December 17, 2010

WINTER BREAK IS HERE!!!!!

YAY!!!

Let's start off with our picture from this week. It is actually from an activity we did today. Every year I do a Holidays Around the World activity where the kids color and create a globe with picture representations of the different Holidays. As they are coloring, I teach about the many different Holidays: Christmas, Advent, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Saint Nicholas. We also talk about how Christmas is celebrated down in Australia where they don't dream of a white Christmas, they dream of a nice hot summer day. We had a special guest in this year to add to the discussion as to why Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate any. Again, much thanks for that! Below is a picture of one of the students working on her picture:

Just a few announcements to make before I wrap it up for the next few weeks. With the movie day at hand, I was able to get in just about all of the missing assignments to this point in the year. Thank you to the students (and parents whom I'm sure supported them) for getting those in. It'll be nice to be able to start the new year off fresh.

Our class play has finally been scheduled. Please keep your schedules clear for January 13 at 10:00. That will be our one and only performance of "Little Red Riding Hood". Our class is doing the acting, and Mr. Albrecht's will be our choir. It finally looks like it's coming together and will be a great performance! With that in mind, I have talked with the students about what they will need for their costumes. Please do your best to work with them to get in the parts that I need them to bring. Again, I truly appreciate all you do from home to support us here at school!

I wanted to take just one quick second to say thank you for all the gifts that were brought. It touches my heart and really just brings it home to me why I teach. These kids mean everything to me, and these gifts are a great reminder that I really am making a difference for them. Thank you so much!

With that, I will bid you all a happy break! Our class's grades are as updated as they can be online. Take a look at them, and be proud of your students for getting their work caught up before the break!!!

"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love." ~Hamilton Wright Mabie

December 12, 2010

Only one week left until the biggest break of the year! Are we all excited for it?! I realize that Thanksgiving break just happened, but I think we're all in need of Winter break. If nothing else, it will clear our minds (hopefully not literally), and let us begin the new year fresh.

A lot has been happening at the school the last little bit. I think it might be easiest just to give you a quick run of pictures. A few weeks back, the students had a visit from author Frank Cole, who wrote the Hashbrown Winter series. The first picture is during his assembly.

A week or so after that we had a visit from the University of Utah's Tanner Dance clinic. It was a fun assembly because it was their students, ages 5 to 15, performing for our students.

The final picture I have is actually a bit of a collage. With just a few to be made up this week, we have most all of our masks completed. They turned out super cute! Can you find your student's mask?

With that quick run down of the exciting parts of the last few weeks, let's take a quick look at the future. This week, we will have only a couple of math lessons, one on fractions and decimals, and one on finding the percent of a number. The week will conclude with a day of review and then the December benchmark test.

In reading this week they will be doing The Skill of Pericles, which is based on Greek Mythology. This is the last story of the theme which means on top of the story quiz, we will also be taking the Theme 3 test this week.

Science is continuing even further into the heat, light and sound unit. This week they are having a fun activity where they are going to be making tin can phones. Mrs. Dezember has asked that each student bring in one can, like a soup can, for the project. If your student has already, thank you, if not, please send one. If you can't for whatever reason, I know there's at least a few students so far that have brought extras.

Arts and Tech will moving on with the Newscasts.

Social Studies should be wrapping up their unit on Mesopotamia this week.

All in all, the craziness is continuing. With one week left until the break, I hope we can come in, work hard Monday thru Thursday, and then have an enjoyable day, with some fun activities on Friday. This hint should give part of Friday away to the students: They'll want to make sure they have no missing assignments on Friday!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

"What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it." ~Thomas Simmons

November 28, 2010

The year is quickly moving forward as get ready to say goodbye to November and hello to December. Can you believe we're a third of the way through the school year already?! It's crazy to think about how quickly time is flying by.

This past Tuesday, as a part of Mrs. McGuire's Arts and Technology class, with ties to many different cultures within our Social Studies core, we had a plaster mask making day. Our picture this week comes from that:

With the same promise I make to my kids each year, if we can be done and cleaned with enough time, I allow them to make a plaster mask on me. They succeeded in giving us enough time. Mrs. McGuire decided to join me in the excitement this year!

Needless to say, we had a pretty fun day before going out for break!

As we come back in session, we have to be ready to hit the grindstone. This week in math will be a couple of review lessons, with the week ending in our benchmark test!

Reading Class will continure into the nonfiction theme our our book.

Science will continue on into the heat, light and sound unit of term 2.

All in all, we keep moving forward in the curriculum of sixth grade, learning all we have to learn, and trying to have some fun while doing it. Hey, just think, only 3 weeks until winter break!

"One kind word can warm three winter months." ~Japanese Proverb

November 13, 2010

Hey all! This has been one long week! From the sad way it started, to our monologue assembly, to the Veterans Day assembly, there's just been so much going on that it's been hard for me to keep up. First off, and this will be all I mention the subject, our hearts go out to the Nelson family. I couldn't even imagine what they're going through. I just hope they can find the strength from somewhere to get themselves through it.

Our "photo" this week wasn't going to be a photo, but rather, it was going to be a copy of our monologue assembly this past week, but blogspot doesn't seem to want the video to upload. I will, however, have DVD copies of this available. I'll be sending a note home on it, hopefully Monday if I can get it ready, allowing you to purchase a copy. It'd be the DVD, with a nice label, and slim case. All I'm asking is $3 to cover my supplies.

