February Class Newsletter
What's Happening in the classroom:This month students continue their reading in Dragonwings. Students analyze point of view daily as they respond to focus questions in their nightly reading, and then continue the analysis in class as we discuss and discover the techniques author Laurence Yep uses to convey Moon Shadow's point of view. Additionally, students have begun to read excerpts from Laurence Yep's autobiography The Lost Garden in order to gain a better understanding of Yep's experiences growing up, and how those events have shaped his person perspectives which are present in the novel. As students progress into Unit 2 of this module, they will be evaluating multiple informational sources on the same historical event pertaining to Dragonwings, and will later write their own news report on the event.
Unit 3 in math comes to a close early this month. As students finish the unit on integers, absolute value, order, and the coordinate plane, they will continue to apply these concepts in Unit 4. This next unit, "Expressions and Equations" will focus on the relationships between operations, order of operations, exponents, expanding, factoring, distributing expressions, and finally, expressing equations in Algebraic form. As students complete their research on plant and animal systems, we will have two guests peak to the class via Skype about how they use the knowledge of these systems in their careers as a veterinarian and on staff at the San Diego Zoo. After student presentations, we will move onto a project based unit involving weather and natural disasters. This month, along with our reading curriculum, our class is beginning a novel study of Sean Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly successful Teens. As we read this book, students will be participating in Socratic seminars to discuss the content. This is a helpful book, not only for your growing middle school student, but for you to ask about as well. The book focuses on 7 habits to help students raise their self-esteem, continue to drive themselves, and face the challenges of being a teenager in today's world. As you observe your student reading this book, ask them what they've learned, and what baby steps they are taking to help themselves be more successful. Keeping this in mind however, the book does briefly touch on some topics of a sensitive nature. Students will not be assigned to read these sections of the book, nor will those topics be part of the class discussions. Still, should you have any questions about this or feel uncomfortable with your student reading this book for any reason, please contact myself or Mrs. Bowers immediately. Class wish list:Classroom supplies are needed! Below is a list of items that we are running low on. Thank you in advance to any and all who help us restock!
- Tissues - Paper towels - - Hand sanitizer - college ruled lined paper - Soap - Expo Markers (colored) |
Upcoming Important Events:February
4 Progress Reports go home in Tuesday Folders 5 Guest Speaker Module 3 Unit 1 End-of-Unit Assessment (ELA) Rachel's Challenge Assembly 1:45-2:30pm Bread Donations at Benevilla 2:30pm 3rd Quarter Progress Reports viewable online 7 Jeans Day Middle School Dance 6-8pm 10 Valentine Gram Order Forms Due U3 End-of-Unit Assessment (Math) 13 Father/Daughter Sweet Heart Dance 6-8pm 14 No School - Staff Development 15 Father/Son Open gym 8-11am 17 No School - Presidents' Day 18 Progress Reports go home in Tuesday Folders 21 Jeans Day International Festival K-5 5:00 - 7:30pm 28 Yearbook Orders Due CAPP CLASS ADVENTURE opportunity:Last quarter students participated in a project based unit focusing on ancient Egypt. In this project, Jen, a tour operator from Red Rock Jeep Tours in Sedona, presented the ins and outs of the tour guide business to our class. Jen also returned to see students' final projects, a full tour of ancient Egypt.
Jen and Red Rock Jeep Tours would like to offer the students of the 6th Grade CAPP class and their families a special tour in Sedona during Spring Break on at a discounted price. The price for the jeep tour would be $37.42 per person. We would like to get an idea of how many students and family members would be interested in participating in this tour. Please let Mrs.Hirsch know if you are interested and available to go by filling out the survey below. Further information will come as we gain an idea of how many people are interested. |