The Lonely Can

Mr. Loner

A Short Tale by KK

As you see in the picture, we only have one can. This lonely can, Well, we'll call him Mr. Loner. Mr. Loner was offered friends from other classes, but he said, "I want friends from this class!" 

Unfortunately, we have no other cans to satisfy Mr. Loner. If you have any extra cans or dried goods you would like to donate, please bring them to our classroom for the Canned Food Drive. Let's get Mr. Loner some friends!!! Thank You.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Day- This Friday!

On Friday, December 9th, we are invited the sixth graders to wear their best ugly Christmas sweater. Please make sure the sweaters are school appropriate! I can't wait to see what cringe-worthy selections make it into the room this year.

Homework this Week

Please be sure to check in with your student to review their weekly writing assignment ("Should students have homework over holiday breaks?"), science assignment (given on Mondays and Wednesdays), and/or math homework.  Even with the holidays approaching, we are not slowing down!!

Three Full Weeks

The holiday spirit is in the air, and we have many fun events planned for the coming weeks. I have a few events to cover today, but I will likely need to send out a number of reminder emails before winter break. Be on the lookout for important updates.

Social Studies: Country Reports and Extension Projects

Thank you to those families who helped ensure their student's country report rough draft was completed over Thanksgiving break. Again, it is not my habit to give homework over vacations, but we are now well on our way to completing this task. The typed, final draft version of the report is due Monday, December 5. We are working on revising our introductions and conclusions in class, and have plenty of time to get the typing done here at school.

In the place of writing homework this week, I have asked students to complete the extension project for the report at home. This is also due Monday, December 5. I have attached a link for the project choices below. Please let me know if your student needs help gathering materials for this activity. 

Country Report Assignment Sheet (Extension Project on Page 2)

The Season of Giving

Our student council representatives will be providing a short presentation on the various holiday drives happening at OPE in the month of December. Please feel free to start sending canned/non-perishable food items, dollars for dogs/coins for cats, and/or blankets to school with you student on Thursday. If you have questions about any of these fundraising events, please ask your students to explain. All drives will end on December 15. 

Christmas Party

On Friday, December 16th, we will hold our annual 6th grade holiday party. If you did not receive an invitation to volunteer at our fabulous Halloween celebration, and would like to help out, please send me an email and I will add you to our volunteer list. 

One fun 6th grade tradition is the Book & Sock Exchange. This is a voluntary activity for students who would like to bring a wrapped pair of fun socks or a favorite book to exchange with another student. The partners are not assigned; instead, Mrs. Angelo leads an activity in which the gifts are rotated between all the participants. Which gift you receive is a surprise, so make sure the socks and books are appropriate for all!

Conference Week

It is hard to believe we have already made it to Thanksgiving break and conferences! Thank you for reading through, signing, and returning all the various forms and emails related to conferences. This made scheduling so much easier.

Conferences

During your student's conference, we will be looking through their first quarter report card, discussing strengths and areas needing improvement, and making a quick goal for the future. This week's writing homework was designed to help your student think through these topics. As mentioned before, I would like your child to attend the conference and be a part of the discussion. If you have concerns you would like to discuss without your child present, I understand. In those cases, you may leave you student at home.

Social Studies Rough Drafts

Over Thanksgiving break, I have asked students to write a rough draft of their country report. I am sending them home with an organizer listing the different paragraph topics. If your student needs help writing an introduction or conclusion, we will be reviewing these skills after the break. The rough draft is due on Monday, November 30.

Kinder Visit by Joci

On Wednesday, Ms. Kinsman arranged for the class to see Mrs. Leeper's kindergarten class at Grant Watts. The students read them books, learned their names, and by the looks of it, they had fun. To end the visit, the kindergartners sang us songs! Make sure to ask your kids how it went, and they will probably reply that it was really awesome! 