This week at a glance: They've begun the nonfiction theme in reading beginning with Stone Age News. In math we've been dealing a lot with fractions, decimals, percents and ratios and will continue into that next week. I believe we also get into circles this week as well. My big announcement for the week however, will be the parts for our play. Now, I hope the students will understand that not everybody got the part they wanted to get, so I'm sure there will be some disappointments, but I did the best I could to get people what they wanted, while still filling parts with appropriate people. Without further adieu, here is the list for what will be our production of "Little Red Riding Hood":

• Storyteller A1 - Kristin
• Storyteller B1 - Kendyl
• Storyteller A2 - Aubrey
• Storyteller B2 - Kaila
• Mrs. Riding Hood - Anna
• Little Red - Hailey
• Townsperson - Haylee
• Townsperson - Causley
• Townsperson - Brock
• Townsperson - Conner
• Flower - Sarai
• Flower - Kassie
• Flower - Madison
• Flower - Brooke
• Squirrel - Brenda
• Squirrel - Braydon
• Squirrel - Tyler
• Squirrel - Josh
• Wolf - Duncan
• Granny - Sami
• Woodsman - Coty
• Junior Tracker - Mehkai
• Junior Tracker - Jake
• Technical - Payton
• Technical - Jayden
• Technical - Kaden

I still have yet to actually set a date for the performance. Practice time has been so scarce that, unfortunately for the other classes, this will probably be the only 6th grade production of the year. I'm thinking it will probably be January time frame that the production is put on, but like I said, nothing is set in stone yet.

With that, we'll move into the next week, hoping with all we have that it's better than last. This week, it was events completely out of our control that threw the week off. I believe this next week should slow down a little, allowing us to have a good, relaxing, week that's full of learning. That's the goal at least!

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall. ~ Confucius

It seems like so much longer than two weeks since I've last posted, but dates don't lie. It's just been a long couple of weeks with the end of the term and all. Our picture this week is brought to us by an entire term worth of writing. I've been collecting all of the poems we've written this term, and I put them into books seperated by class. That's 135 students represented by 5 poems each. That means there's roughly 675 poems sitting on this table; Quite a feat by these kids!

With it still being the start of the term, there's not a whole lot of new things to report. We took the Theme 2 test in reading. We've moved into our Heat, Light and Sound unit in Science. We haven't made the transition yet in writing. I figured I'd take a bit of a break after poetry before moving into Genres of Literature. Everything else is moving forward at its own pace.

The only other announcement I might make at this point in time is that reports cards will be coming home on Monday. After reviewing them, please sign the envelope and return the envelope to school.

With that, we'll put on a smile, move into the next week, and muscle our way through term 2. I'm hoping that our students will come back next week with a little better behavior than we had this week. I don't know if they were still hopped up on Halloween candy or what, but they were awfully chatty and had troubles calming down to learn. Hopefully, next week, we'll put that smile back on, and come back ready to learn!

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. ~Phyllis Diller

October 22, 2010

Another week gone by and we're having a great time! Lots going on! First off, our pictures for this week are student examples of the two art projects we've done in math recently. The first is a factor tree, which is used to find the prime factorization of a number:

The second is the story of the Frog and the Dog, which helps the students understand dividing with decimals: This week at a glance: In science they took bacteria samples and watched them grow under a microscope. Once that project was complete, they began learning about mushrooms and other types of fungi. Quick note, their Microorganisms end of unit test is next week. They should have a study guide for it at home with them.

The reading story this week was Old Yeller, always a good story.

Arts and Technology can be summed up just by saying Cultural Fair. Their Cultural Fair projects turned out amazing. Also, the informace this week was based around the Cultural Fair. I was happy to see as many of you as I did there. Thanks for your support!

In social studies this week, the students have been reading a book called 20 and 10. It's a book about a school with 20 children in it, 10 of whom are Jewish. They've also been really getting the basics as to what history is through definition, and by thinking about their own history.

Math this week we focused on angles and their measurement and dividing by decimals, and writing and grammar we did our second to last poem, the Shape Poem, and learned about common and proper nouns.

Unless I can find the time otherwise, we also had our final Cancer Awareness lesson today. A huge thanks to Deena Bigger, a cancer survivor, for coming in and sharing her story. I think it did the students a lot of good to hear a first hand account of it.

Last couple of announcements, the end of the first term is this week. Unless other arrangements have been made, the grades online, at least for my parts of the rotations minus spelling (so grammar, writing and math) are complete. I have two more groups to give spelling tests to this week before I can upload the final test and be done with those grades.

I seriously can't believe the first term is already over! Can you?! Where has the time gone....

~ "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." - Grouch Marx

October 14, 2010

It feels like so much has happened in such little time, that I don't know where to start. At the same time, I look at my calendar just to see that the first term ends in just two weeks. In one hand, time seems to not be moving, and the other it's flying by. It's hard to tell which is which. This is part of the inspiration for this week's picture. It's an action shot playing football during P.E. Time is going in just about as many directions as the students are.

