Charles Ellis Presents: The Story of Language

Excitement is building as we begin to prepare for this year’s musical “Charles Ellis Presents: The Story of Language”. The musical will be held Thursday, May 4th at 6:30 pm at the Charles Ellis playground. Tickets will be on sale starting Monday, April 24th in the Ellis media center for $5.00 each. All rehearsals will take place during school hours over the next few weeks. Students who choose to perform in the show will need to arrive at Charles Ellis the night of the performance between 5:15 pm -6:00 pm. Because of the amount of work it takes the students to create this performance, it is imperative that all participants are showing grace and courtesy at all times.  

Permission forms have been sent home today. Please review it with your family, sign, and return it to your homeroom teacher.  We will begin our work on the musical next week!  We look forward to another wonderful Ellis musical!

Congratulations, "River of Words" Winners!

Congratulations to Elle and Ashlyn for thier winning submission of this year's "River of Words" contest!  The poems will be on display at various places around the state and printed in the yearly anthology of poems and artwork.

The Week of March 27, 2017

Welcome back!  I hope you enjoyed your spring break, and I can't wait to hear how you spent your time off!

We will begin our week together by taking a look at the math lessons we've had this year.  I'll have you choose three in which you would like review lessons.  In addition, we will be taking  a look at how we can improve upon our math writing skills by completing some prompts together.  These small group review lessons and prompts will serve as your review for next week's math GMAS test.  More information about the test can be found HERE.

There will be no homework or quizzes to prepare for this week.  All work (including the following review packet) will be done in class during your work period.

It's time for term 3 conferences!  I'll be sending home conference request forms Monday.  Please identify they times you and your family are available to meet to talk about your progress.  Return them as soon as possible, because times do fill up quickly.  

See you Monday morning,

Mr. Trent

Happy Spring Break!

I hope you have a wonderful spring break!  Classes will resume Monday, March 27!

Report Cards Issued Today

Term 3 Report Cards are being sent home today.  Attached to them is a document explaining how to read a GMAS Growth Model Report.  This page includes test results from previous years' GMAS.  Use this as a goal-setting tool as we prepare for this year GMAS that will start soon after we return from Spring Break.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Happy Pi Day!

Today we celebrated Pi Day with a number of 3.14-inspired activities!  Dr. Carolyn Perry from Georgia Tech joined us to discover how pi is derived using found objects and "Buffon's Needle".  We also created mini pizza-pies and calculated their areas.  There was even a pi pie a student baked to eat for desert at lunch!

"Buffon's Needle"activity

 finding how pi is derived from found objects

using a HUGE circle to review vocab.

 making and calculating area of pizza-pies

Elle's famous Pi Pie!

The Week of March 13, 2017

Spring break starts Friday!  But, before you trade in your school uniform for sunglasses, let's enjoy the week together at Ellis!

Because our term just ended, it is time for another "I Can" Booklet!  Work on the skills included in the booklet this week and use the key to check it.  The booklet is a wonderful tool you can use to review what we've learned over the past nine weeks and to identify areas you need to focus on to reach mastery before the GMAS.  Your checked "I Can" Booklet is due Thursday.  It will be graded as an assessment grade in both math and science.

You will also have an opportunity this week to continue your research in science on the Earth, Sun, and Moon.  Use your "Lunar Lunchbox" choice sheet to help guide your studies.  Your "Study Guide" is a great tool you can use to prepare for you test that will take place Thursday. 

You will not have a Google Classroom Journal or Ten Marks assignment to complete this week. 

There are a number of other things happening this week to look forward to:

- Spring pictures will take place Monday.  This is a free "dress-up" day!

-Thursday is both a dress down day and the Kiss-A-Pig St. Patrick's Day dance during your explorations time.  It costs $1 each to participate.  All funds raised will go towards diabetes research.

-Friday is St. Patrick's Day and the first day of spring break!  Classes will resume Monday, March 27.

Have a great (short) week,

Mr. Trent

Moon Phases

Today we took some time to really delve into what causes the phases of the moon.  It can be hard to understand why there are moon phases when half of the moon is always lit by the sun.  We used a moon phase model to better demonstrate this.

understanding what causes phases of the moon

After we discovered the reason for moon phases, we used Oreo Cookies to practice identifying them!

Oreo Cookie moon phases

Reminder: All Term 3 Work Due Wednesday

Please remember that Wed. March 8th is the last day of term 3.  All required assignments are due by the end of the day Wednesday.  Any work not handed in by then will earn a zero.  Please log into PowerSchool to see if you are missing anything.  I will also provide a list of missing work Monday morning.  I will staple it into your planner for easy reference.

The Week of March 6, 2017

Welcome to the last week of term 3!  Please be sure that all of your required assignments from this term are complete and handed in by Wednesday, March 8th.  Report cards will be printed and sent home March 16th.  Term 3 parent/teacher conferences will be scheduled immediately following Spring Break.

Our math lessons this week will focus upon graphing points on a coordinate plane.  You will learn about the 4 quadrants on the plane and how to plot specific ordered pairs in them.  To help you learn this skill, you will have homework Monday and Tuesday evening to complete.  You will have a quiz Thursday, and your weekly www.tenmarks.com assignment due Friday.  You may also want to check out the following game for extra practice!

"Stock the Shelves" Coordinate Plane Game

Your science studies will continue to include research on outer space.  Over the next two weeks we will be focusing on the connect between the Sun, Earth, and Moon.  You will learn to appreciate how the movements of these three celestial objects create some amazing phenomena:  moon places, solar eclipses, and lunar eclipses!

Please review the following study guide and vocabulary words.  You will have a vocab. test Friday, and a test next Friday.

The "Lunar Lunchbox" choice sheet gives you choices that will help you learn all about the Sun, Earth, and Moon.  Please complete your choices by next Friday.

Have a wonderful weekend,
Mr. Trent

Sizing Up the Universe

It's hard to comprehend the size of our universe.  Check out the following site to try to grasp the vastness of its size.

Sizing Up the Universe