Mystery Guest by Paige

Jack, Andrew, and Braden were closest to guessing Abby's profession

On Monday, Ms.  Kinsman invited her sister, Abby, to be our mystery guest for the month. Our class had to guess her occupation. She is a fundraiser/event planner for the Children's Miracle Network. She raises money for sick children and plans fundraisers. Our class has a new mystery guest every month and has fun guessing what job she/he might have.  

Important Information Coming Your Way

Halloween Recap

I hope everyone is recovering from their Monday Night Halloween Madness! We had an excellent celebration here in the sixth grade, and couldn't have done it without the amazing support of our parents! Thank you so much to all the volunteers who helped make the afternoon fun for our kids!

May the Force be with you!

Remember, if your child would like to donate his or her candy to the Candy Round Up, please send their extra treats to school tomorrow. I will make sure it gets down to the office and added to our class total.

Mystery Guest

Hopefully your student told you a little bit about our mystery guest last week. On Wednesday, Amber Purdell, my wonderful sister-in-law, visited our classroom to discuss her job as a NICU nurse. The students asked yes or no questions in order to establish Amber's profession, followed by a discussion about her career. The students seemed very engaged and wrote lovely thank you notes to Ms. Purdell describing what they enjoyed about her visit.

KK was able to guess Amber's profession as a nurse!

If you have anyone in your family or know someone in the community with an interesting job, please let me know. I have a few more guests in mind for the upcoming months, but would love to have at least four more visitors as mystery guests later this school year. I think it is a wonderful way for students to hear about professions they might want to undertake as they get older. 

Conferences

Conferences are just around the corner. This afternoon you will receive a pink request form from your students. Please select the times that would work best for your fall conference and send the form back to school with your child on Wednesday. If possible, I would like your child to attend, so I ask families to schedule accordingly (I have found sixth graders do not love getting up at 8:00 am on their day off :-)). I look forward to meeting with you all soon!

Upcoming Dates

No School- Friday, November 4th and 11th

6th Grade Music Program- Thursday, November 10th 6:15pm

Have a wonderful week!

It's Been Too Long

Families, it has been too long since the last blog post! There has been a lot going on in sixth grade. Please read on to here about what work we have accomplished in the last few weeks, and what is coming up soon.

Recap & Where We Are At

In the last two weeks, we have taken an assessment in nearly every subject area! In social studies, the students took a quiz on land features and latitude and longitude. In math, most classes finished chapter one (ratios & rates) and in science we finished genetics. We presented our Adobe Spark multimedia projects last Friday, and have been taking the unit one assessment this week. To say the least, it has been busy!

If you are using Synergy to follow your student's performance, most grades have been updated. By early next week, I will have the last of the big assessments entered. We are approaching the end of the first quarter (November 4th/Grade Day/No School Grade Day), so it is important your student has completed and turned in their work. If you have concerns about your child's performance on an assignment or test, please let me know. I will be offering some make-up opportunities next week when we are back to our old routines.

This week also marks the end of our time with Miss B., our amazing student teacher. Both the students and I are so sad to see her go. Not only is she a huge help in the classroom, but her positive energy and patience will be missed. We will be holding a small celebration tomorrow afternoon to see her off. 

Halloween

Mr. Jeremiah has a parent this year who would like to plan and organize our holiday parties. I have shared contact information with her for parents who offered to help at parties. If you do not receive an email, and are hoping to be here on Monday, October 31, from 2:00-3:00 pm for our celebration, please let me know.

Students are invited to wear costume on Halloween, but please make sure there are no masks, weapons, or overly gory or distracting elements to your child's outfit. I am excited to celebrate with the students, but want to be sure we can still keep a calm learning environment for the majority of the day.

I also wanted to remind families that your students can participate in the Healthy Smiles of Scappoose Candy Round Up. Have your child bring in any extra candy on Wednesday, November 2nd, and the class with the heaviest donation will win a prize. The candy is sent to troops stationed overseas as a sweet treat to help improve morale. It is a great program. 

