Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Live with Vivacity!

We started the day today with training the student body on how to address our headmaster and dean. We only have one class left to visit tomorrow and then we'll see if the entire student body can do it on Friday!

The assembly is at 10:30 - Please join us and watch your children be LEADERS!

we worked on vocabulary and spelling and then into Act 2 scene 1 of Julius Caesar. We studied some more mythology for R-A-L and then moved into common factors for math. All scholars finished their work before going home! Hooray!!!

We took our first history test which I will finish grading this evening, and then we revisited the electromagnetic spectrum. We rounded out our day with Literature Circles and had keyboarding time in library.

Have a blessed evening!


Below are pictures of our Literature Circle teams today working on skits of Penelope and her "wooers" from Homer. :)





Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Punctuality!

The scholars started the day diving into their vocabulary and dictionaries. We completed the third scene of Act One of Julius Caesar and are working on the end of act one questions.
Tomorrow we will finish and move onto Act Two.

In math we worked on Prime Factorization today and your scholar should be able to tell you what happens when you take ANY prime number, square it, add 17, and divide by 12.....what is the remainder?

In History we reviewed for the exam tomorrow. All scholars took home their review notes and maps.

We spent our character time today talking about punctuality and how being punctual shows respect for ourselves and others. Some scholars need to straighten up and neaten their lockers so they can be more punctual to class and show respect for their classmates.

Feel free to join us Friday morning for our first Assembly on Respect. Your scholars will be down front leading the entire student body in a greeting for Ms. Downs.








Working on History Review Packets today! :)

Monday, August 29, 2011

Caesar, Prime Numbers, Deserts, and HOMER!

Major ground was covered this morning as the scholars began their day with a spelling and vocabulary test from last week's words. They then got their new list that they will be tested on this coming Friday 9/2. We moved into Latin, (placare) and then straight into Act 1 scene 2 of Julius Caesar, as we watched Cassius manipulate and twist the words out of his "friend's" mouth; Brutus. Tomorrow we will finish Act 1 and the scholars will work in groups to determine what has happened so far.

We then moved into Math and worked with prime factorization today. Remind your scholars that if they need extra practice they need to self-identify to me and I will give them more to do at home. It seemed today that well over 80% of the class had a good grasp of what we were doing. Tomorrow; more of the same.

We finished our History unit today on Deserts. The test will be Wednesday and the scholars will need to plot every desert we have studied on a world map, along with the multiple choice part of the test. Tomorrow we will work in groups and go over a review packet. They can then take that all home and be sure of it by Tuesday.

The scholars had music today, and they have notes that they are responsible for learning for that class. Please remind them to look them over before two weeks from today which is the next time they will have music.

We rounded out the day by beginning Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. We have broken up into Literature Circle groups for this book and teams have chosen names. We have everything from Team Dynamite to Team Sagacious Squirrels! :). Once the students have had some time in this book they will begin seeing parallels between the mythological heroes of the past and our superheros of today.

Tomorrow we will be enjoying time in Art. Please be sure your scholar brings all required items for Art Class.

Have a good evening!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Happy BIrthday Chairing Ceremony!!!!



Andrew and Sierra were the first to experience the "chairing ceremony" in the sixth grade today.....they were promptly placed upon a pedestal as the entire class sang merrily "Happy Birthday to You!"....at which point they were required to keep a straight face as we proclaimed "Ain't He/She Cute!"....Sierra had to stay up for two verses because she couldn't keep a straight face. Andrew was a man of stone, and managed to not even smile a tad bit! We were happy to share their birthday treats and get to go home for the weekend!

We started our reading and performing skits of Julius Caesar today. We heard lots of "You bloody knave"....especially out of the boys. We have completed Act 1 Scene 1 and will move on tomorrow.

Wyatt Flint, the mystery student returned today!!!! Welcome back WYATT!....the Scholars were quick to get him into the routine, and he's busy making up lots of work to get on schedule with us....it's great to have EVERYONE in attendance :)

We also spent time on our practice problems in math today, read section 5 of the Deserts unit in History and learned how to properly exit the building, both routes, for a fire drill. We will be having our first drill Monday morning, and the scholars are ready to go!

Monday the scholars have a spelling and vocabulary test first thing. They will then be visiting other classes throughout the day to teach all the other grades how to properly address Ms. Downs and Ms. Demeter when they enter our rooms. The scholars will teach the classes, practice with them, and then at our assembly on Friday the scholars will lead the entire student body in standing and properly addressing Ms. Downs when she enters the gymnasium. It will be a fun time for all!

Have a glorious weekend!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Come Into The Light! :)














So the scholars started their day in the normal way, working with Latin roots and vocabulary and spelling words. We moved quickly into setting the stage for Shakespeare, and many are anxious to get their hands on the political power struggle that we are about to unfold. This group of scholars will certainly enjoy Julius Caesar.

After Language arts and Read-A-Loud we spent almost 2 hours working on number lines and placing fractions and decimals on them. Most have a good handle on this procedure. The scholars were reminded at the end of the day that if they did not have a good handle on it, they should take it home and review it tonight.

We read about the Australian Desert today, and the Aborigine people, and then went straight to lunch!

After lunch the scholars spent time in the computer lab working with Mrs. Pockrus on computer keyboarding.

After computer we went right into our first science experiment. Have your students explain to you what they did today, and make sure they discuss photons and the visible light spectrum in the process. This conversation will help them to review what we are learning.

The photos today are of our experiment. If you have questions, ask your scholar to explain! :)


Monday, August 22, 2011

Beginning to get Busy!







