Monday, February 25, 2013

Busy Week Ahead

We hit the ground running this morning working through Latin for the test tomorrow, the Giver and finding the area of triangles. We will be working with area of polygons for quite awhile and students are working in teams at school using the following area tool:

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?id=108

Students are welcome to use the tool at home and discover what they can and can not do with it. It is a helpful interactive tool.

We then moved to our history unit on capitalism, socialism, and communism and are learning about the law of supply and demand, the classes in Europe, and once again, Charles Dickens. This is especially appropriate considering we are finishing Tale of Two Cities tomorrow. :) 

This afternoon students are working on their Call of the Wild projects and then back to the circulatory system in science. Literature projects are due on Wednesday. The History test that we were planning for Thursday will be moved to next Tuesday. We will finish up lymphatic and circulatory over this week and next. Students will have a test on this unit early in March.

Sometime over the next 48 hours Noah Tinkey, my newest grandson will be born. Mrs. Lori Cardinal will be stepping in to sub for me when and if I need her.

Friday is our assembly for the month of March. Come join us for the introduction of our next foundation stone and the celebration of the last; Cooperation.

Have a great week!

Friday, February 22, 2013

Scientifically Speaking

Judges had a very difficult time last evening placing their top scientists in the Sixth Grade Science Fair. Comments about the depth and richness of the projects presented were plentiful. The Sedulous Scholars were able to speak and present, as well as prove that their work was significant to a personal application and a community application. I was proud to say that I have the honor of working with these young men and women each day.

Now we will move on to Jr. Ritchey Science Fair and see what happens next! Congratulations to McKenna Tracy, Denisse Borja, Jared Maxwell, Isaac Barreto, Piper Caturia, and Alexsis Kemp. Job well done!

Thank you also to Mrs. Tracy for helping to get everything for the fair put together, Mrs. Whitford for putting together an award board so quickly, and for all of the yummy food brought in for the judges. They were very blessed with the dinner and the goodies and are more than willing to return next year.


This next week will be very busy as we finish up units for February and head into March. There will be emails coming soon in regards to a meeting for forensics, so be watching for that. We need to discuss the National Tournament and start making plans.
















Friday, February 15, 2013

The Heart of the Matter!

Hearts all the way around to a wonderful week in the suite! Thank you so much for making my birthday special and helping us to dissect our hearts on Valentine's day. We enjoyed having the time to focus on each other a bit, and enjoy some extra (not needed) sugar in our diets! The scholars worked diligently on dissecting their pig hearts and are fluent in the knowledge of blood flow through the heart.

The Science Fair is coming up next week. Scholars took their boards back home over the long weekend if they needed to correct parts. They can bring them back Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. We are looking forward to an enjoyable evening on Thursday. Mrs. Tracy will get out an email about what we need in the suite to support the evening. Thank you in advance for your help making our Science Fair a success! The three top 6th graders will go to the Jr. Ritchey Science Fair on March 18th.

NJFL - There will be an informational meeting for the National Junior Forensic League Tournament coming up soon. You will get an individual email if your scholar is qualified, or close to qualifying so we can begin the conversation of how to get to Birmingham the end of June!

Have a great break!
sweet gifts from the class

in a partying mood!

my sweet door greeting! LOVE IT!!

Happy Birthday Mrs. Goers in HEBREW! Thank you Bella!
















Sunday, February 10, 2013

Congratulations Math Team and Sam!

The Math Counts Team performed well at the competition yesterday. GFA had the only representation of a 6th grade team, and despite that handicap Sam Pope scored ninth in the top ten overall on the individual test. Sam had the opportunity to play the countdown round in front of the entire crowd and showed his talents with figuring math quickly and accurately. Congratulations Sam. Enjoy the pictures of the team between sessions....just being themselves! :)










Congratulations Sam!

Friday, February 8, 2013

MathCounts Team ROCKS!!!

Tomorrow is the big day! We have worked and practiced for this event for over four months....now is our chance to show what we know.

Tomorrow morning we will be meeting for breakfast and our pep talk before the competition, then making our way down to Weber State for the day. Scholars will have the opportunity to work on individual math challenges and team challenges....we will update as soon as we know how the day went!

Please remember that next Thursday and Friday scholars are out at 1:00. This is no different for Friday, but it is for Thursday. That also means that we will not be having Forensics practice on Thursday.
If you would like to send in a treat for your scholar to share with his/her classmates on Thursday, you may do so. We will share them right before we leave for lunch at 12:15.

Have a great weekend!

We are excited! :)

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Baker Isaac Treats the Class

Thanks to Isaac and Mrs. Barreto for treating the class to the results from his science experiment today. We enjoyed fresh baked bread as Isaac ran an experiment determining which yeast rose his bread the highest. The results were excellent!

We added a Latin test to the calendar today. It will be on February 26th.

