Dear parents,
On Thursday, the 4th graders will be going on their field trip to the American West Heritage Center near Logan. We will be transported by school bus and leaving from the North Shore parking lot at 8.30 am. Please make sure that your child is there by 8.15 so that we can leave promptly. When we are there, the children will undertake a series of different activities that are connected to the exploration and settlement of the area. For example, going to an early school, finding out about the first houses, building a teepee and visiting a trader’s hut. As we will be outside for the majority of the time, please make sure that the children are wearing good shoes, a warm jacket (it can get cold) and for this trip they may wear jeans (Friday dress code). Also, please bring a sack lunch, there are no facilities to heat food where we eat. If you still haven’t returned the permission slips, please do before Wednesday.
Once again, parent teacher conferences begin on October 16th through 18th and run from 1.30 – 6.50 pm. The conference slots are 20 minutes in length and you can book one using the link: https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/dqvad
At school the 6th graders have been working on medieval life, focusing on the differences between the daily life of a peasant and a knight or noble. They then went on to research The Plague, or Black Death, which decimated the population of Europe and led to many changes in society. They have started looking at the physical geography of the US, before moving onto political geography and the Westward Expansion.
The 5th graders have been studying Mesopotamia (an area of land between Iraq and Iran incorporating the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) and how from this area arose the first major civilizations. They have been looking at the gods and goddesses that were worshipped and constructing a ziggurat (a kind of proto-pyramid). Lastly, the daily life and what kind of jobs the people undertook – comparing those that are still familiar to us today, with those that are not (such as cup bearers and viziers compared to bakers and accountants). They then moved onto ancient Egypt, looking into tomb building, the pyramids, gods and goddesses and the cult of the afterlife.
The 4th graders have been studying Utah history, moving from the Native American tribes of Utah, to the first Spanish explorers and then onto the trappers and traders that preceded the pioneers. They have recently started studying global geography and will be moving on to using latitude and longitude with mapping skills.
In language arts we have been working on our Scholastic News Magazines and writing different opinion essays based on information found in the magazines. For example, should children be taught cursive writing in school and should we allow fidget spinners? We are also using Utah Compose, an online writing program, and using it to write essays on tropical rainforests – one of our biome projects for the year.
In math, the 6th graders have been looking at rates and ratios. The 5th graders: decimal place value, and order of operations. The 4th graders have been looking at place value and rounding.
Several of you have emailed me saying that the PDF link for the home project is no longer working. I apologize for this, but unfortunately, it seems to be affecting many of the teachers’ blogs. Hopefully, our IT staff can rectify it ASAP, and please email me if you need a copy.
I hope you all had a great weekend!
Many thanks – John