6^th Grade Newsletter: Week of 11/12/07

Hi Parents,

I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet with all of you last week during conferences.  Your children are very fortunate to have such loving and encouraging parents.  Thank you for all your feedback and support! 

As you know, the students will be taking the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) this week.  Some of the assessments will be in the morning, others in the afternoon.  Please be sure that your child eats a hearty breakfast and gets plenty of sleep each day.  Much of our class time will be spent taking the test.  Although the homework load will be lighter than normal, they may still have some to complete at night.  Here is the rest of the agenda for the week:

Important Dates:

Ø Thursday, November 15^th: 6^th grade attends daily Mass at 8:30, please join us if you can!  Father Jim will also be visiting our classroom this day.

Ø Friday, November 16^th: Math test; Our first art docent visit this year!

Ø Tuesday, November 20^th: Vocabulary test

Subject Update:

Language Arts/Literature:  Today Mrs. Conrow introduced a social studies report/project that the students will begin this week (see below for additional information).  I will be helping to prepare the students by focusing on the necessary skills they will need to organize and write the report.  On Wednesday, I will give each student a research folder that contains pockets for each category of information for which they will record their notes.  We will also review how to take notes and cite our sources.  Mrs. Carlson will also be teaching a lesson on how to write a bibliography.  Later in the week, the students will have time in my class to do some additional research (in addition to the time they will receive in social studies). 

Math: The 6^th grade students will be completing the math sections of the ITBS, during math, on Monday and Tuesday this week and Monday next week.  On Wednesday and Thursday this week, we will be reviewing chapters 1 and 2 for a test on Friday. 

Math progress reports will be sent home on Wednesday, Nov. 14.  Please sign and have your child return them by Friday, November 16.

Religion: We are continuing in Chapter 3 this week.  I’m anticipating that we will finish it on Friday or Monday.  After that, I will give the students a study guide to help prepare them for a test over the chapter later next week. 

Social Studies: This week the sixth graders will begin working on a written report about Ancient Egypt.  They were all handed green project sheets today that should be handed back in with the final report on December 7^th.  This report is a cross-curricular project, and will be guided by me in Social Studies, Mrs. Schwartz in Language Arts class, Mrs. Carlson in the computer lab.  Mrs. Schwartz and I are working together to ensure that students will be prepared to write the final report.  Students will have lessons on taking notes using note cards, putting together outlines from those notes, and proper reference citation in a bibliography.  Students will be expected to do most of the work for this report at school, where they can receive instruction and guidance.  Note cards and outlines will be handed in before the final report to ensure that students are completing their work in a timely and appropriate manner.

Please review the project sheet with your students for assignment specifics and due dates.  This week the focus will be on selecting topics and pharaohs to research.  Class time and school resources will be available for the students to begin conducting their research toward the end of the week.

- Mrs. Conrow

Have a great week everyone!  ~Pam Schwartz J