October 12 - 23

It's been a pretty crazy busy couple of weeks here at the SAA and I don't think it's going to settle down until after the term ends this coming week. Hopefully, the craziness ends than at least. Just because it's crazy, doesn't mean it hasn't been good or fun, though. Our picture for the week (or two weeks, I guess), is of Stanley, or Staci, or Shirley, etc. We finished Flat Stanley in a matter of two read alouds. With that, we created our own Stanley's. I took them over the weekend, last weekend, down to the south side of the Great Salt Lake by the Great Saltaire. Below is the picture I took with them there.

Accompanied by a note written from each of the students to my friend, the Stanleys are currently in route to Australia, where she will snap some photos of our Stanleys, write us a note, and send it all back so the Stanleys can continue on their journey.

There is a lot of up and coming news. Firstly, with the end of the term coming Wednesday, first term reading minutes ended over the weekend. The tracking calendars are due Monday.

We have a pretty good sized project coming up this Thursday that we could use some volunteers for. I will be sending a note home with more details Monday, so keep an eye out for it, but in short, as a sixth grade, we are going to be making plaster masks. As I said, more details will come home Monday night, but we could use some volunteers if you're looking for hours.

Our class play is coming along great. I get more excited for it as we go! The actual performance will be during school on Thursday, November 5th at 2:30. Parents are invited, so feel free to come and support your children. They've worked hard and I think it will be great performance. Please be ready to help your child come up with the correct color of clothing for their costumes. We will be discussing exactly what we will be doing this week. They should be able to tell you by Tuesday what they might need, if it's not creatable here in class.

On a final note, we have been having problems in the Junior High half of the school (5-8 grades) with kids adhering to the uniform policy. I know I have been pretty relaxed on it, but as a whole, the school is wanting us to crack down, so please make sure your child is in proper uniform when they leave home. If you need to review it, the dress code policy is addressed on the school's website. (http://www.syracuseartsacademy.org/Dress_Code.html) Students out of dress code will have a friendly reminder sent home with them at the end of the day that you the parent must sign so we know that we are all on the same page.

As a whole, besides being busy, busy, busy - the class and I are learning and growing side by side. With each day, we all get a little older and a little wiser, as it should be for the rest of our lives!

"I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday." - Abraham Lincoln

October 5 - 8

Term 1 Parent Teacher Conferences are behind us and I feel pretty good having now met the parents of all of my students. These conferences were really good for all of us, helping us get parents, teacher and students all onto the same page. The conferences went really well and I feel that we are now readier than ever to finish out the last month of the first term.

This last week at a glance might seem pretty dry after how exciting it started out. One of the parents of one of our classmates is a Yoga Instructor and has agreed to come in once a month during our P.E. time to teach the class. Below is a picture of the class in action.

I was really unsure exactly how the class would take to doing Yoga, but I was pleasantly surprised with the overwhelmingly positive response from them. Having come so accepted, we are going to continue our once a month schedule.

With the conferences done, and some extra time in the classroom without the kids on Friday, I feel like I'm all caught up. I have grades all up to date except for a few papers I have out with parents to be corrected. (Which by the way, thank you for all the support.) This coming week we will be spending a bit of time making sure that all of the students have their work in. My goal is to hopefully have a class without any missing asaignments by Friday. This will, however, depend on how well the students work with me, so let's hope for the best!

This previous week, we dipped into a different culture reading a passage out of our Basal Reader from Number the Stars. This week we will be reading an exerpt from Summer of the Swans. They are both great pieces of literature. In math this week, we will be focusing on geometric relations as we look into area and perimeter and how the two relate with each other.

After two short weeks on the same list, we tested our spelling words Thursday. We will be starting a new list on Monday and considering it's a full week, we will testing them on Friday.

With that, we just need to keep in the forefront of our minds that the end of the term is only two and a half weeks away. That's plenty of time to get caught up what we need, but it's also plenty of time to let things slip. I'll do my best in class to make sure things are kept on top of. So long as the students do their part, we can finish the term strong!

"Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best." - Bob Talbert

September 28 - 30

This having been such a short week, there's not a whole lot to update on. We took our September Benchmark tests for Language Arts and Math on Tuesday and Wednesday. With the results of those in, I will be sending home progress reports on Monday, which I will expect the students have you parents sign and then return on Tuesday. This will alleviate any surprises for Parent Teacher Conferences, which are this week as well. I've sent home a notice on that already. Your time will also be printed on the bottom of the progress report. If you have any problems with his time, please contact me and I'll see what else we can arrange. With that, I think I'll bid adieu for this week. With another short week ahead of us, another post is not too far away!

"Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them."

September 21 - 25

Yet another exciting week down! Our in-class schedule got rearranged a bit this week because of some visitors we had to our school. Missoula Children's Theatre came on Monday. On the day they arrived, they held auditions for the show they were going to produce, The Princess and the Pea. And then over the course of the week, students who were accepted into the show left school a half an hour early and practiced until 7:30 at night for the performances they put on Friday and Saturday night. I've been doing theatre most of my life, and I tell you what, I was very pleasantly suprised at how delightful an evening I had coming to see the four of our students who were in the show. From Leperchauns, to dust bunnies, it was nothing like I thought it would be and far better than I would have expected for a production that went from audition to production in 5 days. Below is a picture of the four from our class that were part of the production.

