News You Can Use

Dear Sixth Grade Families,

We are in our new semester and need to be working even harder than first semester. Most students are doing a nice job of showing parents planners and getting a signature nightly. Other forms of communication that should be coming home are math tests, math homework and weekly progress reports, that all need a parent signature.

This past week in class we did not get to begin the process of experimenting with energy because we could not control our behavior as a class. We left the lab and went back to the classroom and students wrote to me about how they were feeling, their own behavior and possible solutions to the poor behavior and disrespect shown while I was trying to teach. The letters were well written and they made suggestions, like number order to line up, more card flips, whole class card flips and helping your neighbor to remember how to behave. I agree with all of the above and talked to the class about this. Please be watching for your child's card color in their planner. It is extremely important that students are being respectful, not shouting out, turning off their voice when I am teaching, and overall not distracting other students who are trying to learn. Thank you for your continued support.

Happenings on Campus

President's Day—Monday, February 17^th. NO SCHOOL.

Field Trip Friday—Friday, February 28^th. This is considered a regular school day from 7:45-3:30. Students should be in uniform and pack the same healthy, low-waste lunch as usual. No gum please!

Family Reading Night—Thursday, March 6^th from 6:30-8:00. All children and families are welcome. It's a free event with each teacher doing a different read-aloud and activity after the reading. Sign up for each activity will be posted when it is closer to the event.

Battle of the Books—Final Battle is during family reading night, but class battles take place the week prior during the day.

Staff vs. Middle School Basketball Game—rescheduled for April 3^rd, from 6:30-7:30. It only cost $1 and the money goes directly back to the school for building cost.

Happenings in the Classroom

Lanuage Arts

We are tying to finish at least two B.O.B. books before the first battle. This is a great assessment of comprehension and fun for the whole class. We will begin an IEW paper on one of these books over the course of the next two weeks, analyzing character, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution. We are in the midst of our poetry unit. Students are doing a great job of writing poetry, but most of all they are superb at supporting each other while they are sharing their work. It is really great to have the class feeling confident and comfortable enough to read poetry out loud. This weekend students are to pick a poem of 10 lines or more to memorize for recital later in our unit.

Math

We have done a lot of work with fractions and decimals for the past month and a half, and are now moving into area and capacity. We will still take quizzes and practice specifically with fractions and decimals as it is an area of stress for many. A great resource for all students in math is www.khanacademy.org. If you use another site that you find helpful, please let me know and I will pass it on to the class. Many students are still not correcting their mistakes on their homework and getting signatures in their notebook, showing parents how many they are missing. Parents, please bug your student until this becomes habit. It is crucial that they correct their mistakes and are being successful on their homework. Again in math their should be a daily signature on homework, as well as a weekly signature on tests.

Core Knowledge

We have finished our Enlightenment unit and are now in our Energy unit. We have focused on the two different categories of energy, potential and kinetic as well as the specific types of energy, mechanical, chemical, nuclear, etc.. Rubber bands are a great example of potential to kinetic energy. It was a good excuse anyway to have a rubber band war. We have begun discussing transferring of energy and we will conduct experiments next week that help students develop a deeper understanding of energy. For our February field trip we will have the privilege of touring Reed College's nuclear reactor with some hands-on time in the lab. If you have a few extra glow sticks and/or hand warmers around your house, we could use some for experiments next week. Please send me a quick email that your student will bring them so I don't go out and purchase them.

Have a great weekend,

Miss King