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November News

Dear Penguin Families,

With the end of the first quarter two weeks behind us, we are continuing to work hard in all areas.  First quarter report cards should have arrived in the mail.  The first quarter is always a challenge as students face many new demands.  In spite of this, a majority of the students were able to do extremely well.  For those students who had a less than stellar first report card, the good news is that grades begin anew this quarter and everyone now has a fresh slate.  Please remember that learning is an ongoing process and the most successful students are the ones who are willing to work hard.  We are always available to assist students with questions and to provide support for anyone who asks for help.  Students can also attend homework center Monday through Thursday from 3:00 to 4:00.

The Penguins will hold our first quarter awards assembly on Tuesday, November 20 at 1:10 p.m.  All students who earned a grade point average of 3.0 or above will be recognized.  Family and friends are invited to attend, so if you are available, we'd love to have you join us.  The assembly will be held in the cafeteria.  We will also hold our first Penguin Auction during sixth period.  The students will be able to bid their valuable Penguin Points for "fabulous" prizes.  If you have anything that you would like to donate for our auction, we would certainly appreciate it.  In the past, popular prizes have included games, arts and crafts materials and books, sporting goods, toys, school supplies, and gift cards.  Prizes do not have to be expensive!  Thank you in advance for your generosity.

We had so much fun at our first sixth grade social. It was a huge success, thanks to all the parents who volunteered their time and sent in donations.  We truly appreciate your support.

Academically speaking, the Penguins are working hard.  In math we have finished up our unit on fraction concepts.  Students have learned about prime factorization, greatest common factors, least common multiples, equivalent fractions, converting fractions and decimals, and comparing and ordering rational numbers.  With each lesson, students should be either watching the video lesson or reading the textbook and taking notes at home.  In class, the children are working on their problem sets with the support of their peers and me.  If your child is struggling with math, you can assist him/her by watching the video lessons together.  Another strategy is to have your child go over any missed problems from the previous day and rework them to be sure that he/she can do them.

We have just finished our study of early humans and the dawn of civilization.  The students participated in their first Socratic Seminar on Hammurabi's code.  They were articulate and thoughtful as they expressed their opinions and ideas about this important early development in human civilization.

 

In Language Arts, our Penguin writers did very well on the first quarter persuasive writing assessments. This quarter we will focus on expository writing using the Six Traits writing model. We will learn how to infuse voice and rich word choice into our writing to make this traditionally ordinary genre come to life. We are in the midst of reading the novel, Two Old Woman, by Alaskan writer Velma Wallis. This novel allows students to gain insight into the lives of early civilizations as we focus on our study of character development.

Your child is bringing home a flyer to update you on the second quarter. Please check the important dates for upcoming events.

Thank you for your support. We love our playful Penguins!

Your Penguin Teachers

Calling All Volunteers!

Hello Penguin "Peeps",

Don't forget, our first sixth grade social of the year is this Friday, October 24.  

• Thanks to all who have already volunteered to help or who plan to send in a donation.  Your support is greatly appreciated...we couldn't do it without you!

• non-perishable donations can be sent in with your child at any time.

• perishable donations should be brought in on Friday morning.

• We still need a few volunteers to run the games.  You can sign up on our wikispace by clicking on the blue link.

• In addition, we need a couple of runners who would be willing to pick up lots of pizza and/or bags of ice and deliver them to school by 3:00.  We won't be able to reimburse you on the spot, but we can get you your money by the following Monday.   Please call (264-1122 x 301)or email (shimamotoh@unionsd.org) to let me know if you can do either of these "exciting" tasks.

• Tickets for the social will be sold on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at lunch.  Tickets are $5 and include all games and activities.  

• You may want to send your child with a little extra spending money.  We will have pizza and other treats for purchase.  There will also be a photo booth where kids can have their picture taken with their friends.  Nothing will cost more than $1.  Please do not send large denominations, quarters and dollar bills will be greatly appreciated.

• The social will begin at 3:00 and will end promptly at 4:30.  

We are looking forward to a great time with your kids!!!

October 12, 2012

Hello Penguin Families,

With eight weeks of school under our belts, the Penguins are shaping up into an awesome team.  We have already cultivated a strong and supportive community.  As 21st century learners, we are using a variety of modes of communication including this blog and Edmodo, an educational social network.  

 

The end of the first quarter, October 26,  is soon approaching.  At that time the first quarter report card will be sent home in the mail.  Expect it to arrive during the first week of November.  Our grade books will close for the quarter on Wednesday, October 24.  Please make sure to have any make-up or missing work completed and turned in no later than that date.  It is important to keep in mind that the first quarter can be a challenging adjustment period for many sixth graders.  This might be evident in the first grading period.  As students become acclimated to the middle school environment, the goal should be continual improvement.  With the beginning of a new quarter, grades will also begin anew.  

 

In Language Arts, we are embarking on a journey to become great persuasive essayists. We are using academic conversations and power words to argue and debate our positions on things that we really care about. This year the Penguins are fortunate enough to pilot a new academic vocabulary program with links to the sixth grade curriculum.  We just finished our first unit. The words are challenging, but we are using a variety of engaging activities to learn them. Ask your child to show you the web site and challenge them to a game of Hangman. Good luck!

 

As writers, it's important to find and share our passion and voice. One way we are doing this in Mrs. Adelman's class is through our graffiti wall. Our current focus is courage and what it means to each individual. Ask your child to tell you about everyday and awesome courage. You will be amazed at how sophisticated and articulate they are in their thinking.

