has been moving ahead steadily since September.  There are two reading groups in the class, and all students have been progressing nicely.  We have also been concentrating on proper letter formation, and are about to begin learning about proper sentence writing.

4th Grade A began the year reading a biography of Houdini.  Students were excited about Houdini's life story, and about his tricks and escapades.  We then continued with the reader Bit by Bit, which we just completed!  We have also completed a unit on proper capitalization and punctuation.  After Chanukah, we will begin working in our new spelling books, continue moving forward with the next graded reader, Friends Aloft, and focus on grammar and sentence structure to improve writing skills.

4th Grade B is a new class, and the emphasis is on improving reading skills.  Students are working diligently, and we are very happy with the progress they are making.

5th Grade students are working in two reading groups.  The advanced group of students has just completed reading the biography of Ilan Ramon, and is looking forward to projects related to Ilan, the Air Force and/or fighter planes.  The other reading group is working in their reader, Friends Aloft, with an emphasis on improving their comprehension skills.  The reader is becoming the springboard for short writing assignments as the students begin to write summaries of their stories and short essays and compositions.  The class as a whole is reviewing grammar and sentence structure as we focus on enhancing writing skills.

6th Grade students are presently in the midst of a grammar and writing unit, focusing on writing complex sentences.  We are also reading a selection of short stories as preparation for writing short fiction.  Prior to this, the class read the biography of Ilan Ramon and wrote about his life.

7th Grade began the year reading the Ilan Ramon biography because it was simply not available last year.  Selections from the biography were excellent vehicles for writing assignments and enhancing vocabulary. The class is presently in the midst of a short unit on idioms, and writing using idioms.  After Chanukah, we will be reading selections from The Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

8th Grade curriculum is built around a series of short stories by renowned authors, such as O. Henry, Rudyard Kipling and Ray Bradbury.  The stories are read at home and in class, with more difficult portions read and discussed in class.  Writing assignments spring from the literature, and are then reviewed in class in a writing lab.