I hope you all had a nice break. My husband and I went to Washington, D.C. We had a blast, but we calculated that in the whole time we were there (4 days) we walked at LEAST 20 miles! It's the first vacation I have gone on where I didn't gain a single pound!
We hit the ground running today. We have TWO WEEKS until the STAAR Writing test, April 9th. I'll send more information later to help you better prepare your children the night before and the day of so they calm, cool, and collected. ALL kids have learned the skills needed to do well. They just need to take their time and check over their work. They will have four hours to take the test, which is a reasonable amount of time to write a rough draft, revise and edit it, write a final draft and answer appx. 20 questions (multiple choice) regarding editing and revising. This week some students are finalizing their last composition. This week they will begin a new one. On this piece I will not be helping them with revising and editing so that I can see how much they have grown throughout the year.
In addition to this, we will spiral in some previous skill practice in reading stations.
In Social Studies, we are at the point where Texas is its own Republic, free from Mexico. So far Texas has been a part of Spain, France, Mexico, and now Texas... 4 of the 6 flags of Texas. We are now learning about the differing opinions between the president (Sam Houston) and the vice president (Mirabeau B. Lamar) as they argue about whether or not Texas should join the U.S. (Spoiler alert... TX does join the U.S.) :)