Keeping in mind that the term does officially end in two weeks, I'm making a deadline for all missing work. This coming Friday will be the last day I accept any late work. To help encourage the students to get caught up, I am making the class time during my rotation on Monday a period to catch up. Those students with no missing work, will have free time, those with missing work will have the 45 minutes to work on it. I will also be giving them new copies of eveything they are missing, so there will be no excuses. Remember, this all needs to be in by Friday, October 22, 2010.

I wanted to take a minute to bring up the discussion we had in class last Friday. It was the first time I had a minute to really get the students to focus on why I've been wearing pink all month. The "goal" of the discussion was to find out what the students knew about cancer, so we filled out the first level of a KWL chart, which is simply what the students know about a topic. The screen shot of that is pictured below.

There's only six things that actually got listed, but more importantly than that was the discussion we were able to hold. Almost every single student was able to share a story about someone close to them who has fought the fight with cancer. It was so neat for me at the end of the lesson to be able to say, "If you listened, almost every single one of you shared a story today. This is why we need to be more aware. There is not one of our lives that has not been affected by cancer."

I could take some time to list out everything the classes have done in the past week, but I would rather just ask you to watch the gradebook closely. The end of the term is coming quick. As I've said, for my room, they will have a list and copies of all their missing assignments on Monday. You might need to be a little more proactive for the other teachers. Either way, keep a close eye so we can end the term strong. Again, my last day to accept any late work will be Friday, October 22, 2010.

A few other important dates coming up are the Cultural Fair, which is this Monday thru Wednesday, October 18-20. The informance is also this week. For those that were here last year, you have previously experienced an informance. For those that were not, an informance is an informal, informative performance. The students take about a half an hour to forty-five minutes to show you just some of the ways that we've been incorporating the arts into the curriculum. If possible, please show your support by attending. It is Wednesday, October 20, at 8:45 in the morning.

With that, enjoy the long weekend. Have your students rest up and be ready to come back working hard!

~ "I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." ~ Thomas Jefferson

October 3, 2010

First and foremost, I could like to say congratulations to our classroom's very first student of the month, Sami Christensen! She was not only high on my list, but when the students were given a chance to nominate, she was nomitated by several of her peers. She is a fantastic student who always gets her work in on time, and always has model student behavior! Congratulations Sami!!!

In math this week, we finished up the September lessons in our curriculum map. This lead us to a review on Wednesday and a test on Thursday. As a whole, I'm happy with how the class did. Remember though, anyone below 80% has the required assignment of fixing their test. Now, they're not only supposed to go and circle the correct answer, but they either need to show the work for it, or explain why that would be the correct answer. Doing this will earn them half the credit they missed back.

In science this week they have been diving further and further into microorganisms. This week, they specifically looked at the three different kinds of protists: plantlike protists, animal-like protists and fungus-like protists, as well as the the traits that classify into the different categories.

In the reading rotation this week, they did take the Theme 1 test. After that, they read through an exert of Number the Stars. If this is a book they've never read all the way through, believe me, it comes highly recommended. It is a powerful story about the happenings in Denmark during World War II.

In Arts and Technology this week, they began learning how to use the cameras and tripods. They also began discussing their first whole-class newscast. Our class has decided to do a newscast on Halloween Safety. Whether we trick-or-treat or not, this is a high traffic night, and it never hurts anybody to learn how to be safe during it.

In social studies this week, they have continued learning about the different types of maps. This week focused specifically on time zone maps and precipitation maps.

Finally, in grammar and writing this week, we learned how to write Haikus. We also learned about complex sentences and how they are the combination of a dependent and an independent clause.

Now, this month is a big month in my household. For the entire month, the students will see their teacher wearing either a pink tie or a pink shirt. That's right, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Did you know that about 190,000 women a year are diagnosed with breast cancer and around 40,000 a year die from it? Kids are never too young to start being aware. With that, I am planning a few activities this month based around it. One thing I would like to do, but I will need parent help with, is finish the unit with a visit from a survivor. I know a few survivors, but am not certain they would have time to come in. Also, I think it would be a lot more powerful if it came from a family member of one of our students. I will be sending out an e-mail asking this same thing, but if you happen to know anybody who is a cancer survivor and would be willing to come in and age appropriately share their experience, please contact me. I think it would have a powerful affect on the students.

If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or fight like (no other). ~Lance Armstrong

September 6-10

I remember where I was September 11, 2001, and I'm sure all of you parents do, too. It's strange to me that I'm teaching something in school, that I've lived through, that's considered history. Give it two more years and I'll be teaching kids that weren't even alive when it happened, but it won't make it any less real to them. I have decided that 9/11 is a good time of year to really teach the students the difference between a celebrity and a hero. The students have learned the definition of hero to be a man or woman of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his or her brave deeds and noble qualities.

Day 1 of the unit we talked about different heroes and the deeds they have done. On day 2, we discussed the different heroic things the students might do in their time. On day 3, 9/10, the closest I could get with 9/11 being on Saturday, I had the chief of the Syracuse Fire Department and one of his men come in and visit with the students. Hearing the firemen talk about how many of their fellow brothers they lost on that day really brought home the lesson better than I ever could. It also gave the kids a chance to honor some of our hometown heroes. The picture below is our class with the two firemen.

