This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We had an incredible time on our camping trip to Catalina. From fishing, to cooking, hiking, and snorkeling, we had an unforgettable experience.

Now that we’re back to school we’ve picked up where we left off with our mission suspicion project, the carnival project, and the Giver. The Mission Suspicion debate tournament came to an end with the ghost team winning a great championship round against the aliens. Everyone did an excellent job with this event. We’ve now moved into the parade phase as groups have planned their floats and are now beginning to acquire the supplies they need to begin building.

With the carnival project the students have began creating the 5 posters which they will be hanging in their booth. Each of the posters will help to share information of their civilization with the audience.

We have student led conferences coming up next week. All students have been asked to sign up by this Friday. If you have not yet talked to your child about the student led conference sign up please do so.

I look forward to seeing you all next week,

Michael

 

6th grade camp

We will be meeting at I.A. at 7:30 am on Tuesday, April 24th. We’ll return on Friday around 1:30, you can pick up at regular dismissal time.
We are planning on doing a ghost tour that will cost $12 and showers cost 75 cents each. There are also other options like rock climbing for $5 and a bottomless boat tour for $6. If your child brIngs $20 they will have enough money for everything.
The supply list on Stephanie’s blog has everything except for a bowl or plate and utensil that we are asking everyone to bring for eating (re-useable). It is looking like there could be some rain so please plan for a few changes of socks and layers of clothes.

Besides that we should be good. The students and I are extremely excited to have an incredible week.

All students who are staying behind will be with Breanne in the morning and Andrew and Alex in the afternoon. Today they wrote up plans for the work that they will do while we are gone. If you are planning on keeping your child home at all during the week please sign an independent study contract for the days they miss.

I hope everyone has a great week,

Michael

 

I hope that eve…

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable spring break and is now excited to be back to school.  I’m extremely psyched for the upcoming week as we will be launching our Wonders of the World project as well as continuing with the Ancient Civilization project, The Giver, planning for 6th grade camp and some STAR test prep.  Our 6th grade camp plans and supply lists will be generated this week and posted to both Stephanies and my blog.  We’re amazingly excited for this trip.

For the Ancient Civilization project we began writing journal entries from the time and place we are working on.  Each student is to write 5 journal entries from the perspective of a citizen, putting themselves in the ancient individuals shoes.  The entries I have read have been amazing.  As we begin to wrap this initial task up we will be moving into the first group phase of the project where each group will be in charge of creating 5 posters that will be displayed in their carnival booth.  Each poster will teach an aspect of the civilization.  

In the wonders of the worlds project we will begin by doing research to either prove or disprove your topic.  With this research, each student will write an essay explaining if their topic is real or not.   From here we will move into our artistic representation and then our newscast.

If you have any questions about either of these topics please feel free to stop in and ask.

 

As for STAR test prep, we have been working a lot on our reading comprehension as that makes up the majority of the 6th grade humanities section.  I have also been teaching test taking strategies (how to play the game) as we prepare to dominate this test.

 

As always, I hope you and your child are enjoying the school year.

 

Have a great week,

 

Michael

 

After nearly 6 months of planning, research, discussing, gathering, and building, our back yard project is finally coming to an end.

I need to applaud Samantha for being the first one to successfully complete her task as she and the energy efficient technology group got a water collector donated and now have it connected to the roof, collecting water for the school.

Other groups will have their aspects of the project finalized for Wednesdays parent night as we plan on giving our final tours of the year at this event.  Any groups that do not finish by Wednesday will have both choice and lunch time to finish this project.

Overall, it was a great project that taught an incredible amount of real life skill.  The learnings that took place in our back yard project should stay with these students for years to come.

 

We have also been working hard on our T.V. in the Classroom project as our pilot episodes are due this Friday.  Each group is expected to have an opening sequence with a theme song and about a 10 minute episode ready to be viewed next Monday and Tuesday.  I’m extremely excited to see these episodes as we have a bunch of groups making some great shows.