 

In Mrs. Adelman's class we have kicked off our Reading Response Logs. Your child is expected to log his/her independent daily reading and write a personal response weekly. The logs will be collected biweekly and Mrs. Adelman will respond to the entries. This will provide us with an opportunity to make connections and share our thoughts and feelings about literature. 

 

In math, we have just finished our study of integers.  This is a challenging concept that will provide a foundation for higher level math.  Some students are still struggling, but we will continue to revisit this concept all year.  The flipped classroom model has been well received by the students.  They like the fact that they are "doing" the math at school with the support of their peers and teacher.  As we finish the first quarter, students will take the district-wide benchmark exam.  Our next unit of study is on fraction concepts.

 

In social studies, the children are continuing to work on their large world maps at home.  The due dates are October 19 (for Mrs. Shimamoto) and October 26 (for Mr. Small).   We have begun our study of ancient humans and the beginning of the agricultural revolution.

 

Sixth graders will celebrate the end of the first quarter with our first sixth grade social.  It will take place on Friday, October 26, from 3:00 to 4:30.  This after-school celebration  will include games, music, dancing, crafts, food, and plain old-fashioned fun.  In order to make this much anticipated event happen we need your support.  Please visit our wikispace to sign up for donations or to volunteer your time.  

 

If you find this form of communication useful, please leave a comment below or send us an email (it's worth 5 invaluable Penguin Points!). In the right hand margin of this page, you can subscribe to the blog and receive email notifications of new posts.  Thank you for your continuing support. We love our Penguins!

 

Mrs. Adelman

Mrs. Shimamoto

Mr. Small

Mid-Quarter Musings

 

Dear Penguin Families,

 

It is hard to believe that we are already halfway done with the first quarter of school.  During the first few weeks of school we have spent time getting acquainted, establishing our Penguin community, and learning the ropes of middle school.  The kids are doing a great job and it is a pleasure to be with them every day. 

 

At this time, please check your child’s grade on Powerschool.  Please try not to focus on the letter grades for each individual assignment.  Learning is a process and kids should be allowed to make mistakes and learn from them.  Once in a while a small assignment might have a low grade, but that will not greatly impact the overall grade.  We hope that monitoring your child's progress on Powerschool will help you to support him/her.

 

In Math, we are just finishing up our first unit of study on algebraic expressions and equations.  Students have already taken two quizzes as we have progressed through the unit.  Quizzes are used to assess student understanding and to help inform me of their strengths and weaknesses so that I may adjust instruction accordingly.  In the interest of maximizing learning, students are required to reflect on and revise all quiz errors.  They earn additional points for all correct and complete revisions. We started the chapter test today and will finish on Monday.  Tests are designed to assess student understanding at the completion of a unit.  They are always in a multiple-choice format, but students must show their mathematical thinking by showing their work.  Tests are not revisable. Grades for this test will be posted on Powerschool by midweek.  Our next unit of study will be integers.  You can help your child by pointing out examples of negative numbers in real life.  

 

In Social Studies, we are currently working on our large world maps.  The kids are busy drawing their continents.  Next they will draw in their islands and then they will take the maps home for completion.  This will be their homework for a couple of weeks.  When we finish with the globes at school, we will begin our study of early humans and the agricultural revolution, which led to the dawn of civilizations.

 

In Language Arts we are writing in multiple genres, writing each and every day, and becoming great writers. This week we will be writing memoirs. FYI - Language Arts individual assignments are posted in English for both Reading and English classes. Therefore, your child's Reading grade will be the same as his/her grade in English. 

 

The San Jose Area Writing Project is offering a Youth Writing Program for students from 4th to 10th grades four Saturdays this school year. This is a great program for our young Penguin writers. It's led by elementary through college level teachers at San Jose State University. I highly recommend it and it's only $5 per class. Click on the link below for more information.

San Jose Area Writing Project - Youth Writing Program

 

Thank you for visiting our blog.  Please leave a comment below and we will reward your child with Penguin Points.  

Welcome Penguins

Dear Penguin "Peeps",

We are off to a terrific start! Our main goal has been to build a sense of community by getting to know one another. These first two weeks have also been packed with activities to establish routines, procedures, and organization. We are now ready to take off!

As we dive into September, the Penguins have many things to look forward to. We will be launching our globe project in social studies. In math we are excitedly "flipping" our classroom, and in language arts we are exploring the novel, Tuck Everlasting. Unfortunately, Mr. Small will be out on medical leave for a short while. In his absence, the children will be in the capable hands of Mrs. Egelston, a former Dartmouth teacher.

Thank you for coming to our Back to School Night last Tuesday. It was so wonderful to see how much support our students have. If you were not able to attend or if you wish to view our Power Point presentations, check out our web pages on Dartmouth's website. During the course of the year, if you ever have any concerns about your child, please do not hesitate to contact us (email works best).

If you are looking for ways to support our classroom, please check out our wish list on the right hand margin of this page. Our needs are ongoing and we will gladly accept and appreciate your donations throughout the year.

Classroom News:
Room 210 - Adelman

• Each day your child should bring his/her independent reading book, reading log, and writer's notebook to class.

Room 301 - Shimamoto

• Globe Project - volunteers needed for sixth period, September 13-21. Click here to sign up.
• Flipped Classroom - please look over your child's WSQ homework (see Back to School Night Powerpoint presentation for clarification) while we are learning this process.
  

Room 209 - Small

• No posts while out on medical leave

Thank you for your support. We are looking forward to a spectacular year!

Please leave a comment below to let us know that you have read our blog.

We will attempt to update our blog every two weeks on Fridays. Please look for our next post on September 14.