May 26th News

Information and Announcements

• Friday, May 26 - Dance and St. Theresa
• Monday, May 29 - No School 
• Tuesday, May 30 - Field Day, Trip to the Park
• Wednesday, May 31, 11:20 - Early Dismissal - Last Day of School

Religion:

This week students worked on and watched their Unit 5 project entitled Modern Day Prophets. Each student was challenged to take on a world problem and make it a better place. Ask your child to see his or her video presentation.

This summer is not to early to start working on service hours. In 7th grade, each student is required to complete 8 hours. Service forms can be found on the school website or by clicking here - service form.

Social Studies:

Students finished out the year with a test over the Aztecs. They have had quite the year traveling during the middle ages through Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Central America. Encourage your child to keep up on current events over the summer. As we know, they will be our future leaders and decision makers.

Thank you for the opportunity to spend at least 82 minutes with your child each day. I enjoy getting to know each one and believe I learned as much from them as they learned from me. Enjoy your time with this this summer.

Reading: 

We spent this week reading non-fiction stories about courage. We used details to locate main ideas. Students also came up with a favorite quote about courage, and shared those with the class.

I am so pleased with the skills and growth the students have shown throughout the year. Please encourage your child to keep reading this summer!

Language Arts:  

On Friday, we assembled our It's My Life autobiographies. Please ask your student to share it with you! I encouraged them to keep this project and look back at them a few years down the road. They are a great way to take a snap-shot of who they are right now.

The writing skills of the students have really improved over the course of 6th grade. To keep that improvement going, it is a great idea to encourage your students to keep writing over the long summer break. This can be travel journals, diaries, creative short stories, anything! Any time that pen or pencil is moving, that is a good thing.

Math Period 1:

Students wrapped up the year with an end of the year test.  The test will not come home, but a test analysis sheet will come home with the summer packet (for those who ordered) today.  Please do not focus on the grade, but rather the skills that were missed and why.  Was it lack of understanding?  Was it basic fact error? Was it a decimal error?  The proficiency score on the progress report will help you to determine the level of understanding.  I would encourage mixed review of skills over the summer which is explained on the front sheet of summer packet.  I will check school emails over the summer, so please feel free to have your student email me if they have any questions.  

Math Period 4:

Students wrapped up the year with an end of the year test.  The test will not come home, but a test analysis sheet will come home with the summer packet (for those who ordered) today.  Please do not focus on the grade test, but rather the skills that were missed and why.  Was it lack of understanding?  Was it basic fact error? Was it a decimal error?  The proficiency score on the progress report will help you to determine the level of understanding.  

This group of students has grown an incredible amount with their understanding of math this year. Sometimes the score doesn't always appear this way due to basic fact errors or a simple mistake but trust me they have done well and will continue to grow with their confidence and understanding. They have build a good foundation that will continue into the upcoming years.  I would encourage mixed review of skills over the summer which is explained on the front sheet of summer packet.  I will check school emails over the summer, so please feel free to have your student email me if they have any questions.  

Math Period 5:    

Students wrapped up the year with an end of the year test.  The test will not come home, but a test analysis sheet will come home with the summer packet (for those who ordered) today.  Please do not focus on the grade test, but rather the skills that were missed and why.  Was it lack of understanding?  Was it basic fact error? Was it a decimal error?  The proficiency score on the progress report will help you to determine the level of understanding.  I would encourage mixed review of skills over the summer which is explained on the front sheet of summer packet.  I will check school emails over the summer, so please feel free to have your student email me if they have any questions.  

Science:

The students spent time building and launching rockets this week.  Ask your child to share some videos of the launching with you.  I hope to share some soon, as well.  The end of the year test was also completed today, hopefully, the students will realize how much they have learned over the year.  It has been a great year with your children, and I have been blessed with the opportunity to be a part of their education.  I look forward to seeing what the future holds for each one of them.  

May 19th News

Information and Announcements

• Wednesday, May 24: 8:45 all school liturgy - Seniors Come Home!
• Friday, May 26: Mission Dress Down Day
• Friday, May 26: all reading minutes and 2 AR tests are due for third trimester

Religion:

This week in religion, the students took their final quiz of the year over the life of John the Baptist and highlights of the entire year. Please expect those quizzes to come home after everyone has had a chance to take it. Grades have already been posted to PowerSchool.

