March 3rd ~ 7th

Well, I am posting again to the blog after a short hiatus. We have a lot of things coming up and I will try to hit all the high points.

Geo-City : All of the students in grades 4-6 have been working on Geo-City structures for our display this Thursday. Each child will bring his or her structure to school on Thursday and they will be arranged in the gym. Students from Mrs. Williams' class have created a map and the structures will be placed in the location indicated on the map.
If you would like to tour the city, time has been set aside from 2-3 on Thursday for you to come to the gym to see the city. It will definitely be cozy in our little gym, but it should be awesome!
As we do not have room for storage - all structures should be brought to school on Thursday and must go home again Thursday after school.

Poly Drive Read-a-Thon: Packets were given to the students last Friday and this week is our pledge week. Students will ask family, friends, etc. to pledge funds by the minute or a flat donation. All monies raised during the Read-a-Thon help our library purchase new books - and our PTA is raising funds for new playground equipment!
Next week, (March 10th-14th) students will read daily to earn the pledged money.
The week of March 17th is pledge collection week.
The themes for each day of reading week are as follows:
Monday 3/10: Read with style (Dress up today)
Tuesday 3/11: Veg. out on reading (Bring a can of veggies for the food bank)
Wednesday 3/12: www - We wear words (wear clothing with printed words)
Thursday 3/13: Read Every Day (Wear Red)
Friday 3/14: Cat in the Hat (wear a hat today)

Class Pictures: Our class pictures will be taken this Friday, as well as spring individual pictures. If your child happens to be gone on that day, I always take a class picture myself in the spring - usually outside on the playground, etc. I choose a day when everyone is present.
6th Graders will receive one class picture free of charge.

Looking ahead ~
Night of the Notables (6th grade only): This event is scheduled for the evening of Thursday March 27th from 6:00-7:30 in the gym and all 6th graders are expected to participate. Beginning this week, the students will select someone from history who is notable/famous (not notorious or infamous) and they will research and write a biography about their chosen person. As we get closer to the Notable evening, the students will prepare a 1-minute Bio-Riddle that shares life events, notable contributions, etc. for their person and it will be written in 1st-person. They should begin thinking about a costume or outfit that would be appropriate for their notable, because on the evening of the 27th, they "become" their notable and will recite the bio-riddle from memory in front of the audience. We work together in class to write the bio-riddle and practice in front of others, so it is memorized and comfortable for the students. This is a great event!
6th Graders - Begin thinking about who you might select as your Notable. Mrs. Delaney is setting aside biographies from our library for you to peruse.

Pi Day ~ We will celebrate "Pi Day" on March 14th (3.14) and the kids are signing up to bring a pie to share. We will measure & calculate the radius, diameter, circumference, and area of each pie before we slice and enjoy. There will be other activities during the day related to Pi.
On a side note . . this is also Mr. Monson's birthday!

NWEA Testing Dates: I have tentatively scheduled our NWEA testing on Friday April 11th, Monday April 14th, and Wednesday April 16th. Please mark your calendars and try to have your child in school on these dates. These tests help determine placement for 7th grade classes.

Smarter Balanced Testing: This year, Poly Drive is piloting our new testing format through Smarter Balanced. These assessments will take the place of our MontCAS testing and they are much more rigorous than in the past. Because we have been chosen as a pilot school, we will not receive reports for individual students. Our school-wide scores will help to set the state and national norms. The tentative dates for our class are Wednesday April 30th, Monday May 5th, and Wednesday May 7th.

No School on Monday March 24th - Enjoy the long weekend
No School for students on Monday April 7th - 3 days of rest for the kiddos.
Early-Out for students on Thursday April 17th.
No School on Friday April 18th or Monday April 21st - Enjoy the break!
No School or Friday May 2nd - 3 days of rest again.

Okay . . . now on with the academics this week!

Spelling: Unit 23 Pretest on Monday with written assignments on Tuesday and Thursday, and a final unit test on Friday.
5th ~ Words from other languages.
6th ~ Prefixes dis-, ex-, inter-
Language: The students will work with language concepts during the week and have written assignments on Monday and Wednesday.
5th ~ Types of Sentences
6th ~ Compound-Complex sentences, and sentence type review. 6th graders will also work with the Latin and Greek roots claim/clam, equ, and equi. They will create a root word poster that is due on Friday.
Reading
5th ~ Continue working in Lead 21: Inferences, general ideas, making conjectures, summarizing, text structure, and working with selection vocabulary. The students will discuss the inquiry project for this unit.
6th ~ We will continue with the two selected WWII novels this week. We meet daily to discuss the novels and I check written work by the students. They are required to notate at least two comprehension strategies used each day while reading.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - The boys will read chapters 6-12 this week.
Between Shades of Gray - The girls will read chapters 17-43 this week. (The chapters are very short)
Link for author's discussion of Between Shades of Gray.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPiQ_LuKtDE
Math
5th ~ We are transitioning back to fractions this week and the kids will continue learning about adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators.
6th ~ We are also revisiting our ratios, proportions, rates, and unit rates this week. We will work with percents as they relate to proportions.
Social Studies ~ As we continue our study of world religions, the 6th graders will read about India and the Hindu & Buddhist religions, and take notes in class.
Science
6th graders are learning about seismometers and will design their own machine and create a diagram poster to share with the class. On Friday, we will learn about tsunamis - how they are created and the destruction caused by them.
Counselor
Mrs. Tatum will share a counseling lesson with our class on Wednesday afternoon.

I hope you have a fantastic week - and please drive carefully out there! It looks like the weather may warm up a bit this week . . . and I am certainly ready for spring!!!