Checking Grades

I will be sending home Synergy ParentVue Activation Keys with your students this afternoon. The purpose of the letter is to help families track student grades from home. Last year, I noticed there was a lot of confusion about how to effectively use the information from Synergy to keep your kids on track. Therefore, I have created the following Google Slides presentation.

I'm hoping the presentation will prove helpful. If you feel I missed any important details, please let me know. My goal is to help empower families to use this tool. 

I try to keep Synergy updated on a weekly basis. Work from the previous week is usually on Synergy by the Wednesday of the following week. If you ever have a question about your student's performance, please let me know. I'm here to help.

Classroom Happenings

This week we have been working hard to complete a number of assignments. In social studies, students are working on illustrated geography dictionaries. In addition, we started our first simulation of the year. Be sure to ask your student about their Caravans team and what supplies they are taking on their treasure hunting trip.

Working hard on Geography Dictionaries

During enrichment, we are learning about the different types of point of view; a challenging concept teachers and students alike. (Do you remember learning about third person limited, omniscient, and objective in sixth grade?!) These lessons are being used to support our language arts selection, a short biography by Jerry Spinelli (who also happens to be the author of our read aloud, Crash). 

Ms. B is doing a great job of teaching our genetics unit. The kids love learning about how they inherited their various traits and are full of interesting (and unusual!) questions. We will wrap up this unit mid-October, and then the class will head to Mrs. Baker to learn about cells.

Finally, we have started writing interview questions for our first formal writing piece of the year. The students will be creating short multi-media presentation about a classmate using Adobe Spark- a great digital storytelling tool. 

You may need to check in with your student this afternoon to go through their backpacks and homework folders. We had the students empty their mailboxes this morning, and I noticed a number of school picture order forms still needing to be taken home. Picture day will be next Monday. We also passed back a number of graded assignments. This is a good chance to get a feel for how your student is performing.

As you can see, we are busy in sixth grade! If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send an email. I am always excited to hear from my new parents.

Geography Terms and Examples

Ms. B has put together a presentation with beautiful pictures of the different land forms covered in your geography dictionaries. You may use this as an additional resource as you work through the assignment.

Your students might have mentioned that we are allowing them to use personal electronic devices for research in social studies. If your student has a device they would like to bring to school, it is allowed. However, they may be asked to leave it at home if they are not using it appropriately, or at inappropriate times. I will also not be able to monitor the care of the device. It is the student's responsibility to keep it safe. We have a number of electronic devices available in class if your student does not have a phone of their own.

The Real First Day

Last week was an absolute success. All of the students were well behaved, worked hard, and had great attitudes. I am very excited to see what our year has in store for us.

Yesterday was what I like to call "The Real First Day". We had a full schedule, which included moving to our new math classes and starting our language arts program. Again, the students were able to pull it off with success. They were definitely tired by the end of the day (I think I was too), but I am impressed by their willingness to push through the long afternoons and deliver great work.

A couple of announcements for this week. Band starts this afternoon. If your student rents an instrument from Beaverton Music, they will also be here today passing out equipment. In addition, I assigned our first writing homework of the year. I have asked students to be sure a parent signs their completed assignment. If you have any questions about the homework expectations, please do not hesitate to contact me at school. Remember, writing homework is due on Fridays.

Hopefully your students has also been asking you to sign their planner each evening (or, at least on Thursday evenings). I have asked the class to be sure to read 30 minutes each night and get a parent signature confirming their reading minutes. Again, if you need help motivating your student to read nightly, please let me know what I can do to help. Sometimes it is helpful to have motivation from both home and school.

Finally, I am still sorting through the parent responses from our "Whoooo Can Volunteer" forms. If you have signed up to help out, I will be trying to contact you before the end of the week to start a volunteer schedule. If you do not hear from me by next week, and are desperate to be here, please do not hesitate to email. I welcome parent support!

Have an excellent week,
Ms. Kinsman

Digital Citizenship

Follow this link to access our class discussion on digital citizenship.

Welcome Back!

