I hope you all stayed warm this weekend! My wife and I skied out to a public Nancy Lake cabin to practice patience while heating a cold cabin! Of course once a cabin has become heated, it needs to be cooled down!
All of our community experiences have been so rewarding! I hope your children have been sharing their stories with you and your family! If you were not able to chaperone but would still like to “see” our experiences with guest speakers and field trips, check out some pictures on our class website at http://mrbrentsclass.weebly.com (be careful to type that address exactly). This week we’re off to our final field trip for a while to the Governor’s office in the Atwood Building! Inside the classroom this week we will be telling time and making sure we can still read analog clocks and calculate elapsed time (a train leaves Denver at 9am and another train leaves Chicago at 11am, etc. etc.). Sixth graders will finish up working with unit rates and will likely move on to percents, while fourth and fifth graders will continue work in long division and begin a look into fractions. Language study continues analyzing verbs this week, this time looking at transitive and intransitive verbs. This week’s homework features a worksheet practicing our ability to tell the two types apart. In our cultural studies we have placed a hold on our Map of the Week so we can make maps of our own. Our maps will feature a list of 25 different features and will correspond with our understanding of our STEM unit analyzing the hydrosphere (all the water on our nice planet). We’ll also transition from exploring our local government to our state government (hence the trip to the Governor’s office). Top Secret Extra Credit: On your student’s homework page this week, draw a star in the lower right corner, to give me an idea of how many families are reading newsletters J Please note that the Science share project is an extracurricular activity that is not required but is only offered as a choice for students to do science for the joy of doing science. It’s a great way to really analyze the scientific method in a personally relevant and inspired way (generally speaking, the scientific method begins when the student asks a question, then creates a hypothesis, designs an experiment, conducts 3+ trials, accepts or rejects hypothesis). For information on parent teacher conferences next week, you can go online to http://www.asdk12.org/parents/conferences/ . To locate a good time for you, make sure you select “mix” for grade of student. I have made my schedule available Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, as well as Thursday morning. If you feel that you cannot make it for these times, please contact me so we can try to arrange something that will work for both of us. Students are invited and encouraged to be part of this meeting, though it is not necessary depending on your own personal preferences and availabilities. I hope you all have a great week! As always, call/text/email/stop by with any questions, concerns, or causes for celebration!
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Dear Families,
This week we are absorbing lessons from our community! Making these connections possible are a field trip to the Mayor’s Office on Monday, Assembly member Patrick Flynn as a guest speaker on Tuesday, and a field trip to go ice fishing at Jewell Lake on Friday. A huge thanks to those that were able to volunteer as chaperones and drivers! I truly believe that the best lessons learned are those rooted and supported in real life experiences and examples, and opportunities like these make that possible! In the classroom this week, in addition to looking at different parts of our local government, we will be exploring watersheds in STEM, the mood of verbs in Language (indicative, imperative, subjunctive verbs), our type of government research project I writing, and weekly choices in reading (in addition to gearing up for a novel study). In math we will continue our way through concepts from long division to ratios to geometry. Looking ahead, Wednesdays have become our “spirit day” at school. This Wednesday is wear your favorite jersey day, followed by dress like a P.E. teacher day next week. These are fun ways to show unity, commonality, and pride in our local community at Denali. Parent teacher conferences are right around the corner, the week of February 20, and I am eager to discuss the progress of your children and hear more about how things are going on your side of their education. This is a time to celebrate achievements and reflect upon goals and progress. If you have any concerns or a desire to talk in length, you are always welcome to schedule an additional and/or separate time for before or after school. Of course, invitations always stand for any families to visit the classroom while we are learning if you would like to see us in action! For information on parent teacher conferences go online to http://www.asdk12.org/parents/conferences/ . To locate a good time for you, make sure you select “mix” for grade of student. I have made my schedule available Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, as well as Thursday morning. If you feel that you cannot make it for these times, please contact me so we can try to arrange something that will work for both of us, even if it is the week before or after. Students are invited and highly encouraged to be part of this meeting, though it is not necessary depending on your own personal preferences and availability. Valentine’s Day is also coming up, next Tuesday, the 14th. As such, we will celebrate together in our class after library, beginning at 2:05pm. The celebration will include mail exchanges and snacks. If your child brings Valentine’s cards to share, please use the attached list of names to ensure no one is left out. Snacks will be allowed this day, and although I always ask families strive to offer healthy snacks to the class, this day of sugar shall be an exception. Please keep in mind though nothing should have peanuts and anything with dairy or carrots should be clearly marked before leaving your possession. I hope you all have a great week! As always, call/text/email/stop by with any questions, concerns, or causes for celebration! Dear Families,
