Sept 8-11, 2026

  Important Dates:

9/14 - One more color day added! PINK day on Monday

9/15-16  - STAR testing in 6th Grade (Math on Tuesday and Reading on Wednesday)

9/17 - Open House

9/21 - Fun Run fundraising begins this week!

10/9 - no school (teacher workshop)

10/12 - VI/PR Friendship Day

This week at a glance...

Health/Wellness/Teambuilding:

Teambuilding exercise: Students were formed into small groups and were given the task of identifying things they had in common (not obvious things), writing each commonality on an index card. After discussing that portion, they were then told to use the index cards and a pair of scissors to build the tallest tower they could. Both parts of the exercise brought about different strategies and teamwork. The first part helped the class to realize in what ways they might be similar to others, but also how we are all individuals. The engineering strategies used for the second part were really fun to witness!

English:

• This week's Latin Root word: -port-
• Sentence Stalking 
• Letter to the author - students completed their letters to an author and even a few of them want their letter mailed! I will work on this with them and we will hope to hear back.
• Hatchet: read chapters 2-6, discussions of author craft, tone, personal connection, vocabulary

Math:

- MashUp math: comparing images and finding mathematical and visual similarities

- Work with positive and negative integers, Lowest Common Multiple, Greatest Common Factor, square and cubed roots

Social Studies:

• Mapping skills continued then Map Quiz
• practice with timelines, primary vs secondary sources
• investigated artifacts and began to learn about early humans

Science:

- Unit 1 : 

• review plant and animal cells
• specialized plant and animal cells, tissues, organs, began studying for quiz

PHOTOS:

Aug 31 - Sept 4

 
 Important Dates:

Color Days! See info below. 

9/7 - no school (Labor Day)

9/17 - Open House

9/23 - Fun Run fundraising begins this week

10/9 - no school (teacher workshop)

10/12 - VI/PR Friendship Day

This week at a glance...

Health/Wellness/Teambuilding:

Classroom Jobs! We have 4 job crews assigned and students will rotate through them. They will keep the same job for 1 week, then rotate to the next. There are gardeners, outdoor cleanup crew, indoor helping hands, tech cart wranglers, and "off duty" folks. They have really taken to the job positions and are working collaboratively with each other to complete the tasks more efficiently while making it fun.

Digital Citizenship lesson - As we are reintroducing computer use, and many of the students have access to their own devices of some kind, we like to do this lesson as a reminder of how to be safe, responsible, and kind. 

6th Grade gardens - many 6th graders showed interest in helping install some new plants in our garden boxes. They did a great job and learned about what each plant needs going forward (some more water than others).

English:

- This week's Latin Root word: -form-

- Sentence Stalking - we look very closely at a mentor sentence (pulled from popular books) to learn more about grammar, punctuation, and general sentence structure.

- Letter to the author - students drafted a letter to an author of one of their summer reading books, explaining what character they would like to be, what scene they would change and how, and anything else they might want to tell or ask the author. This was also a great way to reinforce letter format!

- All class Reading book: we are now reading Hatchet, by Gary Paulson. Each student has a copy and will have some assigned reading and writing to complete. We read the first chapter together and they seemed very interested to keep reading.

Math:

- MashUp math 

- Work with positive and negative integers, Lowest Common Multiple, Greatest Common Factor

Social Studies:

Mapping skills continued! - latitude and longitude (identify and plot coordinates), grids, using a scale, investigated St. Croix maps and labelled their own

Science:

- Scientific Method

- Microscopes: investigated plant and animal cells under the microscope!

- Unit 1 intro: Plant and animal cells, specialized cells, discuss how models can be helpful, then worked in groups to design their own plant models. When all groups were ready, they rotated to visit other stations where a representative explained the group's model. By the end some students were able to name the plant parts without referencing the book!

COLOR DAYS:

Tuesday, September 8 – Purple Day

Wednesday, September 9 – Brown Day

Thursday, September 10 – Black and White Day

Friday, September 11 – Rainbow Day

PHOTOS: