What a great Literacy Day! We appreciate those who were able to send us a Flipgrid video. Have a wonderful winter break and we will see you in 2019.

Today we looked at conclusions for our Literary Essays and are now in the process of editing and revising with both peers and teachers. As part of our reading time, we have read through some short stories from our Family Matters book. Today we continue to practice citing textual evidence using the short story Growing Up by Gary Soto.

Homework: 

ELA: Literary Essay due 12/21/18

Reading: Stem Quiz and extra credit and Reading Log due 1/7/19

Science: T & R Model

Mr K Math: R & P 4.2.1 #47-51 pg 188

Today we continued our conversation about theme within our short stories and co-wrote new claims that reflected theme. Students are not required to change their character trait claim to a theme-based claim, though some students did reflect on the language in their claim and made adjustments.

Homework:

Reading: Latin Stem Quiz AND extra credit AND reading log check due 12/17/18

We will present out group projects in Social Studies tomorrow in class (see above for an example). In ELA, we switched gears to focus on reading our short stories looking for theme instead of protagonist's character traits. We also signed an all-6th grade Social Contract!
Homework:

Reading: Latin Stem Quiz and extra credit 12/17/18
Science: Finish T & R 1.5
R & P 4.1.1 #7-11 pg 170

Homework:

Reading: Stem Quiz and Extra Credit due 12/11/18

Homework:
Reading: Stem Quiz and Extra Credit due 12/11/18 AND Reading log check on 12/11/18
Mr K Math HOUR 2- CLOSURE #133-140
Mr K Math HOUR 3- R & P 3.2.4 #128-132 pg 155

We are focusing on literary essay writing in ELA. Students need to write a claim for their protagonist and annotate the story based on their claim. Students have noticed that claims change. You may reread the text and notice your claim does not speak to what you are really trying to say. You may reread the text and not find enough evidence to support your claim.

In SS, students are creating a claim to answer the question: "Were West Africans successful at adapting to their physical and natural environments?"

Homework: 
Reading: Extra Credit and Latin Stem Quiz and Reading Log check 12/11/18
Science: Annotations for Surprising Spider Silk
Mr K Math: R & P 3.2.4 #128-132 pg 155

It took us a bit to wake our brains up this morning so we played a round of moose! Above is the new Velma Hamilton Behavior Matrix that we went over extensively in Advisory today.

Homework:
Reading: Stem Quiz and Extra Credit
Math: R & P 3.2.3 #118-122 pg 150-151

Today in ELA, we took our own short story and make a claim about our protagonist. We then re-read the story to find evidence and annotated the text to explain our evidence. In Social Studies we are just beginning to explore the essential question: If you were going to build an empire, what advantages might Africa's climate and natural resources offer you? Have your child tell you where they relocated your family to in Africa AND why?

Homework:

Reading: Latin Stem and extra credit and Reading Log due 12/3/18
Math Mr K: R & P 3.2.2 #106-110 pg 143-144

The kids worked SO hard in ELA and Social Studies today, please ask them about their annotations and their Social Studies essential question essay.

Homework:
Reading: Latin Stem Quiz and Extra Credit and Reading Log 12/3/18

Everyone worked so hard on annotating our text about West Africa's Geography. It is a high level text and will take a few more reads to fully understand. See some examples above.

Homework:

Reading: Stem Quiz and Extra Credit due 12/3/18 AND Reading Log due 12/3/18
Mr K Math: 3.2.1 #94-98 pg 139
Science: 1.2 Step #5 Homework
SS: Reread student handout 1.2- OPTIONAL

We will continue look at the essential question above. Today was our first time reading through the text. Students need to read through it one more time for homework as it has high level academic vocabulary. We will continue to annotate tomorrow during class. 

Homework:

Reading: Latin Stem Quiz and Extra Credit due tomorrow AND Reading Logs due 12/1/18
Social Studies: Read Student Handout 1.2

In Social Studies, we are taking our knowledge of geographic challenges from the Ancient Sumerians and looking at geographical affects on West Africa.

Homework:

Reading: Latin Stem Quiz and extra credit due 11/27/18 AND reading log due 11/26/18

In ELA, we started reading short stories to help us write a literary essay. Analyzing the stories and focusing on a claim about the protagonist, will be the starting point. 

