Persuasive Writing

This week we are starting our first persuasive writing piece. You will be working with a partner to persuade Ms. Kinsman and your class that you and your partner should NOT have writing homework next week. 

Click on the link below to create an outline before you begin your piece. Be sure to print your digital outline before leaving the computer lab. They will not save!

Digital Persuasion Map

Valentines and Basketball

It has been too long since my last blog post! The days we managed to make it to school last month were incredibly productive. In fact, last week I saw the strongest performance on our language arts weekly skills test of the year. Also, student performance on content area work has been stellar. Thank you for sending your students to school ready to learn and work hard!

Hoop-A-Thon

You have hopefully seen the collection envelopes and announcements regarding the upcoming Hoop-A-Thon. This is a great fundraiser for our PTO, and I would like to see all the students participating. If you child has not brought home an envelope, please have them grab an extra from me or the front office. Even a small donation goes a long way to support the field trips, assemblies, and all the extras our PTO helps fund.

Valentine's Day (and the candy)

Oh, boy. Valentine's Day. The most anxiety inducing holiday of the sixth grade year. It has been the sixth grade tradition to hold a team Valentine's Day dance and party for many years. Don't worry: it is very low-key. Mr. Jeremiah puts together a fun playlist of dance music, and the rest of the teachers offer activities and snacks in their classrooms. It is a lot of fun!

I also allow students to pass out Valentine's Day cards in the afternoon. This is not required, but I do ask that if you student brings cards, they bring one for each of their peers. I'll send home a hard copy of our class list with your students soon.

So much candy!!!

 I am also holding a classroom discussion about the staggering volume of candy distributed during this holiday (see image above). While I love candy, and take no issue with small treats in the classroom, I was hoping we could come up with a more creative way of celebrating Valentine's day (without ruining the fun). Do you have any suggestions? Do most parents/families feel like the amount of candy at Valentine's day is okay, and I shouldn't worry so much? Let me know, and I'll take all considerations into account. There is a 'comments' section below. Or, if you would feel more comfortable, please feel free to email me with your concerns or ideas regarding Valentine's day treats. 

Report Cards

Report cards should be coming home this afternoon. There is an insert for parents to sign, indicating you have reviewed your student's report card. If you have any questions or concerns about your child's performance, please do not hesitate to call or email. 

What Else Could I Possibly Have to Share?

I want to give a special thanks to our mystery guest from Wednesday, Jason Nelson. The students loved hearing about his experience as a longshoreman. Congratulations to Daniel and Braden for figuring out his profession.

Next week we will be starting our Maya simulation- one of my favorite units of the year. We are nearly done learning about early human migration and settlements in the Americas. We will also be reading Freedom Walkers, a wonderful non-fiction book about the civil rights movement of the 1950's and 60's and will be working on our first persuasive writing piece. 

I am looking forward to a busy winter. Let's hope we have a bit more school in the coming weeks!

Welcome Back!

The new year is upon us, and we are off to a running start. This week, the team has decided that we will NOT be holding a make-up Christmas party. Instead, we will save our funds for some end-of-year fun (who knows: we might need to celebrate the Fourth of July here at school!). If, however, your student purchased a book or socks for the gift exchange, Mrs. Angelo has graciously offered to come up and lead the exchange tomorrow afternoon. 

Going Back in Time...

Before winter break began, we did manage to fit in some fun. We had a visit from the amazing film producer, John Waller, who was our third mystery guest of the year. Not only did he share some of his work, but he brought his drone! See below for some awesome pictures from his visit.

We also visited our kinder buddies and read aloud their Santa letters. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera, but the students had great fun sharing their letters and coloring holiday themed pictures with the little guys. It has been fun watching your sixth graders interact and act as role models for the younger students. I look forward to continuing our visits as the year progresses.

We also had a fun Ugly Christmas Sweat Day and Hooty Prize movie celebration. Despite our missed days, the weeks before winter break were productive and fun.

Paul was our Mystery Guest winner!

Checking out the cool drone.

Ugly Christmas Sweaters!

Quick Announcements

A couple of quick announcements: Mrs. VanDomelen, our district nurse, wanted us to let you know about a free heart health screening available on January 18, from 8:00am-3:00pm. It will be held at Scappoose High School. Here's a link for more information about this program: www.playsmartgetscreened.org

As we get back into the swing of things, please remember students will be assigned weekly writing homework. This is always due on the last day of the week. This week's assignment asked the students to write a letter to Ms. Hessong requesting a guest speaker of their choice for an assembly. In addition, you should be seeing science homework a couple of times a week through the end of January. Thank you for you support in helping students develop good study skills before the middle school homework demands of next year!


Have an excellent week! Happy New Year!

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!