Thank you to all that have been assisting with classroom materials and operations. Your involvement not only makes my life easier but demonstrates to our students your active role and participation in their education. For those of you that are seeking other ways to help the community, we have two field trips next week that we need chaperones for. On Monday afternoon of next week we are walking to City Hall to visit the Mayor’s office (and hopefully the Mayor himself and some of his staff). On Thursday morning of next week we’re driving to Jewell Lake to go ice fishing. We need chaperones and drivers for both of these fieldtrips. We will lose out on these opportunities if we do not have the minimum 5 adults to 1 child ratio that the district requires. Please let me know ASAP if you are available. Before we do our trips next week we have this week to look forward to! Monday we had a guest speaker, Erin Connolly, to share what student council is, as part of our cultural unit on levels of government. This week we’re looking at school governments. As such, on Tuesday we are hosting another guest speaker, ASD School Board member Tam Agosti-Gisler to share her story from student to elected official and what her role is now. We have finished up our STEM unit on coding and will be merging into our unit on interconnectedness now. This begins with a pre-assessment and look at water. In math we continue to move through different concepts at different paces. As a reminder, students are always expected to take home any work that they will not finish by the next day’s lesson (as long as materials are not needed). Many students are not taking advantage of this opportunity and are having a harder time as a result. This week in language we’ll be looking at different tenses of verbs: past, present, and future. We’ll also continue working on our written research piece about a chosen type of government. Ask your child what type they have chosen! I hope you all have a great week! As always, call/text/email/stop by with any questions, concerns, or causes for celebration! Dear Families,
I hope you had a great weekend! I spent the weekend camping at Eklutna Lake testing some cold weather gear for some upcoming Chinese tourists that will be staying along the Iditarod Trail in March. (The tents were heated though, hence I am still alive!) This week we have a lot to look forward to. In language we’ll be looking at different types of verbs (verbs that show physical action, verbs with internal energy, and linking verbs), and will explore the different tenses of verbs (past, present, future). We’ll also be looking at the use of quotation marks in text (when directly using another person’s words, when a character directly speaks in a text, and when writing the title of a part of a work, like a chapter). In math we’ll be working through some geometry in addition to our other math: fourth graders will be exploring lines of symmetry, fifth graders will look at customary length conversions, and sixth graders will calculate the areas of regular polygons. The rest of our math with be a bit more diverse. Fourth graders will continue to work through dividing with 1-digit numbers, fifth graders will begin on decimal division, and sixth graders will continue work on coordinate planes. Our cultural studies unit on different levels and types of government will kick into full steam this week as we examine the different levels (local, state, national, international), and types (direct/indirect democracy, dictatorships, oligarchies, etc.). This will be explored through materials and a research project where students will pick one type of government, research the pros and cons, provide examples, and present their work to the class at the end of the week. The Reading Logbook is finding success with most students. Some have chosen to read a pre-approved book and complete a daily entry in their reading journal answering specific comprehension questions. This counts as one of their reading choices each week along with classroom materials Fiction Box cards, SRA’s, and Research Lab. Ask your child their preference. As you can see, it will be a busy and full week. Please don’t hesitate to pop in and ask how you can help hold your child accountable to the progress that is expected with the work time that is allotted. Before closing I also wanted to invite any families on a tight schedule after school to notify me ahead of time if their children need to hurry out. I appreciate that your time is valuable as I have my own prep and planning to do at the end of each day. I do believe though that holding the class accountable to clean up their work spaces in their classroom is an important lesson in responsibility and ownership, and twenty minutes should be sufficient time to accomplish this so I am reluctant to sacrifice additional class time for this purpose. There are times though that the class chooses to socialize rather than clean and the result is a late dismissal. If you have plans or need your child straight at the bell, please notify me ahead of time, and discuss how they can help their community move faster. I hope you all have a great week! As always, call/text/email/stop by with any questions, concerns, or causes for celebration! Burrr! I hope you are all staying warm with each other! These cold times make us feel special and unique because of the extremity of the place we call home! The weather makes it imperative to make sure all students are arriving to school with proper winter gear, equipped to stay safe and comfortable in the Last Frontier!
