Well, this isn't the way any of us hoped to encounter the holiday season. These nerve wracking circumstances have reminded me to hold those I love close, and keep near that which is most important to me. Please stay safe this holiday season, and I hope that you all find time despite the smoke and stress to remember the spirit of the season: to be selfless of heart and generous in our love, especially for those in our community that have lost a great deal.
I hope you also find time to laugh with your family, and feel the true joy of Hanukkah and Christmas. On the eve of this break, I hope you'll permit me, without judgement or concern toward any "religious" agenda, to share the final line line of the classic children's story we began watching last week: “…and it was always said of him [Scrooge], that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!” See you in a couple weeks.
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We're back from break and charging ahead for the next three weeks! In Language Arts this week and next, we're taking a look at Heroes in mythology. Sixth graders began the short unit with the conversation "What makes a Hero?" and spent their first class session defending their chosen "sides" for statements about qualities of a hero. We then turned to look at the role of the classic hero in mythology, and read an abridged version of The Epic of Gilgamesh in class this week and discussed character traits of a hero. This unit focuses specifically on heroes in mythology and the student definition of what makes a hero; they will be introduced to the literary idea of the hero's journey later in Laguna's middle school.
In History class, we have wrapped up ancient Egypt and begun studying the Hebrews and foundations of Judaism. This week’s lessons focused on the accomplishments and contributions of Abraham, Moses, David and Solomon. Students worked together to create scrolls with illustrations and information about each. Students finished their Chapter 3 math test on Thursday, which wraps up our unit on multiplying and dividing fractions and decimals. Despite confusion and nerves leading up to the test, all students performed well! Wishing you all a wonderful winter weekend! I can't believe it's Thanksgiving break already! This year has flown by, primarily due to the wonderful enthusiasm this group has for learning. This year, I've felt particularly grateful for my circumstances: to get to teach passionate, positive students in a supportive and innovative work environment. Thank you, all of you, for being a part of that. This past week in class, we managed to fit quite a bit of learning around the ERB's each day. In Language Arts, sixth graders drafted, edited, and submitted their first five paragraph essay. The essay asked students to observe what factors (physical, emotional) helped Salva survive his journey, and to draw lessons about humankind from his story. Also this week, students were able to connect in a Google Hangout with another class in Wisconsin and share their experiences with the book. It has been fun to go back and visit the students' written responses on some of the pages, and see middle school students from France and New Zealand responding to them. On Wednesday, we watched a short documentary and learned about Salva's organization, Water for South Sudan. On Thursday, Laguna alum Spencer Dusebout came and shared his experience installing wells and water filtration systems in over 17 different countries with his organization, Hands4Others. Friday's bake sale raised over $200, which the students voted to donate to Salva's organization, Water for South Sudan.
This week, sixth graders finished reading A Long Walk to Water! Salva Dut, the main character in the text, is a real person who founded Water for South Sudan. Wonderfully, the minute the sixth graders heard the organization was real, they wanted to host a fundraiser to support it. You can all expect a bake sale sometime next week! We also studied the development of theme over the course of the novel, and sixth graders were introduced to the five paragraph essay structure that will be due next week. Since A Long Walk to Water is one of the books for the Global Read Aloud, a goal is to connect with other classes around the country (and world) who are reading it. Thursday, we 'skyped' (Google Hangouts) with a class in Virginia! Students on both ends first had to complete a geography challenge by trying to figure out which state the other was in. They asked questions such as "Are you east of the Mississippi?" and "Is your state landlocked?" and crossed out options on maps in their groups. We then moved on to discussing the book with the other class. In History Class this week, sixth graders worked in teams to write skits about life in the different levels of the social pyramid. While no group got to be the Pharaoh, we enjoyed presentations from Government Officials, Priests, Scribes, Artisans, and Peasants. On Wednesday, sixth graders read about and watched a series of clips on ancient Egyptian religion, mummies, tombs, and the afterlife. They also received an introduction to hieroglyphics, which we'll work more with next week. In Math class this week, we focused on multiplying and dividing decimals.
In Science, students worked to maintain the robust school garden, and began the new Muscles unit. In Art, the students have made calaveras (skulls) for Dia de los Muertos, and those are currently being exhibited in the library. They are just starting a project about American sculptor, Alexander Calder. The kids are making assemblages base on Calder's piece, "The Circus"; mini kinetic sculptures base on the circus. They may be asking to bring material from home ie. wire, wood, fabric, corks, etc. What a fun final week of October! The Halloween Festival was SO well planned and the students LOVED it! THANK YOU PARENTS for all of the setup/cleanup/ booth-operating work you did to make it a special day for your kids! I wanted to take pictures of you all at work but got roped into being a costume contest judge: very fun but I missed getting to thank you all in person. All the costumes were so creative! Halloween wasn't the only great part of the week (although it was of course the most fun)! In Language Arts this week, sixth graders continued reading A Long Walk to Water and participated in several activities intended to build understanding and empathy for the main character, Nya. On Monday, sixth graders were tasked with carrying 3-4 gallons of water up the hill and back behind the classroom. They were also permitted to remove their shoes. This experience was fun for some, frustrating and painful for others, but enlightening for all of them. They then used a water calculator to reflect on their daily water use. Also this week, sixth graders watched and reflected on the virtual reality film The Displaced (move your phone screen or click and drag on the footage on your computer to look around in the film), and discussed the struggle that children their age face as refugees. We also took note of what helps people survive and carry on, in preparation for our Long Walk to Water theme essay. In History, we studied the geography of ancient Egypt and touched on the environmental factors that determine human settlement: topography, vegetation, and water supply. We moved into our "Welcome" of ancient Egypt by beginning our unit with a study of Khufu's pyramid, including the exciting last minute edition of this week's latest news! The timing COULDN'T have been more perfect! Math class this week focused solely on dividing fractions. We used physical models, learned to draw models, then finally learned the algorithm in order for students to grasp the concepts. We'll move into multiplying decimals next week. I realize it's about time I get you weekly updates on what they're doing in specialist classes! Will post some of those updates next week. Thanks for your patience for this week's post; between Parent Conferences and the weekend's Math Conference I'm a little later in posting than I usually like. It looks like we might finally be settling in to some proper fall weather this coming week. The kids did a great job this past week focusing and working hard despite the 90+ temperatures. In Language Arts class, we've continued in A Long Walk to Water. Since it's part of the Global Read Aloud, students have responded to reflective questions posted by other classes and students around the country using both Flipgrid and Padlet (in both cases, scroll down for their responses). In History, students practiced thinking like historians by reading primary documents from ancient Babylon. They read excerpts from Hammurabi's Code of Laws in order to draw conclusions about what life in ancient Babylonia must have been like. We discussed the benefits and drawbacks when considering different sources. In Math, we've begun learning how to divide fractions. This coming week we'll be using physical cutouts as well as visual models to understand why the algorithm works the way it does. Over the past few weeks in Performing Arts Class, sixth graders have been adapting children's storybooks for the stage. With guidance from Mrs. Caldwell, they wrote scripts, blocked, and rehearsed their pieces. Pictures from their final performances are below!
