Sunday, March 24, 2019

Sunday, March 24, 2019

Mr. Sassman's 6th Grade Class Blog

Woodriver Elementary School


Last week...
Mr. Sassman here. I am back in the captain's seat again as Mr. Ribbens has wrapped up his full-time student-teaching obligations for his studies at UAF. I must say that he did an excellent job and I hope the kids enjoyed the experience. Mr. Ribbens will be with us through the end of the school year.

The students completed their final round of MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) testing. I have the results and the growth from last year at this time has been great. I shared the news with the kids on Friday and told them how proud I am. Please give them some praise for all of their hard work this school year...and we still have eight weeks left for learning. One thing I would like to emphatically recommend is...please make sure your child is reading for 20 minutes at night and practicing their math for 20 minutes a day during summer break. If they do, it will make a huge difference in the fall when they enter seventh grade. I will give you more information and resources for summer work as we get closer to May.


Students interested in participating in the school-wide speech contest delivered some great speeches on Friday. The semi-finals will be this week and the finals will be Friday, April 5th, 2019 at 2 PM in the MPR. All kids in our class are required to give class speeches, but the contest is optional and extra credit for both reading and writing.    


This week...
Is a busy one. This is the last week of our read-a-thon class fundraiser. Please tally up the minutes, hours, or days that your student read and send in their donation by next Monday. Checks can be made out to Woodriver Elementary School and cash is okay too. If every student raises fifty dollars, we will have enough money for the rest of our field trips and activities for the remainder of the year. 

Tomorrow, the kids will have a nutrition lesson from a guest presenter from UAF. Tuesday, art specialists are in the house. Wednesday is our field trip to Ryan Middle School for orientation. HERE is a link to Ryan's Online Class Registration. Please check it out. Thursday is the regional science fair, which is being held at Pioneer Park. Students that placed first or second in our school science fair will attend and present their projects in the morning. Feel free to come with us, or pop by. We will be leaving Woodriver at 9:30 AM and return at 11:30 AM.

In addition to the many lessons and two field trips, we will begin our fourth quarter academic campaigns. We will pick back up on our Expository Books, Superhero Narratives,  and Literacy Circles book reports. I will wait to introduce any new initiatives until next week and Mr. Kinder will be facilitating our Kids2College program.

Report cards were finalized and printed last week. I will drop them in the outgoing mail tomorrow morning.

Lastly, Mrs. Brashear will deliver the sixth grade Human Growth and Development lesson this week. If you have any questions or concerns, please refer to Mrs. Brashear. A letter was also sent home last Tuesday about the lesson with information.     

Monday looks like:
9:00 - 9:20
10-Minute writing prompt: "Describe your perfect meal...what foods, beverages, and desserts would you have?"
Class Meeting
New Jobs
9:20 - 10:30
Topic 11 Review Part One
10:30 - 10:40
Break - Snack
10:40 - 12:00
Nutrition Lesson - UAF Guest Speaker
12:00 - 12:30
Eat
12:30 - 1:00
Play
1:00 - 1:40
Lit. Circles
1:45 - 2:15
P.E.
2:15 - 3:30
TDL

MATH HOMEWORK 
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
--Topc 11 Review
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
--Topic 11 Take Home Test
Thursday, March 28, 2019
--Practice 12-1
Friday, March 29, 2019
--Practice 12-2

Please regularly check your child’s grades in PowerSchool and update the Web and Technology Use forms. I would appreciate it if you gave permission for your child’s picture to be published on the class blog. The forms are located under the Registration section. Please refer to this link for details: https://www.k12northstar.org/Page/3162  

DATES TO REMEMBER (more to come)
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Field Trip to Ryan Middle School for a tour of the school and be a part of an informational meeting. Again...HERE is the link to online registration.
9:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Thursday, March 28, 2019
Regional Science Fair at Pioneer Park - Only winning science fair projects/students will attend.
9:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Friday, April 12, 2019
Field Trip to UAF - Kids2College Program Visit

Thursday, May 9, 2019
Field Trip to Tanana Lakes - UAF Outdoor Day (6th graders only)

Friday, May 10, 2019
Lock-in at Woodriver (This is a rewards-based event, students with DRs will not be able to participate)

It's a good life!

--Mr. Sassman

Sunday, March 17, 2019

Sunday, March 17, 2019

Mr. Sassman's 6th Grade Class Blog

Woodriver Elementary School

Robots Cartoon # 8100 - You know, for something that sounds like two killer robots, this is really disappointing.

Mr. Ribbens again.  Hard to believe it is already the fourth quarter and my last week of full-time student teaching!  I hope everyone had a fun and restful Spring Break.

Last Week...
The last week before Spring Break was full of special events.  We had a field trip to the UAF Museum of the North on Wednesday and explored animal taxonomy.  We also were able to witness some Wolf Pup excellence at the talent show.  I appreciated both the students who participated and the support given by the rest of the class.  We also had some students who participated in the Science Fair and were able to take some time to see all of the hard work that students put into their projects.  We also introduced the Speech Festival, continued working of literature circle, ended our unit on Ancient Rome and completed our study of Greek & Latin roots.

