ELP Mo. Valley

The 5th Grade ELP students and I would like to say a great big "Thank you" to all who participated in The Giving Tree project.  What a great way to build community connections.  The support was overwhelming! The 3rd quarter is in full swing and I wanted to take a minute to share what ELP has been doing since Winter Break.  So here we go...... The 1st and 2nd grade students meet for ELP two times a week (hopefully, depends on weather and schedules).  Our focus has been on adding vocabulary to our reading and writing.  Over the past few weeks we have used a snowball/snowman theme to build synonyms into our repertoire.  We read aloud, "The Biggest Snowball Ever" and then created a "Blizzard of Synonyms" with hand-made snowflakes.  Pictures will be added later.....so, stay tuned.  The 3rd grade students had been studying Native American tribes, their cultures and habitats for Social Studies.  To enhance the learning, we created a Native Ame...

      Missouri Valley students have been collecting food for the Harrison county food pantry. In the past two  weeks we have have gathered more than our goal of five hundred (500). We have 636 items!  Whoever participated, thank you for your help. By 5th grade ELP. Nick, Noah, Morghan, Maddy, Caitlynn, Brianna, Ashlyn, Kimberlyn, Kinsey, Emma, Raine, Kellen.

                Our Giving Tree is a project to help collect items for the Harrison Co. Food Pantry. We will be collecting items through December 3rd - December 18th. We will be collecting  items that are most needed. cereal peanut butter soap shampoo mac-n-cheese canned soup toilet paper  paper products toothpaste                                                                                                                                                                    If you have a...

Wednesday, November 7th the 5th/6th grade ELP students competed in the online Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl.  As a team of 23 students, they scored 1, 110 points, had 91/100 questions scored correctly in under 100 minutes!!!  The questions covered a wide-range of topics in all curriculum areas.   Out of 33 teams in the 6th grade competition (5th grade competed on the 6th grade Quiz b/c the 6th grade team was with them), our students placed 13th.   Wow, what a great job for a first try! On Tuesday, November 13th the 7th grade ELP students competed in the same competition.  Out of 28 teams...... our team of 16 7th graders placed 4th!!!   They earned 1, 042 points, had 89/100 questions scored correctly and also completed the quiz in under 100 minutes.  Please take a minute to congratulate your child on his/her academic efforts!  It was a fun competition and we had some great discussions along the way.  To learn more about the Thinking C...

Mr. Searl's 4th graders watching the 7th Grader's perform their Reader's Theater scripts. Performing "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves" The first novel we completed in 7th Grade ELP was "King of the Wind" (Newbery Winner in 1948).  It began in Morocco and traveled throughout Arab countries and into Europe.  As an extension activity into cultures, the students found and read a script for "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves."  One section of 7th Grade ELP created "revised endings" to  "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves".  In an attempt to find an authentic audience, we utilized the Skype-pals the 4th and 5th grade ELP students have.  Our 7th hour class "skyped" in with Mr. Searl and his 4th grade class in Bloomington, MN.  Students shared the original "Ali Baba" and then 2 smaller groups shared the original scripts they had created.  Mr. Searl's students shared their thoughts on the scripts, the intonation, ...

AR (Accelerated Reader) is not new to the Mo. Valley Middle School students.  However, those in the ELP classes have a new (yet, somewhat old) twist on AR. Each quarter the ELP students will take the STAR Reading test.  This will help us establish reading ranges (guidelines for book selections, but not the only way to choose books).  We have also set point goals for each quarter.  The students meet with me and we establish the number of points they wish to achieve in a 9 week period.  The concept is very similar to the way AR has been utilized at the Elementary for the past several years. At the end of each quarter, the ELP students who met their point and percentage goals (85% or above) will have a "mini-celebration"in the classroom. For the first quarter, it was decided to have a BYOD event (Bring Your Own Device) and a snack.  Students who met their AR goals for first quarter will be able to bring Ipads, Kindle Fires, Smart Phones, Gameboys, etc......

The first 2 weeks in November will be a very busy time for 5th-7th grade ELP students.  Not only are we administering the Iowa Assessments (formerly, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills), students are also gearing up for the Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl! On Wednesday, November 7th (yes, the day after Election Day) the 5th and 6th graders will be competing in the online competition.  Due to the Iowa Assessments schedule, we will compete as a combined 5th/6th grade group.  The 6th graders will go to the Elem. and we will work in the PM on the 100 multiple choice questions.  The scores are based on accurate answers as well as speed in answering. Tuesday, November 13th is the 7th grade Quiz Bowl competition.  Students will meet in the Middle School and work 6th-8th hour on the Quiz questions.  We have been working on practice quizzes the past week. There will be 100 multiple choice questions covering Literature, Vocabulary, Authors, Science, Math, Social Studies and...