We had an AMAZING first day. Thank you so much for sending your students to school ready to learn and succeed. There are just a few items I want to cover this afternoon.

• First, if you student has not already completed the last page of the orange packet, please make sure this gets finished tonight. Parents, please complete the second two pages of the same packet. I will use the information to help serve your students this year.
• I did not send home planners today. We will go over their use tomorrow, and I will assign a short homework assignment to review classroom expectations. Please be ready to sign your student's work.
• P.E. is Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings. Please be sure to remind your student to dress accordingly.

I am really looking forward to this year. The kids were all on their best behavior, were excellent and engaged listeners, and showed their best effort on the few classroom assignments we completed. 

Here is a short video we watched to wrap up our day. I talked to the students about my expectations for excellence in the sixth grade. I promised that, like the presenter in the clip, I would be providing guidance along way to help all my learners create beautiful and interesting work. I can't wait to rise to the challenge!

The End is Near

We have finally made it to the end of the year! I have a few announcements I wanted to share as we enter the last week of school. 

Missing Book: We are missing one language arts book. I am hopeful that someone, somewhere, has the copy of the book at home. If you could please ask your student to look around the house for a copy of the Houghton Mifflin language arts text book, it would be much appreciated. It is maroon, with a boy skateboarding on the front. 

Oaks Park: We will be headed to Oaks Park on Monday, June 13th. If you are interested in helping out, we are  always looking for more chaperones. Please send me an email by this Wednesday, June 8th, and I will add you to the list.

End-of-the-Year Events: This week we will be headed to the high school to watch the fourth grade play, and will be watching a movie for earning enough class Hooties. Next week, we have a kickball game against Mrs. Futter's class planned for Tuesday morning, and field day in the afternoon. The last day of school will end at 12:30. We will have a morning full of awards and good-byes. 

Finally, as we wrap up the year, please remind your student to be mindful of school rules. They need to make sure they are ending their time at Petersen on a positive note. Thank you for all of your support this year. It has been a pleasure serving your students. 

A Fresh Face in Sixth Grade

Welcome to Ms. B

I am so excited to announce the arrival of our student teacher, Tiffany Brungardt. She will be with our class through the end of the year, and will return in the fall. She is doing a great job helping me keep kids on track for the end of the year. Please read below to learn more about Ms. B.

My name is Tiffany Brungardt, otherwise known as Miss B! I am a student at Concordia University in Portland working on my masters degree. I received my undergraduate degree from Portland State University in Child and Family Studies. I am a Scappoose High School graduate and attended Peterson as a child! I am so excited to be returning to this wonderful school and to give back to the community that helped shaped the person I am today!

Six-plus years of ​working in the early childhood education world has brought me to teaching elementary students, and I can say with pride that nothing fills my heart with passion and happiness more than teaching. I love watching my students learn and grow and take pride in helping my students succeed. I am recently engaged and love spending time with my family, hiking, reading, and playing cards. I look forward to learning from Mrs.Kinsman and your children!

Middle School Announcements 

I just learned the middle school has a dance team! Please read below for more information about try-outs.

Any student who will be in grades 6th or 7th next year are welcome to tryout for the Middle School Dance team!  Interested boys or girls - it will be May 25th & 26th at Scappoose HIGH SCHOOL.  Please email Taren Darr-Weigandt or Pamela Didier for more information and a registration form.      taren.darr@gmail       or     pdidier@scappoose.k12.or.us

Also, SMS is hosting an open house on Tuesday, May 24, at 7:00 pm. You and your students are invited to tour the school and learn more about what to expect next year. 

It's Been a Long Time

With all the emails I have been sending, I haven't taken the time to write a blog post. Here are some updates (and pictures!) of the happenings in our classroom.

In social studies, we finished our Maya simulation. Students were put into "city/states" and had to trade various goods to earn corn and increase their populations. Our winning city/state, Chichen Itza, had a glorious final sacrifice, and will be joining Chac (me) for a chicken pizza lunch on Friday.