This week...

Students will continue to work on their speeches throughout the week.  Students interested in participating in the school competition will perform speeches on Friday.  We will also continue our literature circles throughout the week.  We will also have a science unit this week on ecology and the scientific method through investigating owl pellets.  On Monday we will be going outside for part of the science lesson so please have your student bring boots and warm clothes.  We will also have special guests act as a career panel as a part of the Kids2College program on Monday.  

Monday looks like:
9:00 - 9:20
10-Minute writing prompt: "Write about your Spring Break.  What are three things that you did?"

Class Meeting
9:20 - 10:30
Walk to Math 11-5 & Percentages Review
10:30 - 10:40
Break - Snack
10:40 - 12:00
Speeches
12:00 - 12:30
Eat
12:30 - 1:00
Play
1:00 - 1:45
Kids2College Career Panel
1:45 - 2:15
P.E.
2:15 - 3:30
Science - Owl Pellet Project



MATH HOMEWORK 
Monday, March 18, 2019
--Practice 11-5
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
--Practice 11-6
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
--Take Home Test Topic 11
Thursday, March 21, 2019
--Practice 12-1


Please regularly check your child’s grades in PowerSchool and update the Web and Technology Use forms. I would appreciate it if you gave permission for your child’s picture to be published on the class blog. The forms are located under the Registration section. Please refer to this link for details: https://www.k12northstar.org/Page/3162  

DATES TO REMEMBER (more to come)

Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Field Trip to Ryan Middle School for 7th grade tour.
9:45 - 11:00

As always please feel free to contact Mr. Sassman or myself with any questions.  If you need to email me, I am available at joel.ribbens@k12northstar.org.

--Mr. Ribbens

Sunday, March 3, 2019

Sunday, March 3, 2019

Mr. Sassman's 6th Grade Class Blog

Woodriver Elementary School


Mr. Ribbens again.  One week into my three weeks of full-time student teaching.  I am very grateful to have such a great group of students to work with and am looking forward to week two.  

Mr. Sassman here...It was brought to my attention, that the librarian, Mrs. Kitchen, planned a read-a-thon fundraiser for the library at the same time as our class read-a-thon. I did not realize that our efforts were overlapping, so I apologize. Mrs. Kitchen sent home personalized flyers with info on it. We spoke about our class'during conferences. Please do not feel pressure to fundraise for both, picking one would be more than appropriate and extremely helpful to our kids and school. Thanks! 

Last Week...
Last week was a very full week.  We continued to start our day with journal writing.  In "S" groups last week students completed their ancient Rome test.  We learned about Greek and Latin roots beginning with roots corresponding to numbers.  Students also began a new round of literature circles.  Students filled out surveys on the books they were interested in reading that helped guide their groupings.  The books being read are "On the Far Side of the Mountain", "A Wrinkle in Time", "Holes", "Hatchet", and "The Invention of Hugo Cabret".  

This week...
This week students will begin preparing speeches for the upcoming Speech Festival.  Students will choose at least one type of speech to perform.  The speech types are original oration, extemporaneous, humorous interpretation and dramatic interpretation.  Original oration is a 3-5 minute speech written by the student.  Extemporaneous is a 1-3 minute speech on a current event topic given to the student 24 hours before the speech.  Dramatic interpretation and humorous interpretation is a 3-5 minute performance of a work published by someone other than the students.  Additional information about this project will be sent home this week.  Students will also continue working on literature circles, Greek & Latin roots, and "S" groups this week.

Tuesday looks like:
9:00 - 9:20
10-Minute writing prompt: "Create a new race event.  What kind of race is it (e.g. swimming, race car, dogsled)?  Where does the race begin and end?"
Class Meeting
9:20 - 10:30
Walk to Math
10:30 - 10:40
Break - Snack and Read Aloud - Counting by 7s
10:40 - 12:00
Ancient Rome - Timeline
12:00 - 12:30
Eat
12:30 - 1:00
Play
1:00 - 1:45
Lit. Circles
1:45 - 2:15
Library
2:15 - 2:50
Speeches
2:50-3:25
Extra P.E. Lesson



MATH HOMEWORK 
Monday, February 25, 2019
--Practice 11-2
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
--Practice 11-3
Thursday, February 28, 2019
--Practice 11-4

Please regularly check your child’s grades in PowerSchool and update the Web and Technology Use forms. I would appreciate it if you gave permission for your child’s picture to be published on the class blog. The forms are located under the Registration section. Please refer to this link for details: https://www.k12northstar.org/Page/3162  

DATES TO REMEMBER (more to come)

Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Field Trip to UAF Museum
9:15 AM - 11:30 AM
Please send in $5 with your kiddo for bus transportation. Two chaperones needed, please.

March 7 & 8, 2019
Science Fair

Friday, March 8, 2019
Early Out

March 11-15, 2019
Spring Break

Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Field Trip to Ryan Middle School for 7th grade tour.
9:45 - 11:00

As always please feel free to contact Mr. Sassman or myself with any questions.  If you need to email me, I am available at joel.ribbens@k12northstar.org.

--Mr. Ribbens