Book Orders

Today I sent home scholastic book orders with each student. They are due next Friday, September, 17. I love book orders because they have the best books for the lowest prices. When looking through the catalogs you will notice that Arrow has books that are just about right for every student. Tab has some older/mature reader books. Keep that in mind as you look through the titles. If you have any questions about the contents of a particular book please let me know and I will help you as much as possible.

Arrow:
The Red Pyramid: A fun read about Egypt. I am reading this one right now and love all the new information I am learning about the Ancient Civilization. It is by an author I know and love Rick Riordan.
The Last Olympian: The last book in The Lightning Thief series. I enjoy reading these books over and over. If your student has not read them yet, we urge you to wait as we will read the first book as a class, but it is fun to have the rest to read when we finish.
39 Clues: Mysteries written by your favorite authors. Each one is written by someone new.
Island of the Blue Dolphins: A classic story about a girl on her own who must learn to survive off the land.
Space Encyclopedia & Explore the Moon: Expository texts that follow our science core topics.
There are many more books, ones for those who love mysteries, animal lovers, joke books...

Tab:
Mocking Jay: The last book of the Hunger Game series. Great books, but very mature. I would be careful with who you let read these books as the content is for a more mature audience. The first two books are in this catalog as well.
Sabotaged: Margaret Haddix is a wonderful author. I have not read this book but love Double Identity written by her as well. The whole missing series in the book order.
Uglies series: Very intense books, but once again for muture readers.
To Kill a Mockingbird & Freak the Mighty: Classics!
Boy at War: Great for war lovers

Arrow October: I sent home a new catalog later in the week because it had "THE LOST HERO" which is Rick Riordan's new series. You can preoder the book and many students were excited about it. Also, THE BFG is in this order for only $1. I absolutely love this creative story!!

You can order from the cataloges and send the order to school with your student or do it online.
Online Ordering Information
Web address: scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class Activation Code: GVV6J

With new online ordering from Scholastic Book Clubs, you can choose from a much wider selection of books than in the printed flyer. Plus, you can send your orders directly to me online and use your credit card.

Best of all, our class earns a FREE book every time a parent places their order online.

It's so simple! Here's how it works:

• SIGN UP at www.Scholastic.com/bookclubs. On the parent page, click the "Don't have a User Name and Password?" link, then register for your own username and password. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code shown above. This code ensures that your order is sent to me.
• SELECT the books you'd like to order from over 500 titles available online...and take advantage of online-only specials and discounts.
SEND your order to me online by the due date. Books will be delivered directly to our classroom, as always.

Thanks,
Shannon Bird
Shannon.bird@nebo.edu

Friday, September 3

The weeks are already flying by. Students were able to start doing their class jobs this week. Police men have been writing tickets for breaking school rules, but we have also received many bonuses written for excellent behavior. Thank you Jessie and Zach N. for our wonderful World Newscasts. Thanks to all the students for completing their jobs.

*Reminder that our basket for the basket auction is "Family Fun Night". If you can donate anything to our theme by next Tuesday that would be great. Thanks to those who already have sent their donations.

Math: We finished working with multiplication and division strategies. Next week we will practice these while we learn about place value, comparing numbers, rounding, and estimating.

Science: We will be graphing the students survey results on Tuesday and look forward to learning the real answers as we study the resons for the seasons. Students wrote descriptive paragraphs about their favorite season and shared them with the class. They did an excellent job at using their senses to describe the mystery season.

Social Studies: Students looked at artifacts from years ago and tried to guess what they would have been used for. They then shared their own artifacts. We talked about how archeologists use these to learn about the ancient civilizations. As a class, we discussed the hunterer/gatherer civilization. They had to move around often to follow their food.

Spelling: This week the students took their first spelling test and began studying their first 5 vocabulary words. Next week we'll be taking a pre-test on Tuesday and have a post-test on Friday. In addition, we'll be studying 5 new vocabulary words. Students should be regularly studying and reviewing these words for vocabulary unit tests that occur every 6 weeks. Look for weekly spelling lists and vocabulary words to be posted on this blog.

Reading: We had a special guest, Mrs. Albrecht from the district, come and talk to us about reading stamina. Our class goal is 15 minutes and we've been working on silently reading for 15 minutes a day. We also started learning about the 6 elements of a story star and will continue examining those elements in picture books this week.

Writing: This week we completed our hands poems--they look great in the hall! We also did a yearbook entry and started exploring the writing process with our personal narratives. We started off with a fun lesson about memories, wrote those ideas in our idea books and are now expanding one of those memory ideas into a personal narrative. We'll continue going through the writing process with our personal narratives this week.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend! We'll see you on Tuesday!

First Week--August 27

Wow! Can you believe how fast the first week of school has gone by? We have been having so much fun in class and look forward to the rest of the year. Here are some things we have been doing.

Math: We started out the year by reviewing multiplication. The students shared some of their favorite strategies to solve multiplication problems and learned many new ones. We will continue with the review next week as well as review division.

Science: The students watched a short video on how large we are when compared to atoms and single celled organisms, but also how small we can be compared to the universe and beyond. We read Dr. Xargles and talked about the difference between an observation and inference.

Social Studies: Students shared with the class the places they have traveled to around the world. Then they labeled and colored a world map. We discussed the different ancient civilizations they will study this year. Students analyzed a cookie and found civilizations, rivers, and mountains. They wrote about which civilizations would survive the longest and why, focusing on the land features surrounding each one.

*Students will be looking at artifacts on Monday. Have them bring one in to share about themselves.


Spelling: Look for Spelling List 1 homework to come home in your student's homework folder on Monday. We will be having our first Spelling Test on Friday!

