Humanities - 10/31

We have officially launched our new unit on "Motivations to Explore". The term explore is being used in its broadest sense. From now until the December break, students will learn about historical, current, and possible future exploration. They will think about why people have historically explored and what motivates current exploration. We will also think, from a literary standpoint, about self-exploration and examine writing that supports this topic. Students will work on using primary and secondary sources, write summaries of text, and ultimately, put together a memoir of sorts regarding their own exploration. More details to follow.

7 Maths 10.29

Today, students completed the mid-unit assessment of their skills in addition and subtraction of fractions. Most students demonstrated significant improvement from the beginning of the unit.

We continue to work on reasoning and calculating with fractions, as we move into multiplication and division.

8 Maths 10.29

Your child should bring home the Filling and Wrapping Unit Test for you to go over and sign. Students who wish to do additional practice and studying to prepare for a re-test will have the opportunity to do so.

Today we begin a unit on reasoning and calculating with fractions. This unit is intended to review and fill gaps in student understanding of fractions and proportional reasoning.

Grade 6 Math October 29, 2012

We are beginning our unit on fractions.  This week we will be reviewing how to add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers.  Over the next several weeks we will move on to multiplying and dividing fractions using models and problem solving with fractions.

Homework this week is a packet on long division and expressing remainders in three different ways, as a remainder, a fraction and as a decimal.  It also included a review of least common multiple and greatest common factors.  This packet is due Monday November 5, 2012.

Please remember there is after school math club on Thursday afternoons from 2:30-3:30 in room 214.  Students can get assistance with homework, pre-teaching on what is to come and get support around math questions they may have.  Any student on the team is welcome to attend.

Fundraising Opportunities Coming Up

Dear Families,

We have three fundraising opportunities coming up:

1. The Spooktacular Middle School Dance, is this Friday, October 26, 2012, from 6:45 - 9:00.  The cost is $4.00 with costume/$5.00 without.
   
   I know this is late notice, but i am looking for five students/families to make  baked goods for the dance,  you will be able to get 5% of the total proceeds from the dance for their field trip account.
   
   Also, there will be a raffle at the dance.  All students who attend, will have there name placed in a raffle.  The winner will get 25% of the dance proceeds into their field trip account.
   
2. February Calendar Raffle:  We have started the process of collecting donations for the February Raffle.  If you work for a business or know someone who works for a business that would be able to donate, please let me know.
   
   The raffle works like this:
   Each day during the month of February, different items from local businesses will be raffled off.  The winner for that day is placed back into the raffle.
   
   Last year we made $7090 on the raffle, the most we have ever made on a fundraiser.
   
3. Pie Sale - We will be selling home made apple and pumpkin pies for the Thanksgiving holiday.  I need eight students to pick apples next Tuesday.  We will be meeting at Adam's Orchard, on Old Stagecoach Road, in Williston, at 3:15.  Students are expected to find their own ride to the orchard and have an adult with them.  It should not take more than an hour to pick the apples.  More information about the pie sale will coming shortly.

Thank you for all your hard work.
Joe Smith
jsmith3@mtsd-vt.org

Scheduling Student Conferences Now!

Dear House C Families,

How time flies! We're already well into the eighth week of the school year and it is already time for our first round of Student Portfolio Conferences! Educational research tells us that children benefit greatly from having meaningful conversations about their learning with important adults in their lives.  To that end, your child will lead a Portfolio Conference where he or she will present to you artifacts of his or her learning - work from each class that he or she has thoughtfully selected to demonstrate learning and growth.

In addition to presenting artifacts of academic growth, your child will also discuss his or her progress with the five Habits of Mind we have been working on this year: Citizenship, Constructing Knowledge, Perseverance, Precision, and Preparedness.

For your convenience, we are scheduling conferences on the evenings of Thursday, November 8, and Thursday, November 15. Any caring adult is welcome - parents, adult siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors. Conferences will take place in the Middle/Elementary School Library.

Please click here to sign up for your conference time.

This is an important activity for your child. If no adult is able to attend on these dates, we will gladly make arrangements for you to conference with your child at another time.

If you wish to meet one on one with House C teachers, we would be more than happy to schedule a meeting when we see you at your child’s Portfolio Conference.

We look forward to seeing you!

Winter Sports Meeting 11/19

There is a Winter Sports Meeting for all 6, 7 and 8th graders wishing to play a sport this season.  The meeting is November 19, in the MS Gym at 6pm.  Sign ups and all information will be available at that time.

8 Maths 10.23

After weeks of hard study, we are wrapping up our unit called Filling and Wrapping. Students will take the unit test on Thursday, where they will be expected to demonstrate their skills with surface area and volume of three-dimensional shapes.

7 Maths 10.23

Last week, we completed the Variables and Patterns unit, and started our new unit: Reasoning and Calculating with Fractions. In this unit, students are learning or reviewing how to solve problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of fractions and mixed numbers.

Literacy - 10/15

As we gear up to launch our humanities unit on motivations to explore, we are frontloading some work in literacy around summarizing literary text. Students will be reading stories of explorers - both past and present - and working on the reading skills of pulling out key details and summarizing the text. To that end we have done a pre-assessment and are determining the areas of need for our students. We will be doing some repeated practice around reading passages, completing plot maps, and writing summaries. Please check your child's planner daily as there will likely be practice each day that needs to be completed before the following day's class. As always, please encourage your child to read independently at least 25 minutes a day. As with any skill, the more you practice, the stronger you become.