Scholars hit the floor running this morning, with our first spelling/vocab list that they are working on this week. They can sign onto Spelling City this evening, right here through the blog link and spend some time working with them (10 minutes) or they can simply work on them at home, practicing writing them in cursive, spelling them out loud, etc. They will be looking up definitions tomorrow morning.

We moved quickly into Language Arts, got our first Latin root (com) and then into our summer reading groups. We had Five groups present a series of items to the class. They had an introduction stating the book title, the author and the setting. They then had to report on the conflict of the novel, and the overall problem and resolution. They then performed a skit from one of their favorite parts of the book, and lastly presented a persuasive closing as to why everyone else in the class should read the book. Tomorrow they will write about another novel they read this summer. They were given grades as a group based on the five parts of the assignment, and all group members earned the same grade. Overall they were very well done.

We jumped into Math, studying review of factors, multiples, prime numbers, and order of operations. The classwork was review to prepare for the first lessons we will be starting tomorrow. If your scholar is not SOLID in these four skills, please have them working at home. I will provide extra examples if they need them.

After Math we began our unit on the Deserts of the World. Two scholars knew that the Mojave Desert is partly in Utah! We will continue this unit and have a unit test on Wednesday, August 31st.

We then enjoyed a lunch break, and headed into science discovering and refracting light today. We learned the electromagnetic spectrum and will be working with it all week. The photos today are your scholars breaking up white light into the spectrum and coloring the colors on their cards.

Music was our first special today. Your scholar can fill you in on what they learned! :)

Friday, August 19, 2011

I OBJECT!

Shane presenting his refutation and argument.
Students refining their arguments to be prepared to speak!
Adam opened the debate repeating the resolution and affirming it.
Emily being specific about why she WANTS her allowance :)
Today the scholars started off with mad minutes for math. They will be having these little minute routines where they are quizzed on math facts all throughout the year.

We then began drawing and preparing our grammar cards for grammar practice. Today we looked once again at a noun, and how it is used in speech.

We spent a significant amount of time on learning why we study science and the Scientific Method. Ask your scholar if they can name the steps for you in order. Every student should begin thinking about what it is that they would like to discover or test for their science experiment project in March. We had quite a few fine examples explained today.

We then began learning the vocabulary surrounding debate. The scholars are learning how to test a resolution, set up a criterion,and refute an argument. We had a line debate today and the resolution was: Be it resolved; allowance does more harm than good, therefore children should not get allowance."
It made for an interesting debate with some very well thought out refutations. Ask your scholar to fill you in and see the pictures above.

We ended the day by starting to build our brain inventories in our planners. Scholars will have a pool of ideas for writing and various assignments based on what they are inventorying in their brains. They were quite amazed at how much they actually know, and we haven't even scratched the surface!

These scholars ROCK!!

Have a great weekend! Enjoy the end of summer! :)

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Winding Up!

The scholars started their morning with organizing their lockers (which they have proven they are very good at doing) and labeling every notebook and folder. If your scholar had folders WITHOUT center keepers, (the three metal prongs that hold paperwork) I asked them to go to Office Max and get them for a quarter a piece. They will be handed packets that are 3 hole punched quite often,and they need to be kept in the center keeper.

Once we were finished with that, and learning a bit about what we are going to adventure through together this year, all the scholars took a math assessment. Most are very rusty and were told that this evening it would behoove most of them to brush up on the times tables.

Planners are to be signed EVERY night, and even though there's nothing written down for homework, they can fill you in on what we did today! :)

After our math assessment we designed acrostics with our names to be placed on the bulletin board for Back to School night. The scholars did a lovely job!

We had a time of math brush up with a card game, that the scholars can fill you in on, as well as receiving the Book Report Project Sheet for the entire year. The scholars will only be completing four of the 19 options they have, so they will have to choose wisely.

We have two August birthdays, Andrew Antczak and Sierra Williams. We will be celebrating their birthdays in the 15 minutes before heading home on Friday the 26th. Parents are welcome to join us, or send in a treat for the class to share before heading home.

Enjoy your evening! :)

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

CRAAAAAAZZZYYY BUSY! :)

What a DAY!.....we have moved through our list to do and are moving right along to becoming more and more sagacious.....see below to get a glimpse of what we've achieved so far today!












Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Day is Drawing Near!

Tomorrow will be our first day in the suite. If your students have not brought in all of their supplies they may do so tomorrow and we will get them organized and settled.

We will be working on many NEW skills over the next three days, things that a normal fifth grader would not necessarily be used to. We will be learning how to properly behave as a middle school student, how to be responsible for the honor of raising and lowering the United States Flag daily, how to properly address our headmaster and dean, how to be responsible for learned material, and all of our supplies....

It may seem overwhelming to your scholar at first, and I will try to gently break them in to their new way of life....at least for this year! This is an academically accelerated school. We will be moving at a fast and busy pace. There is little to no downtime during the day, but at the same time our days fly by! Ask any scholar from last year and they will tell you how quickly the year went. We will start digging deep into curriculum on Monday. The next three days will be the preliminaries.

PLEASE NOTE: Back To School Night is next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. I will be handing out the parent handbook, the curriculum map, my disclosure which parents and scholars must sign and return, and covering many other notable topics, such as the new attendance policy. Please try your hardest to be present so we can start right on time. I appreciate your willingness to teach your scholars punctuality and priority!  See you then!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Welcome Sixth Grade Sagacious Scholars!

There have been many busy people working in and around school to get things ready for our incredible year together. Be watching for updates as we go through our first week together as Sagacious Scholars! :)