Early Update

😊 Hello and happy Monday!

I thought I would send out a message today rather than Friday as we have some important things coming home today and to remember for this week.

First, you will see a purple sheet with a blue half-sheet attached. This is the Herbert Hoover Museum permission slip for our field trip on May 18th from 9:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. The signed purple form and the checked blue form are due THIS Friday (May 4th!). Please leave the two forms attached and be sure to make a lunch choice as this is an all day event and no choice or late slips will be marked as home lunch - no exceptions. ✅

You may also see some Scholastic book orders coming home. This is the last order of the year and they will be due Monday the 14th as to allow enough time for the order to arrive before the last day of school. 📘

Lastly, there are a couple of things that are not coming home with students but are good to be thinking about.
     1. We have a math test coming up this Friday for topic 15. Be sure to check with your student as to whether they feel confident and prepared. We want these last test scores to be some of our best! 💯
     2. Thursday will be the last day to submit a yearbook cover idea. Lincoln always has a great turn-out of ideas and I am hoping the same will be said for this year! Remember: you do not have to color the cover idea. The image chosen will be photocopied and colored digitally. Do your best and feel free to team up with a friend if you'd like! 🎨
     3. I had previously said there will be current events due this Friday, but I had forgotten about TFK. 📰 As this week is the first of the month, we receive Time For Kids magazine and read through and discuss it as a class the first Friday of each month instead of current events. I apologize for forgetting!
     4. Weekly math will still be due Friday! Please remind your student to come prepared to share out answers and follow along as we check. ✔

🦁 Thank you and I hope you all enjoy the week! 🦁

Fun Night 🦁

This week has been wonderful out at Lake McBride and now Fun Night is tomorrow from 4pm-7pm! I hope to see you all there! There will be fun things to do in every classroom, and 6th grade has a pretty awesome surprise game located in the art room. I can't wait to see all the families having fun!

Next week we will start to make our way back to a normal schedule, although we still have two field trips: North Central on Tuesday and South East on Friday. 🚌 We will have the day arranged around these two trips so that the students will not miss anything or have any make-up work.

Please keep in mind that weekly math will be coming home that is due Friday and a current event will also be expected. Some students forgot their current events for today, so I will expect those to come to school completed on Monday morning. ✅

In writing we will be continuing our work with character development and figuring out what a character really wants. This will help gain a deeper understanding of characters and an overall purpose to a story. 📚 We are also continuing our work with Esperanza Rising in reading. The students have been doing a great job of responding to the text, so I hope to see that same level of effort next week! Social studies is wrapping up with our Westward Expansion projects, which I am hoping to present toward the end of the week.

Math will bring a new topic: measures of center and variability. This consists of statistical questions, finding the mean, median, mode, and range, as well as making sense of a problem. The students will find this topic to be simple in math skills but possibly difficult in math explanation. We want to push the kids to understand why they are doing the particular steps and what it all means. Science will be moving forward with our understanding of living and nonliving with various explorations. We will start with looking at elodea under the microscope, followed by paramecium, and lastly our cheek cells! It should be a fun and interesting time! 🔬

Lastly, we will have our aReading test first thing on Monday morning so please be sure to get a good nights' sleep and a healthy breakfast! 🤓

Enjoy the lovely SPRING weather and I hope to see you all tomorrow evening! 🌷

School of the Wild: Day 3 🌞

Today marks the third wonderful day out at Lake McBride for School of the Wild! Everyone is doing a wonderful job of exploring and learning in this new setting. I (along with several other adults!) have been extremely impressed with the Lincoln students' behavior and ability to stay focused while enjoying themselves! Thank you all for ensuring a fantastic time is had by all! 😊

Tomorrow I will be staying back at Lincoln to sub for Mr. Criswell's class so that he may go out and enjoy the weather as well. He will be working with group 3 at the archaeological sites while Mr. Ritter will be floating. I will join back in on Thursday for the last day.

Many of us are starting to get tired due to all of the sun exposure and physical activity. Be sure to get plenty of rest and healthy food tonight and in the morning so you are ready for another day out. Again, I recommend bringing sunscreen, plenty of water, and a hat to cover your face and eyes from the sun. 😎

Tomorrow Lincoln group 2 will be in the Wetlands, which I got the privileged to join today. If you are in group 2, I would highly recommend bringing an extra pair of clothes in case you get wet! Although getting wet is not likely beyond your feet, a couple students found out today that it can happen! 🛶

Here are a couple pictures of group 3 enjoying their time in the wetlands today!

Two canoes looking for creatures

The few that capsized 

On the Boat!

School of the Wild: Day 2 😊

   We had yet another fantastic day out at Lake McBride for school of the wild! The weather was perfect and everyone was in high spirits. Be sure to get plenty of rest tonight and a good breakfast in the morning so you are all ready for another outdoors filled day!

