interest to work on these sites and take the class reviews seriously to ensure high scores. I sincerely appreciate the level of excellence this class has shown this year, and I want that to reflect on their scores.
This first site requires pacing. It should not be done in one sitting.
http://jc-schools.net/terranova-res.htm

Homework 3-12

Math
Wagner W.S
Casto P. 139 W.B

Reading:
Wagner Research your person and be able to tell why they were important.
Casto: Choose your female American hero, and begin your xtranormal video. You do not need to finish.

 Spelling Test Friday

Check out the Lewis and Clark sites I added.

Lewis and Clark

This site is the choices along the Discovery with Lewis and Clark.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/west/

This is the National Geographic Site.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/

Xtranormal Hero

Please go ahead and get started tonight. You will read the instructions as soon as you log in. Remember that your user name and password is the same as your A.R.
http://www.xtranormal.com/account/register/?next=/
You should not need a code to log in because you have already set up your account. Just sign in using your A.R user name and password.

Homework 3-11

New Words Spelling Test Friday 3-15

1. optimistic 
2. amplitude
3. intensity
4. Louisiana
5. permeated
6. transition
7. inequality
8. denominator
9. numerator
10. oscilloscope
11. bonus: status

Math:
Casto Handout measurement as equal fractions
Wagner: P. 147-148

Reading
 Wagner Reading: Finish 5 questions
 Casto Reading: Read the following from class today. Summarize each short biography into one paragraph. You will have three paragraphs when you finish, one for each person. Remember that a good paragraph has a topic sentence, three to six good details that support the topic, and a conclusion.

(Achieve3000, February 20, 2006). For centuries, laws and customs in most parts of the world reflected a belief that women were less capable than men. In the U.S., women were not allowed to vote or own property, and they did not have the same opportunities and choices as men. However, some women refused to accept these boundaries. In honor of Women's History Month, here are the stories of three women who broke the rules.
Nellie Bly: Courageous Reporter

Library of Congress Photo

Investigative reporters dedicate their careers to exposing unfair or unlawful activity, often at great personal risk. In her work as an early investigative reporter, Nellie Bly helped change laws, as well as expectations about what women could do. Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Cochran in Pennsylvania in 1864. When Cochran was 18 years old, she read an editorial in The Pittsburgh Dispatch that criticized women who tried to work in "men's jobs." Incensed, Cochran wrote a letter to the newspaper, defending her belief that women deserved the same rights and opportunities as men. The letter intrigued the paper's editor, and soon, Cochran was working for The Dispatch, using the pen name Nellie Bly.
Bly wrote articles that focused on the rights of women and the downtrodden, and she gathered her material by working undercover. Eager to expose the cruel conditions of sweatshops, Bly posed as a sweatshop worker, gathering information that she later relayed in an article. While working for the prestigious New York World newspaper, Bly committed herself to an institution for mentally ill women so that she could investigate rumors about the institution's mistreatment of patients. Bly's stories about abuses at the institution made her famous. They also led to laws that helped protect the rights of the mentally ill. Bly's work on this and other assignments helped make investigative reporting a common practice in journalism.
In 1895, Bly retired from journalism and married industrialist Robert Seaman. When Seaman died 10 years later, Bly took over his company, instituting many of the same reforms to improve working conditions that she had supported as a reporter. The company, though, fell into financial ruin, and Bly returned to reporting. She was in Austria in 1914, when World War I broke out. Bly eagerly went to the frontlines, working as a war correspondent for The New York Evening Journal. Her career as a journalist continued until her death in 1922.
Bessie Coleman: Revolutionary Aviator

