Please remember to read through the disclosure and sign the back page with your scholar. Also I am accepting donations for the $5 registration fee for the National Junior Forensic League.
Scholars got right down to work this morning reviewing for their first spelling and vocabulary test to take place tomorrow morning. I am certain they will all perform to their best abilities. We spent a couple minutes in Latin and continued with Shakespeare this morning. We will finish up Act 1 Scene II tomorrow before our three day weekend.
We continued on in math today with prime numbers and greatest common factor. We will work with GCF and LCM tomorrow. The scholars seem to be getting into the flow of our the text works and how class time works.I hope by now they have "wowed" you with strategy one in mental math. I am anxious to move them on to strategy 2 next week. If you haven't seen them work yet, please ask them to add together any string of odd numbers starting with 1 and ranging to any other odd number. They can do it in their heads, and they can do it quickly!
The scholars had their first library day today, and seemed to have enjoyed that time, They have cards that they brought home that they can use to browse the school library. Take advantage of doing that from home. :)
Our afternoon was full of science as we performed an experiment dealing with heat transfer. We discussed radiation, convection, and conduction. We then talked about cryogenics and freezing off things like warts! We hypothesized what we thought would be the fastest way to cool a can of room temperature soda. Ask your scholar about the four options that we tried, and which turned out to cool the soda the quickest.
There are no photos to post today. I took a bunch during our experiment but there are a number of families that will not allow us to use photos of their scholars, so I need to refrain.
Have a wonderful evening!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Be Gone You Saucy Knave!!!!
REMINDERS: I am collecting your $5 donation for your student to be registered ASAP with the NJFL. It can be sent in either in cash or in check made out to GFA. Also, at the back of the disclosure is a page that both parents and scholars need to sign. I have a couple back already, and will be looking for the rest this week. Thank you!
Shakespeare it is! We began Julius Caesar today and tomorrow will be acting out Act 1, Scene 1 of the play. We will also be discussing friendship and betrayal, along with love of country over love of man. Those parents in the military may want to explain "loyalty to country" in terms that your scholar would understand.
Math found us talking about encryption and cryptography as we began to delve into prime factorization today. Cell phones, computers, tablets, and many other devices use encryption, which is based in the smallest parts of any number, the primes. We will continue with primes, GCF and LCM tomorrow. Scholars have one page of homework this evening.
The Greek City States were on the agenda for History today and the scholars are plotting them on their maps. They will be responsible for this section of geography for the Ancient Greece and Rome Unit. Most color coded their maps and enjoyed the activity.
This afternoon we spent with the Odyssey and learning what a "wooer" is. Ask your scholar to explain. Sam Pope was a good sport and allowed the teacher to use him as an example. He was more than willing to show off his musculature in order to "woo" the teacher. Scholars met in their lit circles groups, chose their team names, captains, and secretaries today.
Science review was in the form of an extremely competitive game. Just as Jonah Tauraa how that works! We reviewed the scientific method, and our heat terms. Tomorrow we will conduct another experiment with heat.
Have a blessed evening and if you are at all interested in Summit Jr. High and High School you are welcome to attend the board meeting this evening at GFA at 6:30.
Below are photos of our impressions of The Odyssey this afternoon.....
Shakespeare it is! We began Julius Caesar today and tomorrow will be acting out Act 1, Scene 1 of the play. We will also be discussing friendship and betrayal, along with love of country over love of man. Those parents in the military may want to explain "loyalty to country" in terms that your scholar would understand.
Math found us talking about encryption and cryptography as we began to delve into prime factorization today. Cell phones, computers, tablets, and many other devices use encryption, which is based in the smallest parts of any number, the primes. We will continue with primes, GCF and LCM tomorrow. Scholars have one page of homework this evening.
The Greek City States were on the agenda for History today and the scholars are plotting them on their maps. They will be responsible for this section of geography for the Ancient Greece and Rome Unit. Most color coded their maps and enjoyed the activity.