Well, with week 3 down, I think there are finally enough grades loaded into the computer to make it worth while to give out the user names and passwords for our online gradebook. Keep your eyes on your e-mail, I should be sending those out sometime this week. Another thing I meant to do on Friday, but will do on Monday, is send home missing assignments sheets. What I've told the students is that assignments will only make it to a missing assignment list once. So if it was on this week's list, when I print them again in about two weeks, if the assignments were not turned in, they will be entered into the computer as a zero. I will still accept the assignments past that, but I am not going to spend the entire term chasing after assignments from the start of the term, so after the first list, it is up to the students to get missing assignments in.

Other than that, things should be as usual this week. We will finally begin the spelling program. With the rotations, it took me a while to get everything ready for 135 students, but, thanks to the help of several parent volunteers, it's finally done. If things go as planned, our class should also be starting the first sixth grade play of the year this week. Everything else, reading, science, social studies, should be steady as we go!

"Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family who lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children." -President George W. Bush

Mrs. Lawrence vs. Mr. Pratt

By Cathy Taylor

Part 1

Mrs. Lawrence welcomed the very first day of SAA.
When out jumped Mr. Pratt and said, “Introduce myself, if I may?”
Mrs. Lawrence took a shook of her head,
When a student broke his pencil led.
When Mr. Pratt jumped all about,
Mrs. Lawrence started to shout.
When Mr. Pratt left the room,
Mrs. Lawrence knew she was doomed.
Then she shouted out, “No test on Friday! We must protest!”
With Mrs. Lawrence and her trick,
She laughed and took a sip of her Dr. Pepper.

Part 2

On Friday the students had no test
Because today they had to protest.
The students made protest signs
While Mrs. Lawrence knew they had creative minds.
Once they were all done,
Mrs. Lawrence knew she had won.
When they went up the stairs,
It was as still as air.
When what trembled before Mr. Pratt’s eyes,
In his sight was only protest signs.
Mrs. Lawrence at once came,
To see Mr. Pratt’s shame.
The only thing Mr. Pratt thought was funny,
Was the shoutings of no more impersonating bunnies.
Once the students had gone,
Mr. Pratt told Mrs. Lawrence,
“It’s on!”

Part 3

While the students were all about,
Mr. Pratt snuck in like a scout.
Mrs. Lawrence came in to see,
A letter signed by Mr. P.
As Mrs. Lawrence starts to read,
The children came in like a stampede.
All children start to hear,
Mrs. Lawrence and her class scream loud and clear.
Mrs. Lawrence starts to think up tricks
While pulling on her froggy sticks.
Mrs. Lawrence and her class start to think,
How to get Mr. Pratt and his magazine link.
Someday we will get revenge,
To Mr. Pratt’s feeding cookie binge.

This poem was actually written by a student from Mrs. Lawrence's 5th grade class, but it pertains to our class as well so I figured I'd share it. It sums up the "extra-curricular" activites we've been doing in class the first couple of weeks. The upper picture is of the crew that kidnapped Mrs. Lawrence's chair and the ransom note we collaged to leave behind.

I'm a firm believer that if we as teachers can make the kids enjoy coming to school, they will be more receptive when it comes to teaching the core curriculum. So we do learn everything we need to, but we have fun also!

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing. - Dale Carnegie

August 18-27

The school year has started with a bang! All of my students this year are so cute! I know I've said this to some of you before, but it deserves some reiteration: your students pretty much make me wish sixth grade didn't rotate, so I could keep them the whole day long. They are such great kids!

I was told I was brave for doing it, but during the first week, our class did a watercolor art project which I then segued into a character lesson on perspective. A lot of our character lessons this year are going to focus on the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. This is the book the junior high is basing a lot of their activities around as well, so when we were asked if we wanted to participate with it, we jumped on board. One of the first chapters of the book focuses on Paradigms and the different ways you might perceive people, and the world, which might not be true. In the end. we discovered that being principle centered is the way to be: honest, service, love, hard work, respect, integrity, etc. It was the first time I had taught the lesson the way I did, and I feel it worked extremely well. Our picture for this week's blog comes from that lesson as the students were walking through the line, looking at all of the different watercolor pictures, which all derived from the same 4x6 photo and view finder:

The upcoming week is going to be moving forward at full steam. Math will move on into order of operations, expanded and scientific notations, and properties of equations. We will also get our first glimpse into variables and expressions. During their reading rotation, they will be reading about Yang the Eldest and His Odd Jobs. Science should be moving forward into microorganisms and social studies should continue on with map skills, possible moving into their first of the early civilizations.

I want to take a minute to give some praise to the parents this year. I sent out a e-mail earlier this week just kind of prodding to see what volunteers I might have this year. Let me tell you what! I was bombarded with your willingness! I have never had such an outpour of support. For those that said they would want to correct from home, I will send things home as often as I can, from math papers to spelling tests, etc. For those that wanted to come in, I should be sending out an e-mail today with a schedule. I believe I've actually talked to all of you about your time but if what I have you for does not work, let me know. Again, thanks so much for your support! It might take me a while to get used to having this many parents volunteering, but I will do my best!!!

With that, I will conclude for the week! Your students are fantastic and I am looking forward to a wonderful year with them!

- Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. ~ Robert Collier

WECOME TO SIXTH GRADE!

Hello Parents!