Just a few reminders from this week. Book orders are due by Wednesday if you're wanting to get anything, I will be placing the order Wednesday after school. I sent home this week a note with my Parent Teacher Conference schedule on it. These are not until Wednesday and Thursday of next week (October 7 and 8). If you are unable to attend the time I have put you in, please contact me and we'll figure out a time that will work for the both of us. If the schedule happened to not make it home, also contact me and I can get you a copy of it.

I also did not realize until this week that our book reports were scheduled during the same week as Mrs. McGuire is doing the Culture fair with our kids. In an effort to alleviate a bit of pressure that week, I gave the kids the option to move it up to the week before (October 5-8). I have sent home a note that has a rubric for the Share-A-Books on it as well as your student's assigned date.

We have a short week coming up this week with Fall break giving us Thursday and Friday off. Being the end of the month, we have our September Benchmark tests we will be taking this week for Language Arts and Math. We will be using one day to review, one day to test and the other to grade. During the rest of the time in the mornings, we will be doing a Creature Feature, which is a fun little project where they will get to draw a creature and then write a descriptive enough paragraph that someone else could draw it off of just the description. The ultimate test will be when we give the descriptions to another class to see how well their drawings look like what they're supposed to look like.

In drama this previous week, we have begun reading through our script which will be the final project of the term. The script is for a short musical called The Turkeys Go On Srike. This coming week we will working on learning the rest of the songs for it. Hopefully by next week, I will have decided upon and assigned parts. Lastly, in science this week, we will be diving further into the Kingdom of Protists as we learn about animal-like Protists.

"Creativity is first of all an act of destruction." ~Picasso

September 14 - 18

I want to begin this week's messages by giving Kudos to all of your children. We watched Bridge to Terabithia on Friday and used it to transition into a discussion on death. The discussion followed a script I had written (which I'd be more than willing to provide you a copy of if interested). We touched bases on several different ideas. First off I explained to them why I felt it was important for us to hold this discussion. I told them about my father passing away during my student teaching and how, when the students asked questions, I really didn't know how to answer them because I had no idea what their parents or teacher had taught them about death. From there the discussion focused on feelings. In the book, and movie, Jess' best friend dies while he is out at an art exhibit with his teacher.

I posed two retorical questions: How would you feel if this happened to you? How should you feel if this happened to you? The second question wasn't meant to invalidate any feelings they might have been considering, but because, in the book, Jess felt guilty. He thought it was his fault that Leslie ended up going to Terabithia alone and if he'd have been there, the rope wouldn't have broken and she wouldn't have died. With that, we talked about the guilty feeling, and how death is just as inescapeable as life, and it's never our fault if someone else passes on. I explained to them that there are a whole array of feelings that would be appropriate to feel in this situation, but guilt is not one of them.

I then handed them a paper with a few questions on it: How would you feel? How would you react? How would you want to be treated? Etc. After they filled them out, I asked for volunteer to share some of their answers and we used their answers for some more topics of discussion. Our discussions led perfectly into the poem that I ended the lesson with:

“You can shed tears that she is gone,

or you can smile because she has lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back,

or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.

Your heart can be empty because you can't see her,

or you can be full of the love you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,

or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her only that she is gone,

or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind,

be empty and turn your back.

Or you can do what she'd want:

smile, open your eyes, love and go on.”

- David Harkins

With this poem and the idea of it in mind, I had them end with writing a paragraph on why Jess' life was different now, not because she had passed, but because he had the opportunity of having her as a friend. It ended up being a far more powerful lesson than I could have ever asked for.

Our picture for this week comes from our class performance of "Don Gato" during our Drama period.

A few notes for parents: We started our box top collecting this week. The class that collects the most box tops, gets a soccer ball for their classroom. I also sent home book orders on Friday. Book orders can be done online now, or you can send in a paper copy and I will send them in online. If you do the ordering online from home, each order to come in online earns a free book for our classroom. Book orders are due by September 30. I am going to be getting the list of books the students are planning on using for their book reports on Monday. I will also assign them their exact date on Monday. I will make sure they write these in their planner, and then I will also give plenty or reminders. Again, the week for book reports is going to be October 12-16.

There's not a whole lot out of the norm coming up this week. We will be getting new spelling lists on Monday. Being a full week again, we will test them on Friday, so be sure they are practicing at home as well as at school. Our Basal story this week is going to be Darnell Rock Reporting. It's a story of a boy whose article on creating a garden for the homeless inspires others into action. We started measurements in math this week and will be continuing on with it for the majority of next week. The read aloud we will begin this week is Flat Staney. It's a pretty short read, but when we're finished with it, we are going to create Flat Stanleys and send them to a buddy class taught by my cousin in Wisconsin. Finally, in science we finished the Kingdom of Monerans this week and move into the Kindom of Protists next week.