Later in the week the students began considering how they would be a modern day prophet. They were asked to consider how each one of them is going to prepare and improve the world for the return of Christ. Students were asked to pick a topic that aligns with Catholic church teachings, research it, and decide how they were going to spread their message. This project is due Tuesday evening. We will spend the final days of class watching those presentations.

Social Studies:

The students began the week in social studies with a test over the Aztecs. Then we were on to the Incas. We will spend the next week studying the Incas with a test on Friday, May 26th. The format of the test is -

• Vocab (fill in the blank - no word bank) - 4 questions/8 points
• Multiple choice - 16 questions/16 points
• Short answer- 1 question/6 points

Reading: 

This week, we focused on finding the main idea in paragraphs. There was a 10-point quiz over this on Friday. During this last week of class, we will be reading non-fiction short stories about courage.

On Friday, May 26 all reading minutes are due at 3:20. Students should have a total of 1800 minutes for the third trimester (50 possible points).
Students also need to have taken 2 AR tests during the third trimester since February 18 (25 possible points).
These will be the last graded assessments for reading!

Language Arts:  

My Music Days will wrap up on Tuesday. The students chose some amazing songs to share with the classes! We will then be finishing the autobiographies as the week comes to a close. Chapters 1-5 final drafts were due on Friday. Those chapters will be the last graded assignments for language arts this year! 

Math Period 1:

We completed a short unit on the area of triangles, parallelograms, and complex polygons.  There will be a short quiz on Monday over these skills.  The students will be given class time on Tuesday and Wednesday to review for the end of year tests in math and science.  The math end of the year test will be on Thursday, May 25th.  

Math Period 4:

We have spent a few days reviewing Chapter 5 skills.  In Google Classroom the students can find the test format and a review packet with the answers.  I would encourage the students to use this packet to prepare for the unit test on Monday, May 22nd.  We did not cover lesson 5.8, so the students should not look at that part of the packet. 

The students will be given class time on Tuesday and Wednesday to review for the end of year tests in math and science.   The math end of the year test will be on Thursday, May 25th.  

Math Period 5:    

We completed a short unit on the area of triangles, parallelograms, and complex polygons.  There will be a short quiz on Monday over these skills.  The students will be given class time on Tuesday and Wednesday to review for the end of year tests in math and science.  The math end of the year test will be on Thursday, May 25th.  

Science:

The students will be given an assessment on Monday over the unit on Motion and Forces. I would encourage the students to use their study guide packet to prepare for the assessment.  The test format is in Google Classroom.  We also began to build rockets this week.  We will review how the laws of motion apply to the flight of a rocket.  Our plan is to launch the rockets on Thursday and Friday of next week.  Start praying for nice weather-no rain or wind!

The end of the year test in science will be on Friday, May 26th.  We have discussed that the purpose is to assess the "big ideas" of 6th grade science-not small details.  The test will be all multiple choice except they will need to write the steps of the scientific method.  It is not meant to be a stressful situation, but rather a means of the students realizing how much they have learned over the year. 

May 12th News

Information and Announcements

• Wednesday, May 17th: Talent Show  (afternoon, time to be announced)
• Thursday, May 18th: All library books due

Religion:

This week in religion, the students took a quiz over everything they learned about Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Those quizzes should have come home on Thursday. We then started our final chapter. This chapter is about John the Baptist and his life. This multiple choice quiz is worth 15 points. For this quiz, nine questions are taken from the chapter notes, one question is taken from the reading assignment, and five questions are related to the chapter review. There are no dates included on the quiz. On Wednesday we will start our final project. This project challenges each student to pick a topic to be a modern day prophet about. Then asks how they will spread their message.

May is a month where we honor Mary. In addition to the May crowning mass, we also are praying a rosary each week in class.

Social Studies:

This week in social studies, we finished studying the Aztec culture. This was a very short four section chapter. Tests over this information will be next Tuesday. The test format is-

• Fill in the blank vocab (no word bank) - 7 questions/7 points
• Multiple choices - 13 questions/13 points
• Timeline - 4 questions/10 points
• Visual/Short Answer - 2 parts/12 points

Our final chapter of the year will over the Incas. We will begin that chapter on Tuesday and hope to have some interactive actives to reinforce what they are learning from their textbook in the final days.