As the backyard and T.V. in the classroom projects are winding down we will begin our next two projects either later this week or early next.  One of these will be an Ancient Civilization Carnival Project where students will be in small groups, preparing a carnival booth that disseminates the knowledge of one of the ancient civilizations.  The specific tasks each group will be responsible for will be broken down in detail as this project progresses but their first task will be writing a group of journal entries from an individual living through the major events of that civilization.  Each student will be responsible for completing this task before joining the group to begin the group work phase of the project.

The other project that we will be beginning in the next week or two was created by the students.  We’re still working out the details but the project will be based around the worlds mysteries.  The first phase of the project will be either proving or disproving the existence of your element, ie. ghosts, aliens, bigfoot, nessy, ect.  The second phase will be creating an artistic representation and the third phase is still being established but we’re leaning towards some form of class newscast.  The students are all extremely excited about this project as I foresee great learning taking place.

 

I’d also like to remind you that we will be going on our Hunger Games field trip this Friday and our 6th grade camp is also coming up.  Money and permission slips for both of these field trips are due this week.

 

Please continue to talk to your child about the book, “The Giver” we are reading, ask them about the world the book takes place in and the rules and restrictions places around their society.  Ask about their T.V. show and the back yard project, talk about 6th grade camp and ask about all the learning that is taking place on a daily basis.

 

I hope to see you all Wednesday,

 

Michael

 

As always, we h…

As always, we have an abundance of exiting learnings to speak to.  

Lets start with the field trips.  Our 6th grade camping trip to Catalina Island has been book and the planning is underway.  The permission slip and initial information sheet went home about a week ago.  If you have not yet received this paper from your child please push them to get it to you.

 

We will also be going to see The Hunger Games on Friday, March 23rd.  This information sheet went home today, Thursday, March 8th.  The tickets cost $6 each and we ask that both parent and student sign this permission slip.  Please get these in as soon as possible. 

Our work with The Hunger Games finished up this week as we wrote letters to Amandla, the girl playing Rue in the movie.  Patrick (the 4th grade teacher) is delivering the letters to her Uncle this weekend as we hope to hear back from her soon (or possibly get her to come in).

We also started reading The Giver this week.  Its an incredible book that I recommend asking your child about.  Since we have only read a few chapters so far, ask them about the world that the book takes place in… we don’t yet know much about it so the students are left drawing their own conclusions and ideas.  It’s pretty neat.

The back yard has been coming along great as we have now finished installing the water collector, the school stage is being painted, and the others projects are getting close to completion.  We will finish dedicating class time to this project on March 21st when we have our next parent night.  At that point we will move onto our next whole class project, one which we are working with the students to plan.

Last Thursday we watched all the trailers that have been created for our television shows.  These came out great as the students have worked hard on writing scrips, filming, and editing.  This project has now moved into the pilot phase as we are working to complete our 10-14 minute pilot episode with opening sequence, theme song, and episode.  I’m extremely excited for these.

We will also begin our history project next week as the students have done research this week to decide which ancient civilization they would like to focus on for this project.  

Theres a lot going on right now.  We’re definitely pushing them.  Fortunately they’ve been rising to the occasion as we’ve had a few amazing weeks in a row.  

Below are a few pictures I took last week of our work in the back yard and school spirit week.

 

 

Exciting learning

We have so much exciting learning going on right now I don’t know where to start.

Lets go with the back yard project…. the past two weeks have been amazing.  We have a sail shade hung, walls of a school store constructed, a beautiful wooden archway standing, a garden bed started, a water collector installed, a stage under construction, and a pond nearly running.  The students have been doing a great job of fighting through the adversity to make the backyard come to life.  It’s pretty awesome to watch.

Last Thursday was a community outreach night as we had invited the community into our classrooms to see what the school is all about.  To prepare, we broke into committees who each worked to demonstrate an aspect of our curriculum.  The students did an excellent job with this as everyone who stepped foot in our class was sincerely impressed.

