Saturday, December 21, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Happy Winter Everyone! Days will get longer now.

We had so much fun yesterday! We had rotations amongst four classrooms for Aurora and Odyssey. Kids chose card/board games, snowflake making and coding OR spent the entire 4 stations (2 hours) creating a musical production of GEOLOGY ROCKS! It was pretty awesome and fun.

On Thursday, we used a rubric to assess our book club posters. Some kids realized thing were missing and upgraded them. Ms. Lamb will assess them over vacation using the same rubric. (One is missing - must have been working on it while I was taking photos.)

Our mini-research projects on India should be complete and will be presented and graded on Thursday, January 2nd. Kids are certainly allowed to continue working on them over vacation.

We wrapped up some science and math last week with two assessments.

In 2020, we will move from our India studies to a more general non-fiction reading unit. That will be followed by a study of teen activism and non-fiction writing. That will bring us straight into NATIONAL HISTORY DAY! The theme this year is Breaking Barriers in History, Some of us are already thinking about our topics. The dream is 3 weeks, 3 weeks, 3 weeks....nonfiction reading, nonfiction writing with teen activists, National History Day. This year, our NHD project will be digital - websites or documentaries.  Everyone will create one making this a digital/history/reading/writing project.

DON'T FORGET TO READ OVER VACATION!!!!

Have a safe and restful holiday.
YFT,
CL and KR

Friday, December 13, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Happy Friday the 13th!

Luckily, nothing terrible happened here. We hope you are having good luck.

We did decide to eliminate group snack - so, I guess there was a bit of bad luck. We are having a hard time cleaning up snack wrappers.  Please plan to send your student with extra snack for the afternoon or extra money to purchase snacks from the cafeteria at lunch.

Our book club posters are looking beautiful. Pictures will come next week. We began our mini-research projects. Kids are reading non-fiction articles on a chosen topic from India like elephants, wedding traditions, the Taj Mahal and many more.

Next week, we will wrap up our mini-projects, do a few finishing touches on our book club posters and learn a little about map reading. Then we will be done for the year...ha ha.. the 2019 year.

After a day or so of working with students in small groups on their study guide, Ms. Roberge felt as though the majority of the group could use an extra day of studying to prepare for the final assessment. The assessment date is moved to Tuesday 12/17/19. Students took home their study guides today to study over the weekend for this assessment. Some still need to complete this and Ms. Roberge will check it on Monday.

MobyMax expectations are not being met. Over half of our team was unable to complete the hour within the past two weeks. If they need time to complete this, please check in with us regarding afterschool plans. Ms. Roberge has been talking about the importance  of completing this and how to manage time to be able to participate in other activities too. Ms. Roberge have extended this deadline from today to Tomorrow 12/14 by midnight.

We have officially finished Geology! Students will receive their study guides for the assessment on Monday and take the assessment on Wednesday. They will bring home their study guides on Tuesday evening to study from them. The labs went well, although it was quite comical when students tried the jello.

Great job to Aurorians for following the lab expectations and taking the lab seriously, even with how fun it was.

Next Friday, we will have special day of rotations with Odyssey and a holiday concert from our band and chorus members. We will then send all off for happy holidays.

Work due next week:
Word study - we will revisit this week and not have a new one
Mini-research project due Thursday
Math study guide due Monday (assessment is Tuesday)
Geology Study Guide due Wednesday (assessment is also Wednesday)
That's it!

YFT,
KR and CL

Friday, December 6

This week flew by, even though it was very busy.

In LA, we continue with our book club, research, LA/SS unit on India.  We read our book club books and met in clubs for some very interesting conversation on Wednesday. We will meet one more time, next Wednesday to finish our conversation and begin our group project.

We also learned some note-taking techniques. One is sketch noting, which includes sketching and words. We also learned about underlining and turning notes into pictures (especially maps.) We applied these techniques to an article that we read together and a video we watched together. We will continue with this next week, especially when we start our mini-research projects.

We have just two weeks before our Christmas holiday break.  We will finish our book clubs and projects (See an example here.) We will complete a mini-research project with a partner or small group and create a slide show to present next week.

In math this week we focused primarily on percents and their relationships to fractions and decimals. We are only touching upon decimals as they will be covered in an upcoming unit in the next few months. We studied percent bars and benchmark percents and fractions to help us find numbers. We particularly focused on the importance of percents in the sports world, but will continue to find ways we see percentages in other ways too. This work is continued through our 2-4-2 that was assigned on Monday. Our menu is FULL of opportunities for students to practice different types of math thinking.
We will continue exploring percents next week in preparation for our Bits and Pieces assessment next Friday 12/13. Students will be receiving their study guides for this assessment on Wednesday, at which time they will be labeling what they know confidently in green, what they can do with some help in yellow and what they are very confused about in red. They will be bringing this study guide on THURSDAY 12/12 to study that night for homework. This is a great opportunity to look over what your child has done in math for the past month or so.

Please continue your Moby Max! If your child received a comment regarding needing to finish fact fluency, please have them use their hour of Moby Max time to be completing this. If they have accomplished this, please have them do the lessons that have been assigned to them. Thank you for your support on this!

