Week of Feb. 10-14, 2025
*Valentine's Day party will be this Friday, Feb. 14 at 10 in the morning (it's an early release day at 11:15 am--no recess or lunch that day). The party committee brought home treat lists a couple weeks ago--please ask your child for it if they're on this party committee. Also, Valentines to distribute are optional for all, but if kids do want to bring them to hand out, please be sure they have one for each class member of 6-S--a list is provided on my February monthly newsletter.
*WIN Time continues each day at 8:00 am--We'll be working on MATH this week. Fridays include "check-ups" for all students who work with Mrs. Rauch or myself.
*Young Author writing also continues.
*Be sure to check-out the photo gallery periodically!
*In case of any e-learning days, students will go to the Google Classroom: Homeroom; there will be a slideshow telling the day's work. They'll also need to check specials classes.
*Chess does meet this week on Wednesday, Feb. 12 in the cafeteria 7:15-7:45 am. Schedule available on this webpage using the tab to the left.
February 2025 monthly newsletter added--Check it out!! It has updated general info every month and is available through a link on the left side of my webpage at pcwolves.net.
Scott BR Book reading: Current BR Book: students chose their current novel and continue work on the slideshow project. Some kids who are reading much longer books have split their books in half, completing a project with the corresponding half. This current project includes: basic book info like protagonist and antagonist; three "Because this happened, that happened." sentences (cause and effect) to tell how their novel begins; choosing two adjectives, defining them, and citing evidence to support why the chosen adjectives describe a main character, eventually typing a 4-paragraph ToSEEC using those adjectives and pieces of evidence; creating a multiple-choice question (like one that would be on an AR test), providing one correct answer and three incorrect options; emotion felt in the book with evidence and explanation why that emotion appeared. This project's due date: this Thursday, Feb. 13 by the end of the day. This one had a short turn-around so kids have needed to up their daily reading expectations-it's their reading "homework" and their responsibility.
"In-Class" Reading: Since we completed the heroism theme unit, we've begun the next topic and texts: it's longer and centered around five ways authors show inspiration: staying true to yourself, understanding, advice, nature, and creativity. The accompanying slideshow is broken into sections for each way, beginning with being true to yourself. Students already finished answering eleven personality questions that determined each person's "personality color" (just one theory out there about describing personalities) and discussing how such info can be helpful when interacting with others. Next up: paraphrasing famous quotes about self-discovery and stating which one kids can most relate to their own lives. The first text for this unit is the short story "How Tia Lola Came to Stay." As we read about a helpful, colorful aunt who helps her family, we'll cite evidence of her choice to remain true to herself and ultimately type a ToSEEC supporting that idea. After that, I'll read aloud a picture book called Charlie the Caterpillar (one is never too old for picture books, mainly because the theme is noticeable very quickly) and we'll connect that story to our main theme of understanding leads to inspiration. Inspiration can also come from understanding (mainly understanding other people). We'll watch a Ted Talks video featuring Rita Pierson and the importance of connection as it relates to education; reactions and evidence will be typed. Each student will also briefly write about someone in their life who "gets" them like no one else does--these are really important sources of inspiration! Once finished with that, two more short texts will be read (typing main events, main idea, and theme for both) and then they will be compared and contrasted by using a Venn diagram to guide our compare/contrast writing. Both stories deal with a teacher who understands a student's needs and creates a trust between them.
Scott Math: Continuing this week in preparation for upcoming IAR tests, a half hour each day will be devoted to an extra math skill. This week: area of kites and trapezoids, basically by decomposing shapes into smaller, workable polygons. For our regular math times--Monday: Since most everyone wasn't quite ready for the Topic 3 test this past Friday, students will be completing it Monday. They'll be able to use the study guide we filled-out together this past Friday. HW: Starting a color-by-number review of many skills. Tuesday: Starting Lesson 4-1, the focus becomes balancing equations (adding and subtracting) to solve for the given letter--even if answers are easy to figure-out in our heads, we are moving parts of the equations around using inverse operations--the goal is to show those movements on paper. HW: finish the color-by-number started Monday. Wednesday: We'll finish more work with Topic 4, this time balancing equations that include multiplication and division. In class, i25-3 and i25-5 in Savvas will be completed with all work being shown on paper. HW: Start an ixl to practice this skill, working towards a smart score of 100 by next week. Thursday: On whiteboards, students will balance one- and two-step equations that I have placed onto a slideshow, checking with each other for accuracy. HW: WS of balancing equations. Friday: More work with Mean, Median, Mode, and Range; students will gather data from other teachers about years worked in the school district and we'll find MMMR & IQR, create a bar graph of each student's data, use that bar graph to tally ranges, and create Google Bar Graphs to represent those numbers (many steps involved). No Math HW on Fridays.
Language: To connect to our work in Social Studies (Revolutionary War),
independent writing will take place: this past Friday, students randomly chose an important person from the Revolutionary War period and will research basic biographical facts about those figures. For the quick essay, students will choose a significant history quote to start their paragraph and then turn the recorded facts into specific patterned sentences. Eventually, the final copy will be written in cursive and displayed on lockers. Extra! Extra! time: cursive includes writing a poem in their spiral and also creating one of their own.
Social Studies: We started finding adjective synonyms for the word "miserable" that we'll attach to cited evidence from two sources: a nonfiction journal by a surgeon during the war and a historical fiction novel about a soldier living at Valley Forge in a very tough situation. Our goal will be to prove the dedication of the soldiers by surviving miserable conditions. Later, We'll read an article about the Revolutionary War, an important part in American history, using evidence to help define words and also support the idea of heroism (to connect to our reading topic). A Weekly Reflection will be completed every Friday based on the word "STARS", telling thoughts from the week. (Thursday this week due to party and early release Friday)
Science: Nutrition work continues. Macronutrients are being explored, working with what percentages make-up the daily recommendations in a person's diet. We're looking at labels of everyday foods, figuring out how many calories come from each serving in regards to carbs, proteins, and fats. We're deciding if the breakdowns match the recommendation. After watching nine different strategies of advertisers in video ads, the kids are now working to identify the strategies used with given print ads, ultimately creating an ad for a healthy food that will convince sixth graders to choose better nutrition.