Being that we’re in the second semester of our school, it is a good time to start talking to your sixth graders about your family’s plans for middle school (if you’re not already). We will be having representatives from different middle schools such as Central and Stellar in the coming months to present some information to prospective pupils. I will be checking in with students as to what your plans are. The start of another semester is also a chance to rekindle our commitment to our community. Our classroom and school have plenty of volunteer possibilities to fulfill service hours. We will be having field trips in the coming months where we will need chaperones, parent presenters are always welcome, and there is always a project or more that your student’s teacher could use help with J . The school has PTSA meetings, typically on Thursday evenings, where parents can be connected to various other schoolwide volunteer opportunities. Thank you for all that you do! Here in the classroom, our students will continue our look into the causes and effects of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. Students are using matching materials in this unit, constructing a collaborative color poster, reading a biography of Dr. King, and analyzing his famous speech, I Have a Dream. This is in addition to our weekly “Map of the Week”. This week in math we are going to be spending more time the normal studying everybody’s favorite part of math: word problems. They are hard for everybody but so important in making practical connections between calculations and real life. Fourth graders are working with multi-digit multiplication, fifth graders are exploring decimals, and sixth graders are studying rational numbers. This is in addition to individual studies and RTI (MathWhizz). In language we’ll be looking at the surprisingly numerous ways commas can be used with our “skyscrapers” materials. We’ll also start on our extended unit on verbs. In reading we’ll continue our weekly practice of comprehension, keeping track of reading in the newly minted “Reading Log”. Last week we started our look at innovations and coding, including the Morse Code. This week we’ll move our STEM unit into binary coding…computer talk! The class was pretty engaged with the Morse code activity so I am excited to get into the language of electrical technology! I hope you all have a great week! As always, call/text/email/stop by with any questions, concerns, or causes for celebration! Alas, we are in the final week of our first semester together. What an amazing time spent building our community, exploring our curiosities, and growing as individuals. Nothing is meant to be easy but rewards come to those that work hard and that is something every child in Room 223 can be proud of this year, as I am certainly proud of each of them!
Our final week together in 2016 will be used primarily to finish up existing projects, mainly our writing piece featuring a planned plot, a thought-out setting, and interesting characters. The story’s point of view should be apparent and a theme may just be icing on the cake. We’re working through rough drafts as we piece together the different parts of this story towards a final typed draft, the masterpiece! We’ll also be finishing up our unit on immigration by hosting two guest speakers in the classroom from the Alaska Institute for Justice (a non-profit organization that provides legal services to immigrants and refugees). One speaker, Carol Forner, will talk about general immigration challenges and Anchorage's diversity, while the other, Ms. Nyachan, whom immigrated with her family when she was young, will talk about her challenges and all of the ways she has helped her mom navigate immigration. Last week our field trip to the Naturalization ceremony was a huge success. Although we were surprised by a different judge, we were also surprised to be addressed by Alaska’s U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, who provided some Q&A time exclusively for our class following the ceremony. Ask your child what their thoughts are on the words that were spoken at the event! This week in math we will work mostly in the realm of geometry, from shapes to coordinate planes, to measurements. MathWhizz will also be utilized by different students. It is very, very important that students continue ALL of their extra math practice THROUGHOUT the winter break. It is common for students to experience a decline in their testing from December to Spring as a result of a break in study habits. Let’s keep the momentum rolling, or even use the extra time to pick up steam, and keep our students on the right track by studying outside of school. This goes for reading as well! Reading journals can help with this. Before the break comes, we will be hosting the previously mentioned pot luck on Thursday. (Avoid nuts/almonds and label any dairy/carrots). All family is invited to the room for some food, reflections, and celebrations. If you are able to bring/send a dish of your choosing, the contribution is much appreciated! We’ll be eating 12:15-1:15pm. Parent volunteers to help set up and clean up are always so so so welcomed! Thursday is also a Read-In. Students are allowed a pillow, blanket/sleeping bag, teddy sort of animal, pajamas, and must have at least ONE chapter book. Thank you all so much for a wonderful first semester. I am so excited and looking forward to 2017! I wish you all a very meaningful holiday break full of family and memories that will last a lifetime! Dear Families,
Winter break is approaching quickly and we are trying to make full use of our time left in class this week. We will continue working through math; Fourth graders are working through multi-digit multiplication with materials, GoMath, and partner exchange work, fifth graders are exploring decimals through materials, and sixth graders continue to look at fractions. Various other students are working on individual concepts such as analog time-telling, patterns, MathWhizz exercises, and Pre-Algebra. In cultural studies we are studying origins of major immigration movements to the United States, including Irish, German-Jewish, Chinese, and Mexican immigration waves. We will be adding these routes to the large world maps students have been working on all quarter. This unit will take us on our field trip, on Friday, to the U.S. District Courthouse to witness a naturalization ceremony for our nation’s newest citizens. Students will also likely have time to ask the District Judge questions, (which we will be preparing this week), and attempt the same “citizenship test” immigrants must take before naturalization. In science we will continue with our STEM explorations, working through electricity on our way to coding. Students really enjoyed last week’s attempts at making complete circuits with size D batteries, light bulbs, buzzers, and mini-motors. Our language this week takes us through skyscrapers work on contractions and continues our