It's that time of year again! Time to fly our Dragons into the 2010-2011 school year. I would like to start by welcoming us all together for what I hope will be one of your student's greatest years yet! Yes, welcome to the sixth grade. My name is Aaron Pratt and I will be your child's teacher, mentor, and confidante thoughout this next year.

I am excited to be here at the Syracuse Arts Academy for my second year now. I am more than proud to deliver what SAA has written as their charter. In my opinion, to teach the core through the arts is not doing anything special, it is just good teaching. It helps to get all corners of the child's mind into what is being learned.

I plan on being available to you and your student as much as possible. I am usually available at least an hour before and after school if either of you have questions. I am also available by e-mail or phone. My e-mail address is apratt@syracuseartsacademy.org and of course the school number is (801)779-2066. If I am unavailable to answer, please leave me a message as to what your call was regarding. I will return your calls and e-mails within 24 hours.

If you have any questions throughout the school year, please feel free to contact me. Also, keep an eye on this blog. I will be updating at least a couple times a month.

I am looking forward to us having a wondeful year together!

With warm regards,

Aaron Pratt

Goodbye!

I suppose this will be the last post I write for this year's students. I cannot explain the mixed amount of emotions I felt the last day of school. It was very bittersweet. I was glad the end of the year was here and summer break was upon us, but at the same time, I'm not going to teach this group anymore. They were fantastic. Parents were fantastic. This year was nothing short of fantastic!!!

I cried a few tears. In fact, I had a student deliver me a box of tissues, which was little exaggerated, but nonetheless, it was such a thoughtless gesture, it showed the true meaning of why it will be so hard to let this group of kids go! We've laughed, cried, smiled, cheered, sweat, thought, fought, and played together. For those 9 months we were a family and I wish the very best to each and every one of my children! I know you all have the potential to do great things in life, I just hope that once you're rich and famous that you don't forget us little people who helped you get there!

Cheers! To the best things in life: live, push and fight for them, because they really are what make life worth living! Good luck to all of you!!!

May 15, 2010

Only 12 school days left... not that anyone's counting. Things are wrapping up pretty quick. Faster than I can really keep up with. Our pictures for this week will be two different things. The first is of some of students and their puppets that we've worked so diligently at for the last weeks. They've written puppet plays and created the puppets for those.

The other is what is hopefully going to become the book cover for a book that each of our students will write a part of and each of them will get to take a copy of home. "525,600, 2009-10". The question asked of them, there are 525,600 minutes in a year, what was your favorite of those this school year? There is so much coming up, I'm just going to make a list in hopes that I get it all on here:

May 18-19 - Puppet Shows (Performed throughout the day, just how up to see them)

May 21 - Term 4 Reading Miunutes End

May 21 - DARE Lagoon Day (Student's are encouraged to be at school, it will be counted as an absense if they choose to go to Lagoon instead)

May 25 - Theseus and the Minotaur (In case any of Mrs. Dezember or Mrs. Johnson's parents check this)

May 27 - Field Day (The school is still in need of volunteers if you need hours)

May 27 - Sixth Grade Graduation, 7pm

May 28 - Sixth Grade Boondocks Field Trip

June 2 - Talent Show

June 2 - Last Day of School

As I said, there's a lot coming up. I probably missed something, but that's a good chunk of it. I have pretty much finished collecting things that are actually going to be on grades. Student have until Friday to get missing assignments turned in. I will be giving them a list as well as progress reports on Monday, so keep an eye out for those Monday evening.

All in all, I think that sums it up. Time is moving so fast, and I really am going to miss each and every one of these students!!!

"Time goes by so fast, people go in and out of your life. You must never miss the opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you."

May 10, 2010

I realize it's been some time since I've written here and I must apologize. It's been an insanely busy month. Here's a couple of our highlights though: Earlier in the year, we wrote a letter to our President of the Unites States. Two weeks ago, we got a reply letter from him that included the letter, a picture of him, and a picture of his dog, Bo. It was pretty exciting.

We also had several from our class participate in the school play, 101 Dalmations!

We've made our way through almost all of our End-of-Level Testing. We'll be taking our last CRT this afternoon. We have a couple of graded tests to take this week as well. The L.A. Theme 6 test as well as the L.A. 4th Quarter Test. Also, a 4th Quarter Math test. After this week however, all of our testing for grades will be finished!

We finished our last story from our reading books last week and turned in the books, so this week will begin something a little different for reading. I have gotten my hands on a class set of the book Tuck Everlasting. We will be reading through it in little Book Clubs (groups of 5). There will be a packet to fill out as they go. Once we've read the book and quizzed on it, we might take a bit of class time and watch the movie as well.

After we test in Math, I think I'm going to just give them some different Math lessons that they might see next year. There will be assignments, but they won't be so heavily graded on how well they do on the concept as if they attempted it or not.

We have also been working heavily on the puppets we are going to be showing in our Informance. That will be coming up the 20th at 2:30 here in the auditorium. All parents are invited to come. It shuld be a fun time.

There is also a ton of things coming up, which information has gone home for already. The 6th Grade Graduation is on Thursday May 27th at 7 pm. Our sixth grade end of year field trip will be on Friday, May 28th. Permission slips should be home and returned ASAP. There were two different forms to fill out for it. I know DARE Lagoon day is coming up soon but they have yet to give us final information on it.

