Mrs. Phillips' Blog

WEDNESDAY is team picture day. If you have a team shirt, please wear it!

JPL field trip–English students chosen for the JPL field trip need to have their permission slips in by THURSDAY of this week!

English: Students are working in collaboration with Ms. Sanchez’ Science class on a genetic disorder brochure project. This week is being spent in the library using their research and writing skills to learn about a certain genetic disorder and then develope a brochure. It has been great fun!

The letters are due on Thursday and so are the weekly paragraphs.

Mrs. Phillips

Hello! I hope you are having a great week! Your students are really working hard here!!!

English~HW is a worksheet on personication. Students must underline the personification and then explain what it means in their own words.

On 2/18 my English classes are going to JPL through the Workability program at the District Office. As if that wasn’tt fabulous enough, that program has agreed to pay for everyone’s lunch at a Mexican restaurant. How cool is that? Students who are eligible to go (no behavior, grade concerns) received a permission slip today. Please fill it out, sign it, and return it ASAP! I don’t have additional copies of these permission slips, so if they lose them, students are out of luck.

DON’T FORGET THE RIO IDOL ON FRIDAY NIGHT AT 7:00 P.M.; IT SHOULD BE FANTASTIC!

Mrs. Phillips

Happy Friday!

General Announcements–On 2/2, Dr. Thomas will be speaking to our advisory class about behavior, demerits, and sexual harassment.

CJFS applications are due on Friday. If your student had mostly As and Bs on last semester’s report card, please look into applying for this honor. You can find all the information on the Rio Norte website.

On 2/8, Columbia students will going to COC for The Spirit of Uganda performance. A pink permission slip went home with students. This needs to be returned with $5 by 2/2.

A four day weekend is coming up. Friday 2/12 is a non-school day, as well as 2/15.

English: The following are the dates for the weekly paragraph–2/2 (2/3); 2/10 (2/11); 2/17 (2/18); and 2/24(2/25). The dates in the parentheses are B block dates. Please help your student remember these dates.

Thanks.

Mrs. Phillips

Happy Rainy Day!!!

On Friday WEAR RED!!! That is our Team Columbia color for the ASB competition. If you are in 7th grade YOU ARE TEAM COLUMBIA! GO TEAM!!!

Thank you for the recent donations. They are SO appreciated. If you are interested we still need one more The Last Word game, a color ink cartridge for 21/22 combo pack for HP Deskjet F300, and always BRIGHT colored paper.

English: HW–Spaghetti Heaven–a worksheet on identifying conjunctions.

Next week we will be talking about interjections and then prepositions, so our parts of speech unit will be complete. In addition, we will begin a unit on Tall Tales, write some more friendly and business letters, and continue with reading comprehension/fluency along with writing.

There seems to be some confusion on our weekly paragraph writing. All students are to complete one of the writing prompts with a 7-sentence paragraph following the rubric that was given to the students within the packet. Please help your student with long-term planning as this will benefit them forever down the line. The next one is due 1/25!

Have a great day!

Mrs. Phillips

Good morning!!!

English: No homework tonight. BUT…many students did NOT turn in the quickwrite paragraph that was assigned on the first day of the semester and due today! You will be receiving an email from SnapGrades if your student did not turn the assignment in today.

Thanks.

Mrs. Phillips

Hello! I hope the first week is going well for all of you!! I have to admit, I am a bit tired…:)

English: Homework is a worksheet on conjunctions. Please don’t forget the QuickWrite is due on 1/19!

I am still looking for two more THE LAST WORD games. We played today in my smaller class (thank you parents who donated those games!), and we had a blast! Don’t tell anyone, but we also worked on vocabulary and word choice…

Thanks again.

Mrs. Phillips

Seeing your students again has made me smile…:) It feels good to be back!

General Announcements: Thursday and Friday are minimum days and Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day so there is no school.

English: HW~Trading Cards. Students are to make a trading card for a noun, an adjective, a verb, and an adverb. Each card should include the word, a picture describing the word, and a sentence (complex!) using the word. We are focusing on improving our sentence structure, so we aren’t using sentences like “The tent is brown.”

We have a field trip to JPL coming up in February. Students will be allowed to go if they meet the criteria for demerit numbers, behavior, and grades. More information later.

Power Math: We are starting the semester off with an assessment to help determine where students are struggling. Our first area of study is fractions. We rarely have homework in this class as we practice, practice, practice during school hours!

Don’t forget the Holocaust survivor, Elaine Gellar, will be speaking at Rio Norte from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Thanks.

Mrs. Phillips

Hey there!!! It is hard to believe there are only a couple more weeks until the Winter Break. That means…end of the quarter grades and progress notes. Please be diligent about checking out Snapgrades as time is winding down.

I have attached a powerpoint of students my class wrote to in Nicaragua a couple of years ago. We have done the same this year, and the letters are being translated into Spanish by Hart District teachers and students. The families could also use ANY school supplies or travel-size toiletries. Could each of you send some things in so we can add to the collection of supplies to send to these children and their families? Please have your student bring these items in by December 16th.

English: We are completing our first Reader Response Log. It is really difficult work, and I am really proud of the work your students are doing. Please encourage the writing process because it can seem like a never-ending job! In addition, we are doing work on Parts of Speech and sentence building. We will be reading “The Christmas Carol” in class in the form of a play for the rest of the quarter.
HW: Technical Directions worksheet due next week and BENCHMARKS will be 12/14 (A-day) or 12/15 (B day).

That is it!!! Thanks again for all of your support.

Mrs. Phillips

Sorry. I have been out with pneumonia. Will be back soon…

Hello again after a few days! You should be receiving progress notes soon. Please know that your students are able to make up any work that they are missing if they still have it to turn in.

Next week is, of course, Thanksgiving. On Wednesday afternoon, the 8th graders will be participating in the annual Turkey Bowl football game. Seventh graders will be in their advisory the last block period of the day. The movies Mulan and UP will be shown.

Student of the Month celebration is today–FRIDAY!!! This month we honor LAUREN KIDD for academic effort. Way to go, Lauren!!

English: HW~STUDY for the pronoun quiz and the business letter quiz. Those two assessments will be given on the November 25th. (That is a C-day with the game/movie in the afternoon. Each class will meet for about 30 minutes.)

When we return from Thanksgiving break, we will be continuing our work on Parts of Speech, writing, and reading The Christmas Carol.

ADVISORY: It is imperative that all students bring a book!!! This is instructional time that is being used for reading fluency; however, if students aren’t going to comply then I will be compelled to offer a lesson during that time. PLEASE send a book with your student!!

Power Math: We are working on The Prosperous Teen video series that discusses teenage financial questions. The class is finishing decimals and will start fractions after the break. In addition, we do one lesson per period that parallels the Basic Pre Algebra class. Remember, there is no homework in this elective class.

Thanks again for all of your support.

Nancy Phillips