Name 1. Objective: I can determine the main idea and key details of a text. Homework Monday

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1 Name 1 Objective: I can determine the main idea and key details of a text. Homework Monday Saving Hawaiian Monk Seals Marine animal experts are on a mission. They want to save Hawaiian monk seals from becoming extinct. Extinct means, "no longer existing." Today, about 1,200 seals live near the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Experts fear that the population will drop in the next five years. "The clock is ticking," says scientist Jen Palmer. Experts worry that the seals are not getting enough food. Many of the pups are thin and are not living past their first few years. Scientists are trying to figure out why. Other scientists are monitoring the monk seals habitat for pollution. A habitat is a place in nature where an animal or a plant lives. "Every person takes a very tiny bit of the puzzle, and you hope at some point you...put it all together and it makes a pretty clear picture," says scientist Charles Littnan.

2 Name 2 Homework Tuesday Catch the Breeze Wind can help fly a kite, power a sailboat or spread seeds. Around the world, wind has also become an increasingly popular and inexpensive source of energy that is converted into electricity. At the National Wind Technology Center in Colorado, scientists are working to advance wind-power technology. Wind is often considered an environmentally friendly source of power. Wind doesn't pollute the environment and is a renewable source of energy that can't be used up like fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas. Harnessing power from wind is nothing new. Some of the first windmills were used in Europe more than 5,000 years ago. Today, modern windmills, called turbines, resemble airplane propellers and are grouped together in wind farms. Despite the benefits, wind power is far from perfect. Opponents of wind farms say the biggest problem is unreliability when the wind doesn't blow, there is no power. They also argue that wind turbines can be an eyesore and threaten birds and other wildlife that fly into the blades. Currently, 27 states have wind farms. Those turbines provide enough power for more than a million homes.

3 Name 3 1. The main idea of this passage is a. wind power is an excellent resource. b. wind power is being used as a source of energy. c. wind power is environmentally friendly. d. people have been using wind power for many years. 2. Which of the following does not support the main idea? a. Scientists are trying to advance wind power technology. b. Right now, in the United States, wind power gives electricity to a million homes. c. Wind helps to fly kites and spread seeds d. Wind power is a renewable resource. Homework Wednesday A Sheep Named Dolly In 1997, a 7-month-old sheep named Dolly became a celebrity. Dr. Ian Wilmut, a Scottish scientist, announced to the world that he had created her using a procedure called cloning. Cloning is a method that scientists use to produce a genetic copy of another individual. In other words, Dolly was a clone of her mother.

4 Name 4 Well, actually, Dolly had three mothers. One mother gave Dolly her DNA, one mother supplied an egg, and the third mother, her surrogate mother, gave birth to her. Normally, an animal gets half of its DNA from its mother and half from its father. Dolly was an identical twin of the mother who gave her her DNA. But Dolly was six years younger. However, Dolly and her mother were not identical in every way. Since Dolly and her DNA mother had different experiences, they were different in many ways. Like human twins, clones have unique personalities. It took scientists 277 tries to succeed in cloning Dolly. To make her, Dr. Wilmut used a complicated method called nuclear transfer. In this method, scientists remove a nucleus from one cell and transfer, or move, it to a different cell. Create a prewrite for writing about Dolly. Why is she special? Prewrite

5 Name 5 Homework Thursday American Government Branches of Government: A Closer Look The Constitution of the United States established three separate branches for our nation s federal government. This separation was intended to ensure that no one part of government would ever become too strong. These three branches divide the work of creating, interpreting, and enforcing the laws of the United States. What role does each branch play? Legislative Branch The legislative branch is Congress. This branch makes the laws. Congress is made up of two chambers, 1 the Senate and the House of Representatives. Every state elects officials to both chambers. Each state elects two members of the Senate, called senators. However, the number of representatives that a state sends to Congress is based on that state s population. For example, Wyoming has a small population and only has one representative. New York, which has a larger population, has 27 representatives. Senators serve six-year terms, and representatives serve two-year terms. Executive Branch The second branch of government is the executive branch. The executive in charge of this branch is the president. Unlike kings and emperors who inherit2 their right to run a country from their family, the president is elected by the people of the states. The president cannot make laws. The president s job is to enforce the laws made by the legislative branch. To do that, the president has the help of executive departments and agencies. They handle the daily work of administering federal laws and programs. The president is also commander in chief of the army. The president is elected to serve for a four-year term. The 22nd Amendment limits a president to two terms, so a person cannot be elected president more than twice.

6 Name 6 Judicial Branch The judicial branch is the third branch of government. The judicial branch interprets the laws made by Congress. It is made up of a system of federal courts and judges. The highest court in the nation is the Supreme Court of the United States. The U.S. Supreme Court s most important role is to judge whether a law is unconstitutional. If a law is unconstitutional, the Court has the power to overturn it. The president appoints justices5 to the U.S. Supreme Court, but they have to be confirmed by the Senate. They can serve from the time they are approved until they die or retire. Federal judges make important decisions that affect everyone, so it is important that they are trustworthy and dependable. The United States government is based in Washington, D.C., the nation s capital. Congress meets in the Capitol Building, and the president lives in the White House. The United States Supreme Court justices meet in the Supreme Court Building. These buildings have come to symbolize, or stand for, the government. Write a paragraph about the branches of government. Prewrite

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