We have also finalized the plans for our 6th grade trip.  We will be camping on Catalina Island from Tuesday, April 24th-Friday, April 27th.  A detailed letter will be send home this Tuesday explaining the specifics of the trip.  If your child did not give you this letter please ask them for it.

The T.V. in the classroom project has been going nicely.  Our compare and contrasting essays have been handed back and moved into the students portfolios.  It was a nice opportunity for me to see how our writing has improved over the course of the year.  I’m very pleased with our growth in this domain.

The next aspect of this project is the 1-2 minute trailers that we will watch this Thursday.  I’m excited to see what has been created.

We will also be starting a history project in the next week or two so stay tuned for details on this exciting project.

In the meantime, please continue to talk with your child about the learnings that are taking place.  Ask them what the biggest thing they’ve learned from the back yard project is or how their ability to think or write has grown over the year.

 

Have a great week,

 

Michael

 

 

P.O.L.’s and other enjoyable lessons

After some thorough preparation we spent the past week giving our Presentations of Learning.  There were some incredible presentations, good parent participation, and nice audience engagement.

Below are two examples of the excellent P.O.L.’s we had the privelege to see.

(the videos are refusing to load, I’ll get help from one of our tech experts and post the videos next week)

We also put on a mini award show where every student picked an award they would like to receive.  They then had 15 minutes to write up a 30 second acceptance speech.  Each student went up, received their award, and gave their speech.  The activity was not only great fun, but an effective form of public speaking practice and creative writing.  Below are a few pictures as the video clips will soon follow.

We also held our school government elections.  After all students made their nominations we had a list of 7 students who each received three nominations.  Of these seven, four wanted to run.  So, each of them gave a 1 minute speech.  After some extremely close votes Cotties and Cloe were voted in as our two class representatives.

Another lesson we recently had was on the coexist bumper sticker as we worked individually to analyze and comprehend what it means.  After students wrote their own analysis, we broke it down as a class.  This was a great lesson that forced all the students to think about and question what it is that they see as I encouraged them to do this on a daily basis with all information that they receive.

 

We have also began planning our 6th grade trip.  The students decided that they would like to do a camping trip somewhere in the San Diego region.  We’re looking at going for three nights and four days.  I’ll keep you updated as our plans evolve.  Below are a few pictures of students researching different places for us to go.

 

The last few pictures of are one of my favorite games, snow cone, a game which you have probably heard your child mention.  I recently added it to our list of ongoing activities for choice and lunch time.  If you haven’t heard about the game yet I recommend asking.  Its great fun.

 

Mid Year report

Now that we’re reaching the end of the first semester, I thought it would be a good time to check in and explain our plans for the next few months.

First, we will begin preparing for our mid year Presentation Of Learning (P.O.L) next week.  The students will receive their P.O.L. preparation packet this coming Monday, January 9^th.  After planning, practicing, and receiving feedback from classmates, P.O.L.’s we be presented on January 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th.  All student will sign up for a time slot as we encourage family members to come in for the presentation. P.O.L.’s are one of our favorite activities of the year as they give students the opportunity to reflect upon their learning before presenting their thoughts, feelings, and learning, to the class.

This will be the last activity of the semester as we will be sending report cards home on Friday, January 27^th.

As for class work, we have recently began our next Humanities project, T.V. in the classroom.  To launch the project we first took apart and attempted to implode a television.  Although the implosion didn’t quite work out as expected it was still neat to take apart a television.  We have now began to learn about plots, elements of a story, and characters.  We spent much of this week talking about conflict and climax in both books, television, and movies.  We then worked on writing plot summaries as we learned what must be included when creating a plot.  After writing a practice plot summary we moved into character development as we discussed what goes into making a character.  The students then took some time to create their own fictional characters.  From here we plan on getting in small groups that will work together to create a plot summary and their main characters.  Their next task will be to create a story board outlining their teaser and first episode.  After the story boards have been created the scripts and screen plays will be written.  From here, we will move into the filming and editing of our teaser and episodes.  All groups will be expected to create a 1 minute teaser, at least two, 15 minute episodes, and one commercial.

