Monday, April 22, 2019

Mr. Sassman's 6th Grade Class Blog

Woodriver Elementary School

I hope you had a nice weekend, whatever you celebrate...or don't! I had the opportunity to spend a beautiful weekend with great friends and family.

Last week...

Our class finished PEAKS testing and we are done with testing for the year. The students also completed their Kids2College lessons and were sent home with a parent survey. If this is filled out and returned, your student will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win a $2000 college scholarship. 

This week...

There are four weeks of school left! Yup...and WOW! We will be working on our TDL most of the week. We will also be winding down our projects and homework agendas. More Islands were finished last week and I expect the same for this week. Speeches are almost wrapped up as we have a few students to present yet...Speaking of speeches, Congratulations to Brenna for placing second in the District Finals last weekend. She had an amazing piece and it was a privilege to hear it.

We are taking a class picture for the Woodriver yearbook on Tuesday. Congrats to Izzy, her drawing was selected by students for the cover. Yearbook order forms are due by Friday the 26th.

Please Note: To recognize and reward outstanding students the Sixth Grade Team is planning one or two more field trips and the end-of-the-year evening Lock-In. To participate in these reward activities the students must have passing grades in every class and consistently exhibit excellent behavior. Students with two or more formal detentions or Discipline Referrals (DRs) will not be permitted to participate. Students who were disruptive during previous fields trips will also be excluded. If your student has sent in money from their read-a-thon, I won't be asking for transportation/participation funds.   

In case you haven't heard:

HERE is a link to Ryan's Online Class Registration

Monday looks like:

9:00 - 9:20

10-Minute writing prompt

Class Meeting

New Jobs

9:20 - 10:30

Topic 13-2

10:30 - 10:40

Break - Snack

10:40 - 12:00

Island Projects

12:00 - 12:30

Eat

12:30 - 1:00

Play

1:00 - 1:40

Speeches

Read Aloud

TDL

1:45 - 2:15

P.E.

2:15 - 3:30

TDL

Outside

MATH HOMEWORK 

None this week

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)

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

Monday, April 15, 2019

Mr. Sassman's 6th Grade Class Blog

Woodriver Elementary School

Our read-a-thon fundraiser concluded two weeks ago and so far I have received funds from ten students. I am hoping this week, I will see some more donations come in, so we can take more field trips in May. It's up to you and the kids. 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) Thanks again.

This week...

PEAKS (Performance Evaluation for Alaska Students) are this week. Sixth-graders will take the tests on Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday will be designated for make-ups. Please make sure your student gets plenty of sleep the night before and a hearty breakfast each morning. 

Just Sayin'

We are well underway with our "Island Projects." It is a cross-curricular project in Reading, Writing, and Social Studies and will be a major fourth quarter grade. The kids are tasked with creating a fictitious island. It must have a minimum of eight natural features, a minimum of four manmade features, a compass rose with cardinal and intermediate directions, lines of latitude and longitude, and it must use alliteration. These are the major details of the posterboard and so far, they are awesome. The second part of the project is a narrative that describes the island, it's history and the culture of its inhabitants. This should be epic.

Classroom speeches will also continue this week. We have Madison, Joey, and Lucien on the agenda. The kids that entered the speech contest will also receive extra credit on both reading and writing final grades (those students have already presented). The District Finals were over the weekend and I am looking forward to hearing about our school's representatives. 

April is officially National Poetry Month and I would like to host a Pie-n-Poetry Slam towards the end of the month. More details to follow.

HERE is a link to Ryan's Online Class Registration

Monday looks like:

9:00 - 9:20

10-Minute writing prompt

Class Meeting

New Jobs

9:20 - 10:30

Topic 13-1

10:30 - 10:40

Break - Snack

10:40 - 12:00

Island Projects

12:00 - 12:30

Eat

12:30 - 1:00

Play

1:00 - 1:40

Speeches

Read Aloud

TDL

1:45 - 2:15

P.E.

2:15 - 3:30

TDL

Outside

MATH HOMEWORK 

None this week

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)

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, April 8, 2019

Mr. Sassman's 6th Grade Class Blog

Woodriver Elementary School

Last week...

Was a busy one and spring is certainly in the air. On Monday, Mr. Ribbens took charge of the class and Tuesday, Mrs. Marshall (the sub) did a fine job covering. The kids seemed to like her and she gave a good report. I was in Soldotna, Alaska for professional development. My return Wednesday felt great and we had some visitors from UAF. They delivered another nutrition lesson and the kids learned a lot about caloric intake and what it takes to burn said calories. Thursday, Mrs. Brashear was in the room for life skills, and Friday was the Woodriver Speech Contest Finals. Congratulations to Brenna for making it to the District competition, as well as three others. Next week, Brenna will be at Anne Wien Elementary School, so feel free to go and support her. It is on Saturday, from 9:30-11:00. Her speech is amazing and it would be great to see you there.

Our read-a-thon fundraiser concluded and so far I have received funds from seven students. I am hoping this week, I will see some more donations come in, so we can take more field trips in May. It's up to you and the kids. 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) Thanks again.

This week...

Admittedly, I have fallen behind on grading and I am spending most of my spare time today and tomorrow getting caught up. We have also started our fourth quarter "Island Project." It is a cross-curricular project in Reading, Writing, and Social Studies and will be a major fourth quarter grade. The kids are tasked with creating a fictitious island. It must have a minimum of eight natural features, a minimum of four manmade features, a compass rose with cardinal and intermediate directions, lines of latitude and longitude, and it must use alliteration. These are the major details of the posterboard and so far, they are awesome. The second part of the project is a narrative that describes the island, it's history, and the culture of its inhabitants. This should be epic.

Classroom speeches will start this week. We have Nevaeh, Dom, Izzy, Aaliyah, Chris, and Wallace on the agenda. The kids that entered the speech contest will also receive extra credit on both reading and writing final grades (those students have already presented).  

We have a field trip to UAF this Friday for a career panel and tour of some of the facilities as part of the Kids2College program. The trip is already paid for.

Mr. Ribbens will be trading places with a fellow intern in the UAF SOE graduate/student-teaching program for two weeks starting tomorrow. If you see him in the halls, his name is Mr. Joe Bifelt, and we welcome him.  

Next week...

PEAKS state testing will happen on Tuesday and Wednesday, with make-ups on Thursday. Please make sure your kiddo gets plenty of rest the nights before and eats a hearty breakfast the mornings of. It will help tremendously. Thanks.

April is officially National Poetry Month and I would like to host a Pie-n-Poetry Slam towards the end of the month. More details to follow.

HERE is a link to Ryan's Online Class Registration

Monday looks like:

9:00 - 9:20

10-Minute writing prompt

Class Meeting

New Jobs

New Seats

9:20 - 10:30

Topic 12-7 (Pentominoes)

10:30 - 10:40

Break - Snack

10:40 - 12:00

Island Projects

12:00 - 12:30

Eat

12:30 - 1:00

Play

1:00 - 1:40

Read Aloud

TDL

1:45 - 2:15

P.E.

2:15 - 3:30

TDL

Outside

MATH HOMEWORK 

Tuesday, April 9, 2019
--Practice 12-7 Review
Wednesday, April 10, 2019

--Topic 12 Review
Thursday, April 11, 2019
--Topic 12 Test
Friday, April 12, 2019
--None

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)

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 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