Class Update

Dear Parents and Caregivers, 

The Run-Walk-A-Thon went great with a total of 38 miles ran for our class alone. Now it’s money-collecting time! Students are asked to gather the funds they raised and return them by next Monday at the latest. Thanks for all your support! I'm already hatching ideas for fun field trips and activities for this group!

 Students completed their first formal spelling and history exams this week. Independent and family-supported study time at home will be important to doing well on exams in my class. Though I do review sessions in class, students are also expected to study at home. Please help support your student by looking at their study materials with them and giving them practice verbal and/or written quizzes at home. I also highly encourage peer-to-peer study on the telephone. If you need any support on studying at home, let me know.

 Students completed an interesting artistic assignment on their favorite novel incorporating optical illusion and our study of literary analysis. These will be displayed in the hall within the next month, and a few examples will be posted to the class blog.

 In science, we are heading into an exploration of the scientific method, particularly the exploration of independent and dependent variables and our next block of social studies deals with early agriculture and human settlement.

Additionally, next Friday the 26th, our PE will be rescheduled for a martial arts introductory class led by Tony Reyna who runs Gold Country Kuk Sool Won in Nevada City.

If your child is interested in learning more about Kuk Sool Won, Tony is offering a free six-week class on Mondays at the Parents Resource Center in North San Juan. This will start October 20th with a class for 2-5 year olds at 3:15-3:45 and a class for children 6-13 from 4:00-5:00. Call 292-3174 with questions or to secure a spot (no drop-ins will be allowed).

Thank you,

Maggie Orion

Art and Analysis Project

Can you see what we found in our favorite novels when we analyzed them?

Class Update

                                    

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

This is the final push for fundraising on our Run-Walk-A-Thon. We'll be doing laps on Friday. Please encourage your student to raise some funds to ensure that we can participate in field trips and extracurricular activities.

Next Monday the 15th, the whole school will be participating in a River Clean Up. Field trips forms will be sent home this week.

Our football team is up and running with games on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next several weeks. If you'd like to go cheer for our school, please pick up a schedule.

We have been working on identifying text structures in informational articles, analyzing literature, learning about early hunter-gatherer cultures, and the role of inquiry in the scientific method.

Thank you for your support!

Maggie Orion

Animal Symbols

Students wrote their first blog post on their personal blogs describing what animal they thought represented them best. The class then practiced commenting and feedback etiquette on each others' blog posts.

Below are three examples of students' writing and, of course, their creative self-portraits made with the SplitPic app on the iPad.

I think that the water snake symbolizes me because I love water, and water snakes do too, I mean, duh, it is in the name. I also think I am like a water snake because they are so absolutely amazing at hiding! I too am great at hiding. I like to try to be stealthy, and everybody knows that snakes are very stealthy. When I was five, I found a three-foot water snake. I was really close to it, and everyone said it was going to bite me, but for some reason I looked it in the eye and it didn’t. I got real close to it and caught it. Ever since then, I have always loved water snakes. Also, every year I am always at the lake swimming. Even when school started up, I am there after school. I am there swimming just like a water snake. Overall I think I am mostly like a water snake.

I think I am a Dog, because I am very protective of my family and friends. The Dog is a symbol to me because I am very very protective. One time my friend was getting made fun of and I told the bully that they weren’t any different from my friend. Another time was when someone was being rude to me, and I told them that they must be insecure of themselves because they were making fun of me. I am a very protective person.

Teaching is another characteristic of mine. A real life story is when I do something bad my sister comes and copies me so I taught her to not do bad things. Another one is when my dogs were being bad I had to teach them that they should not do that.

The animal I picked that symbolizes me is a lion. The characteristic that a lion has that I have is being athletic. I am a person that would rather be outside than inside because being active makes you more healthier than just sitting at home eating donuts. The way that I am athletic is by playing football where I dash, leap, clash into people. I also play other sports that keep me active like basketball, wrestling, and track and field. When I was about three years old I started gymnastics and I didn’t even know that I did this until about a year ago so I don’t know much. I do know that I did do flips, back hand springs, and the splits I know that must have hurt. Finally lions are many things but being athletic is one of most important I think because thats how they catch they prey and fight off predators.

Another characteristic that I have that a lion has is being stubborn. Being stubborn meaning I like doing things my own way, and I think that lions are stubborn because they never listen to their trainers and when they do its with a bad attitude. Last year when my acquaintance and I did a science project together he wanted to do it one way and I wanted to do it another way and resulted in a extensive controversy. Also in Physical Education I argued with the instructor about what we should do for exercise. In conclusion I would like to say that I hate being stubborn because it gets me in distress to much.

Hands-On History

Over the past two weeks we've participated in a couple hands-on history projects. After partner-reading about Lascaux Cave in France and the different tools and subjects of the prehistoric artists, we made our own art using plant and mineral based paint that the students created. Then we took a hammer to some clay pots to get a taste of how archeologists feel when they faced with a million shards of pottery to piece together. Enjoy the photos!

Hand prints with homemade ash based paint.

Footprints with mud paint.

Our very own prehistoric-styled art inspired by Lascaux Cave. 

Archeologists using teamwork.

Careful hands!

Math Homework Help

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Students,

For those of you feeling like you need more support at home on the math homework, we just discovered a rather helpful link: Click here!

This website was created to assist students and their families at home with their math homework. For those of you who have students in my Math Foundations Course, you would choose the 6th Grade Engage Math materials and then select the module and lesson number (right now we're on Module 1).

As you will see, the upper grade math modules are not all there. For instance, 7th grade is missing entirely. Hopefully, they will continue to populate this website with videos for upcoming modules.

Hope this is helpful,

Maggie Orion

Class Update

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

I was so pleased with the packed house at Back-To-School Night, and it was great to be able to answer some of your questions. Remember to reach out if you have more. I heard your concerns about math homework in regards to our new curriculum, and I will be working on making sure the students leave with better notes.

We've been learning about prehistoric cave art, practicing our partner reading, getting introduced to the physical science in our lives and coming up with solutions rather than complaints for problems encountered at school.

Please note that the after school program starts this week, and if you'd like your child to attend, please fill out the paperwork from Back-To-School Night or pop in the office to pick the packet up.

Mark your calendars: September 10th is a minimum day and our first awards assembly. Feel free to stop by at 8:45 to see how our school celebrates our students.

This upcoming weekend on Saturday the 6th, the e Volunteer Fire Department's annual fundraiser and picnic will be held. This is a great opportunity for your student to earn Community Service hours. Sign-up sheets are in class.

Finally, we are kicking off our annual Run-Walk-A-Thon to celebrate fitness and raise funds for field trips and enriching activities. We simply cannot do all the fun extra activities we want to do without financial support from our community. Please encourage your student to contact family, friends and neighbors to get sponsored! Students can also receive pledges from staff so there is no reason not to earn some money. 

Thank you for your support!

Maggie Orion