Reading: This week we read several stories with themes that applied to our classroom. On the first day of school we read "First Day Jitters" and the students wrote about any 'jitters' they had for this year. We read "Michael's Golden Rules" and discussed how his ten golden rules of baseball apply to our class. In addition, we read "Knots on a Counting Rope" to help us remember how important each of us is in our classroom. We also created our own knotted bracelets. If the students wear this bracelet on the last day of class they will get a treat! Next week will be starting a class read aloud and have more SSR time.

Writing: Students started writing and publishing their Hands poems. We brainstormed different verbs, adverbs, and adjectives that could describe our hands. Then we turned some of these words into poems about our hands--what our hands can do and what we hope our hands will do in the future. We will finish these up on Monday and they will be on display in our hallway this week! I was very impressed with the poems the students wrote! :)

Also this week we came up with a city name, motto and symbol for our classroom community. We are Blazing Birdville and our motto is "to infinity and beyond!" Special thanks to Spencer Nelson who drew our class symbol! Look for a picture posted on here in the near future! Each student created their own house for our city which will be displayed this week.

Have a fabulous weekend and we'll see you on Monday!

Grades & Attendance

Here is the link that you need to visit when checking your student's grades and attendance. Please make sure that you have an account created and that you keep your information up to date. Watch for your username and password in the bottom right hand corner of your student's homework folder on Monday, August 30. Thanks!

http://www.nebo.edu/parents/sis

Volunteer Sign-Up Link

Complete the questionnaire to volunteer in our classroom. Make sure you press submit.
Thanks!

Classroom Information!

Thank you for visiting our blog. We will be updating this weekly with school and classroom information. We hope that you will find it to be a useful source to come to. As the school year quickly approaches we are both so delighted to have the opportunity to be working with your students next year. Please always feel free to contact us with any concerns you may have.

Management Plan: Our classroom will run like its own little community. The students will each be giving jobs that they are in charge of. They will receive fines and tickets based on behavior, and paychecks for completing their jobs. We feel that this will teach the students responsibility and helps them be more connected to their class. As a class we will come up with what things will be fined (chewing gum, disrupting the class, for example) and how much they will be fined. Those with excellent behavior will be given bonuses. Students are saving their money to get into a class party. There they will be able to spend their extra money earned on different privileges and treats.

Subjects: Mrs. Bird will be teaching in the mornings and the subjects of Math, Science, and Social Studies. We know that many are concerned about the math core for this year. It will be tough but we know that the students will be able to understand all the concepts and feel success in this area. Science is taught by all the sixth grade teachers through rotations. This gives them a feel for having more than one teacher and helps prepare for Jr. High.

Ms. Blaisdell will teach in the afternoon and cover all the literacy subjects consisting of: comprehension, book groups, writing, spelling & vocabulary. Look for weekly spelling lists and vocabulary words to come home every monday. There will also be opportunities for parents help in the classroom in some of these areas.

Homework will be handed out every Monday and collected on Friday. Parents are asked to always check their child's work. There is an area for parent signature, and this is worth homework points.

Please make sure students promptly to school each day. The first bell rings at 8:55, and learning begins immediately. The class goes to lunch from 11:30-12:05. They are released from school at 3:15.

Scroll down to read all about your new teachers!!

Meet Miss Blaisdell

Hello new sixth graders! I’m so excited to meet all of you and I’m looking forward to a fun, learning-filled year! This will be my first year of teaching and I’m thrilled that I get to spend my first year with all of you! As Mrs. Bird already posted, sixth grade is going to be a lot of fun, but also a lot of hard work. I know that working together, we’ll all experience great success! I will be teaching you literacy—spelling, reading, writing, etc. Along with Mrs. Bird, I’ll do my best to make learning as fun as possible. I hope that you will be eager to listen, learn and do your best this year!

I was born and raised in Boise, Idaho (yes, I’m a Broncos fan, as long as they aren’t playing BYU!) I’m the youngest of five children. I have 3 brothers and 1 sister. My two oldest brothers, Darrin & Craig, and my sister, Sharyn, are all married—I have 12 adorable nieces and nephews that you will hear all about, I’m sure! My other brother, Brent, recently graduated from BYU and is working in Provo. It’s possible that you will get to meet some of my family members as well—most of us are big BYU football fans and love attending the games. I graduated from BYU in April of this year. I love BYU sports and will always “bleed blue!”
Left to Right: My friend Jen and myself at graduation

In June, I got to visit my sister and her family in Ohio for a couple of days. I had a fun time swimming, playing games, and bike riding with my nieces Katelyn and Maya and my nephew Jacob.
Left to right:Brother-in-law David, my sister Sharyn, Maya Front row: Katelyn, Jacob

I also visited Boise a couple of times this summer and got to hang out with my brother Craig’s family—Joshua, Ryan, Avery, and Camden!
Left to right: Josh, sister-in-law Jaime, Camden, Avery, Ryan, my brother Craig

This week I get to go play with the rest of the kiddos when I visit my brother Darrin’s family. Ben is my oldest nephew and is starting sixth grade in a week! I don’t have any recent electronic pictures of them right now, but you’ll be able to see some in our classroom.

This summer I’ve also enjoyed spending time with all of my friends having crazy adventures. We’ve been rock climbing, camping, hiking, played night games, and went down the natural waterfall slide in Alpine. The water was freezing and it was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done, but so exhilarating!
Having fun with friends

When I’m not out playing with friends, I get to be a nanny to a cute little baby named Rhea. I hope you are having a relaxing and eventful summer as well! I’m looking forward to the start of school and getting to meet all of my new students!