In science this week we had quite some time in the science lab. This week was the first week we started with split groups and we received some positive feedback from students stating they like the small group labs much better. Yippie! The first lab we did was weatherization of a mountain. We are focusing on how the properties and movements of water shape Earth's surface and affect its systems. We first watched how rain can affect the changing of Earth's surface on mountains, causing erosion, creating bodies of water, and shaping the mountains to look different. We were able to connect these ideas to our recent study of rocks and the creation of sedimentary rocks through this weatherization process. The second lab, that we did today, was our glacier lab. Students did an inquiry task where they created a hypothesis to determine what would happen when glaciers slide down mountainsides. Students were very focused and super into this hands-on lab experience. There were some amazing journal entries and sketches of before and after. We will take these inquiries and ideas and begin to explore them further through videos and the exploration of our very own Lake Champlain starting on Monday. We are planning to have the science assessment on Thursday 12/12. If we are able to get through what we need to, we will continue with this plan. If not, Ms. Roberge will be moving the assessment to Monday, 12/16.

The calendar has been updated with assignments and due dates. Students also received their planners on Tuesday and filled them out for December.

Due next Friday:
Word study
Seesaw entry for your book
article 2
Math MENU
Study Guide for math
Study Guide for science

2-4-2's are due WEDNESDAY 12/18

Friday, November 22, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Greetings Aurora Families,

We had a very busy week on Team Aurora.  As you are aware, we have a "standards-based" report card system at BRMS. This translates to relying heavily on post-assessments for report card grades. This translates to post-assessment in all graded areas: reading, writing, science, social studies, math. All these assessments at the end of a trimester filled with snow, sleet, and rain can get a little stressful.

This also means that the personal development scores that you see first on the report card are very important. This is where we comment on the work in class that supports the assessments and general citizenship of each student. Please note scores and comments on personal development.

We made it through, and we had a well deserved 6th-grade wing celebration on Friday. We enjoyed some WRAD time (Write/Read and Draw), an impressive talent show and a multi-plex theatre for the afternoon. We followed that all up with the 5-6 BRAG party after school.

Report cards will be mailed out on Monday, December 1.

Here is what is coming up after Thanksgiving break.

We begin a reading/writing/social studies integrated study of India. We have book clubs starting Monday. Map studies and history of India and British Colonialism will round out the unit. We will practice our map skills and prepare for our geography assessment and a preview of Western Hemisphere colonialism.

Science will continue with the end of our geology unit. There is one final bend that will tie everything together that we’ve learned thus far. It is our greatest hope that students look at how they organize their science notebook, so that it will be a useful resource for assessments to come. We have now learned twice how crucial it is to take good, strong notes.

In math we will continue our ratio work and move into number lines and fractions. The end part of this unit is important as we move forward to our upcoming unit which is focused on operations with fractions. In between these units, we will revisit mean, median, mode.

We began a new schedule and new homerooms on Monday. Check out the schedule changes by clicking on the schedule to the right. We will have science and social studies for two days each week and either science or social studies on Friday.

Upcoming work to be handed out:
New math menu

Due next week:
Read 40 pages per day in your book club book (20 at school, 20 at home)
Participate in book club meetings
Prepare sticky notes for conversations
Prepare a journal entry to share on Friday
India Map worksheet
Word study due Friday
Moby Max homework- 30 minutes each week (please complete fact fluency by 1/31/20)

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hi Team,
This week has been VERY busy (and a little hectic.) We started with bad weather on Monday, canceling afternoon activities and all day Tuesday. This cramped us up for finishing our many many many post-assessments for report cards as the marking period for trimester 1 ended on Friday, the 15th.

We had science projectpalooza on Wednesday Thursday and Friday. Stop by and see the amazingness hanging in the hall.  We do have one last bit of science to finish on Monday and Tuesday.

We also worked for almost four days (or at least some of us did) on our reading post-assessment, which was very hard. We did it though and it is all assessed and in the report card.  Just a reminder that our LA reading and writing scoring on report cards is all assessment based. We do a preassessment before any teaching of the unit, we produce at least one process piece (in reading we had several, in writing, just one), and a post-assessment.  It is not like traditional grades when we were kids. Look at comments and personal development scores for more information on how the student is working in class.

There was also a math assessment on Lowest Common Multiples and Greatest Common Factors.

Next Monday and Tuesday we will need to finish up assessments. It was too hard to cram them all into last week. On Monday, we will have our last science lab on glacial striations and our final science assessment on Tuesday. On Monday, we will write a story in class to show that we can sit down with an idea for a small moment story (true or fiction), make a story arc plan, write a story with a beginning that hints at the problem, tell the story bit by bit (in paragraphs), use dialogue, inner thinking, action, and descriptions, slow down important parts and create an ending which brings out something learned or realized. These can be finished on Tuesday - but the whole thing will be completed at school, in class. Students know about this and are to come to class with an idea.

Word study will resume next week and will be fit into our new schedule. Check it out on the schedule link at the side of this blog.

We also start with new homeroom configurations on Monday.  Do not worry if you are missing your best friend. You will see them at movement break, meeting times, lunch and recess and any time we meet as a whole group.

Due this week:
Science assessment on glacial striations
Science project if you were out on Friday - this must be done on Monday
Writing post-assessment due Tuesday at end of class
Word study due Friday
(there may be a math anti-rust or math menu - see if this blog gets updated)
Moby Max fact fluency 30 minutes outside of class
READ YOUR NOVEL 40 pages per day (some of us have been forgetting to do this)

Wow,
We will try to celebrate on Friday because this is A LOT.
YFT (your friendly teachers),
C&K (Ms. L and Ms. R if you are a student)

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 8, 2019

Good snowy afternoon Aurorians!

