The Time of Year When Everything is Important!

When I was in high school, I wrote for the school's newspaper. My teacher always emphasized the importance of the "inverted triangle" style of writing: the most important news needed to come first! This week, I am not sure what is most important. We have a lot happening in our class over the next two weeks.

The Fun Stuff (or What I Think is Important!)

Please use these links to check out the excellent story in the Spotlight about our mini-boat and check The Red, White, and Blue Crew's voyage. 

Your student may also have told you about our recent visit to Mrs. Leeper's kindergarten class. The sixth graders were paired with a kinder and asked a series of questions to help prepare for our upcoming Santa Letters. We have received the kinder's Santa lists and will be writing responses this week. Next Tuesday, we will head back down to Grant Watts to deliver the messages and spend some time with our buddies. 

Christmas Party & The Sock and Book Exchange

Next Friday, at 1:45, we will be holding a grade level Christmas party. If you would like to join us, please let me know. We always need lots of volunteers. This year, we will have a movie, iPads, crafts, and treats for the students to enjoy. In addition, if your students would like to participate in an OPTIONAL sock or book exchange, please have your child bring a wrapped, gender neutral new pair of socks or new book, for a fun white elephant activity. Again, this is optional. 

Country Reports and Extension Project

Please remember, next week we will begin the presentation of our country report extension projects. Many students have already completed and turned in their work. Each student will take 1-3 minutes to share their project. This is not a formal speech, but your student may want to practice what they would like to share with the class when they present their project. I am looking forward to hearing and seeing their work. 

Canned Food Drive & Blanket Donations

We are off to a great start for our canned food drive. We are currently in the lead, with a little over 40 cans of food. I will be bringing in a sizable donation next week, but any support we can receive from families is greatly appreciated by our local Kiwanas group. The food drive will end next Friday, December 15.

Scrip

Finally, thank you to all of you for your support of the Scrip fundraiser. Jennifer Kilman has been responsible for filing the orders each week, while Joy Bruan has driven to Tigard (!!) to pick up the gift cards. We really could not do this without their time and energy. Thank you to everyone for making this fundraiser such a huge success!

Country Report Update

This week, the students have been hard at work on their country reports. We have been using computer lab time for research, language arts time to revisit skills like writing introductions, and social studies time to review the different economic systems. In other words, we've been busy. 

Unfortunately, we are not quite as on schedule as I had hoped to be. As a result, I have asked the students to finish writing their country report introduction this evening for homework. The thesis statements were completed in class. A hook and connecting, or bridge sentence, is all they need to add. This will help ensure we stay on track next week. We have also had less time to complete research; this means the research portion of the project is a more ongoing process than I anticipated. Please do not worry if your student has not completed his or her research; this will be finished in class. 

Otherwise, please encourage your student to keep working toward having their extension project ready for Monday, December 11th. I have six volunteers who have offered to present on that Monday. I will send out a list of dates for presentation tomorrow afternoon.

Thank you for your support!
Ms. Kinsman

The Blog Post I've Attempted to Finish for Four Days Straight

And here I am, still not finished at 4:44 on Thursday afternoon!

Conferences

How are we already to conferences and Thanksgiving? This year is absolutely flying by, and I know it is because we are having such a great year! Thank you to families that have returned conference schedule materials. I have everyone scheduled, but I am still waiting for a few confirmations. I will be sending emails out this evening to ensure we are ready for next week. If you have any last minute changes, please feel free to call the office at any time. They have access to my schedule and will make the necessary changes. I am also available to complete conferences over the phone. 

I would like your student to attend conferences! I find the students do well when they can hear and discuss their successes and areas needing improvement in person. On the other hand, I also understand when delicate topics are best handled by the adults. Either way, I look forward to meeting with you next week. 

Scrip Sales

Another HUGE thank you to your support of our sixth grade fundraiser. We had over $2,000 of Scrip orders this week. That is wonderful! We will be promoting another sale during conferences. If you are available to help sell Scrip on the Monday or Tuesday evening of conferences, from 5:00-8:00 pm, please let me know. We would like to have a table at the bottom of the stairs, where parents can stop and make a quick Scrip order. You will need to be able to collect checks or cash, ensure order forms are filled out correctly, and answer questions about the program. Please let me know if you are available to help, and I'll sign you up!

We will also be doing Scrip gift card sales at this year's Santa's Workshop. We will be selling $5 Starbucks, Cold Stone, and Burger King cards. Again, we need parent support to help manage those sales. If you available to "man" a Scrip table during the day, from December 11-15, please let me know and I'll add you to our volunteer list.

Homework and the Holidays

This week, I introduced our country report. Students have been assigned a country from the Americas to research, write a report, and complete an extension activity. This evening, your student should be showing you the extension report options and come back tomorrow morning with a decision on which project they will complete. The assignment sheet also includes the important due dates. Please note that research does NOT need to be completed by tomorrow. I will give some additional time after Thanksgiving to finish this portion of the project. 

In the coming weeks, I will not be assigning additional writing homework, as I would like the extension project completed at home. The formal writing piece will be completed in class. The students will need to be ready to present their projects the week of December 11-15. Each extension project is a little different, so I do not have a set of standard expectations for the presentation. However, the students should come with a completed project, which they can discuss with the class, on December 11. Presentations should be fewer than five minutes in length. 

