Super excited to begin the presentations for their Science Group Projects. The scholars are teaching the review sessions for their peers on the various topics within geology that we have studied all year. They have worked hard and have some really great activities planned.Thank you for all the support that I have received in getting the materials out to everyone. It is challenging, but super rewarding when the scholars are excited about what they are learning. Today we had the MINERALS group presenting in 6 A. They put together a stellar slideshow that was visually stunning and chock full of information for their peers. They showed us some minerals up close using the hand held microscopes. These scholars came to a special Zoom on Sunday to learn how to use this tool and then put together some beautiful images of the minerals up close! It got everyone very excited and captured their attention. WELL DONE LADIES!! Tomorrow we will hear from the VOLCANOES AND PLATE TECTONICS AND EARTHQUAKE GROUPS in 6B and from the PLATE TECTONICS and TSUNAMI group in 6A. Wednesday, will be EARTHQUAKES AND ROCK CYCLE AND WEATHERING for 6 A and MINERALS, ROCK CYCLE AND WEATHERING AND TSUNAMI groups for 6 B. All groups need to share their slideshows, games and other presentation materials with me so that I can put them all into a resource folder for all of the scholars to access. Please do that by end of day Wednesday.
PE LOGS for LP 7 were due on Friday. Please make sure these are submitted to your homeroom teachers.
New PE LOGs for LP 8 will post tonight.
Scholarly Reflections: Every day, scholars are supposed to be completing their scholarly reflections. I read these. I have noticed and spoken to the scholars the past couple of week, that many of their entries do not have much reflection. Single word descriptions or listing what they do, is not really a reflection. They need to be discussing what they learned, what they found interesting, what scholarly traits they are working towards, any connections they are making between material they have studied and always looking for the depth and complexity in subject matter. As I said, I have mentioned this in class and provided samples of better entries. I am eager to see the scholars taking more time with these and truly having them be reflective pieces. Every week, parents are supposed to review the Scholarly Reflection and comment with "Likes" and "Wonders." Thank you to those parents who have been weekly partners in this. The care that the scholar takes is improved when they know they have your interest.
Scholars are receiving materials in bags this week, either on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. Inside they will find all sorts of "goodies," all of which relate to some activity that will be led by their peers for the Science Review Projects, or in math of science by me. They should not randomly eat or use the materials, but rather wait for specific instructions. By Tuesday, all scholars will have their bags. They came with a list of materials and some response pages. Scholars need to review the materials list to make sure their bag is not missing any item. If they do notice something is missing they need to inform me right away so I can make sure they get what is needed. I try very hard to get everyone everything the first time, but I am human! Please help and check through using the list.
MATH: Today we read a book called Eight Slices of Orange and we solved math problems in our heads, and also collected some data for some work on Measures of Central Tendency- mean, median, mode, range, data collection- all part of statistics and probability and very much part of work related to rates, fractions, decimals, and algebra. It all starts to flow together in a beautiful weave of mathematics! We got to eat delicious tangerines, too! By end of class Tuesday, we will have collected data from all 6th graders and can start our analysis of data.
Poster Problem: Two Scholars Go Shopping- I introduced this problem in class today. For this problem, I am asking scholars to NOT use Siri or Alexa or other such device. I am also asking them to NOT use a calculator. I want them to explore coming to a solution by looking at the relationships between percents, and decimals and fractions. Please do not provide them with some short cut or equations and allow them the time to wrestle with it and come to their own understanding over the course of the week. We will have hint day on Wednesday and scholars can share ideas with each other.
String Art/Line Design: The artwork is starting to be returned as scholars complete these amazing pieces. They are FANTASTIC! Scholars are encouraged to keep working on it, a little every night. I will be offering help for anyone struggling with this on Tuesday, starting at 1:30 and going until 3. If scholars need more thread they just need to send me an email with details. Scholars who have completed their designs should bring them in for our art display and return the needle to me. I will be sharing photos of the work on Parent Square. You will be amazed!
Science: This week we focus on the projects and our review for the final exam on geology. Scholars who have word searches, quiz questions, puzzles or other things for the scholars to complete, need to share them in the stream so folks can access them. As groups present, they will share their final work with me so that I can make it available to everyone to use as a resource.
We ended LP 7 last week. That was the close of grades for this term, with the exception of the projects and the science test for geology. All work needs to be submitted by Wednesday of this week. Everyone should take a close look at Google Classrooms and the list of activities we have had since the last grading period. (*roughly since December) If it says MISSING, then it was not turned in. If it says turned in, please check to see that there is evidence of that. If you click on it and cannot see work, there is no evidence. If that is the case, look for a comment from the scholar or from me that indicates it has been turned in. Everyone should be turning in papers to me in class or by submitting folders. I have encouraged the scholars to still upload a photo of the work as their evidence that it has been completed.