Wow! What a week. We are definitely feeling the energy of excitement from everyone and want to reiterate that although it is exciting outside, we still have lots to accomplish inside our classroom. ESPECIALLY as the trimester ends next Friday 11/15/2019.

Regarding the trimester ending, reports cards will be sent out over the upcoming break. We have met with many of you during conferences or through emails. If something arises while we input grades, we will be sure to notify you. Overall, we are pleased with the work that Aurorians have been turning in.

DELAYED START!!! WEDNESDAY 11/13/2019!!!

We have updated the Google Calendar for upcoming assignments and students received their November paper copy in class today.

In math this week, we continued to work on ratios, unit rates, and today we began to understand numbers on the number line that go below 0. Students took a pre-assessment to see what they understood about fractions from last year and had some time to work toward their completion of Moby Max.
Speaking of Moby Max, students were sent home today with a letter and some data to show you where your child is, in regards to fact fluency for multiplication and division. Please read over this letter. Many students have begun to complete this task in the past 48 hours since the reports were printed, and I have checked off some with completion dates and my signature. My hope is that Aurorians will be fluent in both multiplication and division come January 31st.

To help achieve this goal and to continue gaining math practice, homework for math will be increasing starting 11/18/2019 (trimester 2). Students will now have to complete 30 minutes of math each week, totaling one hour for each math menu (every two weeks). This is completely attainable and will be monitored. If you have any concerns regarding computer accessibility, please reach out to Ms. Roberge and we can find time to make sure this is complete.

In science, we began to explore Bend 2 even further. We began the week with convection currents and even went up into the science lab to build our own and see how it works. Students did an amazing job in the lab! We as geologists studied the rock cycle through really cool songs and collecting rocks from our nearby Mills River Park. Students took educated guesses through research of rocks and field guides to determine whether the rocks they chose were sedimentary, igneous, or metamorphic. We will continue to work on this topic until Tuesday, where students will receive their Bend 2 assessment guidelines. This bend will be assessed through project building and students must have their materials list to me by Tuesday in order for me to get the necessary materials for them to begin doing their project Wednesday (11/13). They will have 3 days to complete this assessment, making it due on 11/15/19, in time for the upcoming report card.

In ELA, (Reading and Writing) we are deep into assessment time. We "completed" the reading assessment today, although some of us will need Monday as well (and some of us were away on a chorus trip.) This assessment will be graded on Monday night for report cards.

Next week, on Wednesday and Thursday, we will complete our writing post-assessment, which is to complete an entire personal narrative in one (or slightly more than one) sitting.

This is A LOT of assessing, so we will be taking the week off from word study next week.

The second trimester begins on November 18th and we will have new homeroom configurations.

We love our snacks on team Aurora. Thank you to those of you who have donated boxes of Cheez Its, or other favorites (Goldfish, gummy snacks, pretzels, popcorn). We continue to appreciate donations of snacks or cash for these delights.

We are putting report cards in the mail on Monday, December 2nd, the Monday after Thanksgiving break.

ALSO, remember to dress for the weather. We go outside daily unless it rains or is below zero degrees Fahrenheit. 

YFT, K and C

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hello Aurora Families,
We hope this post finds you safe, dry and with electricity. What a truly scary Halloween.

In LA, we were supposed to finish our final draft of our true story and post on Friday.  We will do that on Monday.

Here is an example of what a sixth-grade expectation looks like: Look Up and See the show.  Students may want or need to work on this at home. Feel free to share your story with me if it is a google doc and ask me for comments.

Next week, students may have the option of writing a short fiction story or a chapter of their Nanowrimo novel. During the week of the 11th to the 15th, we complete our post-assessment, which is to write an on-demand story in class. This is what will be on the report card - the pre-assessment on demand, the process grade (what you are writing now and next week) and that post-assessment.

We are also finishing up our Deep Study of Character reading unit, by finish our Global Read Aloud book this week,  The Bridge Home. Students are completing work on Seesaw.com to share with our friends in Virginia. That work can be done at home also. This unit also has a post-assessment that we will complete the week of the 11th to the 15th. This assessment will be revising our responses to Karate (the pre-assessment.) We will first work together on a story called The Fight.

Our next reading includes not only keeping up with your own reading of 40 pages per day, but joining a book club for a week from a group of books chosen because they are set in or around India.

The next units will be reading nonfiction and research-based information writing. During this unit, we will study teen activists and complete our National History Day project on Breaking Barriers in History This year students will learn to make a website for their presentations.

In math students were able to revisit their most recent Prime Time assessments and make adjustments to their thinking. These final grades will be put into the upcoming report card. Fear not if you notice some 2's! We will be doing intervention groups to help with building understanding of these big ideas. Stay tuned with more information regarding that.

We continue this week with learning ratios and connecting them with fractions. Starting Monday, we will be doing comparison statements of candy student's collected on Halloween. On a side note, students have been doing a great job turning in their required assignments for math. Nice job Aurorians! We will continue to practice time management throughout the school year.

In science, students took their first assessment on Thursday (of three total). We used study guides for big ideas and students had the opportunity to use their science notebook (we are learning how valuable good notes can be). Once Ms. Roberge reviews these assessments, students will have an opportunity to revisit their thinking if they so choose. We begin with the second part of our Geology unit this week, looking at the cycling of Earth's materials. We will dive deeper into convection currents and begin to answer some "burning" questions students have regarding this new learning. So punny! We will introduce our fun activity "Geology Rocks!". The students will think this is a hoot. More information to come on this fun twist to learning science in the following blog.

