Field Trip Drivers

Dear Sixth Grade Families,

If I don't get to go on a field trip off campus with my class soon, I may cry and go flag down a bus myself!  I have just heard from the office that the district is not able to give us a bus for this field trip.

Friday, March 8th we are suppose to go to the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill in Salem and then in the afternoon we are suppose to go and tour the Pacific Hazelnut Candy Factory in Aurora.

Please email me with the number of passengers you can carry if you can drive for us!

Lastly, please be looking ahead as I imagine buses are now out of the question altogether as the district says they will be sparse because of spring sporting events.

We have a field trip April 12th and our last one on May 10th.

Thank you,

Miss King

Family Reading Night

You are invited to join the CHPCS community for a free night of literacy fun! Each classroom teacher will be reading a fabulous book and leading a fun project for child and adult pair to enjoy. Sessions will be filled on a first come, first served basis, so get your slip in soon. This night is NOT just for primary students. Middle school students are encouraged to attend. Please remember that every student needs an adult to work with them. The main objective of the night is to provide a fun literacy night for families to enjoy together. Each session is 30 minutes beginning at 6:30 p.m..  Don’t forget to stay for cake in honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday at the end of session 2 AND to get the Battle of the Book list.

Battle of the Books

Battle of the Books, BOB, is a reading incentive program for students in grades 3-8. Students read books and come together as a class to demonstrate their abilities and test their knowledge of the books they have read. This year marks the 4th year for Cascade Heights and we are very excited to see who will win.  The official book list will be revealed at Family Reading Night on March 7th, 2013.

Newsletter 2-13-13

Dear Sixth Grade Families,

In the classroom
Science fair presentations have been wonderful!  Students will bring home the rubric tomorrow on which they were graded.  They have improved greatly from the fall.  Tomorrow we will wrap up the last of the presentations, as they are taking a bit more time than anticipated!

We are in need of copy paper!  We know some families don't like lugging the paper in on the first day of school and like to wait until it is needed...it is time!  Please consider dropping by a ream or two as soon as possible.

Science
Students need to turn in their "Science Smart Folders" by tomorrow or they will be working on them at lunch.  This is something that we worked on in class and finished up on field trip Friday, unless we were too distracted and then we took it home for the final touches.  A rubric also went home with students on this project.  This projects shows their smarts as far as the lymphatic system and will be up in the hall for all to see.

Speaking of science, we are privileged to be working with OSU 4-H Extension to learn about energy.  They will be joining us in the lab for 10 more hands-on days of experiments, covering all of the objects from core knowledge! Be sure to ask your child about their energy experiences over the next four weeks!   

Language Arts
In language arts, Riggs has been going smoothly and now along with homonyms, students are getting some words straight from the Riggs manual.  We took an orthography test today and students will be given those results next week. We are also continuing to work out of Warriner's Grammar book and took a test this week on subjects and verbs in a sentence.  Check your student's Riggs notebook for their newest chart (in the beginning phases) on capitalization.

Math
We are in need of some math volunteers from 8:45-9:30.  Volunteers can lead small groups in mini lessons or just help with questions while walking around.   Math concepts are getting more difficult and it can be hard to manage.  Please check in with your child and see if they need help.  One-on-one help is vital when students are feeling lost and parents or older siblings are a great resource.  Some students are taking home adaptation packets to help with the concepts.  If your child would like more resources and they haven't already been given something, please email me!  Test 12 came home this week and should have been signed and sent back to school to be inputted.  The second round of testing on test 11 went home with students today.  If they are not happy with their grade I am happy to administer the test again Monday after school during homework club. 


Thank you and have a great week!

Miss King

Newsletter 2-3-13

Dear Sixth Grade Families,

The month of January flew by! We are starting a new semester and we want to start off with our best foot forward. We have a ton of learning to do this next semester and we must keep communication between home and school a top priority. This is why students are now going to have their planners checked for a signature in the morning before heading into class. Without a signature they will be calling home to ask for help to remember to get their planner signed. We know it is not your job to remember to sign their planner, but rather it is their job to remember to ask you. It takes time to go through the whole room and sign planners at the end of the day and it is worthwhile as that is our #1 way of communicating what they need to be doing at home to help their school day(s) be successful! This process will also begin taking place for math, as students correct their work in class and should be showing you what they missed as well as the corrections they make each night.

Core Knowledge

We finished our Enlightenment unit and have moved on this past week to our Human Body unit. We reviewed the circulatory system and will cover the lymphatic and immune system during our unit. Students did a fantastic job doing skits/jingles to portray, vaccines, epidemics, communicable and non-communicable diseases in small groups and then presenting them to the class. We had Mr. Detter (a nurse) join our class as a guest speaker on Thursday. Students did a great job identifying the lymphatic system on themselves as well as making a note page in their science notebook. They also did a great job with human body trivia! The next unit just around the corner is our Energy unit! We have kits from the Energy Trust of Oregon and will link this month's field trip to Energy, heading to Covanta Waste to Energy Plant in Brooks, Or..

Math

We are over half way through our book! Concepts are getting more challenging and it will not work to try to skip over a concept and hope to get it later. Students are reminded daily if they don't understand to come to me and get help, but they will need some additional one-on-one help at home as well. Please check their notebooks for corrections daily. They should be making a spot for you to sign in their homework. A corrected test will come home on Monday and is due back to school on Wednesday with corrections and a signature from home! Students may be needing a new notebook this time of year as well.

Language Arts

The class did a fantastic job on the last two Greek and Latin root quizzes and we will continue them for the remainder of the year. Students have a Grammar notebook as well as a Riggs notebook and this seems to be helping them stay organized. Riggs is also improving in the area of homework quality and should only get better this next semester. We are currently focusing on homophones, homonyms, and homographs, as we have seen some need for them based on our writing. A chart for reference can be found in their Riggs notebook. Reading groups are going smoothly and we have been lucky enough to have a few volunteers over the past month! While we are working on unit five in IEW writing, we will be focusing on our science fair paper this week. Students should be bringing their science journals and any parts of their paper to class.

Spelling Bee—February 4th—Come watch our school spelling bee in the gym at 8:15 a.m.! Representing our class is Adin Williams and Ember Flickema

Field trip—February 8th---We need drivers or we will not be going! Currently we have spots for 11 children.