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!