Our marking period ends on November 15th. That means new homeroom configurations! It is always great to have a new mixture of kids to work with.

Work now due Monday is:
Word study
Seesaw assignment on character chart
Final draft of true story
Math Menu

Work due next week includes:
The true story if not done or needs more revising OR another true story OR fiction story
Word study (new one)
Seesaw assignment of your character traits
Seesaw assignment on theme

See you kids on Monday. Remember, no candy in the classroom. Thanks.

Sunday October 27, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hi team,
We had a very busy week. We have finished our student led conferences (mostly). If you were not able to make it in and would like an at home student led conference, let us know. As long as you promise to return it, you may check out the evidence binders and we can send a few notes along with the binder.

Friday was a big "due day." Students should have handed in word study, 2-4-2 and reading journal for The Bridge Home with signpost examples.

We have included due dates on the google calendar link on this blog. Check it out.

This coming week will have two big events to consider. On Wednesday, all of our thespians involved with Shakespeare's Got Talent will be busy on Wednesday night and everyone who plans to trick or treat will be busy on Thursday night.

Math Menu is due on Thursday
Word study is due on Friday
Reading at home daily 20-40 PAGES, you are still expected to finish a book a week

Plan ahead.

Keep in mind that our grading period is winding down. In LA, we will have two major assessments that will be on report cards. These will take place on or about November 11-15.

Don't forget to set your clocks back on Sunday November 3rd. Enjoy your extra hour as we return to Eastern Standard Time.

Your friendly teachers,
CL and KR

Friday, October 18, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hello Team!
We had a busy week on Team Aurora. Student Led Parent Conferences are happening. We have three more days next week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There are some slots left. Check last week's blog for the link to signup genius.

Even though The Bridge Home - Global Read Aloud, and general reading 20-40 pages per day in our chosen books continues...we are switching our main focus in LA to writing. On Thursday we had a writing retreat in the library with a focus on coming up with two strong true story small moment story drafts. This assignment will be checked on Monday, so have it done (one paragraph to one page in journal is expectation.)  We will work for two strong weeks to learn the ins and outs of story writing and produce a final draft for Friday, November 1 (tentative date...we'll see where we are on the 30th.)

Remember, students are expected to read every day at home (20 PAGES of a regular novel.... graphic novels and listening, plan about 20 minutes.) Students should have 4-6 novels completed at this point. Read on friends.

In math we continue with our ratio and fraction work. YAY new unit! We, as a math team have begun to look over many different formative assessments that will help us to target specific math instruction that your child may need, during our menu/seminar time. Students have been studying 3-5 math facts on notecards throughout the past month. This week we will reassess their fluency with these. Please check in with your child about these flashcards and ways you can continue this practice at home on the daily. This is much appreciated!

SCIENCE! Aurorians have been amazing at understanding the layers of the Earth. We will begin to look at plate tectonics and theories of how the Earth works. Students have been amazing scientists and asking complex questions that spark great discussions. They are great at inquiry!

If you cannot make it in for conferences, feel free to contact us by email. We can send home the binder (if you promise to return it) and give you a synopsis by email.

Upcoming homework:
Reading of course
layers of the Earth science project complete by 10/23
2-4-2 in math due Friday 10-25
word study due Friday 10-25
seesaw post due by Friday 10-25
flash draft (complete draft) of true story due by Friday 10-25

Lest this sound like an overwhelming amount of homework - most of this is finished in class. Some of us have study hall Tuesdays and Thursdays (non-band chorus kids) and we have seminar time. Some of us may only have reading for homework.

Enjoy your weekend.

Friday October 11, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hi Team,
We had a great week. We had our first late start Wednesday (second Wednesdays of most months.)  Then on Thursday, we had our first field trip to Rock of Ages granite quarry in Barre. We learned a lot about granite as part of our geology unit.

Believe it or not, we are halfway through the first trimester. We informed students Friday about work that was expected and the possibility of a note home on missing work (which could lead to difficulties come report card time.)

Expected work includes:
Social Studies: 10 x 20, school ground map, atlas worksheet
LA: Three formal reading journal entries, seesaw entry on The Bridge Home, 3 word study assignments, 4 to 6 novels completed
Math: completed math menus including: 2-4-2, high priority work book pages, Moby Max 30 mins homework. Also, our recent Prime Time study guide
Science - work in class in science notebook and note taker sheet (layers of the Earth)

If we see a problem in any area, we will be alerting students and parents via email notice early next week.

Speaking of early next week, we are starting student led conferences.  Please come in with your studious student who will lead you through a more in depth conversation around the above work, show the work and discuss their strengths and goals. Ms. Lamb and Ms. Roberge will join to give our observations and insights into students' strengths and goals as well.

Please sign up here:
Fall Conferences

Monday October 7, 2019 (for last Friday)

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hello extended team!

We are still getting used to planning our week of homework and finishing on time. Word study will always come out on Monday and be due by Friday to Ms. Lamb's inbox. We had varying levels of success this week. To help with this, Ms. Lamb will check in on Wednesday during LA. Students need an adult signature on day 1, 2 and 4. This is to check that it is done correctly so we do not carry on with errors.

Student led parent conferences are coming up next week. We will be sending out the electronic sign up later this week. Look for that here and in your email.