Homework:

Reading: Stem Quiz and Extra Credit: 11/27/18 AND Reading Log due 12/3/18

MR K Math: R & P 3.1.6 pg 84-88 pg 133 AND math test tomorrow

Science: Science test tomorrow on Metabolism BONUS- 4.1 & 4.2

Reading makes you a stronger writer! We created a list of synonyms for the word "said" yesterday. Today we will will explore how Reading is Financially Rewarding.

Homework:

Reading: Latin Stem Quiz and extra credit and Reading Log due 11/19/18
Science: 3.2 step 6
Mr K math: R & P 3.1.5 #73-77 pg 127-128

Today we started to look at reading reason; WHY READING MATTERS. We looked at a lesson that focused on: Reading Builds a Mature Vocabulary. We will continue to look at other reasons. We did a first check of Reading Logs. These are due the first of every month and we need at the minimum a signature from a guardian at the bottom of the log. Ideally, we would like to see a guardian signature at the end of the week on the Reading Log itself.

Students also created a short flipgrid video summarizing or anticipating their parent/teacher conference.
Homework:
Reading: Log due on December 1st and next check will be on 11/19/18, Latin Stems due 11/19/18 and extra credit due 11/19/18

Students have the chance to share their Chapter 19 or envelope for The Boy of the Painted Cave project. We will move into writing Literary Essays in the near future. Thank you for the productive Parent Teacher Conferences, we have a few left and we will be done. If you wanted us to check on information from a teacher outside of our team, we will get back to you within the next couple of days.

Homework: 
Reading: Latin Stem Quiz and Extra credit due 11/19/18  AND Reading Log due tomorrow!
Science: 2.7 Diagnosis Elisa Step 3
Mr K Math: R & P 3.1.4 #62-66 pg 121-122

9Reminder that parent teacher conferences are Monday, November 12th and Tuesday, November 20th. These are student-led so please make sure students come their assigned time.

Homework:
ELA: BOTPC Project due 11/13/18
Reading: Latin Stem Quiz and Extra credit 11/19/18

Homework:

ELA: BOTPC Project due 11/13/18

Reading: Latin Stem Quiz and Extra Credit 11/19/18

Mr K Math: R & P 3.1.2 #31-35 pg 110

The 7th and 8th grade AVID classes are doing a food drive. Please see above for details. Second quarter started today and grades will officially close on Wednesday afternoon.

Homework:
ELA: BOTPC project due 11/13/18
Reading: Latin Stem Quiz on 11/19/18 AND extra credit due 11/19/18
Science: Test tomorrow
Mr K Math: R & P 3.1.1 #18-21 pg 105

Today we were ancient Sumerians and created our own clay tablets. We are also making progress on our BOTPC Projects.

Homework:
ELA: BOTPC project due 11/16/18
Reading: Latin Stem Quiz and Extra credit 11/5/18
Science: Test on Tuesday, November 6th

Ask your child what they are studying in Science and what they know about their condition they are looking into.

Homework: 
ELA: BOTPC project due 11/13/18
Reading: Latin stem quiz and extra credit due 11/5/18
Mr K Math: R & P 3.1.1 #12-16 pg 103-104

What a great group of students we have in our classroom community. Our amazing painter from the district, Brandon, has been brightening up our space the last coupe of days. Because of this, we have been using other classroom communities to complete our work. The students have been so thoughtful and hard working in the spaces that were offered to us. I encourage you to come in and see our freshly painted space.

Homework:
ELA: BOTPC project due 11/13/18
Reading: Latin Stem Quiz- 11/5/18 and extra credit due 11/5/18

We have been working on our Boy of the Painted Cave project in class. We discuss every day the importance of following the time line that we created to help us get our work done by November 13th. Time and time again I have tried to tell students to work on their drawing of their chosen character at home so I can assist them with the written piece.

Homework:
ELA: BOTPC project due 11/13/18
Reading: Latin Stems Quiz 11/5/18 and Extra credit due 11/5/18
Mr Kruger Math: Chapter 2 Closure And test TOMORROW
Science: Conditions poster due Thursday- will be done IN CLASS

Today we worked on Boy of the Painted Cave final project and took a Social Studies quiz.