All in all, the end of the year is coming up SUPER quick! Only 17 school days left! (Not that anyone is counting.) I should hopefully be able to find the time to write on a semi-weekly basis again after this one. I'm sorry it has taken this long. At any rate, I'm just happy to still be trucking along with everything that has been going on! You're students are great and I really am going to be sad to see each and every one of them go. I'm not a crying man, but the end of the year could bring a few tears...

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!!!

"In the end, it's not nexessarily the time you've put in, but what you've put into the time."

March 29 - April 2

WELCOME TO SPRING BREAK!

That's about all I've got to say! We'll see you all when we resume on April 12!

"A vacation is having nothing to do and having all day to do it in." - Robert Orben

March 15-26

It's been two weeks time since my last post and things have seemed a little rushed and busy, as always. It has a lot to with the end of the term on the crest. This coming Monday, March 29, is the end of the third term. I sent home missing assignment sheets with the students. Unless they turn in more work, their final grades are posted online at https://www.classactiongradebook.com/members/login.aspx If you need your login information, feel free to e-mail me. I'm taking our picture for the blog this week from our trip to Hale Center Theatre. I think the tour of the theatre was a real neat experience for the kids, especially those who are really interested in the acting field. It gave them a lot of insights into theater that they might not have had otherwise.

As I've already mentioned, the end of the term is here. Monday is the last day to turn in any work. We continue forward in our newest language arts theme with the story "Dive! My Adventures in the Deep Frontier."

Math is going to be a little bit different from here on out. Throughout the year, so far, we've been following a curriculum map which has lead us through the entire sixth grade curriculum. The entire month of April is going to be strictly review. We are going to start the month off with a practice end-of-level. I'm going to make them take it exactly as it would be during the end of level testing where they cannot ask me any questions whatsoever. With the results of that test, I am going to review the topics that they seem to need the most. After we've reviewed what that test said we needed, we'll take another, and so on until testing time is here. We are also going to be practicing taking the tests with the computer to get them used to that. All of their end-of-level testing is done on computer, so it's another skill they're going to need to establish.

Science is going to be similar to Math after this week. This week however, we're going to wrap up our solar system unit. We're going to be discussing how to navigate with the North Star. Then we review and test!

Spring Break is just one week away, and I think it's definitely time for a bit of a break for all of us, the students and myself included! Third term can get a bit long because there's no real break in it besides the weekends, so the week of Spring break will certainly be good for us all!

"Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'" ~Robin Williams

March 8 - 12

Science Fair is done and gone! I'd like to congratulate the students. Their projects looked fantastic! They all did well enough that anyone that had their project in on time, got full credit on the board. I was so pleased by the turn out. Thanks for the support you gave at home on this project!

Also, thanks to Eric Allen for supplying us with the project that will be our picture of the week.

The kids had fun creating these rockets and then going out to the field to set them off. It was a good time that would never have happened without his stepping in, so thanks again!

That project also gave me my picture that is my entry into the school's fine arts contest, but I can't show it to you. It's a seeeeecret! :) This year's theme is The Power of One. Entries can still be turned in, it's not too late! They're looking for entries from either students or families in the categories of photography and musical composition. The winners will be announced at the Night of the Dragon Art Gala. More information on it can be found on the school's website.

We have a few things up and coming this week. Term 3 book reports are due starting Monday. The kids have had their assigned dates for over a month now, so even with the treachary of the science fair, I hope we can work our way into some great book reports! Also, Wednesday this week, we will going to Hale Center Theater in Salt Lake for a tour of their building and insights into how a theater actually runs! I think it's going to be a great experience for the kids. We could still use some volunteers, so if you're willing and able, let me know. It's going to be Wednesday, March 17. We'll leave about 9:00 in the morning, and be back by about 1 in the afternoon.

I would say that other than that the week will be pretty normal, but I suppose all of these things keep it from being that. So, let's have yet another fantastically irregular week and we continue to give our all, all the way to the end! And in this instance, I refer to the end of the third term, March 29.

"I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end." -Larry Bird

March 1 - 5

We had a little bit of the insane sanity again this week, but not near as busy as last week. The only day that truly felt like a circus was Thursday because we spent the day working on our D.A.R.E. box, so sending people out on that amidst trying to do our everyday learning made it a bit three-ringed. The box turned out fantastic though! We started planning on Tuesday. The kids all designed an idea, and then we voted through them as a class to come up with a gigantic donut. Mmm...mmm.... It looks great! And what better than to bribe our DARE officer with than a huuuge "power ring" as he would call it. I decided to take advantage of the nice weather we've had this week. For one of our science lessons, we went outside to the field and created a human solar system. The planets were approximately in scale with each other, and their distances apart were the same. As hard as millions of miles are to conceive, I think this lesson might have put it a little more to scale. Coming up this week, we have one our parents coming in to build rockets with the kids. Weather permitting, we will build the rockets on Monday, paint them on Tuesday or Wednesday, and then take them to field on Thursday to launch them.

Our story this week is Anne of Green Gables. It's the story of a family who wanted to adopt a young boy, and mistakenly were sent a girl instead, and the struggles that came with them trying to grow as a family.

The students are going to be just heartbroken to find out that out math lessons are cut short this week to make some extra tim for the rocket building. We will still however be continuing into our lessons on fractions, including solving equations with fractions. We will then end the week with multiplying and dividing both positive and negative integers.

