This is a video!!!

DARE is a significant part of our 6th grade year. It helps students learn and practice how to stand up for themselves and others, as well as techniques for make good choices, which become life-long skills. Our DARE officer, Officer Erin Behm, makes a solid, positive connection with our students, and they always have so many questions to ask her!

Each year, she asks us to create a DARE box, so students can write down questions they think of during the week. On Friday morning, when she comes to our school, she reads and responds to those questions.

This year, as we brainstormed ideas for our DARE box, we decided to create a soda vending machine. It was an ambitious project that involved a merging of many ideas and creative processes. We invited “experts” to help us. The end result is a project that required negotiation, research, attention to detail, compromise, and teamwork. We are very proud of the result and decided to share the process with you in this video. This video was written, produced, and filmed by students in my homeroom class. Click on the picture to watch the video.

PLANETARIUM FIELD TRIP

SAA’s sixth grade class is getting ready for our annual field trip to the planetarium. Thanks so much to all of you who volunteered to be chaperons; your response was overwhelming! We are such a fortunate school to have so many amazing parent volunteers!  That trip will happen on Thursday, February 13th, but we need permission forms ASAP.  It is a great field trip, and we want everyone to be able to attend. If money is extra tight in your family, please just let me know and we will find the funds for your student.  If you need a permission form, or want more information about the field trip, please visit Mr. Pratt’s blog about the field trip.
Clark Planetarium

JAZZ READING CONTEST

It is time for the annual Jazz Reading Contest!  What does this mean?  It’s time to read, Read, READ!  The Jazz contest is a competition with other Utah schools.  The top 10 schools (that read the most minutes per student) get to have a Jazz player visit their school.  We’ve been on the top every year that I’ve been at the school, and I’m going to do my part to make sure we are again!

The school has set our goal at 1,140,000 minutes.  That’s an average of 50 minutes per student per day.  That includes everyone, K-6.  It’s usually up to our higher grade students to really boost that average.

The SAA firt grade class has challenged us to read more than they do. They are pledging to read nearly 2 1/2 hours per day. For some of us, that is a tall order. However, when you realize that good reading skills are critical to any career you want, then upping the commitment is a win-win situation.

Our class has discussed our ultimate goal and has begun a list of what prizes would motivate them to read more. Our class has chosen to set a goal of 133,650 minutes, which translates to an average of 150 minutes per student, per day (2 1/2 hrs). Students can count time reading before and after school, whether you do this as a family,  individually, or read to a sibling; it all counts, as long as there is a live person reading. Tomorrow we decide on several motivators to encourage students in our homeroom to read more. Suggestions range from Mrs. McGuire dressing up like a baby or super hero  – free time - food – naptime – to having Mr. McGuire come in to teach something. Your students are certainly creative thinkers!

There are a few decisions we made in order to help students read more.  The first is early morning reading.  SAA is offering this on Tuesday mornings in the elementary gym from 7:30-8:15.  6th grade has decided to extend this and make early morning reading available every day of the week.  Each 6th grade teacher has volunteered to supervise students in their classroom one morning each week. Please come ready to read at 7:30, to whichever homeroom is on the schedule for that day:

Monday – Mrs. Mayer
Tuesday – Elementary Gym
Wednesday – Ms. Walker
Thursday – Mrs. McGuire
Friday – Mr. Pratt

Students need to come right to the room; no wandering in the halls is allowed.  This is a time to help get in those reading minutes!

The school will also be hosting their annual PJs, Pancakes, and Pillow Party!  This will be on Monday February 3rd from 5-8 pm.  Feel free to wear your PJs to this fun activity, east some pancakes and have a reading party with storytellers.  Be sure to bring a book and a pillow to sit on!

Students need to hand in signed reading slips on the dates indicated on the reading form. They are always due on Monday’s. Students who hand them in on time will be entered into a drawing for a free book. The first slip is due on January 27th!

I will count the JAZZ reading contest as both the January and February reading log for our classroom. No other form or email is required.

Jazz Reading Form

Cut on dashed lines and just bring in the bottom section.

Get ready to read!

Here is a recording of our December reader’s theater “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” Click on the word GRINCH to watch it.

Practicing this reader’s theater in December allowed us to focus on fluency and expression. Last wee we presented it to 16 classes in the elementary and junior high, as a theater-in-the-round.

(Click on the photos to enlarge them.)