This week, we are beginning our Aztec, Inca, Maya project. The students are working in small groups to research one of these ancient civilizations. Then they will work together to create Google Slide presentation to share with the class. Each student will take notes on the presentations and compare the research of their peers to their own. As the pictures show below, they are working hard on note taking.

In two weeks, we will be starting state math testing. Most of the classes are currently studying the use of input and output charts to graph data. Students are also doing an excellent job of completing and turning in their math homework. The end of the year field trips are a great source of inspiration for the kids who struggle with study skills. Thank you for your support in this area!

In language arts, we are continuing a five-story unit about different ancient cultures. We have read about the Vikings, Chinese, Greeks, Egyptians, and will end with a piece about Mt. Vesuvius. Your students are applying skills like identifying main idea and cause and effect relationships. As we get closer to the end of the year, we will begin a fun unit on super heroes. I can't wait!

We have also been working on finishing a piece of writing on the use of plastic, paper, and reusable bags. After watching a number of short videos on the topic, and using information from various print resources, the students are now putting their notes into a five-paragraph persuasive essay. This will be due next week. 

Your student might have mentioned that we have a student teacher joining us in May. Ms. Brungardt is a Petersen graduate herself and is excited to have this opportunity to support her hometown community. It will be nice to have the extra help in the classroom as we enter the end-of-year excitement. 

Have a great week,
Ms. Kinsman

Science Fair Help

Science Fair Boards

Below, I have included some pictures of science fair boards to help those of you overwhelmed by the example in the science fair packet. The key areas to include are:

• A Title (with your name)
• Question
• Hypothesis
• Materials
• Data (Presented in a chart or graph; we went over how to do this in class)
• Results & Analysis (I sent home a paper to help with this today for homework)

If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to email or call. I am here to help. 

Science Fair & Human Growth and Reproduction: It's an Exciting Time in Sixth Grade!

Science Fair

As mentioned in the previous post, science fair season is upon us. In order to help keep the students on track (and have the best projects in the sixth grade!), I have decided to tie the upcoming week's homework and computer lab time into science fair project completion. 

Please look through and reference the schedule below. I believe this will help keep our students on track. If your child has still not come up with a science fair project idea, I will be meeting with them today and tomorrow to come up with a plan. 

Blue = Work Done at Home    Orange= Work Done at School

Human Growth & Reproduction

This afternoon I will be sending home our Human Growth & Reproduction information letters. On the front is a brief description of the information we will be covering, while the back provides Oregon legislation regarding the material we are required to teach each year. 

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me via email or telephone call. If you would like to exclude your student from the unit, please return the form by Friday, March 11. An alternative project will be assigned. 

Science Fair is Just Around the Corner!

Science Fair

This week will begin talking about the upcoming science fair. On Tuesday afternoon, students will be receiving a packet of information about the upcoming event, and how to plan a successful science fair project. For homework this week, I am asking students to come up with a question, hypothesis, and basic outline of a procedure for their project. This is a rough, rough draft, but it will give me time to look through their ideas over the weekend and provide helpful feedback to ensure their project is a success. Unfortunately, the sixth grade information packets were not ready after school, hence the Tuesday start date.

I believe most of the students are excited to participate. Many years ago, I was invited to attend a week-long science fair symposium at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. It was an amazing trip; students who are eager to enter the STEM fields should look at a science fair as an opportunity to explore an area of interest and to learn more about the scientific process. 

Our science fair night will be help on March 31, 2016. As the weeks progress, I will include helpful information through the classroom blog to help students stay on track. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know how I can help.

Doernbecher Days & Clam Chowder Sales

We are currently in the midst of two fundraisers. This week our Doernbecher fundraiser includes a talent show (Monday), Burgerville Give Back Night (Tuesday), Survivor Night (Wednesday) and Lip Sync Battle (Thursday). Event information can be found on the district website. If you would like to donate money to the cause, our classroom collection jar is fairly empty. It could use a little help. Any donations are welcome!