We also plan on taking a field trip to L.A. at some point to take a tour of a studio and possibly watch the filming of a movie or t.v. show.

In history, we will be finishing up our learning on Ancient Egypt and moving into Ancient Greece and Rome.  These two civilizations should take us up through spring break.

As for our backyard project, we plan to send our general contractors to the other classes of the school to summarize our plans and to receive their feedback.  We plan on giving each class a survey that will help us understand everyones thoughts and desires.  From here, we can move forward with as much help and support as possible.  We plan on having the backyard complete by the end of February.

Other daily lessons will continue to take place on a daily basis.  This week we looked at the COEXIST bumper sticker as we deciphered and comprehended its meaning.  We also worked with Michael Jacksons Man In The Mirror.  Our other lesson this week focused on writing with detail and description.  I recommend asking your child about this assignment as it was one of the better assignments we’ve done this year.

 

I hope to see you at your child’s P.O.L. next week.

 

Enjoy yourself until then,

 

Michael

 

After a great week of computation clinics in math, creating hunger games in humanities and working on our backyard project in the afternoon, I’m finally getting a chance to catch up with my blog.

On Monday we will be playing our hunger games that were created either individually or in groups of two.  The 5 requirements for the project is that they 1. create a final “ready to play” board game  2.  the board game demonstrates knowledge and understand of the book 3.  the game includes clear, easy to follow instructions 4. the game has packaging and 5. the game has a title.  Many of the groups created extremely creative, thoughtful games that we are looking forward to playing.

In our computation clinics we spent much of the week focusing on our multiplication facts.  Ask your child if they tested out of their single digit multiplication.  If they did not, we ask that you spend some time practicing at home.  Effective modes of practice can include flashcards, practice tests, or khan academy.

With our backyard project we have secured a 625 gallon water collector, a pond liner, bricks, and some wood.  We will continue installing the supplies we have received as we work on gathering our other supplies and building the other aspects of the back yard area.

We are also planning on going to the zoo next Thursday.  We now need parent drivers and chaperones.  If you would be willing to either drive or chaperone please send in a letter stating how many people you can drive, if you have a season pass or not, and if you would be willing to stay as a chaperone.

We will also be having a celebration next Friday, celebrating the incredible learning and work that has taken place for the first few months of the school year.

It was nice seeing many of you at open house.

I’m having an absolute pleasure teaching your children,

 

Michael

 

A community full of smiling faces

Hopefully everyone had an enjoyable week off, full of quality time with family, and bellies full of food.

I loved coming in on Monday to a community full of smiling faces, excited to be back at school.  It was a great feeling.

After a beautiful morning meeting in which we shared what we are thankful for, we outlined our next 3 weeks of school.  Our major plans include:  a trip to the zoo, finishing The Hunger Games and completing a small Hunger Games project, learning about Egypt, learning about integers, beginning the Earthquake project, a debate, and continuing to grow as individuals and a community.  We also made specific goals for each group in the backyard project.  Today, each group took this goal and outlined the specific steps they will take to complete their task.  We plan on seeing great success with this project over the next few weeks.

We did an introductory lesson into Ancient Egypt before break but will be hitting it fully over the next few weeks.  I encourage conversation at home about the pyramids, pharaohs, social structure, slaves, beliefs, inventions, and any other topics of interest related to ancient Egypt.

We have also begin our focus on descriptive writing.  We did a great activity with adjectives today that I highly recommend asking your child about.  We will continue to focus on this aspect of writing for the rest of the semester.  I plan to see great improvement in our writings over this time.

Thank you for all that you do at home.

You have great children who are an absolute pleasure to teach,

Michael