The BIG excitement for this week, however, is the Science Fair. 5th Grade judging is Tuesday, 6th grade judging is Wednesday, and 7th and 8th grade judging is Thursday. This means that our completed projects have to be here on Tuesday. They've been working on them a better part of the term so far, so I'm excited to see how well they're going to turn out. Being my first science fair, I'm sure these kids are just going to blow my expectations out of the water. They're a great bunch!

"People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them." from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

February 22 - 26

This has been one, busy, busy, crazy, crazy week. Let me give you the run down through a barrage of photos:

On Tuesday we had Jazz player Kosta Koufos visit our school for being one of the top 10 schools in the reading contest.
On Wednesday, Clark Planetarium brought their Astro Van to our school to give the sixth graders some extra insight into the solar system.
Also on Wednesday, we had POEC President Cameron Almond introduce the Fine Arts Contest to us.
And on Thursday, we had a visit from Author Mike Knudson ....
.... and professional story teller Donald Davis.

As I said, it was one busy week. There never seems to be a dull moment, which is good, but also keeps us a bit on edge. Hopefully, this weeks things slow down a little and bring us a bit of normality.

I will be sending home Progress Reports on Monday. Attached to these will be a few things. First off, I am going to be changing my late work policy. It will be outlined in an attached note, but basically, every either Monday or Tuesday I will give the kids a list of their missing assignments. Assignments will only reach this list once before I will enter them as a zero into the gradebook. Credit will still be possible, but it's will be the student's responsibility to get the work in, rather than my houdning them week after week for the assignments. I am doing this mostly because I feel as if I'm doing them a bit of a disservice by not better preparing them for how things will be in school years to come. The last few months will be a little closer to the stricter standards they will be held to in future years. Also attached to the progress reports will be this weeks missing assignment list, if your student has any, as well as copies of the worksheets for them to make it up.

Other than that, I'm hoping this week will be a little more normal. I've been hoping that for weeks now, so maybe I should redefine normal in my dictionary. Anyway, we will be reading a story this week called Out of the Darkness. It is the story of Louis Braille, the inventor of the Braille alphabet for the blind.

Math this week we will be reviewing adding and subtracting integers, fractions and mixed numbers. We've only got one month of teaching left for math before we begin reviewing the entire year and prepping them for end of levels.

Science this week we will be creating a human solar system, learning about comets, asteroids and meteors, and also touching on technologies used on the ground and in space to study the solar system.

Also, please remember the basket our class is building for the Art Gala. I've only gotten a few donations in, so please, if you can add to our cause. You have until March 10 to send any Twilight themed items in with your student.

Considering I talked a bit about normality, I figured I'd end with a quote on the same:

"For me, insanity is super sanity. The normal is psychotic. Normal means lack of imagination, lack of creativity." - Jean Dubuffet

February 8 - 19

D.A.R.E - Drug Abuse Resistance Education!



Our kiddos started it this week. They've gotten their dose of Officer Penrod, and I'm not sure they can get enough. They found him hilarious. He captured their attention this week and got them excited for the 13 weeks or so with him. Our picture this week is of him teaching the group. While we're on the subject of DARE, your student should have brought home a permission slip for them to be in the class. Those need to be back by Friday for them to be able to participate. If by chance they lost the actual form, you can just write them a note saying they are allowed to participate in the program.

Believe it or not we're getting pretty close to being halfway through term 3 already. The term ends the end of March. Time seems to just be flying by! Things are going really well though. This week is going to be a busy week for us. The Jazz/Usborne reading contest is over and we were one of the top 10 schools in the competition. This mean Tuesday we will be having an assembly starring one of the Jazz players. On Wednesday, we have Clark Planetarium bringing a field trip to us. We will have an assembly with them and then they will dedicate about 50 minutes to each 6th grade class. It should be a pretty good presentation. Then coming on Thursday we have a visiting Author and a visiting storyteller. It's going to be a fun week!

On top of all the fun though, we will still be following our standard procedures. Our story this week will be My Name is San Ho. In Math we will be working a bit with graphs, and then reviewing for our February Benchmark test. Science will be reinforced by the Planetarium's visit, but we will still also be diving into our exploration of the planets.

A note has gone this week telling you parents about the Art Gala. It's a fundraiser the school does each year where each class participates by donating an item. This year, the items they have asked the classes to donate are gift baskets. The theme for our gift basket is going to be Twilight. We are asking that each family help by donating something to our basket. We already have the baskets, so we are looking for just different Twilight collectibles and memorabelia. If you would like to purchase the books or movies, please talk with me first to be sure that someone has not already purchased it, so we won't have duplicates.

Thanks for your support in building our class basket. In fact, thanks for your support in everything!

"The beautiful thing about being human... things change." Edward Cullen, Twilight

January 25 - February 4

I feels like it's been longer than it has since I last posted, but it's been a long couple of weeks with the end of the term and conferences and all. In fact, I put in the picture this week because, as candid as it may be, it describes about how I feel.

The end of the term is past, and we are breaking fresh into the new term. I can see the year is starting to wear on the kids as it seems to be a rough start around on missing assignments. Please have a talk with your students just to make sure they realize the importance of keeping up on assignments and staying strong throughout the entire year. Just a reminder, you can keep watch at home from https://www.classactiongradebook.com/members/login.aspx. Feel free to e-mail or call me if you need your username and password for the online gradebook again.

