Outdoor Education!

What a great week at Alliance Redwoods! There's nothing better than beautiful forests, clean air, and awesome 6th graders. Students had a wonderful time zip lining, climbing ropes courses, braving the giant pinata/swing, and learning about forest ecology. I loved it all. Okay. That's not quite true. As a whole foods geek, I had a hard time eating the food...but other than that it was great!

Parents, please view the photos located on Bloomz. They are in the "media" tab. 

Next week at school we continue our work with The Lightning Thief and learning how to compare and contrast with other myths. Our mid-module assessment will be writing a mini analytical essay about the elements of mythology they will find in the Prometheus text. Our final module assessment will be writing a 5 paragraph analytical essay connecting the theme of Cronus to the Lightning Thief. In social studies, we will begin our unit on Judaism and Christianity. It will be a short (less than 2 week) unit and then we will move on to Mesopotamia, Egypt and Kush. 

Our art docent starts this week! Thank you, Mrs. Vierra!

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Great Student Jobs!

I could go on and on about how I adore my students. They are simply amazing respectful, responsible, and resourceful students! We have several classroom jobs and each month students get "paid" for doing a job well done. They apply for a new job each month. I have a few jobs I'd love to share with you...

Volume Control:  My 2 boys that had this job this past month did an OUTSTANDING job! The person with this job is allowed to stand up and say, "Class, Give me 5!" just like a teacher. They then remind the class of the volume they should be out. A big shout out to these 2 students that took on this courageous task. They completed their job with poise and expertise! I love seeing student leaders!

Transition Leader:  Like the volume control, this student is allowed to get class attention with "Give Me 5!" They then remind the class of the time and let them know how many minutes until transitioning. It's a hard job and we have a brave young leader taking it on this new month!

Organizer:  I like things tidy and organized. This is hard to do in a classroom. I hear other teachers talk about how hard it is to keep a room clean. Guess what? I had 3 great girls take on this task this past month. They organized the group supplies and shelves. I am so thankful for them!

As you may know, we got a student teacher! Her name is Ms. Dowd and she is in her final semester of student teaching! She loves the students already and has jumped right in there and given 2 ELA lessons already! We're thankful she is joining us.

This next week is camp! Parents, please be sure to check BLOOMZ for pictures and updates! We are going to have a FUN WEEK!

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Student Blog is Up!

I couldn't have stated it any better. My student blogger is just amazing. So - she will tell this week's story...

This week was very jam-packed with map-testing, our Tool projects, making our desert posters, and our cell analogy writings. The online gator buck system was also started this week.

Map testing took a lot of time out of our day but thankfully, we got most of it completed! We at least started all of the tests even if we didn't complete them. 

Our tool projects turned out great! Everyone did an amazing job presenting them to the class. 

Our desert posters also turned out perfect! Everyone took a role and pursued it. Cooperation and working together was a huge part in this project and the end result was amazing. It even helped us write notes on each desert. We learned a lot of interesting things about each desert and got to have a lot of fun too. 

Our cell analogy writings are up and running. This week, we wrote about a place that we love to go to. But that's not it, we pretended it was a cell! Each part of the cell, represented a different part of the building. Everyone did a great job coming up with ideas for this writing. 

Is everyone excited to earn prizes from the gator buck store? If so, we should try to use the 3 R's a lot. Starting this week, you can earn gator bucks online! Also, if you earn 10 or more gator bucks, at fun Friday you can earn a prize and it won't cost you any gator bucks at all!

Coming up is Labor Day weekend so everyone enjoy your two extra days of free time until you come back to the another fun week of school! 

Reported by: Sophia

Wow - - - 

Didn't she do a great job? I am so proud of my students. They have been excellent listeners and collaborators. Our student blogger, Sophia, also put together the pictures above. Amazing work from all our students!

Parents, if you are not hooked up with SeeSaw, ask to see your child's account.  We recorded our presentations for you! Check your email for the parent link. Many of you will also soon receive a link to hook up with your child's Google classroom, if you wish. You will receive a weekly email update if you choose to do so. 

We completed our mid-unit assessment in ELA and we will be using this data to determine our CI goal as a 6th grade ELA team. I believe we are going to work on citing evidence - making sure to quote and add our own thinking. It's a great skill!

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