Reading: 

This coming week, students will watch a PBS documentary on the dust bowl to give a visual representation of the devastation of the times. We will then spend time on finding the main idea in reading passages. As the year comes to a close, we will focus on reading strategies and non-fiction writing.

Language Arts:  

The It's My Life autobiography continues with chapters 5 and 6 this week. Chapter 5 details their best memory, while chapter 6 is when students choose a favorite song, share the music and lyrics, and then analyze what they think the song means. It should be a fun week!

Math Period 1:

The students will have a short assessment over coordinate planes and graphing linear functions this Monday.  This week we will practice calculating the area of polygons.  The following week, May 22-26th, we will be finishing up with end of the year testing.  I will give the students more information this week.  

Math Period 4:

This week the students will practice finding percents of a number using three strategies (mentally, decimal, and fraction).  This is the last section of this chapter that we will cover.  We will spend a couple days reviewing and test will be Monday, May 22nd.  The week of May 22nd, we will review and have an end of the year test.  I will give the students more information this week. 

Math Period 5:    

The students will have a short assessment over coordinate planes and graphing linear functions this Monday.  This week we will practice calculating the area of polygons.  The following week, May 22-26th, we will be finishing up with end of the year testing.  I will give the students more information this week.  

Science:

The students will have a short quiz over motion and forces on Monday.  They should study their packet of notes.  This week we will learn about Newton's three laws of motion and begin to build a rocket. The students will work in pairs to build and launch the rockets.   

May 5th News

Information and Announcements

• Friday, May 5: Service hours are due, 3:20pm
• Tuesday, May 9: Spirit Wear
• Friday, May 12: No School

Religion:

This week in religion the students took a quiz over everything they learned about Isaiah. Please look for these quizzes to come home after everyone has had a chance to take the quiz. Then, we learned about the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. We discussed how they lead the Israelites, also know as the Jews, through the period of time known as the exile. There will be a quiz over this information next Wednesday. The quiz format will be as follows-

• Fill in the blank (no word bank) (6 questions/12 points)
• Identify the prophet (12 points)

Thank you to everyone's (students and parents) efforts to complete the required service hours. I know it is a lot of work. But hopefully, you and your family had a positive experience helping our community and making it a better place.

Social Studies:

This week in social studies, we finished studying the Mayan culture. Tests over this information will come home after everyone has had an opportunity to take it. Next week, we will begin studying the Aztecs. This is a very short chapter where students will focus on the images related to Aztec society. The test over this information will be some time the week of May 12th.

Reading: 

Students will start the week with the final test for Out of the Dust on Monday. They have a review document in Google classroom to help them prepare, as well as their completed study guides. There will be no vocab next week.

Next week we will also be doing the final FAST reading assessments of the year. This includes comprehension as well as fluency. 

Language Arts:  

We are working on the autobiography unit called It's My Life. If your student hasn't already, they will be asking you all about their early childhood days. We discussed in class that not all parents have great memories, or had the time to fill out baby books (like Mrs. Umstead didn't). So...just answer the best you can! This is designed to bring back memories, not stress anyone out, truly! When finished with the unit, the students will have a keepsake that I hope the whole family will enjoy. 

Math Period 1:

The students completed Chapter 5 with a test this week.  I encourage you to let your child practice these skills (finding tips, finding discounts, sales tax, etc) whenever applicable.  We will move on to Chapter 7 Coordinate Planes.  This will be a short chapter with an assessment as early as Monday, May 15th.  

Math Period 4:   

The students have a quiz on Monday over Chapter 5 sections 1-3.  There is a review sheet on Google Classroom.  We worked these problems in class on Friday.  Next week we will spend time on changing between fractions, decimals, and percents.  Our goal is to get through Chapter 5 with a test on May 22nd.  There will be an end of the year assessment, as well.  

Math Period 5:    

The students completed Chapter 5 with a test this week.  I encourage you to let your child practice these skills (finding tips, finding discounts, sales tax, etc) whenever applicable.  We will move on to Chapter 7 Coordinate Planes.  This will be a short chapter with an assessment as early as Monday, May 15th.  

Science:

The students should be bringing home the test over rocks for you to review and sign.  We will turn in our books and do a short unit on forces and motion.  Our goal is to get through Newton's Laws of Motion and finish the unit with making and launching of rockets.  There will be an end of the year assessment in science.  The test will contain the big ideas from each unit of study.