Announcing Rancho Dominguez's 1st Annual Canned Food Drive!
Who: RDPS students, teachers, and parents
What: Want to collect 1300 canned food items to donate
Where: Cans will go to Food Finders, which helps over 100 organizations to feed the hungry in Long Beach.
When: Bring your cans to any teacher's room by Wednesday, November 22nd
Why: Because there is a need, and Rancho Lobos try to meet the needs of the community and show compassion whenever they can!

This Thursday (period 3) and Friday (period 6) students will be taking their history tests on Mesopotamia. The study guide they receive will help them prepare. Also, I will be collecting the work from their report folders right after the test, so make sure they have all their notes, handouts, etc. ready to go! Thanks!

Just a heads up that students will be taking a periodic assessment for our narrative unit next Monday and Tuesday (if needed)

Hello all! Here's a breakdown of what's been going on in my classes this week:
Periods 2&4: Students presented their Halloween/Fall stories via Power Point in class and completed a reflection about the experience. Grades are posted, and students will receive their scores tomorrow.
Period 3: Mr. Morgan went over Sumerian religion on Monday, and students will start their Sumerian Empire reading posters in class tomorrow. 
Period 6: I went over Sumerian religion and we started our Sumerian Empire reading and posters today. We'll finish the posters on Friday and students will have weekend homework to fill in a workbook page about the accomplishments of the different empires.
Period 7: We started the initial planning for our Any Small Goodness essay. We also discussed our community project that we will work on over the next month or so.
Period 8: We closed out our work because these students will be moving to Ms. Grady as of Friday. I am sad to see this change, but I know they will be in excellent hands with Ms. Grady!

Click on Fun Stuff and then choose Videos/Podcasts to see our Toothbrush commercials. The assignment was to sell a toothbrush as a different product than a toothbrush. The students were so creative! They also had to use some of the propaganda strategies we learned about in class. So fun!

Today we talked about an exciting opportunity for the students to win prizes and earn some extra credit in English class. Chivas USA is holding an essay contest on the following prompt:

"Our favorite professional athletes accomplish great things in their sport. Off the field, many of our favorite athletes also believe in helping to improve their community. Imagine that you are your favorite athlete. You have been asked to put together a "dream team" and your team has been asked to work on a community service project. Who would you want on your team? What would your team do to serve your community and make it a better place?"

All students who participate get a free ticket to a Chivas game, which is pretty cool. Also, ten winners will receive the following: 
4-tickets to Chivas USA home opener 
4-tickets to Disneyland 
Chivas USA autographed team soccer ball 
Adidas Cinch backpack with official Chivas USA gear 
Fox Deportes Gift Bag 

Sounds pretty amazing! This is NOT required, but many students are interested in entering the contest. Essays are due to me by February 7th. They need to be no more than 400 words and must be typed. Also, anyone who participates can earn up to 20 points of extra credit in English class. Good luck!

I have been a blogging slacker this week...my apologies. This weekend the kids need to work on their How-to Posters & Speeches, since they are due on Tuesday. We will be videotaping the speeches, and the best ones (who have their internet form turned in) will be posted on the website! Have a great weekend!

I will be out Tuesday, so I want to list EVERYTHING I will be collecting when I get back on Wednesday:
-Weekly Reader (Haiti cover story)
-Ten Commandments drawing project
-Martin Luther King packet (in class work on Tuesday)
-Abraham reading and questions (in class work on Tuesday)
-Family Tree Worksheet (in class work on Tuesday)
The students should also work on their How-to Poster and Speech.

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Today your students are bringing home a letter and reading log for an exciting opportunity to earn a FREE ticket to Magic Mountain. All the students have to do is spend six hours doing recreational reading between now and February 28th. Then, I send them in and the students get a free tickt to use this summer, as well as a coupon so that their families can get in at a discounted rate. I hope ALL students participate in this exciting opportunity! Please let me know if you have any questions!

Today in class we watched a Brainpop video about Martin Luther King and wrote assertions about him. We also provided evidence to support our assertions.
In history we performed our Ten Commandment skits and started on our Mini-project for the Ten Commandments, as part of our study of Ancient Israel.
Tonight's homework is to work on the How-to Speech/poster. Hopefully you're making some progress!