Homework:
ELA: BOTPC project- due 11/13/18
Reading: Latin Stem Quiz 11/5/18
Science: any missing work 2.3
Mr K Math: any missing math Homework

Today we worked up listing strategies for the writing style of Justin Denzel, the author of Boy of the Painted Cave. We also studies for our Social Studies Quiz: see below for the link to the quiz.

Social Studies Mesopotamia Test

Homework:
ELA: The final project for BOTPC is due 11/13/18
Reading: Latin Stem Quiz on 10/29/18
Social Studies Test: 10/29/18
Science: 2.3
Mr K math: R & P 2.3.4 #86-90 pg 88-89

In Social Studies we finished studying the geographic problems and solutions of the ancient Sumerians. We then looked at the seven characteristics of a civilization. See above for some of those characteristics. In ELA we assigned the final project for the Boy of the Painted Cave, due date to be determined.

Homework:
Reading: Latin Stem Quiz 10/29/18 & extra credit due tomorrow
Science: 2.2 step 4
ELA: Boy of the Painted Cave envelope- due date not set yet
Mr K Math: R & P 2.3.3 #75-70 pg 84
Social Studies: Sumerian Quiz on 10/29/18- what are the 4 geographic problems & solutions

Today we looking at a new Social Studies chapter that focused on From Hunters to Gathers and the changes that came after that.

Hawktoberfest Dance

Thursday, October 25th

5:00 to 7:00 PM

$3 Admission

• Tickets will be sold on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at lunch
• Please encourage students to bring $3 and buy a ticket on Tuesday or Wednesday AT LUNCH!  
• Wristbands will be given out in Advisory on Thursday morning
• Final chance to purchase a wristband will be at lunch on Thursday
• No tickets will be sold at the door, so encourage students to NOT wait until the final opportunity, Thurs. at lunch

Homework:
Reading: Latin Stem Quiz 10/29/18 and Extra Credit due 10/25/18
Mr K Math: R & P 2.3.1 #55-59 pg 78

Today, we had Early People Sites where the students had to figure out what the early person's role was in their community.

Hawktoberfest Dance

Thursday, October 25th

5:00 to 7:00 PM

$3 Admission

• Tickets will be sold on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at lunch
• Please encourage students to bring $3 and buy a ticket on Tuesday or Wednesday AT LUNCH!  
• Wristbands will be given out in Advisory on Thursday morning
• Final chance to purchase a wristband will be at lunch on Thursday
• No tickets will be sold at the door, so encourage students to NOT wait until the final opportunity, Thurs. at lunch

Homework:

ELA: Second Personal Narrative due MONDAY

Reading: Latin Stem Quiz on 10/22/18

There is a school-wide target behavior that we focus on every week and these are posted in all of the classrooms.


Homework:
ELA: Second Personal Narrative due 10/22/18
Reading: Latin Stem Quiz 10/22/18 AND extra credit due 10/19/18
Mr K Math: 2.2.2 2.34-2.38 pg 70

Today, each child was given a Hamilton t-shirt to wear whenever they chose.

Some announcements: 
Reminder that Monday, October 22nd is a FULL school day and not an early release. This is due to students not having school on Friday of next week. 

The Hawktoberfest Dance is scheduled for October 25th from 5:00-7:00 pm. Wristbands for the dance will be on sale starting soon in Advisory class. 

Picture retake day is tomorrow!


Homework:
ELA: 2nd Personal Narrative due 10/22/18 (Lots of kids stated they have not started this assignment yet and it was assigned about 2 weeks ago)
Reading: Latin Stem Quiz- 10/22/18 & Extra Credit due Friday 10/19/18

In Reading, we are working on perspective and will create a fractured fairy tale in the next couple of school days.

Homework:
ELA: Second Personal Narrative due 10/22/18
Reading: Latin Stem Quiz 10/22/18
Mr K Math: 3 vocabulary words
Science: 2.8 Homeroom hour 1 & 2.7 Homeroom hour 5

What a lovely Early People Museum Day. Thanks to those adults who were able to make it today and if you were not able to attend I have included some pictures from our day.

Homework:

ELA: Second Personal Narrative due 10/22/18
Reading: Latin Stem Quiz 10/15/18
Science: Review