We began science today. Our first unit is geology. Don't forget about our field trip to Rock of Ages in Barre, VT this Thursday.  Bring a lunch and dress for the weather.

Work coming up due this week:
New math menu comes out tomorrow. The 2-4-2 will be due a week from Friday.
Word study due Friday (Monday morning is okay too.)
Second journal entry on Seesaw for The Bridge Home due next Monday afternoon. Extra day due to the field trip on Thursday.
Hand written reading journal entry on your own book relating the setting to the character's traits due in class on Friday.

We continue reading The Bridge Home in LA for Global Read Aloud. We posted our first journal entry on Seesaw and expect our partner class to be responded on Tuesday. They are a bit behind us. Mrs. Thomson is also participating in reading some of the picture books for GRA. Last week we read Dreamers by  Yuyi Morales . We also watched a video from her in library today.

Sunday (supposed to be Friday) September 29 (for last week ending in 27)

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

We are off to a bad start of remembering to post on Fridays...but here's the news from last week and this week coming up.

We cracked open our narrative writing unit last week. We are slowly weaving it into the end of reading as we start Global Read Aloud on Monday and need to have the unit finished by November 22nd. No problem. We are rocking both.

Speaking of GRA, on Friday we met our buddy class in Colonial Beach Virginia by doing a mystery video chat with them. We also created an introductory flipgrid video. On Monday, we will set up guidelines and protocols for talking with students online.  We will also read the first 2 (maybe 4) chapters of The Bridge Home and start a small study of India.

Here is what was due for ELA and Social Studies last week: Word study packet (first list vocabulary for core classes), three slides of maps from a state and some conclusions drawn - to be presented on Monday, reading journal to share (was presented on Friday in class). Overdue - social studies atlas worksheet and map of school grounds.

Upcoming work due next Friday - journal online for GRA and introductory video on flipgrid, journal work in class (always and ongoing), start of several stories in journal or on computer, 1-2 articles and quizzes on Newsela (one article on India is assigned - the other is chosen) new word study packet (organized by group level this time). Math menu and 2-4-2 is due on Friday as well.

We will be wrapping up social studies this week and moving into science next week. Our first unit is geology. Don't forget about our super cool trip the the Barry Quarry on 10/10.

Thanks for coming to Open House if you could make it. Ms. Lamb sent out a recap of that on email.

Friday September 20, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

We will hopefully be producing a blog post every Friday, so keep checking.

Today is Global Climate Strike Day, so we took a day to look into the work of Greta Thunberg. This will become a teen activist that some of us may want to study more.  Next Friday, BRMS will have a voluntary climate march after a voluntary assembly. In other words, all students are invited, but no one is required to participate.

On Thursday, we "finished" our school grounds maps. The criteria was: title, legend, labels, scale, compass rose, and beauty/accuracy balance. Students may continue to work on these, but we hope they are all on display during Open House on Tuesday, September 24.

Students may work on these maps at home, during seminar choice time and/or study hall.

Students have chosen partner novels in reading class. We will try to finish these by Friday. Remember, the expectations is to read 20 pages per day at school and 20 at home....that is over 200 pages per week - or about a book a week.  You are highly encouraged to read over the weekend...maybe even MORE than 20 pages, but use your judgement.

Next week we start writing personal stories. We will be weaving writing in with our reading. We will still have about 20 minutes of reading time at school per day, maybe more. Start thinking of good story material. All of life is good story material.

In social studies, we continue with our study of maps and geographic regions of the North America.

In math class we have been collecting a lot of data on where students are at with understanding previously learned concepts in 5th grade, as well as their math facts. We have also begun our new math unit titled Prime Time! This focuses on factors and multiples. We will continue this work over the course of next week and hope to have an end of unit assessment the following week. Students are crushing it!

Students turned in their first Math Menu this past Friday and Ms. Roberge will be checking these over throughout the week next week.

A new expectation for 6th graders is that they are completing 30 minutes of Moby Max at home in the span of two weeks. This is very attainable. If there are any concerns with internet access at home, please email Ms. Roberge and we can set up a time during the school week to get this assignment done.

Science has yet to begin, but we do have a field trip coming up! Please look for permission forms to be coming home this week. We will be visiting the Rock of Ages as an introduction to our first science unit... Geology! We plan to begin this unit in the next coming weeks.

REMINDERS:
Picture day is Monday, 9-23
Open House is Tuesday 9-24 6:30 to 7:30 for 5/6 7:30 to 8:30 for 7/8 Our classroom is 7 to 7:30.
Everybody needs earbuds. We only have a few. It's good to have your own to keep in your cubby.

Global Read Aloud starts on September 30. For the month of October we will be reading The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman, with our partner school.  From google reviews: "Readers will be captivated by this beautifully written novel about young people who must use their instincts and grit to survive. Padma shares with us an unflinching peek into the reality millions of homeless children live every day but also infuses her story with hope and bravery that will inspire readers and stay with them long after turning the final page."--Aisha Saeed, author of the New York Times Bestselling Amal Unbound

Have a great weekend!

FIRST DAY! Wednesday August 28, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

We had a fabulous first day! Welcome back everyone. Remember, we have a parent breakfast this Friday from 8-9 in the classroom. We will have coffee, juice, donuts and such to share. The agenda is simple: hello, do you want to go to Ottawa and jumping reading levels. 

Today we all participated in a book speed dating activity. Everyone has a book in their backpack. The expectation is to read 20 PAGES per night for homework. We are working hard to get books at the just right level to read one page in one minute.