Have a wonderful weekend! See you soon,
Ms. Kinsman

Trying to Keep Track of the Week

The coming week and a half has a number of special days. It probably doesn't help that the elementary, middle, and high schools are all on different schedules! Please see below for a (hopefully) helpful guide.

Wednesday, November 1	Visit from Nate (Maritime Museum) to finish painting and preparing our boats.
Friday, November 3	Pajama Day; 6th Grade Read-In; Pride Assembly
Wednesday, November 8	School and Evening 6th Grade Music Performance Evening Show at 6:30 Students Arrive at 6:15 Be sure to buy some Scrip (more information to come)
Thursday, November 9	No School: Report Card Preparation Day
Friday, November 10	No School: Veteren’s Day

It will be a busy, but fun, two weeks! Conferences are also just around the corner. I will be sending home scheduling information soon. We will likely wait until conferences to pass out report cards. This will give us a wonderful opportunity to discuss your child's progress and goals for the year. 

Have a Happy Halloween!

-Ms. Kinsman

Halloween Looms Before Us...

Whew! What a busy couple of weeks we have had here in the sixth grade. The coming month is filling fast with a number of activities and projects. Let's start with next week!

Halloween

On Tuesday, October 31st, we will be holding our Halloween party at 1:40pm. It will go for an hour. I have one parent volunteer helping to gather food, but could use a couple more for food prep and general support throughout the party time. If you would like to join us, please feel free to send a quick email, and I'll put your name on the list.

Scrip

The sixth grade is starting a new fundraiser. We will be selling Scrip. If you have never purchased scrip before, it is basically buying gift cards for local stores and getting a cut of the value of the card. For instance, we get 4% of every Fred Meyer gift card we sell.

In the past, the office has sent home scrip information, placed the orders, etc. However, very few people participated. We plan to change this! The sixth grade team is pre-purchasing gift cards to sell directly to families! We think we will have a lot of success and have a lot of ideas on how to boost interest.

Here's where you could help: we need a few parent volunteers who would be willing to man Scrip tables 1-2 times a month, maybe help place and organize orders, or coordinate volunteers. Other than working a Scrip table, much of the scrip work could be done from home. If this sounds like something you would be interested in helping with, please let me know.

The Fun Stuff

We had another visit from Nate, our mini-boat expert, on Monday. We worked on priming our vessels, designing flags and stickers, working on our first letter to the sister school in Japan, and putting the finishing touches on our instructions if our boat is lost. Our time with Nate is busy, loud, but incredibly productive. Not only are our students learning more about boats, but the writing and organization of this project is proving a valuable experience for the kids.

Everyone is busy working on the boat project.

What Else?

Finally, this week we should be wrapping up our partner interview projects. My hope is we can hold a gallery walk of the projects early next week. I am so impressed with the quality of multi-media project that students are producing this year.

We are also taking our first unit test in reading, to assess where students are at with their independent reading and comprehension levels, completing a persuasive writing pre-assessment, we have science test over genetics early next week, and are still hard at work on our geography simulation. As you can see, there is never a dull moment in sixth grade!

When the camera comes out, they get a bit distracted! However, these are your students hard at work on the second assessment of the day!

Have a great rest of the week!

-Ms. Kinsman

Some Quick Announcements

Picture Day and Homecoming

If your family is purchasing pictures of your child, please make sure to send the picture envelopes tomorrow morning. I think you can order additional prints after the pictures are taken, as well.

We also have the high school homecoming parade tomorrow afternoon. Orange and black clothing and/or spirit wear adds to the festivities. Students may change after pictures, during their lunch, if necessary.

Upcoming Halloween Party

We are planning to have a sixth grade Halloween party on Tuesday, October 31st from 1:45-2:45. If you would like to help with food or activities, please let me know as soon as possible. I might also need a parent to do some food shopping ahead of time. If you really love bargain grocery shopping, please let me know, and I'll put your skills to the test!

Box Tops and Other Fundraising Opportunities

If you have any box tops you would like to donate for the fourth grade fundraiser, they are currently collecting for the fall drive. In addition, we sent home paperwork last week for a Taekwondo fundraiser. This is a great opportunity for our PTO to make a decent amount of money. 

Finally, our PTO is also looking for volunteers to work the student store. If you would like to help out, please contact the PTO with your contact information. Here is a link to their website: http://ottopetersenparentorganization.weebly.com/ . 

Have a wonderful three day weekend!

Mini-Boats Require a lot of Sanding!

Our first visit with Nate from the Maritime museum was a huge success. I hope your students came home and shared what a fun afternoon we had! From sanding hulls, to mixing epoxy, all the students were busy helping to prepare our mini-boat for its voyage. This includes writing special instructions to attach to the vessel to help it avoid the fate of other similar boats.

I am excited for our next visit with Nate, when we will finish assembling our boat, adding paint, a name plate, and discussing our first meeting with the sister school in Japan. All around, this is going to be a wonderful experience!

Don't forget, tomorrow is crazy hair day! 

Have a great weekend!