April 30, 2012

After theMaine School Book Awards

This week marks the beginning of our unit on marine studies. Students will learn about tides and the forces that cause tides, marine food webs, tidal zones, ocean zones and adaptation of organisms that live in these zones. In math, 6th graders are continuing to learn about decimals, decimal operations and powers of 10. All students will complete their yearly reading and reading comprehension test. I will be administering the test during their ELA reading block.The tests are short and should only take about 15 minutes.

It is hard to say what the weather will be, but if we have some nice afternoons, I will try to get the students outside to finish the fence around the garden.

Every year I take the 5th and 6th grade camping at the Seawall camp ground in Southwest Harbor. This year we will be going from June 8-10. We will be back in time to get ready for the GSA graduation that Sunday. The school board will have to approve the trip, but assuming they do, the proposed itinerary is on the back of this letter. You are welcome to come with us, join us as your schedule permits and/or attend the planning meetings. We will need at least 3 chaperones. As we move closer to the date, I will be planning menus and firming up the activities. I will announce times for those meetings next week.

April 9, 2012

 This is a busy week. On Tuesday, students will enjoy a COPAP performance in the morning and in the afternoon, they have their classroom speech contests. On Wednesday morning,  the 5th-8th grade is attending the Magic Flute at the Grand. On Thursday, they have the 5th-8th grade speech competition in the morning and after that are traveling to the Miles-Lane school in Bucksport. 

Students will be eating lunch at Miles-Lane, helping them start their greenhouse plants and working on trellises. There is no charge for lunch. Students will be traveling by bus and will return in time for dismissal.

The praying mantises continue to grow and we look forward to being able to release some of them into the greenhouse.

The 6th grade students have moved on to their last math unit for the year. When they finish this book, we will do a review of the year and have a final, cumulative test. In science, we are still gather data on our “mystery sites.” Based on photoperiod data and location clues, many students feel they know their location. We will wrap this unit up on Friday. In social studies, students have honed their map skills and are able to use longitude and latitude to locate cities and geographically significant spots.

This week is supposed to be rainy. It will be good for our gardens.