What a great, silly, busy week! The costumes this week for our different Spirit Day themes were SO fun! From loaning shoes to doing hair, kudos to all you parents who helped their kids get in the spirit! And congratulations to everyone on an excellent Jog-a-Thon! This week in some classes: Language Arts: Students presented their design thinking challenges to each other and provided feedback. We worked through some figurative language review, and were introduced to our new class novel, A Long Walk to Water. We're switching to our next book quickly because it's a part of the Global Read Aloud, which began in early October, and we're going to catch up! History: Students learned the seven categories of what defines a civilization (stable food supply, government, social structure, religion, written language, the arts, and technology). They studied ancient Sumerian artifacts for these very traits to see why historians call it the "first" civilization. Math: Students took their chapter 2 test on inequalities with negative numbers and absolute value. They all did very well! Performing Arts Foundations: Sixth graders worked on choreography for the winter concert and have been learning how to dramatize children's folktales from storybooks, including scriptwriting and blocking. Art: In Art class, students made skull sculptures in honor of Day of the Dead and are painting them this week. Looking forward to another great week! Dress for warm temperatures!
In addition to finishing Out of My Mind, sixth graders worked to build prototypes of possible solutions to problems Melody might face if she attended Laguna Blanca. Groups identified both physical and social challenges. Using the sentence frame "Melody needs a way to ____ because/but ______," they chose to tackle some of these problems:
In History class, we entered the Neolithic Era and learned the impacts of the introduction of agriculture! Sixth graders participated in an response group activity, where they were faced with challenges of early Mesopotamian societies. They suggested solutions to, and read about, food shortages, uncontrolled water supply and irrigation, and attacks from neighboring villages. This lesson demonstrated how geographic challenges fueled the transformation from neolithic farming villages to Sumerian city-states. Sixth graders tackled their first science quiz of the year! They memorized and labeled all the bones in the body, and will continue to study bones and their function for the next couple weeks. In Math, we worked with negative numbers and absolute value, and will have our second chapter test of the year later next week. PE included capture the flag and several fitness drills, while Art class has moved into making scull sculptures for day of the dead. Our first week of October was a packed one! On Monday, we celebrated the opening of the middle school quad as well as Gabriel's birthday. Sixth graders ended the day with the culminating activity to our early humans unit: a cave painting simulation! In each of their "bands", sixth graders used charcoal and paint to depict fairly complex prompts about everyday life in the paleolithic era. Using the materials in the darkness was challenging, but an immersive final experience! Students also completed unit tests in both History (Paleolithic Humans) and Math (Chapter 1) this week. In Language Arts, we completed a close reading of a segment of Out of My Mind, and began our design thinking challenge. In groups of three, sixth graders interviewed each other as if they were Melody--the main character in our class novel--and her experience if she attended Laguna Blanca. They identified problems she faced and have begun drafting ideas on how to address these problems in our community. More to come with this project next week! It was wonderful to see everyone who could make it to Parents Night on Tuesday. I hope your experience that evening was informative and rewarding. As always, please let me know if you have any more questions. It's amazing to me that September is already complete! This week in Language Arts, students discussed parallels between characters in Out of My Mind, and worked on writing compare and contrast short essays. In Math class, students were introduced to squares, square roots, cubes, and cube roots. We'll have our first math test next Thursday. Last week in History, students collaborated in groups to research, compile, and present on the various stages of early man. They learned about basic evolution, and were introduced--through the presentations--to the key features of australopithecus afarensis , Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Sapiens: Neanderthals, and Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Students wrapped up presentations earlier this week. After presentations were completed, we focused on highlighting and note taking skills while learning the details of hunting and gathering in History. Each "band" competed in a hunter/gather competition on Friday afternoon to earn "survival stones" for their group. Finally, I have to say I'm so impressed with the excellent participation in our primitive diet challenge! The House volleyball competition also began this week. The next three Wednesdays will involve a round-robin style tournament down at the sand volleyball courts. During this time, students compete in house teams to earn points or their houses! We'll continue with "Swoop Groups" on Fridays, where sixth graders participate in mixed age 40 minute "classes": American Sign Language, Sports of All Sorts, Comedy Improv, Collage, Martial Arts and Yoga, Battle of the Books, Farm Club, tabletop games, and many more. Have a wonderful weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing all of you next Tuesday at Parent night! |
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June 2018
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