In addition, the fourth grade has started their annual clam chowder sale. Order forms are available in our classrooms. If your students would like to participate, please have them grab a form. I can direct them to the correct location.

Have a great week,

Ms. Kinsman

Homework

Homework 

This week I am asking students to complete assignments from class as their homework. We have been reading Freedom Walkers for the past two weeks and have completed a number of activities from the students' Reader's Notebooks. In order to move on to the next story, I am going to ask students to complete the reading and Notebook pages at home and turn them in on Friday.

Here is a list of pages must be completed. Most of this work was supposed to have been completed in class.  If you student is struggling with the reading, please feel free to offer support. This is a challenging text, with a lot of vocabulary and topics new to the kids. 

Student Notebook Pages: 121-130, 132-133, 138,143-144

Thank you for your help in getting this story wrapped up. Please be sure your student takes very good care of their book. It is important that we keep these in good shape for the upcoming years. 

Valentine's Day

Thank you to all the family members who were able to help at this year's Valentine's party. The sixth grade team appreciates all of your support. Thank you also for all the gifts. The thoughtfulness of the kids is touching.

This Week

In social studies, we are continuing our study of ancient China. Students will be writing the scripts, and begin recording, their multi-media presentation on one Chinese dynasty.

In math, we are continuing operations with fractions. Expect homework practicing these skills.

In language arts, we will be starting a new realistic fiction piece and focus on understanding how the author develops theme in their writing. 

In health, we are finishing the chapter on smoking prevention.

Have a great week!
Ms. Kinsman

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day

On Friday, we will hold a grade level Valentine's Day party. There will be music and dancing in the commons, iPads, games, and snacks in the classrooms. Before the party begins at 2:00, students will be allowed to pass out Valentines to their classmates. Remember, this is an optional activity. I have provided large envelopes for students to decorate at home.

If you would like to volunteer to help out at the party, please let me know. We will need assistance with snack preparations and supervision. It should be a lot of fun!

Box Tops

If you have any box tops lying around the house, the final day for turn in is February 26th. We have a nice collection started, but could always use more. I appreciate any donations!

Pencils & Homework

Thank you so much to the families who sent in pencil reinforcements. We are working on being more diligent about how pencils are placed in our desks, and getting pencils off the floor each afternoon. Hopefully, we have enough to make it until the end of the year!

I also wanted to remind families that this week's writing homework requires a parent signature. Please take a moment to read through your student's assignment and discuss any edits or revisions that might be needed. For weeks with a good amount of writing required on the homework, I pass out writing awards to those students I feel showed improvement, or went above and beyond on their assignment. This gives the students the privilege of having a buddy lunch with the iPad. I'm looking forward to reading their work from this week's prompt. 

Have an excellent week!
-Ms. Kinsman

A Long Post for the Start of the Third Quarter

Sorry for the span of time since the last blog post. It has been a very busy couple of weeks!

Report Cards
Report cards will be coming home with your students tomorrow. Please be sure to go through the envelopes carefully, as a number of other important documents will be included. In addition, please make sure you read through the Oregon Student Wellness Survey form. We will be completing the survey next week during our scheduled computer lab time.

If you have any concerns about your student’s performance, please do not hesitate to reach out. Most students are on track to meet, and in some cases exceed, sixth grade standards by the end of the year. At this point in the year, my primary focus will be getting the kids ready for middle school. This means I will be asking the students to be more mindful of the quality of work turned in each week. My goals for the next quarter are to:

1. Hold students accountable for spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors in all assignments. Some work may need to be resubmitted if poorly completed.

2. Work to ensure that all students are reading at least 30 minutes each night. As the reading expectations become more demanding, it is important to spend as much time with text as possible.

3. Improve writing scores! We definitely need work in this area. After this week, I will be asking parents to sign writing homework assignments. Please take a few minutes to read through your student's work before it is turned in on Friday. If you notice large amounts of errors, please have your student spend time revising their drafts. Remember, all writing homework assignments can be submitted through Google Docs.

