Today in 6A & 6B

ENGLISH: Students completed the second half of yesterday's activity. After listening to a few short classical pieces, students wrote out how the music made them feel; perhaps it was an emotion, a story, a character, a scene, etc. Today students took those notes and crafted them into meaningful and coherent compositions. This work was due at the end of class and all students should have their work submitted. If absent, students may work on this over the weekend.

LITERATURE: After today's reading we see Billy has trained his two pups and is ready to take them for their first hunt. The description of the hunt is thorough and what happens after the hounds "treed" their prey shows the type of character that Billy is. Students have been tabbing pages in order to return to pieces of information as we go along.

RELIGION: Students had a short open-book quiz todday on Chapter 3.

SOCIAL STUDIES: We continued with our paper kites today and most everyone is either at the decorating phase or beyond. This is good. We may be able to spend some AR time in the coming days to finish these off and take them for a glide, however there will not be any more Social Studies periods dedicated to this project. This is a graded assignment, graded largely for completion, but also for students' time management skills, ability to follow instructions, listen, share resources, and problem solve.

MATH Accelerated math

***Many thanks to all of the students and parents who brought cards and gifts today for teacher appreciation day. We certainly feel appreciated and return the kindness.***

Today in 6A &6B

ENGLISH: After some flash cards our students began their Unit 10 Composition: Writing What They Feel... To Music! I presented the students with 3 different classical songs and the students free-wrte what the music triggered in them. For some this was a direct emotion explanation while for others it inspired stories and adventure. All is good. Tomorrow, students will take what they wrote and compose it into a coherent piece (for each of the three songs).

RELIGION: Students finished the chapter on Genesis understanding that God has given us free will. That he loves us and wants us to love him, but allows us to choose to love him. We examined "Stewardship" and what it means to be a steward of the earth in some capacity.

SOCIAL STUDIES: We started our Kite-building project today and what beautiful chaos it was. I believe that by the end of this exercise the students will be happy with their work and will look forward to a moment when they can fly their kites.

***There is no homework issued this evening. Students are expected to make themselves available to parents to help them with any tasks around the house. Our kids should show a little initiative in making this happen***

Today in 6A & 6B

ENGLISH: In a shortened period, our students completed three exercises on their Sadlier websites; Vocabulary in Context, Passage-based Reading, and Improving Sentences. Our students have come a long way in their understanding of why certain sentences and turns of phrase are correct/incorrect and can better explain these phenomena.

LITERATURE: In this segment, Billy returns home from town, a distance of about 30 miles in the hills of Ozark country. He's experienced a lot in town and is very happy with life on the farm. Now that he has his dogs, its time to train them to hunt. Billy needs to get himself a raccoon though and his efforts prove trying.

CYBER SPEAKER: In lieu of Social Studies, our students took part in a guest speaker who talked about cyber safety and what risks are there for our young people online. I grew up as the internet was finding itself and I am lucky that social media never existed. Children today are under much more scrutiny regarding their "public profiles" than any generation that's come before them. If you too would like to hear a similar talk that is geared toward parents, please join us tomorrow night. You children have all been sent home with a flyer and the details.

MATH (8:00 class) pg 215 13-24  (9:00 class) pg 267 1-15

Today in 6A & 6B

I'd like to begin by thanking all families, current and prospective, for attending yesterday's open house event. I believe we did this school, and particularly the 6th grade, a service by showing all that we have been up to. Thank you!

ENGLISH: Having written a test on Friday for Unit 9 words, today started our Unit 10 Vocabulary. WE spent our time defining our 20 new words and crafting associations that will help us to understand that word's meaning.

LITERATURE: In reading the next 25 pages of "Where the Red Fern Grows" we finally see Billy save up his money and purchase the two coon hounds that he had wished, prayed and dreamed of.

RELIGION: This week's chapter examines the creations story. As a primer I asked students what the most beautiful thing they have ever seen is. God created the earth and all creation as an expression of love and so that he could also be loved (through free will).

SOCIAL STUDIES: Our China Unit/Chapter starts today. This will be a much longer section of information for a test that needs to be written in the same amount of time. This means that students will need to adjust their study methods and patterns to account for the sheer magnitude of the information presented to them. It will be a few weeks before we have our next test but students should be taking strong notes and answering the homework questions in thorough depth so that they can have the best information available to them come test time.

MATH (8:00 class) Ws 4-5 and re learning 4-6 (9:00 class) pg 261 1-37

SCIENCE pg 159 1-4