Our schedule is different this year and complicated with different groupings for what we now call "allied arts" which includes: PE, music, world language (French is first), health, design tech. engineering and art.  Guidance is with what we are calling our literacy grouping. Guidance will meet once per week all year this year.

We welcomed a new student from Cambridge.  He seems to be fitting in very well. Our new space is great and quiet and the entire sixth grade is together.

We are looking forward to a great year.
Ms. Lamb

Friday May 24

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

We had a very busy week on Team Aurora, but I am happy to announce that we are FINISHED with sbac testing!!!!!! It was a rough two weeks, but we did it. Everyone worked super hard and for many many hours.

We also wrapped up our argument unit on Friday with our post assessment writing about "Should 13 year olds have access to social media accounts like facebook and twitter?" Students read three articles and used them for evidence. Ms. Lamb will grade all of the essays and short answer responses and return them Tuesday. This is a big report card grade, so students will have the opportunity to improve their answers using the rubric.

We are currently growing seeds in hydroponic bottle gardens in science. We will continue to watch them next week.

On June 14, we are GOING TO THE BEACH! North Beach in Burlington that is. We will be joining Team Epic for a wing beach party. We will be asking for a $10 donation to cover the cost of renting the pavilion, hiring two lifeguards and buying food for a cookout. More information on this will come home next week with students.

We talked more about our end of year trip in 6th grade. It seems that students are leaning towards going to Ottawa for one night. We will reach out to parents next week before making the final decision. That trip requires at least 10 parents to come with us. The cost is about $125 per person (adult or child) to cover the bus, four museums, and lodging. Students will also need more cash to buy three meals.  Start thinking about this. Our other option is a trip to Plimoth, MA for an overnight at Plimoth Plantation. The cost is similar.

We still have 15 days of school. Please let us know if students are unable to attend on June 17. We will be having a schoolwide field day that day, but some students need to start camps.  June 3rd is move up day for 4th graders. Fifth graders are expected to stay at school and sixth graders stay home to accommodate. We hope to switch rooms for the day with Team Momentum to check out our new rooms.


Enjoy your three day weekend!
Team Aurora

Friday May 17, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

What a week. We had SO MANY tests. We finished three of our four days of SBACS. Many many students worked very very long and hard. Actually, everybody worked hard...and the tests were tricky. We celebrate our undaunting perseverance with a WRAD on Monday. A "WRAD" is Write and read all day. Students who wish to wear pajamas, may. Just remember we have a bus evacuation drill and recess, so wear shoes and plan to go outside.

On Tuesday, we will have our final math SBAC test. Thank you to everyone who donated extra snacks. The lovely snack table helps us feel supported.

We also had a super awesome field trip to Ethan Allen Homestead for Conservation Day. The sun came out and we all learned a lot.

When we finally finish the tests, we continue with our awesome science unit on the environment. We are currently watching corn sprout, learning about the weight of air and how a tree grows to the size of 15 elephants.

In math, we continue with decimals and fractions.

In reading, we continue with our fantasy unit and work to wrap up argument writing. We have a new word study packet which will be due next Tuesday. Book club books should be finished by Monday at 1:40 for our final club meeting where we will complete a group poster. We are having some excellent conversations about magic, problems and themes.

We are currently thinking about our big sixth grade trip. Today, we had a preliminary vote on three possible trips: Camp Keewaydin (and environment sleep over camp for 4 nights in September), Ottawa, a one day sleep over at the University of Ottawa with four museums, or a reenactment trip to Plimoth Plantation. We will be reaching out to parents soon to see their thoughts.

Friday May 10

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

We feel so appreciated on the teacher appreciation week. Thank you for the lovely cards and gifts and the wonderful play that Abe, Haily, Annie and Emma put together (will Eli on tech crew.) It was a delight.

This week we practiced a bit to prepare for our ELA SBACS next Monday and Tuesday. Math SBACS for us will be the following week on Tuesday and Wednesday. The best thing you can do to prepare is get a good night's sleep.

We are deep into our fantasy book club books. Students should be at least 2/3 through the book today and finished by next Friday (Bunnicula was to be finished today as it is shorter.)  We read together Carter's Holler for our pre-assessment and discussed story elements and author's craft moves for fantasy like a quest structure and obstacles.  Many students are excited to move onto the second book in the series. If we don't have it, it is begin ordered. We will continue with fantasy until June.

In math, we continue with our study of fractions. We got new math menus this week.

Science has begun. We are studying the environment. As part of this unit we get to go on a field trip on Wednesday to the Ethan Allen Homestead to participate in the Winooski River Valley Conservation Days.  Please get your permission slips in by Monday.

We are pretty wet lately, so students should have a pair of dry clothes at school, particularly socks and shoes.

There will be no big assignments due for the next two weeks due to all the testing. The only due dates are word study due Tuesday (we will start a new one on Wednesday this week) and reading your book to finish by next Friday. We will have time in school to do both of these tasks.

Have a great weekend.

Friday May 3, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

What a wing science fair we had today! It was a great way to spend a rainy week, taking our sbac science tests and getting our science fair projects ready. Everyone was fantastic. We hope many of you take your projects to the school science fair on Wednesday. Here is that plan. Science Fair Schedule.

Aurora will be moving next year. Our new location in is the back wing of the school. We will be near the new combined team of Epic and Endurance (new name tbd).

