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