look at literary elements such as plot, setting, theme, and characters. We will integrate this into writing by creating a story by putting these pieces together. In reading, in addition to our immigration studies, students choose between optional work in subject/predicate materials, SRAs, Fiction Box Cards, or Research Lab. These materials are almost exclusively to practice our reading comprehension and it is expected students make at least two choices every week from these materials. Ask your student which they prefer and how active they are in completing the tasks. As previously mentioned, our class will be hosting a potluck on the last day of the quarter, Thursday, December 22, from 12:15pm – 1:10pm. Families/siblings are invited to this community event and are encouraged to bring a dish to share if possible. Please avoid dishes with peanuts or almonds. If you bring a dish with dairy or carrots, please label it as containing these ingredients. This potluck will be in addition to a Read-In on that Thursday. Tomorrow, Tuesday, is the final day of our Kindness Challenge at school. Ask your students if they will finish in time and if they plan to continue. Thank you for all you do in helping with the success of our students; the kindness they show here in the community begins with the kindness they see and feel from all of you! Dear Families,
Greetings! I hope you had as much fun in the snow this weekend as possible! As it continues to look and feel like winter outside, we’ll continue to make progress inside the classroom. Students are still working on a world map and will begin adding major routes of immigration as part of our cultural studies unit. We have been in reading partners/groups studying immigration to the U.S. in this historical context of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, and will now begin broadening our exploration; eventually leading to the role immigration has in the U.S. today. This, of course, will take us to our field trip next week to the District Courthouse. Many permission slips still need to be turned in. In science we will begin looking at electrical force (electricity!) This will include an experiment in circuits and conductors. Our assigned lab groups are mainly made up of a single 4th grader, 5th grader, and 6th grader, creating a group of three. Check in with your students to see what effort they are contributing towards their lab group’s success. In math we are generally splitting time between algebraic work, multiplication facts, and geometry. Our fourth grade math group is exploring various methods of multiplication included expanded form and using partial products. In our fifth grade math group we will be focusing on line plots, graphs, ordered pairs, and intervals as well as decimal place values. In our sixth grade math group we will continue to practice working with fractions (adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing). In language we will continue analyzing plot and begin crafting a story in which we compile previous pieces of the unit together. Students have already written two paragraphs about a setting and have practice introducing a character. These tools, along with a story board they will create for the plot, will be the meat and bones of their story. As part of this process we will continue to look study what “Plot” is (the storyline), and begin comparing it to a the next element: “theme” (the moral). I’m hoping we can finish this project by the end of quarter but it will take dedication from everyone. In addition to our literary elements unit, our language includes skyscrapers this week: abbreviations, phrases, and subject/predicates. In reading we will be completing our weekly graphic organizer, choosing a weekly reading task (fiction box cards, SRAs, or Research Lab), and reading for examples of plot and research on immigration. As always, students have weekly jobs to contribute towards their classroom community. Unsure about what some of these work choices and responsibilities are? Your child will tell you! Another reminder to all families of sixth grade students: please turn in permission slips and money for KFT by the end of the week. If a scholarship is required please make note of that and let me know as soon as possible. Dear Families,
I hope you all had a good holiday break, full of fun and long lasting memories with each other! Now we have four full weeks in a row before the next holiday break (except December 23 is a no-class day). That being said, we have a lot to do before second quarter is over. Now is a good time to refocus on any goals we set at conferences, whether it be about multiplication practice or MathWhizz at home, or making full use of work sessions at school…now is the time progress can really be showcased! Last week we had a great time with the salabration! We ended up having probably 40 people in our classroom at once between students and family members! Some students expressed interest in doing something similar again. Thus, here is our first notice that we will be having an end of quarter pot-luck on December 22, during recess and lunch, to celebrate each other’s company (from 12:15-1:10). All family members are again invited to join us! This will probably coincide with another read in that day. More detail to follow. Our next field trip, to the courthouse, is free, though I have not received many permission slips for that yet. For sixth graders, as discussed at conferences, we have a big field trip in April to Kenai Fjords. Upon review of the cover letter of the information packet, I was reminded that tuition for this is due December 9. If full payment is a hardship, PLEASE let me know asap so scholarships can be arranged. This is such an amazing and important experience that through fundraising and donation efforts, every sixth grader gets the chance to go. This week we have a full plate of learning ahead. In language we will begin exploring what a plot is and how to develop it in our writing. We will also be looking at different uses of capital letters in “Skyscrapers”. In science we will continue our study of force, exploring how force is transferred, and perhaps beginning a look at electricity. (Any electricians out there that would like to share their expertise? Computer coding will follow electricity for anyone with experience there!) In math we will continue with our math groups. Sixth years are working with fractions, Fifth years on Order of Operations, and fourth years are moving to quadrilaterals and multiplying using the distributive property. Some students have commitments to MathWhizz which we are doing in class, however if there is internet access at home, it is expected students are working on this at home as well. In cultural studies we will continue reading about immigration with reading partners/group while working on our world maps. I’m looking forward to this week ahead. Please know you can always get a hold of me with any questions, concerns, or celebrations! |