We began our fantasy novel book clubs this week. Students should be finished with one third of the book by today. We will have our first meetings on Tuesday.

Word study was a bit short on time this week, so we will be extending the lesson for two weeks.

Weekend homework includes reading and upgrading your science fair project for the school science fair (optional, but highly recommended.)

Have a great weekend.

Monday April 29, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

We are so happy to see everyone today. We hope that you all have had a restful, but exciting vacation. We have lots to do in the final weeks before Summer and want to give you a timeline on what this will look like. 

Starting with science fair!! 

Our wing wide science fair will be taking place on Friday May 3rd (that's this friday). Students of EPIC and Aurora will be showcasing their hard work and findings to each other then. This will be a great preparation for the school wide science fair. 

On Wednesday May 8th, BRMS will be hosting the school wide science fair. Yahoo!

Next is SBAC's...

1. Science SBAC's will be this week on Wednesday 5/1 and Thursday 5/2. I will be providing donut holes and strawberries for the students. I also have gum and mints. If your child would like to bring in an extra working snack (something they can eat while continuing to work), that is totally fine. 

2. Math and LA SBAC's will be held the week of 5/13. Monday (5/13), Tuesday(5/14), Thursday(5/16), Friday(5/17). Please let us know if your child will be absent any of these days so we can make sure they can use the make-up days to complete the test. 

Because I'm unable to afford to continually bring in snacks for the entire week, I would greatly appreciate it if we had a few volunteers to bring in fruit/ pretzels/ or popcorn for students to snack on during these testing times. I will still have gum and mints. 

• In LA, students started their fantasy book clubs. Please check in with your child regarding their book club group. This is a great way to talk more about books. Yay!

• For Social Studies, students will be finishing up their arguments for Christopher Columbus. They are doing a fabulous job and are excellent at arguing! 

• We are beginning a new math unit! This upcoming unit will be on Multiplying and Dividing fractions, with strong focus on using models to be able to explain why it works. Attached you will find the parent letter that students will also be bringing home tomorrow.  

• We are also beginning a new science unit! This upcoming unit is on Energy Flow. I am ecstatic to be doing this unit, especially as Spring is coming into bloom and students will be able to do many inquiries outside. We will reveal this unit next Monday, once we have the science fair and science SBAC's under control. 

• FIELD TRIP!! FIELD TRIP!! We are going on a field trip.... next WEDNESDAY (5/15). Attached you will find information regarding this trip. In short, this will be a great trip that will enhance our new science unit. Better yet, it's FREE! Please send your child with a bagged lunch. It will be at the Ethan Allen Homestead in Colchester. 

                           Conservation Field Day permission form and itinerary

Lots of dates and excitement coming from Team Aurora!! As always we encourage you to ask questions if you have them. Thank you for your support! 

Here's to the final 7 weeks of school. Have a great day!

Our best,

Kate and Cate 

Friday April 12

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hello Aurora friends!

Here is the news for this week.

Aurora is going to the movies! Next Friday, we voted as part of our team celebration, to attend the film Penguins from Disney Nature (see trailer.) This fits in with our last weeks Jane Goodall foray and our upcoming environmental science unit. Plus, it's always fun to go to the movies.

Speaking of science, Mr. Warren came to our fifth grade community meeting this morning to psych us up for the BRMS SCIENCE FAIR on May 8.  To prepare, all Aurorians will participate in the wing science fair on May 3rd. To do this, students need to develop a testable question. We will then test the question and write up a science "report" on a presentation board with hypothesis, date and conclusions.  Any group who wants to take it to the next step, will be ready to make improvements for the May 8 school contest.

The week we return from April break will be SCIENCE WEEK on team Aurora. We will work on science fair projects and take our science SBACS on May 1 and 2 (what fun!).

This week and next, we are finishing our EXPLORERS unit in social studies. This will mean completing our bio books by Wednesday, April 17. This is a summative project for social studies.

We are also starting our fantasy reading unit next week by picking our book club groups. This will give people a chance to start reading over vacation.

Congratulations again to our NHD participants. Ms. Thompson made this cool video. Kai, Audrey, Fisher, Abe and Hailey were awesome. More kids should join next year.

Friday, April 5, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!
Greetings families and Aurorians!
We had a busy week.
Students worked very hard to complete their Hot Topics argument project and post on seesaw.com. Some students are still working on final details, so these will be assessed over April break. Students can make changes and upload new version onto seesaw before April 19.

Our next arguments will be over Columbus Day. Should he be celebrated as a hero? This will include an brief study of European explorers during the Age of Exploration. We will create bio cards for 9 different explorers, examine many articles about explorers and Columbus in particular.

Next week we are invited to share in an opportunity to skype with Jane Goodall. To prepare we are watching some of the documentary Jane and looking at some of the many many resources online. We will be visiting with Jane live on skype on Tuesday, April 9th at 9 am in the library with Team Epic. See the parent letter provided by the event here.

Coming up next week:
Word study due Tuesday
Bio card due Thursday
2-4-2 math packet due Friday

Have a great weekend!!

Kate's entry from Monday April 1

Hello families!

Happy Spring! The sunshine is really helping to make these days feel more like Spring. 

We wanted to reach out to you all to give you an update on due dates and new units we have started. 

Math menus and 2-4-2's were DUE this past Friday!! Students had some math class to complete this assignment, as well as our normally scheduled seminar. With this new menu, students are required to complete 20 minutes of Moby Max, not to be done during math class or seminar. Students have the option of: staying after school, using their personal time throughout the day (recess), or completing this at home. The school code is VT42 and students know the rest of their login. We start a new 2-4-2 this week and will be focusing a lot on time management. 

