Merry Christmas

I have never seen a snow day since I started teaching. I missed my cute students today but enjoyed playing with Brighton and my husband Chris on our 4-wheeler as we plowed through the snow. I hope you all had a safe and fun day as well. Some things the students might worry about...

They were supposed to finish their fraction flowers over break. I will make these due on the Friday we get back, January 7th so those who are not done can have the week to finish.

Students late work is due the Monday we get back, January 3rd.

Miss Blaisdell and I will open our Christmas presents that Monday as well. We were waiting to do it with the kids today, but missed that opportunity.

We will miss all our students over the Holidays and hope everyone enjoys their break. See you back in school on January 3rd.

Love,

Mrs. Bird

Student of the Week: Parker Folsom

Parker's wordle based off of his pyramid. He was our student of the week this week, 12/13-12/17.

Friday, Dec. 17

There was a mix-up regarding the December Reading Days Calendar. It was announced that it was due today, however it is still due on January 5th.

Reminder: all missing score assignments are due on 12/21/10!

**Many thanks to our parent Christmas story readers this week!!**

Reading: We continued questioning and worked on creating an answer to one of our questions about the "Mary Celeste." Students wrote a story, illustrated it and presented to the class. Many of the stories were very creative! Be sure to ask your student to share his/her story. All students should be finished up with their book group books. If not, they need to be reading this at home and bringing it back daily.

Spelling/Vocabulary: Test was today. Please make sure to be studying your vocabulary words for our unit test--it comes up faster than you think! We'll take a break from Spelling this next week and start up again after the break.

Writing: We had some more time to type up our Personal Narratives. We've run into a problem with the printer (it's broken) and unfortunately we won't be able to have our stories printed until it is fixed. We wrote about our favorite Christmases and enjoyed making a "Grumpy" page for our class book.

Math: We are finishing up our gardens this week. The students have been working very hard on their artwork and it is looking beautiful! Look for these hanging in the halls after break. In January we will begin working on multiplying and dividing fractions.

Social Studies: The students have been preparing some "plays" about Greek Myths. It has been a fun way for them to learn some of the myths that we haven't had a chance to discuss in class.

Science: We were excited to get rid of the moldy bread as it started to make our classroom stink. Viliami and Niki were some of our Moldy Bread winners.

December Reading Days Calendar

There's been a change in the due date for the December Reading Days Calendar. It is now due TOMORROW! Please turn in the total number of days you've read so far in December and how many days you read in a week. If you can't find your calendar, have your parents sign a paper with that information on it.
Thanks!

SIS Grades

Students were sent home with an SIS progress report on Monday. For homework this week, students need to review the zero scores and return it with a parent signature. All work from 11/1-12/10 will be due on December 21st. No work from that time period will be accepted after December 21st. This will make grading a little easier and student's make-up work loads easier at the end of the term.
Students can talk to us if they have any questions about grades or missing work directions. If students need any papers for assignments they need to fill out the "I Need Sheet" in our classroom and we will get it to them as soon as possible. Updated grades can be accessed on SIS at anytime. If you can't remember your username and password, please let one of us know and we will look it up for you.
Thanks!
Mrs. Bird & Miss Blaisdell

Christmas Party Information

Dear Parents and Students,

For our class Christmas party on Monday, December 20 we are going to play a game where we exchange gifts with one another. It is a very fun game some of you might have played before. Mr. Groneman’s classes have done it for many years and always enjoy playing. What each student will need to bring is an inexpensive gift (dollar gifts are great!) that they feel everyone (boy or girl) in the class would love to have and would fight over to get. Find something unique and maybe you will supply the coveted gift everyone wants. It will also need to be wrapped with no tags. Everyone will leave the class with a gift. Please let us know if you cannot bring a gift as extras will be provided. This is not a white elephant gift. We want everyone to leave the class with something they will enjoy.
Mrs. Bird & Miss Blaisdell

Spelling Week 14

1. donate
2. donation
3. conclude
4. conclusion
5. instruct
6. instruction*
7. possess*
8. possession
9. introduce
10. introduction
11. except
12. exception*
13. discuss
14. discussion
15. collide
16. collision
17. oppose
18. opposition
19. fascinate*
20. fascination

Review

21. educate
22. education
23. elect
24. election
    

Challenge

25. detect
26. detection
27. procrastinate*
28. procrastination

*indicates a vocabulary word

Friday, Dec. 10

On the 20 or 21 of December we will be making Gingerbread Men. If you have any beads, buttons, or beans at home to donate to our project, please send them in with your student.