Science Fair is in full swing. By this point in time, the kids should have their question posed and be just about to begin the researching, experimenting, and observing. The science fair will be worth about half our science grade this term, so please make sure that your student is keeping up on the work. With the questions I have seen, it looks like there are a lot of creative ideas out there this year. It's going to be fun to see the results.

We have a fairly normal week this week. Our story is called "Catching the Fire". It's a story about a blacksmith and his adventures. We'll be finishing up our pop-up book by either writing a story or a series of poems for them. We continue on into our unit on the solar system. And in math, we continue learning how to manipulate integers, and then move onto equations and the patterns they make.

I'll try to keep up on here a little better now that things are back a little closer to normal. I believe that's all we've got for this week though.

"The difference between school and life? In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.” - Tom Bodett

January 11 - 22

So the Jazz/Usborne reading contest is among us! You should have received a note on this. There are several in-class rewards offered as well as schoolwide rewards. It's time to read, read, read! On Friday, the school offered a PJs, Pillows, and Pancake reading party to help students get excited about the contest. Below is a picture of a few of our many students that attended the after school party. It was a lot of fun!

This week also marked the end of the second term. I am working on and almost finished with grades. A few parents should be expecting a phone call early this week to get the at-home reading minutes for the term. I am still missing several of the calendars, so to finish report cards, I plan on just calling home and speaking with a parent. The reports will given out at Parent Teacher Conferences, which are February 3 and 4. A conference schedule has gone home. If you did not get your copy of it, or need to work out a different time, feel free to contact me.

This coming week is going to be about as normal as weeks get, except for one fairly intensive activity I have planned. Our story is going to be, "Girls Think of Everything". This is a story that takes the kids through several inventions that were invented by women. We finished our Heat, Light and Sound unit in Science. This week we will be starting into the Space portion of our Science Core which will take a good part of the rest of the year. After we finish this unit, we will be done learning new material and will begin reviewing for the end of level. Science Fair also begins this week so be looking for a packet with a parent letter in it coming home on Tuesday.

I'm sure most of you know about the Earthquake in Haiti and the efforts that are going on to help aid the Haitian people. I'm going to be taking a few of my language arts periods this week on this subject. The first one, we're going to introduce the Geography and Science of it, so that I know the kids know where Haiti is in the world as well as how earthquakes happen. After that I plan on showing them some images of what Haiti used to look like compared to what devastation this earthquake has done. On the second day, I am going to show a Haiti Tribute video, only about 5 minutes long, to get their minds moving, and then I'm going to ask them to write a poem. They will have two choices: 1.) Write a poem expressing their feelings as if they were one of these Haitian children, or 2.) To write a poem around the theme Sending Hope to Haiti. We have a really talented and emotional bunch when they want to be. I'm excited to see what they will produce on the topic. At any rate, it has the potential to be a fairly emotional lesson, so if the kids come wanting to talk, that is why.

With that, I'd just like to say my prayers and thoughts go out to the Haitian community. It's times like these that the world really needs to ban together to help out their fellow man. I have done my part in donating, and whether it be time, money, or just passing along the message, I encourage you all to do the same.

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal." ~Albert Pike

Welcome Back!! (January 4-8)

Well, we made it through out first week back from the biggest break of the school year. I don't know if it was the same for the students, but that 6 o'clock alarm clock was hard to get used to. It was a very refreshing week though. I'm certainly glad to be back into it. We certainly got a lot accomploished. From multiplying with fractions to learning the basics of sound.

The biggest weight lifted off my shoulders will also be our picture of the week. It was certainly a lesson I got to be taught by my first class. I had decided, considering the Solar System becomes big in our science studies third and fourth terms, and we're learning area and diameter of circles in math, I wanted to combine the two and make mobiles that contained the planets in order with their radius, diameter, circumference and area of their circle. I slated 2 hours for this project before the holiday break thinking we could more than finish it in that time. After another hour before the break and three more hours this week, we've finally completed them. A total of six hours on project I originally hoped to finish in two and they turned out fantastic and are currently hanging above our desks in the room! Here is an example of one of or students' work:
There's one other picture I'd like to include this week just because it shows the class in action. One of the ways I informally assess the students is through whiteboard participation. Every kid has a whiteboard that they do the work and write their answer on, and then all hold it up. This shows me that each student is participating. It also shows me how well all the students are understanding the content. Here is our class in action:
As for the coming week, the students have quite a bit of studying to look forward to. At the end of the week, we will be taking our term two assessment in Math. We will also be finishing up our unit on sound and then reviewing the term: heat, light, and sound, which we will test on the following week. Language arts this week will be normal. Our story this week is called "Fall Secrets". Keep in mind though, that our term 2 assessment for language will be the following week as well.

With all these tests coming up, I guess I'll send out the reminder as well that term two will be ending on January 21. Current progress reports were sent home to be signed on Monday, so if you didn't see it, talk to your student. :) Book orders were also sent home this week. They will be due back by January 15 if you wish to order anything. My final reminder is that book reports are this week. Your student should have their assigned date. There will be five presented a day.

And with that, I will bid my adieu for this week. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!!

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.” -Edith Lovejoy Pierce