This Thursday and Friday are homeschool days and scholars will have assignments to complete. These will be their first grades of their final trimester, so they will want to make sure to start off well by completing all work on time. We will be meeting with any parents who have requested conferences and those we also requested. We sent an email last week about this and you can notify us if you wish to have a scheduled time.
That's it for now, but please do check back as this week rolls along. As always, thank you for your partnership. It is essential.
PE LOGS for LP 7 were due on Friday. Please make sure these are submitted to your homeroom teachers.
New PE LOGs for LP 8 will post tonight.
Scholarly Reflections: Every day, scholars are supposed to be completing their scholarly reflections. I read these. I have noticed and spoken to the scholars the past couple of week, that many of their entries do not have much reflection. Single word descriptions or listing what they do, is not really a reflection. They need to be discussing what they learned, what they found interesting, what scholarly traits they are working towards, any connections they are making between material they have studied and always looking for the depth and complexity in subject matter. As I said, I have mentioned this in class and provided samples of better entries. I am eager to see the scholars taking more time with these and truly having them be reflective pieces. Every week, parents are supposed to review the Scholarly Reflection and comment with "Likes" and "Wonders." Thank you to those parents who have been weekly partners in this. The care that the scholar takes is improved when they know they have your interest.
Scholars are receiving materials in bags this week, either on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. Inside they will find all sorts of "goodies," all of which relate to some activity that will be led by their peers for the Science Review Projects, or in math of science by me. They should not randomly eat or use the materials, but rather wait for specific instructions. By Tuesday, all scholars will have their bags. They came with a list of materials and some response pages. Scholars need to review the materials list to make sure their bag is not missing any item. If they do notice something is missing they need to inform me right away so I can make sure they get what is needed. I try very hard to get everyone everything the first time, but I am human! Please help and check through using the list.
MATH: Today we read a book called Eight Slices of Orange and we solved math problems in our heads, and also collected some data for some work on Measures of Central Tendency- mean, median, mode, range, data collection- all part of statistics and probability and very much part of work related to rates, fractions, decimals, and algebra. It all starts to flow together in a beautiful weave of mathematics! We got to eat delicious tangerines, too! By end of class Tuesday, we will have collected data from all 6th graders and can start our analysis of data.
Poster Problem: Two Scholars Go Shopping- I introduced this problem in class today. For this problem, I am asking scholars to NOT use Siri or Alexa or other such device. I am also asking them to NOT use a calculator. I want them to explore coming to a solution by looking at the relationships between percents, and decimals and fractions. Please do not provide them with some short cut or equations and allow them the time to wrestle with it and come to their own understanding over the course of the week. We will have hint day on Wednesday and scholars can share ideas with each other.
String Art/Line Design: The artwork is starting to be returned as scholars complete these amazing pieces. They are FANTASTIC! Scholars are encouraged to keep working on it, a little every night. I will be offering help for anyone struggling with this on Tuesday, starting at 1:30 and going until 3. If scholars need more thread they just need to send me an email with details. Scholars who have completed their designs should bring them in for our art display and return the needle to me. I will be sharing photos of the work on Parent Square. You will be amazed!
Science: This week we focus on the projects and our review for the final exam on geology. Scholars who have word searches, quiz questions, puzzles or other things for the scholars to complete, need to share them in the stream so folks can access them. As groups present, they will share their final work with me so that I can make it available to everyone to use as a resource.
We ended LP 7 last week. That was the close of grades for this term, with the exception of the projects and the science test for geology. All work needs to be submitted by Wednesday of this week. Everyone should take a close look at Google Classrooms and the list of activities we have had since the last grading period. (*roughly since December) If it says MISSING, then it was not turned in. If it says turned in, please check to see that there is evidence of that. If you click on it and cannot see work, there is no evidence. If that is the case, look for a comment from the scholar or from me that indicates it has been turned in. Everyone should be turning in papers to me in class or by submitting folders. I have encouraged the scholars to still upload a photo of the work as their evidence that it has been completed.
This Thursday and Friday are homeschool days and scholars will have assignments to complete. These will be their first grades of their final trimester, so they will want to make sure to start off well by completing all work on time. We will be meeting with any parents who have requested conferences and those we also requested. We sent an email last week about this and you can notify us if you wish to have a scheduled time.
That's it for now, but please do check back as this week rolls along. As always, thank you for your partnership. It is essential.