This afternoon we spent with the Odyssey and learning what a "wooer" is. Ask your scholar to explain. Sam Pope was a good sport and allowed the teacher to use him as an example. He was more than willing to show off his musculature in order to "woo" the teacher. Scholars met in their lit circles groups, chose their team names, captains, and secretaries today.
Science review was in the form of an extremely competitive game. Just as Jonah Tauraa how that works! We reviewed the scientific method, and our heat terms. Tomorrow we will conduct another experiment with heat.
Have a blessed evening and if you are at all interested in Summit Jr. High and High School you are welcome to attend the board meeting this evening at GFA at 6:30.
Below are photos of our impressions of The Odyssey this afternoon.....
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
"Shakespeareanese" and Heat!
This morning found our scholars speaking "Shakespeareanese" as we traveled through a number of common phrases coined by my hero, Shakespeare. We discussed the endless time element of his writings and that since the focus of the playwright was love, betrayal, loyalty, and the like, that his plays have a timeless message for all of us. We can all certainly learn something from Shakespeare!
We were off to our Math homework on number lines quite quickly afterwards and spent our entire math hour and a half working on yesterday's work. The pace will begin to quicken as we have over 150 lessons to complete in 180 days of school. We will be working on lesson two, and hopefully three tomorrow. These lessons deal with prime factorization and common factors and multiples. You can help your scholar to discern these two words by reiterating that factors are parts of a whole, such as 2 and 4 being factors of 8, whereas when we use the term "multiple" we are talking about multiplying, and therefore we are looking to a larger number, not a smaller part of a number.
Our first music class was today, and the scholars played a delightful piece when I went to get them from class. After lunch we journeyed into our first science unit on heat. Bill Nye welcomed us as we discussed Conduction, Convection and Radiation. We then ran a quick little experiment with soap and "radiated" some of it in the microwave (see photos). We concluded that Ivory soap contained more air than Dial soap. Heat was the catalyst we used for our experiment.
We then began our discussion of RESPECT, our first foundational stone of the year. Our discussion surrounded the building of a house, and how without respect for the foundation, the walls would likely not stand for very long. Without showing and practicing respect it is almost impossible to practice integrity, responsibility, and self-control let alone citizenship and cooperation! We will persevere and "build" our character house on the 6th grade character wall this year!
I hope to see most of you, if not all of you this evening.
~Mrs. G.
We were off to our Math homework on number lines quite quickly afterwards and spent our entire math hour and a half working on yesterday's work. The pace will begin to quicken as we have over 150 lessons to complete in 180 days of school. We will be working on lesson two, and hopefully three tomorrow. These lessons deal with prime factorization and common factors and multiples. You can help your scholar to discern these two words by reiterating that factors are parts of a whole, such as 2 and 4 being factors of 8, whereas when we use the term "multiple" we are talking about multiplying, and therefore we are looking to a larger number, not a smaller part of a number.
Our first music class was today, and the scholars played a delightful piece when I went to get them from class. After lunch we journeyed into our first science unit on heat. Bill Nye welcomed us as we discussed Conduction, Convection and Radiation. We then ran a quick little experiment with soap and "radiated" some of it in the microwave (see photos). We concluded that Ivory soap contained more air than Dial soap. Heat was the catalyst we used for our experiment.
We then began our discussion of RESPECT, our first foundational stone of the year. Our discussion surrounded the building of a house, and how without respect for the foundation, the walls would likely not stand for very long. Without showing and practicing respect it is almost impossible to practice integrity, responsibility, and self-control let alone citizenship and cooperation! We will persevere and "build" our character house on the 6th grade character wall this year!
I hope to see most of you, if not all of you this evening.
~Mrs. G.
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| Ivory and Dial soap |
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| After microwaving for two minutes |
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| it smells good! |
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| Welcome Evelyn! Our latest scholarly addition! |
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| sniff, sniff..... :) |
Monday, August 27, 2012
Number Lines, Scientific Methods, and Missing Persons....
We were busy in the suite today tackling some subjects for the first time and getting into a routine. The scholars will get quicker and quicker with the locks, the lockers, and the whole middle school desk idea as the weeks progress.
