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Busy Week Ahead

Mar9

Good Morning.  I hope you are all enjoying the beautiful weather this weekend.  I know I am.

We have a lot planned this week, and being that it is a short week, we are going to be very busy.

First off, we have been practicing with the new testing program SAGE.  This is the first year this format is being used by the State of Utah and we have so much to learn.  The only way for the students to be prepared to use this program is to practice.  We are practicing in class, but I’m asking you to have your students to practice at home as well.  In math, this new testing format, not only asks the student to answer the questions, but to build the equations as well. This type of critical thinking is so important as we begin preparing for Jr. High, and the rest of their academic careers.

With limited technology resources, and time, in the classroom it is imperative that you have your children practice at home.  Your students can take practice exams at home, by logging in as a guest, to the link below.   Click through the guest options and they can select math, language, writing or science exams.

https://utpt.tds.airast.org/Student/Pages/LoginShell.aspx

Tuesday we have our 5 and 6th level Maturation Program called, Growing Up Comes First.  This will be held from 9-10:30 and parents are welcome to attend.

This Friday is Pi Day (3/14) but since we are out of school, we will be doing some Pi Day activities Thursday morning.  I have some fun, learning activities planned as we celebrate Pi.

In addition, in the afternoon, we have a representative from Weber County Library coming to our school to introduce us to The Odyssey with a classroom presentation.  Each year Weber Reads focuses on a different subject and this year it is The Odyssey.  This will be a perfect introduction as our 5th level students have just begun studying Ancient Greece.

The Odyssey

 

Parents of level 6 students can be on the lookout for a packing list for the field trip to The Redwoods.  You should receive this by spring break (March 31-April 4) so you can finish gathering necessary supplies during the break.  The students are getting excited and I’m getting excited as well.

 

 

This Week in Room 24

Mar9

This week we finished watching the BBC’s Planet Earth: Mountains program.  The students loved it!  With amazing photography, well presented facts and Sir David Attenborough narrating, who wouldn’t love it?!

This program kicked off our biome study and our next group project.  The students were broken into groups, given a mountain range to study and a general list of expectations.  Within their groups, the students can decide how they would like to break up their workload.   It will be a fantastic learning process for the students in our class as they figure out how to work with each other to create a presentation that they will share with the class March 28th.

Today we also started our poetry unit, beginning with a figurative language review, using lyrics from pop songs to illustrate metaphor, simile, hyperbole and personification.  The students have interactive notebook pages to work on to help drive the concept home (no pun intended).

Level 6 spent the morning working on an open ended question that allowed them to practice math, language and critical thinking skills.  We will have more problems like this in the future to stretch their comfort zone and allow them freedom to explore.  This week we also discussed the first continental congress and the students chose one of the intolerable acts to present to the group.  This is a small research project, one that will be done completely in class.

Level 5 students were given a lesson on the difference between estimating and guessing.  We used a jar of pennies as our prop.  They were then asked to answer several questions and complete a graph using their data.  This week in science we were lucky enough to have Ms. Amy’s dad, Mr. Bob, give a lesson about electromagnets.  He also brought all of the supplies for building electromagnets.  It was a big hit amongst the kids.

What a Week!

Feb21

 

I hope you all enjoyed the three day weekend.  I can’t believe it’s Friday already.  Whew!  Time flies when you are working hard, like the students have all week.

There are a lot of updates so pull up a chair, pour a warm drink and settle in.

Science Fair was Wednesday and we had some really fantastic projects from our class.  Our very own Hailey, a 6th level student, won 3rd place overall and will be moving on to the Ritchey Science Fair on March 20th.  Congratulations to Hailey!

Today we had a whole class lesson on context clues and how to identify words we don’t know the meaning of by looking for four clues: synonyms, antonyms, explanations and examples.  We watched a short video to help the students understand each on of these clues a little more.  Follow this link, and you can watch the video with them if you would like.

http://www.flocabulary.com/context-clues/

 

We also had a zoology lesson on mountain biomes.  We started watching the BBC Planet Earth Mountains DVD and looked for 3 animals, 3 plants and 3 mountain ranges that were mentioned in the video.  The BBC puts out amazingly beautiful educational films.

Our 4th grade students have been working on improving their sentence writing, learning about decimals and learning how to identify locations on a map given their longitude and latitude.

Our fifth grade students are finishing their unit on Ancient Egypt and have a pyramid project due on Tuesday, February 25th.  They are to create a pyramid from whichever medium they prefer.  It could be clay, sugar cubes, paper, cardboard or whatever materials your have available in your home.  They also created a classified ad looking for workers, instead of slaves, to help them build their pyramids.

In preparation for our DWA Tuesday, February 25th, our 5th level students have been practicing persuasive essay writing.  Please have your 5th level student log on to Utah Write this weekend and practice, practice, practice.  With less than one week to go, any amount of practicing they can do will benefit them greatly.  We have discussed ways to make their writing longer, by using more detail and examples within their writing.

In 6th grade this week, we had two lessons on how to write a short response to a literary passage using “ACE”. Answer the question concisely,  Cite the information directly (quote) or indirectly (summarizing), and Explaining by giving examples from the text.  This is a concept that is a little bit challenging, but with practice will become much easier.  We also discussed some of the causes of the Revolutionary War.  We talked about the Stamp Tax, Townshend Duties, Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party.  Next week we will discuss the First Continental Congress.

Next week we have Ballet West coming to do an in school fieldtrip.  They will be visiting with us on Wednesday.  Also coming up next week, we have a Parent Education Night entitled: School Safety for our Generation.  This will be held Thursday, February 27th at 7:00pm.  Representatives of NOPD and North View Fire Dept. will also be there.

Lastly, we have a maturation program for our 5th and 6th level students on March 11th.  A permission slip was sent home with your student this week.   Please sign and return the form with your student by March 7th.  The program is called Growing Up Comes First.  You can see an overview of the program online by visiting www.growingupcomesfirst.org/en/parent-guide

Have a wonderful weekend.

Cheers!!

International Festival

Jan20

The school’s International Festival is coming up soon! It will take place on February 6th and 7th. Lower El will present on the 6th from 9:30 – 11:00 AM and Upper El will present on the 7th from 9:30 – 11:00 AM. Be aware that those are the same days as Parent/Teacher Conferences.

International Fesitval is Coming Soon

As part of our geography studies, your child selected a continent and country to research extensively. With the guidelines provided, and their own creative touches, I expect we will have quite a collection of amazing work.

The International Festival is a way to explore other cultures from around the world and develop an awareness of our own place in the world. We celebrate the differences of people everywhere, as well as those things that we have in common that bring us together as a global community.

Students need to have a display board, but they can also bring artifacts, clothing, music, and food from their continent or country. Each student will have the opportunity to go from classroom to classroom and experience all of the cultures as they see the presentations prepared by their schoolmates.

Please let me know if you have any concerns or questions.

Cheers!

A Big, Fat Thank You!

Dec20

As we head into the new year, I want to give a big fat thank you to Ms. Lacey, our room mom, for volunteering her time with the students.  She has been such a blessing.

Also, a big thank you to the other parents who have offered their time to make our class strong.

From both Ms. Kari and myself, thank you for all the kind gifts you and your children bestowed upon us. They were all so thoughtful and sweet.

Finally, have a wonderfully relaxing, and peaceful holiday season with your family and loved ones. We will see you all next year.

Cheers.

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This entry was posted on December 20, 2013, in General.