Students should be crunching numbers and developing graphic forms to present their data for their experiments. Please help them to gather what they need. See the Science Fair packet for further information. The fair will take place on the 21st. Our class needs to provide two crockpot/casserole type dinners and a dessert for the 10 judges. Thank you for your help with this event. Food can be brought to my classroom by 5:45 that evening. If you want to send it to school in the morning, that will work also.

We are watching with zeal the Yukon Quest up in Alaska. Hugh Neff and Allen Moore are daily and sometimes hourly changing out the lead. It has been exciting to watch, and scholars can go on the website in the evenings to see the daily uploaded photos of the mushers and their dogs.

We have great news concerning the 6th grade class as a whole. We have achieved SILVER STATUS with the Math Counts class competition. We will receive the silver trophy for our trophy case, as we did last year, unless we earn the gold! We will take the gold test next week. Also, this Saturday our top mathletes will compete at Weber State. There will be an update on Saturday evening as to how we performed at the competition. This is a very competitive event, but it is an excellent experience for our scholars. They are the youngest in the competition, so whatever they accomplish is huge!

During the French Revolution the women marched in the streets demanding bread....today we earned it! Thanks Isaac!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

GET WELL ALEXIS!

Our scholars cooperated today as we produced a Get Well card for Alexis Wiseman. She has been ill and we have missed having her in class. Our thoughts are with her as doctors try to determine what is causing her suffering.

Please be certain that your scholars are working steadily on their science experiments. You will need to sign their planners tonight as to whether the experiments are complete. They may be still collecting information and gathering data, but the actual experiment must be completed in the next few days. We need to move ahead and get boards prepared.

Our Science test went well today and I will hopefully get all tests graded by tomorrow. We will finish up Tale of Two Cities this week and be ready to start new literature next week.

Have a great evening.

Get Well Alexis!!!

Monday, February 4, 2013

Congratulations McKenna!

McKenna Tracy received her math games today as a result of winning the Math Chocolate Fix Challenge on the Math Counts website this past month. Congratulations McKenna!

It's time to kick into gear for science fair. Please see the packet your scholar has as to requirements for the foam board for his/her table presentation. Also note the TOTAL height that they are allowed to have. Those that move onto Weber State (top three sixth graders) will want to have some kind of flashy title piece that extends above the actual board. They have plenty of space to do that. Also be sure scholars are watching WHERE they put their information. Boards that are not correct will be sent back home to be corrected before the fair. Be certain to take pictures and have pictures on the board of the student working the experiment.

We are currently taking part in the Yukon Quest 1000 mile sled dog race as a class. You can watch the updates and live streaming at:

www.yukonquest.com

Enjoy!

Our schedules for February are crazy busy, and then things will start to slow down just a bit....just a bit that is... :)

5th - Science Test Astronomy
6th - Experimentation in process or complete for science fair
8th - spell/vocab/essay Compare and Contrast the novel and the movie The Scarlet Pimpernel
9th - MathCounts Competition - Weber State
11th - Data crunching, graph building for science fair
12th - Science Quiz on the heart
14th - Heart Dissection 9:30 a.m.  Parents are invited to watch and help monitor students
14th - Early Out - Conferences
15th - SCIENCE BOARDS DUE!! spell/vocab tests
19th - Math Test unit 9
 20th - Corrected science boards back at school
21st - Science Fair - students in position in the gym by 6:15 p.m.
22nd - Spell/vocab
26th - Latin Test
27th - Lit Circle Projects Due Call of the Wild
28th History Test

students will be choosing classical novels to read through February and March and will be presenting book report PROJECTS in March.

Well done McKenna

Sunday, February 3, 2013

A Very Busy Weekend!

Scholars enjoying proving their Core Knowledge on Friday evening as we celebrated our Coffeehouse and hosted parents and friends. We heard everything from Edgar Allen Poe to Robert Frost, and enjoyed a duo presentation of the fractured fairytale of Snow White, the Untold Story. Thank you to all the parents and friends who helped us to set up, run the evening, and tear down and clean up afterwards. Special thanks to Mrs. Tracy for getting so much done ahead of time, and Mrs. Kemp for standing in and helping to make it happen! We are very grateful!

The February Calendar will be posted Monday evening, as well as information for the Math Competition that happens next Saturday. We will also have the Science Fair this month.

Sixth Grade Sedulous Scholars!











Speaking of the science fair, students should be completing their experiments this week. Today Mrs. Goers was snowmobiling up in Monte Cristo and came upon a student performing his experiment :). The same said student and his dad helped out Mrs. Goers when our sled decided to quit later in the day. Thank you Mr. Sugihara and Kooper for stopping and helping! We had an exceptional afternoon!

Kooper finished his experiment! WOOT!

back on the trail!

fixing Mr. Goers' sled...