We love drama and the arts!!! Our completed masks are hanging on the front wall in our classroom. We hope you will enjoy seeing them when you come to your student’s conference this week. If you are uncertain of your time or just want to double-check, CLICK HERE for the schedule

In December we will be learning to play “Silver Bells” with our hand bells and hope to learn the song well-enough to go bell-caroling in the halls of SAA. We will also be practicing a reader’s theater production of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”  Reader’s Theater is fun way to practice both fluency and prosity (reading with expression and understanding). If we do it really well, we may record our performances and put a link on our blog.

Remember the reading logs, book reports, and food drive.

Do you want a gift suggestion for your student?  We are using colored highlighters quite a bit in our math journals, reading lessons, and test taking. A nice set of 4 or more highlighters would likely be appreciated by your student.

This week students are preparing to take the unit 4 math test on Ratios, Rates, and Proportional Reasoning. Click on the photos below to see the completed study guide and a practice test, which students will complete at the beginning of the week. I will break the test into two sections on Thursday and Friday, because we ask students to explain their thinking and justify answers.

Unit 4 Study Guide

Unit 4 Practice Test

Remember:

• book reports and reading logs are due this week by Friday
• conferences are Wednesday (after 4), Thursday (early out day) and Friday
• Food drive is Dec. 2 – 12  (CLICK HERE to see the most needed food items)

Unit 2 Math Test is tomorrow (Wednesday), Oct. 16. Students have a study guide, which we completed in class. If they do not bring it home, you can also access it  on Mr. Pratt’s Math Blog Unit 2 Study Guide .

Unit 1 Math Test scores are online. Scores from the first unit are generally low. We will continue reviewing these topics in class, but will also cover them during the Wednesday morning tutoring sessions that I mentioned during conferences.

Students who use the study guide, practice test, or tutoring sessions and to show they have relearned the skills from unit 1, may take a Retest for Unit 1 starting next week. Students need to schedule a time before school, after school, during specials, or lunch recess to retake the test.

Tutoring starts tomorrow morning at 7:30. We are planning to review test 1 and answer any student questions about either Unit 1 or Unit 2 topics.

Students will take the Unit 1 math test on Monday. Thursday and Friday they are filling in a review worksheet. Click on the link at the end of this paragraph to see a copy of the completed Unit 1 Study Guide. Students will also bring home their math journal.  They should study for a minimum of 20 minutes over the weekend.  If  they do make the effort to study, please sign their review sheet and write how long they studied. There will be a reward.  Unit 1 Study Guide #1

STUDY GUIDE #2 Pages 1-4: (Click to enlarge)

This has been a challenging unit for our class.  The Utah common core requires students to think more deeply about concepts, reason and justify answers, as well as follow complex directions. As we introduce new topics, we will continue to review and practice all of the topics from Unit 1. Students will continue to have the opportunity to work to mastery.

Today we were finally able to take several class pictures. Everyone was here today! Click on photos to enlarge.

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The homework hotline for this week:

I think I am finally getting the hang of how WordPress Blogs work, so I will be able to post more regularly. Hopefully, at least once a week. I am including the homework hotline photo for the past few weeks. Students should be bringing their planner home and back to school each day. If you ever see it sitting somewhere at home, make sure your student puts it back into their backpack. Thanks.  Click on photos to enlarge them.

Sept 9-13

Sept 3-7

Aug 26 – 30

Please check out the LINKS on the right-hand side of this blog; they are good resources for our class. Please notice that Mr. Pratt is writing a Math Blog for 6th grade!

Our class is working to become a team.  This means teambuilding challenges, peer tutoring, compliments, and group tasks. The first story in our reading textbook The Best School Year Ever asks the question “Is it more difficult to give or receive a compliment?” We wrote compliments for other students in the class. We found it was harder to give a specific compliment for people we did not know as well. So it is important for us to get to know each other better.

Today was a day of bright shining faces, greetings, expectations, teamwork, and warm sunshine.  Thank you for helping your students develop such wonderful manners and a great attitude toward school; we are going to have a lovely year together!

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

I am inserting the homework hotline board for this week. I believe you can click on the photo to make it larger. We did not have time to begin planner instructions today; we will do that tomorrow. Today, your student should have brought home the yellow homework folder with the library flyer.

Click on the above pictures to enlarge them.

After our morning assembly, sixth grade students participated in an outdoor teambuilding challenge with scooters. Their task was to figure out how to transport all members of their team from one side of the basketball court to the other side… without touching the ground. This activity stresses the need to: listen and communicate, pre-plan your strategies, make sure everyone is involved, realize everyone is not at the same skill level, support your team, make sure no one gets hurt, and think creatively.  We had a great time and the classes were all successful.