Next week students will be bringing home a missing scores list. After December 21st we will no longer be accepting late work from November or December. This will make our grading a little easier at the end of the term since it was a little out of hand last term.

Math: In rotations students have continued to work on adding and subtracting fractions. In class we have been drawing fraction flowers and will be putting them into gardens next week. Students will bring home a take home test on Adding and Subtracting fractions.

Science: Our mold sure is growing and looks pretty nasty! Clark Planetarium came on Friday and taught about the seasons, moon, and galaxy. Ask your student about new information they learned.

Social Studies: We didn't have much time for social studies this week because we were in charge of lunch duty. We will be learning about some Greek wars and Greek Philosophers.


Reading: We started our questioning unit and read an interesting book called "The Mary Celeste." It is about the crew of a ship who disappeared with no trace. It is a historical mystery that still hasn't been solved. Be sure to ask your students about this fascinating story! Next week students will work on creating an answer story to one of their unanswered questions. I'm excited to see what the students will come up with!

*** Special thanks to our parent volunteers who've been reading us fabulous Christmas stories! You are greatly appreciated!***


Writing: We are finishing up publishing our Personal Narratives. They will be due on Tuesday, December 21! If students do not finish typing in the lab next week, they will have to finish typing at home.


Spelling/Vocabulary: We took our Spelling test today. We'll have one more week of Spelling next week and then a break until the new year! Remember that if you are not satisfied with your Vocabulary test grade, talk to Miss Blaisdell and you can earn up to an 80%.

Student of the Week: Chloe Cook

Chloe's wordle based on her pyramid. She was our student of the week this week, 12/6-12/10.

Mrs. Bird's New Baby

Student of the Week: Ambrian Nielson

Ambrian's wordle based on her pyramid. She was our student of the week last week, 11/29-12/3.

Greek Alphabet Memorizers

Special CONGRATULATIONS to the following students who memorized the Greek Alphabet for extra credit:
*Haydon Cooper
*Parker Folsom
*Jessie Abbott
*Spencer Nelson
*Madison Munro
*Niki Trapnell
*Zac T.

Spelling Week 13

1. correct
2. correction
3. explore
4. exploration
5. admire
6. admiration*
7. subtract
8. subtraction
9. examine
10. examination
11. separate
12. separation*
13. alter
14. alteration*
15. observe
16. observation
17. reflect
18. reflection
19. substitute*
20. substitution

Review

21. confess
22. confession
23. pollute
24. pollution
25. irritate
26. irritation
27. coordinate*
28. coordination

*Indicates vocabulary word

Friday, December 3

**Special thanks to our parents who've been coming in and reading Christmas stories to our class!** If you'd still like to sign up, please contact Delora Argyle.

Reading: We will be finishing up Book Groups before Christmas Break. Some groups will have a little bit longer reading assignments. We'll officially be starting into questioning this next week, as well as doing a fun Greek story.

Writing: We're working on publishing our Personal Narratives. We've also been free writing about our most embarrassing moments. We'll have more publishing time in the weeks to come.

Spelling/Vocabulary: CONGRATS to Haydon Cooper--he earned 100% on his Vocabulary test. Overall, I'm pleased with the vocabulary results. If you were a student who is not pleased with your score or if you received less than 80%, come talk to Miss Blaisdell about ways to improve your test score. Spelling words this past week were Greek words. Next week we'll be onto week 13--ation or ion word endings. We're starting new vocabulary logs next week. Students need to make sure they are finishing these in class and writing sentences with the correct vocabulary word usage.

Math: We continue to work with adding and subtracting fractions. About halfway through next week we will begin a math/art project called fraction flowers. I love this project because it gives the students who love art time to express this talent during math. The sixth grade has started doing math rotations every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. As sixth grade teachers we hope that all students are being challenged and able to be successful in math. The rotations should help with this as each student hopefully gets the math challenge that they need.

Science: Students put a piece of bread in a bag. They decided what variables they thought would help mold grow on their bread. They then either added to the bag or kept it the same and placed it somewhere in the classroom to grow mold. It will be interesting to see what is growing after the weekend.

Social Studies: We learned about two major City-States during Ancient Greek times: Sparta and Athens. Students compared them to the civilizations of the Assyrians and Babylonians. One civilization focuses on the entire being: not only doing strength training but training their minds as well, the other is completely focused on being strong warriors. Ask your student which is which.

Final Reminder: Book Orders

Online Link: www.Scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class Activation Code: H4BPJ
Due TOMORROW