NASA

When Bessie Coleman decided that she wanted to be a pilot, she had two strikes against her. Most pilots of the day were white males, but Coleman was a woman, and she was African American. However, the barriers that Coleman faced were no match for her determination. Bessie Coleman was born into a poor family in Texas in 1892. Although she had to drop out of school periodically to help her family pick crops, Coleman was an excellent student. When she was 18, Coleman used her savings to enroll in college, but she did not have enough money, and she had to leave school. In 1915, still hoping to make something of herself and finding little opportunity in the South, Coleman moved to Chicago. There, she worked as a manicurist.
In 1918, when the U.S. entered World War I, Coleman heard tales of the war pilots and their daring adventures. She longed to become a pilot and began asking flight schools to admit her. However, every flight school refused to admit Coleman because she was black and a woman. In 1920, with financial backing from two African-American businessmen, Coleman moved to France, where flight schools were more tolerant. Seven months later, she became the first African-American woman to earn a pilot's license. Upon her return to the U.S., her achievement attracted the attention of the press, and she earned fame for her skill and determination.
Coleman had indeed made something of herself. She became a stunt pilot, performing in air shows around the country and becoming the subject of many articles. Coleman also used her fame to encourage other African Americans to become pilots. She hoped to establish her own flight school, which would open opportunities to those who could not learn to fly elsewhere.
However, Bessie Coleman's life ended before she could accomplish all of her goals. In 1926, Coleman encountered mechanical problems while flying in preparation for an air show. Her plane crashed, and Coleman died instantly. About 10,000 mourners, including many prominent African Americans, attended her funeral.
Babe Didrikson: Sports Legend

AP Photo

At one time, some experts believed that athletic activity would cause women too much stress. Babe Didrikson did not let this notion faze her. She excelled at most sports, and she wasn't afraid to show her talent. Mildred Didrikson was born in Texas in 1911. As a child, she loved to take part in just about any sport, including swimming and bowling, but her favorites were basketball and baseball. In fact, Didrikson's homeruns inspired her friends to begin calling her "Babe," after the legendary slugger Babe Ruth.
Because of Didrikson's athletic ability, sports became a serious pursuit. In high school, Didrikson earned awards for basketball and track and field, setting three new national track records along the way. Her performance earned her a place on the U.S. women's track team at the 1932 Olympics, where she won two gold medals.
In the mid-1930s, Didrikson took up golf. Didrikson's approach to golf was an illustration of how she combined hard work and natural talent. Babe spent 8 to 10 hours a day hitting golf balls, relentlessly perfecting her game. From 1936 to 1954, Didrikson was one of the best golfers in the world, winning the U.S. Women's Open three times. She also helped found the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), which allowed women to carve out careers as professional golfers.
Didrikson won many awards for her athletic achievements, including the Associated Press Woman Athlete of the Year Award. In fact, she received that award six times, first for her track and field achievements, and then for her golfing skills. No other woman ever received this award so many times.
When cancer cut Didrikson's life short in 1956, her status as one of the nation's greatest athletes—male or female—had already been established.

Dictionary:

downtrodden (noun)

people who are forcibly limited in opportunity by law or situation

prestigious (adjective)

respected or celebrated

status (noun)

rank or position

sweatshop (noun)

a workplace with overworked, underpaid employees

tolerant (adjective)

accepting or open-minded

Lessons American History

http://americanhistory.mrdonn.org/powerpoints.html

Homework 3/6

Brain Expo Field Trip Friday

Spelling Test Friday

Religion Quiz on Liturgical Year Tomorrow

Math
Wagner W.S
Casto W.S

Science Casto's Class
Watch this video with parent's permission.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYE8UHcL_gU

P.T.O No Homework

Tonight at 6pm we have a P.T.O meeting in the Parish Hall. There is no official homework tonight, although I blogged 3 a Civil Rights Movement sites that are wonderful, and here is one more on the electromagnetic spectrum for Science.

http://science.hq.nasa.gov/kids/imagers/ems/index.html

Civil Rights

Youth involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/articles/60/the-mississippi-civil-rights-movement-1955-1970-when-youth-protest

Visual Timeline: Please know there are some pictures that are painful to view. Please view with your parents.
http://www.crmvet.org/images/imgbham.htm

History Channel: Many more are at the bottom.
http://www.history.com/topics/rosa-parks/videos#freedom-march

Homework 3-4

Math:
Wagner worksheet
Casto p. 127-128 workbook

S.S What are civil rights? Think, research, be ready to share.

Rel. Study for test.

Electromagnetic Spectrum Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYE8UHcL_gU

This is the video we watched in part today. Please watch only with your parent's permission.

Spelling List Test 3-8

1. profound
2. transparent
3. decimal
4. rebellion
5. amendment
6. vibration 
7. electromagnetic spectrum
8. immobilized
9. rhythmically
10. absorption 

There will be one extra bonus from The Giver.

Homework 3-1

Math
Casto p. 52 Test prep 8-9 and all of p. 56

No other homework.

Career Color Test

http://www.colorwize.com/colorme.asp

A career color test. I thought this was appropriate for the new Color in Jonas' world. It gives your top 50.