"Practice what you know, and it will make clear what you do not know." - Rembrandt

September 8 - 11

On top of the normal activities for the week, we added several fun activities. With just a shortened four day week, it was tough to cram it all in. Wednesday was 9-9-09, so we celebrated the number 9! We wrote a nine poem, drew a nine picture, learned a nine song, and shared them all with a class of 9 year olds (4th grade). Also, rather than the school standard "Give Me 5", for the day it was "Give Me 9". It ended up being a day full of fun.


On a more serious side, this week was 9-11. Though I'm sure you parents remember every vivid detail about it as well as I do, the six graders this year were only 3 years old when it happened. I wanted to find a delicate way to share with them the seriousness of the whole day, without overdoing it. I decided to use the day to give them a lesson on the difference between a hero and a celebrity. I invited one of our student's father, who is a Syracuse Firemen, as well as the Syracuse Fire Chief, to come in and talk to our class Friday afternoon. As a presentation for them, we drew some pictures of heroes in action, and wrote letter thanking the firemen for what they do for us. I bound this into a nice little book, wrote a letter from the class and had everyone sign it. We presented this to them on Friday as a token of our gratitude; as a way to honor our hometown heroes.

When push came to shove, the fire chief holding back tears as he talked about his 343 fellow brothers that lost their lives that day taught a better lesson than I could have ever done myself.

A few reminders for our parents. Remember I gave them homework folders this week. They should be bringing those home daily with their homework and any other letters that are for you. Monday is our picture day, so please send the picture packets back with your students. I sent home a missing assignment report on Friday that your student should have you sign and then bring back with them on Monday. Also remember in the front cover of the homework folder is the username and password for your access to your students grades online. On that same note, I will be sending home a progress report with the students Tuesday. This will have nothing that you can't see online. In fact, I'm going to be stapling with it a note. In an effort to help SAA with our conservation goals, I would rather keep this with a paperless system. So please read that letter, and sign and return it if you DO NOT have regular access to the internet and WILL NOT be able to keep a regular eye online. If I don't get that letter back, I will assume that you have regular access to the gradebook website (https://www.classactiongradebook.com/members/login.aspx) and do not need a paper copy of the progress report.

Just a short list of this weeks upcoming schedule: We will be finishing our class read aloud of Bridge to Terabithia. I have promised the students that IF every single student has NO missing assignments, we will watch the movie on Friday. If we do end up seeing the movie, which with a little pushing from me I think we will, I will use it to segue into a Character Lesson on death. I've learned through the loss of my father during student teaching that a preemptive lesson on this can be very helpful in the unfortunate event that anyone in the class experiences any form of death throughout the year.

We will be continuing on in our Basal reader and keeping the same Words Their Way spelling list we practiced with last week. We continue on studying microorganisms in science moving this week into monerans and other single celled organisms. Finally in Math, we will be discussing properties of equations, prime and composite numbers, coordinates, and customary forms of measurement.

Blue skies coming at us. Blue skies coming our way!

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain." ~ Maya Angelou

Week 3! August 31-September 4

A few pictures from the week:

During Drama this week we worked up to a couple of performances of a reader's theater I had adapted from the book, If You Give a Cat a Cookie. The first picture is from our performance for Mrs. J and Ms. Neilson.

On Friday this week, our Character Lesson focused on being Trustworthy. Along with other discussions, we built a Trust Tower. Each student came up with three different ways to build trust with someone and wrote their ideas on a sticky note. We stuck them to blocks and used them to build up our tower which ended up 12 at the base and 12 high for 78 blocks tall. At the end of the lesson, I had a ball with just one simple thing on it that could break trust. I used lying, but we talked about other possibilities, and then I used the ball to break the tower, to show them just how fragile trust could be. This picture is of a couple of our classmates adding their ideas to the tower.

“Trust is like a vase... Hard to build, and if it gets broken,

though you can fix it, the vase will never be the same again.”

To add to our excitement of this next week, we have two new students joining our class on Tuesday! I met them both Friday afternoon. They should both add their own personality to make our class that much more fun. Our original number, before the year started was 27 students, but we had lost 3, so adding these two, we have a class total of 26 students now!

This week has a lot of fun activities in store. We have the usual things, of course. We'll read this weeks Basal story, Knots in My Yo-yo String. We'll continue on with our Words Their Way spelling list. This first week had a lot of success. The kids did well with their lists, and we've all moved forward. We're going to look further in Algebraic expression and study prime and composite number this week. In drama on Monday we're going to work with a poem book called Joyful Noise which is poetry for two voices. The kids will partner up and practive a poem which will them perform for the class. After that we will have some fun acting out the dramatics in the song Don Gato.

There are a few special occasions going on this week. Wednesday is the special day of the YEAR! It's September 9, which is numeric form is 9-9-09. So we're going to celebrate the number 9 by writing a 9 poem, and drawing a nine picture, and then giving those pictures to some 9 year olds. If all goes well, we also perform a nine song for them.

Then, of course, for those of us who are old enough to remember, Friday is 9-11. I am going to do a couple of lesson this week using the events of 9-11 to teach them the difference between a hero and a celebrity.

All in all, it should be a fun filled week with lots of learning!

"The Holy Grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it." -Banksy