Friday, October 28, 2011

10/27/11

We took our math test today on ratios and rates.  The grade level average was a 90%!!!  Way to go kids!

Tomorrow we will be presented our Greek gods and goddesses and taking a quiz on the information!  Keep up the great work!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

10/25/11

Sorry I haven't posted yet this week.  I have been getting sick and have been going to bed early to try to kick it out of my body.  In social studies, the Greek gods and goddesses posters are coming out fabulous.  I can't wait to take some pictures to post on here for all to see.  We have been watching some videos on Ancient Greece to help fill any gaps of knowledge that we may have.

In math, we have continued working with ratios and rates.  I feel as though the kids have been doing much better with these concepts as the week has gone on.  We have a test on them on Thursday and will be reviewing for the test on Wednesday in class. I do not have a study guide for this test, but suggest that the kids look at the practice test from chapter 4 in the book.  If they can do well on that, then they shouldn't have any problem on the test on Thursday!

Friday, October 21, 2011

10/20/11

Another great day at WMSS.  Again, a day filled with excellent projects.  Your kids are amazing!  They have all worked so hard on the social studies projects and it has paid off big time!  Again, thank you to all of the parents that have helped their children to have a successful project.

The kids are diligently working on their Greek gods and goddesses project now.  They really seem to be enjoying this one.  Everyone has been given a job according to their strengths, and I believe that may be why they are so excited.

We are almost finished with our timeline.  We started putting it together today, but did not finish.  We will be finishing it tomorrow.

In math, I reviewed ratios with them and gave them some visual examples so that they could get a better understanding of the homework from Monday.  I also went over how to find the unit rate when given some information.  Again, this is a topic from the book and we are taking notes in class.  Please have your children refer to chapter 4 in the book or to look at their notes in their composition books if they are having a hard time.  Again, thank you for all of your support so far this year!  You are all amazing!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

10/19/11

Today we went through 5 more social studies projects.  I am learning a lot about students' backgrounds and traditions as well as interesting facts about countries from all around the world.  Again, I would like to thank all of the parents out there who have been preparing food, collecting items, and telling stories from their past to help their children prepare for their presentations.  Awesome work!!!

Report cards are going to be on Edline this nine weeks.  I am new to this as well, and am not sure exactly how it will work, but I am sure that it won't be too bad.  They will be posted on October 25 for your viewing if I understand the process correctly.

In math, I went over the homework from Monday and it looks as if some of the kids are confused about ratios.  I am going to be going over some more examples today and will move on to the next section as well.  We will understand them together.  The test on rates and ratios is tentatively scheduled for next Thursday.  I am going to be posting some games that you can play at home with your kids to help them practice these concepts.

Have fun!!!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

10/18/11

Projects went well again today.
We started working on ratios today.  I have told the kids to use their text books as a resource so that if they don't understand how to solve a problem, they can look at examples.  Their homework tonight is workbook pages 55 and 56 and they can use the examples from pages 200-201 in the text book to help them.
Tomorrow we will continue with our last few social studies presentations and will continue working with ratios.

Have a great day!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

10/17/11

Today we had a great day in class.  We finished another round of country presentations.  They have been awesome!!!  Thank you to all of the parents who have worked so hard to help out with providing authentic food and experiences for our students.

Today we worked on our timeline of Ancient Greece project.  I had the kids come up with an event in Ancient Greek history that they wanted to work on for the timeline.  They had to write the date, the name of the event, and illustrate the event on one index card, and write 3 sentences describing the event on another.  The time lines are going to come out awesome!

We began another project today in class.  I broke the kids into groups and each person has a specific job. I have an artist, a researcher, and presenter, and a wildcard in each group.  The groups have picked a Greek god or goddess to draw on a big poster.  They are going to draw symbols around their god or goddess that represents them and write why they drew each symbol.  They were pretty excited about this one.  They got a good start yesterday and will have some class time this week to work on it.  It will be due to present on Monday.  I can't wait to see how they turn out.

We are going to be starting the chapter on rates and proportions in math today.  We will also continue reviewing decimals and fractions until everyone has a firm grasp on those concepts.

Have a happy week!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

10/15/11

Well, it is the end of the nine weeks.  I feel that it was a pretty successful nine weeks and the students have adjusted well to the 6th grade.  I will continue working on the format of the class based on individual needs.  I am going to be starting the math help club on Friday mornings at 8:00.  You do not have to register for this club and you only have to come if you feel that you need help with a particular topic.  It will be in my classroom, room 909 starting this Friday.  The first few weeks is going to be on fractions, so if you had trouble on your fractions test, I encourage you to join us.