We enjoyed making acrostic poems today to put on our bulletin board in the hallway. I am hoping to have them up by tomorrow evening so parents can see the work of their scholars. The idea was to use their name to learn some new vocabulary that also described each student's character.
We started Singapore Math today, Course One. Number lines were on the agenda and a packet of homework went home. For the most part scholars were familiar with number lines and simply needed to remember which way to plot a vertical number line. More practice will help it stick into their minds. The more they use a skill, the easier it is to recall.
We began our study of Ancient Greece and Rome in History and will be working on our City State maps tomorrow. The scholars are excited about this unit, Julius Caesar, The Odyssey, and mythology in general. They are already getting ready in their minds for their Gods/Goddesses party!
Our afternoon was taken up by reviewing the Scientific Method and understanding that this year, as middle schoolers, their work progresses onto Weber State University for the Jr. Ritchey Science Fair if they place in the top three here are our fair. We have some exciting ideas already!
We also discussed missing persons, and which of us has had someone go missing in their families. We talked about all the children missing in Utah, and adults missing also. Scholars have till Thursday to bring in a story about a missing person from Utah. This discussion is setting the ground work for Odysseus and his being missing for 20 years before his son Telemachus goes looking for him.
We were busy, and will be welcoming a new student, Evelyn Lowe to our class tomorrow.
Have a peaceful evening.
We enjoyed making acrostic poems today to put on our bulletin board in the hallway. I am hoping to have them up by tomorrow evening so parents can see the work of their scholars. The idea was to use their name to learn some new vocabulary that also described each student's character.
We started Singapore Math today, Course One. Number lines were on the agenda and a packet of homework went home. For the most part scholars were familiar with number lines and simply needed to remember which way to plot a vertical number line. More practice will help it stick into their minds. The more they use a skill, the easier it is to recall.
We began our study of Ancient Greece and Rome in History and will be working on our City State maps tomorrow. The scholars are excited about this unit, Julius Caesar, The Odyssey, and mythology in general. They are already getting ready in their minds for their Gods/Goddesses party!
Our afternoon was taken up by reviewing the Scientific Method and understanding that this year, as middle schoolers, their work progresses onto Weber State University for the Jr. Ritchey Science Fair if they place in the top three here are our fair. We have some exciting ideas already!
We also discussed missing persons, and which of us has had someone go missing in their families. We talked about all the children missing in Utah, and adults missing also. Scholars have till Thursday to bring in a story about a missing person from Utah. This discussion is setting the ground work for Odysseus and his being missing for 20 years before his son Telemachus goes looking for him.
We were busy, and will be welcoming a new student, Evelyn Lowe to our class tomorrow.
Have a peaceful evening.
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| Sam plotting his number line |
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| Jared working hard |
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| drawing straight lines, plotting wholes, fractions, and decimal parts. |
Friday, August 24, 2012
And We're OFF!.....
The 2013 Sedulous Scholars have begun the year with a bang! We have hosted the Honor Guard and learned about flag folding and respect for the flag along with proper procedure to raise and lower the flag. We have reviewed our summer reading books, and gone over various procedures for our suite. The scholars are ready to dive into the material next week and get on our way with coursework. Welcome to Sixth Grade!
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| Our Suite for 2013 |
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| Alexsis and McKenna |
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| Up goes the flag! |
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| The year begins!!!! |
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| Introduction of the Fantastic Five! |
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| Teaching proper procedures on the playground! |
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| Students in agreement! |
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| Proper cafeteria procedures Thoughtful Thayne |
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| Proper considerations in the bathrooms. Radiant Rivera |
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| She didn't wash her hands!!! EEEWWWWW |
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| Proper hallway procedures Harmonious Hartman |
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| Light feet and respectful space |
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| Powerful Petersen and the "du-wap" girls... |
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| "We are United!" |
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| Honor Guard |
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| Isaac Barreto showing how it's done! |
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| Presenting the colors |
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| Voyage of the Dawn Treader |
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| Lion, Witch and Wardrobe |
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| Where the Red Fern Grows |
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| White Fang |
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