Valentine’s Day
I will send home a list of student names in the report card envelopes. Students are not required to make Valentine’s for their classmates, but if they do I ask students to make sure to include everyone in the class. If they would like to participate, I will provide students with a large envelope to decorate at home. This will be sent home on Friday as a weekend project.

We will also be holding a sixth grade Valentine’s Day party on Friday, February 12 at 1:30. We will have an informal dance in the commons area, crafts, a fun story project, games and technology. Snacks will also be provided. If you would like to volunteer, please let me know. More information will be sent home soon.

Pencils

We have completely run out of new pencils. While the pencil program (eight pencils checked/refreshed each week) is still in effect, the design of the classroom desks has made it nearly impossible for many students to keep a solid pencil supply. As a result, we are out of new pencils. Pencil donations would be welcome at this point. I appreciate your help in keeping the classroom supplies stocked for the students.

Our Studies

Social Studies: We have just started our new social studies unit on Ancient China. Students are working in groups to complete activities relating to how geography impacted cultural and economic growth in China and how its government changed over time. In the coming weeks, the students will begin a research project one of the ancient dynasties. Their studies will be showcased in a multi-media project near the end of the month. 

Language Arts: Over the next two weeks we will be reading Freedom Walkers, a non-fiction narrative about the Montgomery bus boycotts. Students will be completing a number of comprehension and writing activities relating to the text.

Math: Most students are now working on mastering operations (multiplication and division) with fractions. Please check in with your student to see if they math homework each night.

Science: Students are working with Mr. Jeremiah to learn more about physical science. Please watch for homework.

Health: For the third quarter, we will be covering the chapters on nicotine, alcohol, and drug abuse. 

Movie Night

Please join us on Friday, February 12th for a family movie night. We will be showing Inside Out. 

Happy New Year!

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone had a wonderful break. I know I am feeling refreshed after the time spent with my family, but I am also excited to be back. The students also had a very good first week back, but I have a couple of quick notes before getting into our plans for the coming week: please review school expectations with your students at home. Remember, we have weekly writing homework (assigned Monday and due on Fridays), along with the expectation that students are reading at least 30 minutes each night. 

Also, I have noticed a lot of students not eating lunch. We have a very long afternoon, without any breaks. Many kids are complaining of headaches at this time. Please make sure your kids are coming to school with lunch or lunch money. I know I would not be able to function without a good lunch!

An Ode to Yo-Yo's

Don't get me wrong, I love Yo-Yo's. I can also appreciate the students' new found passion for Yo-Yo tricks.  However, there have been times that Yo-Yo's have been out during class. These are fairly isolated incidences, but I would like if families could talk with their students about keeping toys at home. I have given permission for the kids to use Yo-Yo's at morning recess, but they should be put in backpacks for the rest of the day. Yo-Yo's seen in class will be held until the end of the school year. Thank you for your help.

What Are We Working on in Class?

This week we will be finishing up a persuasive writing piece on the issues surrounding keeping pit bulls as pets. The students have done a excellent job of researching, note taking, and writing about whether or not pit bulls should be kept as pets in Scappoose. Their analysis of this complex issue has been very impressive; I am excited to see their finished works.

In language arts we have started unit three. Our first selection is about the Great Chicago fire, and focuses on arguments and claims made by the author and figurative language. On Wednesday we will begin "Airborn", an exciting science fiction story about a hot air balloon rescue. Our students will be looking at plot development and point of view. 

Next week, we will be starting a new social studies unit and research project on Ancient China. The students will be placed into "Tsings", or clans, and will complete a variety of projects to learn about the longest organized civilization on Earth. It is a fascinating unit, which culminates into a multi-media project on one of the dynasties in China's history.

In addition to all this, the class is now with Mr. Jeremiah for their physical science unit. He sends home some homework. Please check planners for updates. We are also continuing our health work with Chapter 2: Mental and Emotional Wellness.

Have an excellent week,

Ms. Kinsman