September 17, 2012

The cold season seems to be coming around early. There were a lot of absences this week. We will be working extra hard to be sure that hands and surfaces are clean.

I expect us to complete our first writing pieces this week. If you haven’t done so already, you will be able to see these when you come to the BBQ this Wednesday. Before starting another writing project, we will spend some time practicing writing skills and then we will begin “writing to persuade”.

In math this week, 6th graders will be learning how to find the greatest common factor shared by two numbers and the least common multiple, LCM, shared by two numbers. The LCM is really useful when trying to determine when repeating events will happen on the same  date. For instance, when is the next time your birthday will be on a Saturday?

Soccer practice seems to be going well, but BES student behavior on the bus trip over has been an issue. Our bus drivers are great bus drivers and they should not have to deal with student misbehavior. If your child rides this bus, will you please talk to them about your expectations. On a brighter note, lunchroom behavior has been great! The 5th and 6th grade have modeled great behavior and been very helpful to other students.

We have been working hard in the garden. Students have harvested beets, garlic and tomatoes. They cleaned up most of the beds, transplanted the sprouts for our fall crop, harvested soil from the worm bins and this week, they will be planting winter rye as a cover crop. 

Don’t forget BES’s birthday party on Wednesday!! 50 years old!

September 10, 2012

If the rest of the year goes by as quickly as the first week, we will be at summer break by Christmas. 

This year we have four 5th graders and five 6th graders.  Mrs. Leach calls our room home and is often in the room. You probably know by now that we have no foreign language, but we do have a soccer coach. I have enclosed a schedule for the 5th and 6th grade.

One of the things about starting a new job is learning all of the school traditions, particularly the unpublished ones. I did not realize that, with the exception of emergencies, we are supposed to limit the number of student phone calls from school.  Otherwise, if you forget your band instrument, lunch, sneakers, etc., you need to figure out how to get along without it. Mrs. Lepper allows one call per trimester. I think, in light of sports equipment being another thing to remember, that two calls per trimester are appropriate. At the end of each day, we review what is needed for the next day and I am encouraging students to write these things down on their planners. You can help by reminding your child to take a look in their planner each morning.

We are starting the year with a study of Ancient Civilizations, a shared reading book, “Tuck Everlasting” and of course, math and spelling. The first writing piece is a personal narrative about a memorable moment. Students have brainstormed about a short event that may have been surprising, amazing, scary, absurd or unusual. 

Mark your calendars!! On the 19th there is a BBQ at school. We are celebrating BES’s 50th birthday.

The first soccer practices start this week as do Team Canyon activities. We will be meeting every Monday to test equipment, learn about the Grand Canyon, get in shape, taste test food and work with the rangers at the Grand Canyon.