This week, we will be finishing up our social studies presentations.  They have been great so far.  I just want to remind everyone, that if you are going to bring in food to eat, it is supposed to just be a sampling from your country, not an entire feast.  We should not be competing with the cafeteria.

In math, we are going to begin working with ratios and proportions and we will be forming new cooperative learning groups as well.  Keep up the great work!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

10/11

Today was the first day of project presentations for their countries.  The food was great, and the kids did a wonderful job with their presentations.

During success zone, we went over the fractions math test.  I have sent it home and anyone that needed a parent signature is supposed to correct anything they got wrong on the back of the test and bring it back to me.  We went over the word problems in class, so they don't need to redo the front.

I have posted all of the current grades that I have.  If your child has any zeros on there, they are missing assignments.  Please have them complete these assignments no later than Friday.  The grading period ends this Thursday.  The missing projects are greatly effecting their grades.

I am a little disappointed in the quality of some of the tic tac toe projects.  I have kept some of them in the classroom to use as examples for next year so that I get higher quality projects.  Some kids did a great job, others not so much.  The reason this is disappointing is because I gave them 3 weeks of my class time which totaled about 12 hours of class time.  I had high expectations for them.  I have many kids who still have not turned them in as well.

In math tomorrow, we are going to be taking a math test.  This test is for information purposes only.  They cannot study for it.

On Thursday we are going to be continuing our presentations for social studies.  We are also reading chapter 13 about Ancient Greece.  We are going to be creating a class time line of important events or people.  Each child is going to be picking an event to illustrate and give some information on.  It is only able to be the size of 2 small index cards.  1 card will have the name of the event/person, the date it happened and a small illustration.  The other index card will give the class some important information about the event or person.  The kids need to be thinking of what person or event they would like to do that helped shaped Ancient Greece.  Some examples of good ideas would be a war or battle that took place or a famous person that did something important.  The kids will be signing up for their event on Friday, and will be completing it in class.

Have a fantastic day!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

10/5

The other class got to go to the video conference today.  I also got to go today. The information was great and the presenter got all of the kids involved with force and motion.  The kids really seemed to have a great understanding when it was all over.

In math, we continued with our fractions unit.  I met with about 1/2 of the students to see how far they were on their tic tac toe boards as well as on their social studies projects.  I have 6 groups between the 3 classes that have signed up to present their social studies next week. I have not given third period the chance to sign up yet, but am hoping they get to do that tomorrow.  Most of the kids have told me they already have their tic tac toe projects done and are working on an extra credit project.

I had a student present one of their fraction projects in third period today.  They did a stop motion video, and presented how to calculate the number of photos needed to make it last 90 seconds.  It was awesome.  I shared it at my class in the evening, and all of the teachers couldn't believe that a 6th grader had created it.  Way to go!  Keep those creative juices flowing!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

10/4

Today was a fun day.  Some of the students went to a video conference this morning.  The rest of them will be going tomorrow.  From the feedback I got, they really enjoyed it.  One student even said, "This was the best video conference I have ever been to."  That makes it all feel worth while.

We are beginning to wrap things up with our fractions unit.  The study guide has been posted on here as well as on Edline.  It looks very similar to part of their test on Monday.  If they know how to do all of these problems, except #1 and #18 then they will score fine on their test.

In social studies, I gave them a mapping exercise.  Most of them did really well if they followed directions and stayed focused.  We will be continuing our study of Ancient Greece for the rest of the week.
I will be doing a status check today on social studies projects and will be signing up some groups that are done to present next week.  Hopefully I can get about 1/2 of them to present since we will be testing in math and not starting a new unit until the following week.

Keep working on those fraction projects.  They are due on Monday!!!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

10/4 - Fraction Study Guide

I have posted the study guide for the fraction test.  It is due on Monday, which is the day of the test.  #1 and #18 have a negative answer, and we have not learned that.  They can attempt these problems if they want, but they will not count against them.

Thanks!  Have fun!

10/3

Today we continued our study of fractions.  I talked to the kids  about their tic tac toe projects being due on Monday the 10th.  Groups 2, 3, and 4 in Fielder and Cohen's class need to have 2 projects finished.  Group 1 needs to have 1 project finished.  They have asked if they can receive extra credit if they do an extra project and I said that is fine.  My homeroom, group 1 needs to have 1 project done, groups 2 and 3 have to have 2 projects done, and group 4 needs to have 3 projects done.

In social studies we have begun a new unit on Ancient Greece.  We are learning about the geography of it now.  We will be moving on to learning how Ancient Greece has affected the United States today as we continue our journey through Ancient times.