We began a new spelling week! This is due Tuesday, 4/2/19. Some students struggled with completing this weekly assignment. Please check in with your student about helpful tips to get it done!

Our new Social Studies unit, HOT TOPICS, is going great! Students will need to have a completed essay for this by Thursday. We have been having ample amount of time in social studies and LA. They do the option of doing work at home. We are still in the researching phase, but the writing will begin Today (Monday). 

Last week, we started a new unit in math. We are working on understanding decimals. Attached you will find a copy of the family letter. Students brought this home to share with you this past week! Please check in about this and their learning thus far. 

As always, if you have any questions please reach out!

Happy Monday!!

Kate and Cate

Friday news. March 22, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hello families,
Here is the news from the week.
Today we had a fabulous presentation for We Will Rock You, the BRMS spring musical. We were delighted and thoroughly rocked. Congratulations to Aurora performers: Abe, Emma, Haley, Abby, Verity, Annie, Anya and backstage crew members Kai and Audrey. Well done.

Also, speaking of greatness, the community thanks Audrey, Fisher, Madison, Mallory, Abby, Munashe, Emma and Joe for their fundraising efforts and empathy during the Spectrum Sleep Out. What a wet and cold night they had. Well done.

This week we have worked hard to research chocolate milk under the question of: Should chocolate milk be served in our cafeteria? We are completing flash drafts where we state our claim and have three reasons (two is okay, three is better) of paragraphs explaining why, and a conclusion, restating the claim and why we should care about it as readers.  It is the hope that a flash draft (one sentence per paragraph at least) be completed by Monday.

In other work, word study is now always due on Tuesday morning.  Also, our 2-4-2 math packet is due on Friday, March 29.

Edutyping is now moving to homework. Login is cesuschools (account)
 firstname.lastname (user) lunch/library number (password) Have a great weekend and I hope hope hope you get to come see the show!

Monday March 18, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hi readers!
I am recommitting to posting every Monday. You can check here for upcoming assignments and due dates.

Report cards have been sent. You should have received them in the mail by now. "Why mail?" ask some of our inquiring students.  This has been policy at BRMS since we instituted the Teachers' College Units of Study for Reading and Writing.  It is very ver possible to receive a 2 or even a 1 in areas on these rubrics, yet still be working completely appropriately in class. To prevent misunderstandings and comparing of report cards, we ease this stress by sending them in the mail.

We have been meeting with parents over the past week and into this week. If you feel you need to meet with us, or would like more information via email or phone call, please let us know. We are happy to set up times for this.

What's coming up?

We are still into our argument unit. This is a combination reading/writing/social studies unit and will continue until April break. We are learning to make a claim based on a question, research and collect evidence on both sides, then write an organized essay explaining our claim.  For our pre-assessment, we looked at "should cell phones be allowed in classrooms?" For our model lesson, we are investigating, "should chocolate milk be sold in the cafeteria for lunches?"

Next, students will work in coalition study groups around a topic of their choosing in one of these areas: zoos, extreme sports, plastic bags, space exploration, sharks, plastic bottles or Mt. Everest.

Word study
We are making every Tuesday new word study day. This means that word study will always be due on Tuesday morning. That means, some of us have homework on Monday nights.

Pre-assessment
We have a pre-assessment for argument about cell phones. If students need to work on this at home, because they could not complete it during school time, please make sure that they do not get assistance at home. Thanks.

The next big assignment due, besides Tuesday word study, will be our argument essay from our research groups. This will likely be due next Friday.

See you next Monday.

Happy New Year!

Hello Aurorians and families!

It has been quite a while since we have updated you on all of our adventures in Fifth Grade.
In the month of December, students transitioned back into Social Studies, where they learned of Indigenous People and how the environment affected the way they lived. This was the unit question, as students researched various tribes, traditions and geographies to help make strong connections as to how our environment really affects the way we (and in this case, Indigenous People) live. Within these groups students worked on creating a wonderful codex to show their findings from research.

After returning from the long break, students found out about National History Day! What a fun project this is. Students will be researching moments in time that reflect tragedy and triumphs. We have a plethora of ideas on our team, so please reach out to your student and ask what they are interested in.

Math has been also exciting, introducing equivalent fractions and the idea of adding fractions together. Students have spent lots of time creating posters in partnerships to show relationships of fractions. We will continue to work on this throughout the month of January, before circling back into multiplication and division strategies.

Language Arts has had numerous memorable moments. From reading retreats up in the library, to conducting research to help grow our National History Day projects, the students are enjoying their time in class. Students continue to learn how to read non-fiction literature to help foster this work. They just recently finished reading fiction and writing about it. The stories that came from this were amazing!

The upcoming Science unit is Matter. Students will begin to explore the three states of matter and how it relates to the world around us. They will also begin to understand how these states can change physically and chemically. It is a really cool unit with LOTS of inquiry.

Overall, our month of December was quick, engaging and full of laughs! We gained a new student and then a month later, we were lucky to gain another! We are so grateful for the kids on Team Aurora and they really make our job feel easy (at times).

We hope to have you all in soon to show off some of the hard work that has been happening on team. Keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks for more information regarding this. We hope you have enjoyed the first snow day of 2019 and can't wait to see you!

Happy New Year!