Back to School Night

Thank you to all of you who attended Back to School Night! If you couldn't make it, or would just like some more information, here is a copy of the handout I passed out:

Back to School Night Handout

Remember, if you have any questions, the best way to contact me is through my school email. If you want to check your child's grades, attendance, etc. please visit the Family Portal.

Thanks again!

Grammar: Parts of Speech

For the next two weeks (August 27 - September 6) our grammar point will be parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc.). Here is the handout:

Parts of Speech

And here are some practice quizzes you can take online:

Prepositions

Adverbs

Adjectives

Nouns

Verbs

The quiz will be on Monday, September 9th.

Grammar: Active vs. Passive Voice

On Monday, August 26th, we will have our first grammar quiz. It will be a multiple choice/true-false clicker quiz on Active vs. Passive Voice.

Here is a handout that explains Active vs. Passive Voice (it's a pdf):

Active vs. Passive Voice Handout

Basically, active voice is (almost always) better than passive voice. Here is a quick example.

(Active Voice): Sarah bought two tickets for the baseball game.

(Passive Voice): Two tickets to the baseball game were bought by Sarah.

The first sentence is clear and follows standard English. Make sure you can identify if a sentence is in active or passive voice and which one is better!

Vocabulary

On Monday, I will pass out the list of vocabulary words for the first eight weeks of school. We will have ten words each week. You can get the list from Google Docs here:

Vocabulary Words 1-8

And here is the website where you can find the definitions, learn & practice the words, play games, take practice quizzes, etc.

Vocabulary Website

There are 20 words in each unit, so we study the first ten words one week and then the last ten words the next week.

Every Monday we will have a quiz on the last week's words. August 19-23 is week 1, so the quiz will be on Monday the 26th. If there is no school on Monday, or if we are doing something (such as an essay) that takes the entire period, we will have the quiz on Tuesday.

Let me know if you have any questions!