Fall Celebrations

The Day of the Dead

Many of you might be wondering what we have been up to in the sixth grade. This week we are ending our first unit in language arts, which mean a test! Yes, your students were thrilled to hear the exciting news as well! Luckily, we try to off-set the fun of testing with some actual fun . We will be studying The Day of the Dead, which means reading a number of articles on the topic, while comparing and contrasting our own traditions from home. This is a great mini-unit that complements our later social studies curriculum on Mesoamerican history.

On Friday, we will be creating ofrendas, or offering alter, style collages. If your family has any old magazine, their donation would be greatly appreciated. 

We are also wrapping up our social studies unit this week. I will be announcing the winning "Caravan", along with a short celebration on Friday morning. Students will be assessed on how well they understand basic latitude and longitude, continents, world oceans, and major locations around the globe. It has been a very fun unit. 

Halloween

Later this week, the sixth grade team will be sending home a letter regarding our Halloween celebration. This is currently scheduled for Friday, October 30th, in the late afternoon. Students are invited to wear costumes and come prepared for fun! Parents who indicated an interest in helping with parties will be getting an email soon.

Box Tops

You may have noticed the box top competition sheet sent home last week (orange with pumpkins). If you have been saving box tops, please send them to school with your student. The box top program helps put money directly into our classrooms and allows the OPPO to help support field trips and assemblies. We all appreciate your help.

Email Accounts

Does your student have a Gmail account? This week I will be showing a few students with established accounts how to use the Google Docs and Drive tools. This is a great way for me to "collect" homework from my students and gives kids an opportunity to collaborate securely in an online environment. I would love for all our students to have accounts, but the district does not currently support email for our learners. If, however, you would like to set up an account from home, I would love to do more activities as a class using this tool. Please let me know if you have any questions. 

Grades

The end of our first grading period is just around the corner! Believe it our not, November 6th marks the end of the first quarter. Many of you have reached out regarding your student's performance. Please continue to do so. Synergy ParentVue doesn't seem to be working perfectly, so if you notice a lot of missing assignments from you hard-working student, please let me know. 

Many students are still working on improving their study habits, especially during our language arts block. I have designed instruction to help encourage the development of time management and study skills. This will be an area of focus throughout the year. 

Have a great week!
-Ms. Kinsman

Grades Galore!

Grades

Last week we sent home forms with the username and passwords for the Synergy ParentVue accounts. I hope that you received your letter and had a chance to view your students grades online. As I mentioned before, I typically am caught up with the previous week's grading by Monday morning. I encourage you and your student to take a look and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Regular assignments are graded as follows, on a 0-5 scale:

0= Not turned in

1= Incomplete

2= Not yet meeting

3= Nearly meeting

4= Meets

5= Exceeds

Tests and quizzes are given a proficiency grade (Exceeds, Meets, etc.). I am fairly flexible with the my grading; students who wish to redo, complete, or extend an assignment have my blessing. After a week, I typically don't encourage my students to finish late work. Because we use a proficiency model, multiple assignments will be given throughout the year to measure skills in each of the report card areas.

Math grades will become available soon. We are currently compiling class lists to match your student to their math teacher.

Just What Have We Been Doing?

Many of the assignments posted in ParentVue are from our language arts block. Every week the students are given a choice menu with a number of activities to complete. Each of these assignments is aligned to the sixth grade common core standards covered in our Houghton Mifflin series. This includes vocabulary activities, comprehension work, and writing tasks. So far we have been looking at character development, author's purpose, and writing narratives.

We have also spent time in health working on communication skills, have used our knowledge of heredity to create dogs, and have been working on map reading. Typing skills have been our focus during our computer lab time, and I introduced and set up Newsela accounts for the students. We will be spending more time reading and reflecting on current events using the Newsela website in the coming weeks.

Upcoming Dates

This week the fifth grade is hosting a Scholastic book fair. We are scheduled to visit the fair on Thursday afternoon. If your student would like to go earlier, the fair is open before and after school, from 8-3:30. Students may also visit during their lunch breaks if they have money.

Finally, we have our first three day weekend coming up this week. Remember, there is no school on Friday, October 9. 

I think we off to a great start. Thank you so much for an excellent September!

-Ms. Kinsman