November 16 - 24

And it's here! Thanksgiving break is upon us. Before I head home to celebrate the holiday, I'll make a quick update here. Below is our picture for this week. It comes from our field trip down to the channel 4 station for Good Things Utah. It was short and sweet, but I think they got a great deal out of the tour of the production studio and watching the live taping.

Just a quick look at the week to come. We're not going to have a full on spelling list this week because on Monday we are going to be retaking the placement test for possible group rearrangement. So the students can enjoy a week of break as I grade those tests and reset the groups. Math will keep chugging along as we talk about proportions, circle graphs and probability. For science we'll be doing a bit of wrap-up for the heat unit. After that we will begin our light unit. Our story this week takes us back to ancient Egypt as it talks about the Pharaohs, Pyramids, the Sphinx, and all other aspects of that time and place.

Keeping it short and sweet this week I'd just like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and let you know that one of the things that will be in my mind and heart during this thankful holiday will be your students. I truly could not have asked for a better class to begin my career with. They're fantastic and so are you parents! Thank you all for everything you do!

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

November 9 - 13

I finally feel, at last, that I've gotten back on top of my game. Entirely up-to-date grades for second term are now posted online at http://www.classactiongradebook.com/, and I'm back on top of my planning in advance, where I really like to be. Our picture this week is the finished products of the plaster mask making activity we did. We took some time this week, pulled out the acrylic paints, and went to town. The masks turned out fantastic! Now here's a game for you... can you figure out which one is your students?

Just a reminder, we are still selling DVDs and 8x10 Photos of our play, The Turkeys Go On Strike. They are $5 a piece. If you'd like a copy of either one, or both, just send in the money with a note telling me which it is you'd like.

This coming week should be just about as normal as a week gets. Our story this week is going to teach us a bit about Ancient China. During math, we are going to be learning about circles, including the fabulous number π, which is used to find the circumference and area of the circles. Who knew that 3.14152965358979323846... (and so on) could be such a magical number! For writing this week, we will be focusing on the three different points of view: first person, third person limited, and third person omniscent. This week we also finish up our science unit on heat. After a few fun demonstrations next week, we will begin our unit on light once we return from break.

Ah yes! Break. I'm sure your students, as well as you, are counting down to our first real break of the school year! Gobble, gobble! Thanksgiving Day is coming and so is the break associated with it. We do not have school November 25, and then we maintain that freedom through the weekend, returning fresh on November 30. Only 7 school days to go!

In homage of our masks, I felt that ending with a quote about taking off our "masks" would be appropriate:

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else." - Judy Garland

October 26 - November 6

At long last, I'm hoping things have settled down. Reports cards went out on Monday and our long awaited play was performed Thursday. Having that pass lifted what seemed like the world off of my shoulders. I can't express in words though how proud I am of your kids. The hooting, hollering, and cheering of the audience during the curtain call of our performance told me that those kids had achieved what we'd been working all term for. Being backstage running the sound, it was hard for me to tell exactly how the performce looked from the outsiders point of view. That same night, though, I watched the DVD I made of the performance, and I tell you what, I was almost in tears watching the show. I am so proud of them for how well they performed the show. Our picture this week is certainly a great tribute to them for how hard they worked on the performance:

I should be sending home a note on Monday offering sales of an 8x10 of the picture above and a DVD copy of the play. Both will be $5. Any profits I happen to make off of it will be turned around and put right back into the classroom. Again, I applaud your children! They put on a great show.

The second term is now off and running. With the play behind us, we will be starting our new art elective rotation on Monday. Our class will be with Mrs. Dezember for the Movement and Music rotation. In her class, on top of the different movement exercises she does with them, they will also be the choir for the second term production. They've got one more term of performance to come, so be prepared for yet another great performance come end of term.

With the end of term 1, we finished out Science unit on microorganisms. With the start of the new term, we began our new unit on Heat. This week we will be taking a closer look at the different types of heat sharing: conduction, convection and radiaton.

All in all, things are still going strong. One fantastic term behind us, but still three more to go!

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." - Scott Adams

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