   Lincoln did not have a group at the archaeology sites today so I got to join two different groups. The first group I tagged along with was group 2, who had the woodlands.🌱 We walked the trails, listening to nature and learning about the plants and animals we could see and hear. At lunch time we were able to stop at the spill way and enjoy the view. 🌅This was a great area for the kids to climb around, cool off, and just relax. I have posted a few pictures from my time with this group below.

Woodlands Group 2

Checking out the Waterfall

  

The second group I was able to join in with was group 3, who were exploring the ornithology areas. This group was able to learn about various raptors, what makes flight possible, and several other fun and helpful facts about birds. 🦉🦅🐦We hiked around a bit, as well as taking a few rests at bird blinds. I have posted a couple pictures of my time with this group below.

Bird Watching in the Blind

Ornithology Group 3

     Remember to pack filling snacks and plenty of water! You will want a sweatshirt for in the morning and possibly some sunscreen in the afternoon. I hope you are ready for day 3! See you tomorrow! 🌳

Long Weekend 🔅🌎

Hello on this bright and lovely Friday off! I hope you all enjoy the long weekend and are able to spend plenty of time out in this wonderful weather.

We had our first day out at Lake McBride for School of the Wild yesterday and it was wonderful! I'm proud of all of our 6th grades for how well they behaved, participated, and encouraged each other. I am excited to go back out on Monday! The weather is looking even better for next week, so be sure to consider that when choosing clothes and items in your backpack. I would encourage a hat to keep the sun out of your eyes, layers as the morning will still be chilly (such as a light jacket, sweatshirt, t-shirt), some sunscreen, plenty of water, and a couple healthy snacks for if you get hungry before/after lunch.

Weekly math will not be coming home on Monday as we have our last math FAST testing on Friday. Be sure to get plenty of sleep and a good breakfast! We will, however, expect current events to be due and shared Friday.

I will do my best to upload pictures from each day out at School of the Wild. Don't worry if you don't see your child right away, I am only with one group each day, so the students in the pictures will change as we move through the week.

School of the Wild Day 1:

Day 1 Archaeology Group!

                                         

                                                      Building the Wickiup

Exploring the Beach

                                            

                                                   A-Frame Fort

        

     Lean-to Fort

 

Log Cabin Fort

April Week #2 ✅

Sunny during the week, rain-snow during the weekend. Let's hope we see a lot more of the former in the upcoming weeks! Not only are we all ready for it, but we have several fun things to do outside in the coming days.

There will be no weekly math homework this week as we have our first day of School of the Wild on Thursday and no school on Friday! There will also be no current events, so it is a homework free week as long as we focus in and complete all our in-school tasks during the day. 

There will be a permission slip for City High Track that explains all the details as well as a lunch request form. This sheet is due back no later than April 27th, but anytime before then is appreciated. Some students will also have a permission slip coming home for South East Junior High school trip. This is only coming home with students who are enrolled there for next year. This slip includes all the information and is due back April 27th, but accepted anytime before then as well. North Central permission slips should be coming home soon, so stay tuned for those if your student is enrolled there next year.

Lastly, as you know we do not have spelling or vocab as we have completed our language arts curriculum. I have posted some apps on the spelling and vocab tab of the blog if you would like your student to continue practicing words on their own. I have not used all of these apps, but they were suggested on several sites. Check them out and let me know what you think!

Below are a couple of pictures from the Extreme Science Guy who visited on Friday. He showed us some of the common "magical tricks" performed and how they work using science! Our Sierra got pulled up to the stage showing us how electricity passes through us and shows a great display with our hair. Everyone enjoyed the show and learned something new!

 

Bravo 👏

     This week flew by! Opera of Iowa did a fantastic job on Monday and Taco night was a big hit! Opera of Iowa started with a workshop for the 6th graders about the behind the scenes jobs on a set such as lighting, props, makeup, and more! During the workshop two of the students were transformed into Jack and the Giant to show some simple steps to create a specific look. Alexandria became the Giant and Gavin became Jack. After the workshop, the artists went to get read and then put on a wonderful rendition of Jack and the Beanstalk!

Elli and Lucia also received the Iowa City Council Leadership Award and made wonderful speeches. Congratulations!

     Starting this week we will not have spelling or vocabulary work. There will still be weekly math and current events due Friday. We have made our way through our Journey's textbooks which will allow us to have more time for other subject areas. Monday we will be taking our math topic 13 test over finding areas of various shapes, which will then lead us into finding surface area of prisms. We will continue our Kindergarten Book writing projects, as well as our study of Westward Expansion. The entire 6th grade will be starting our second novel study: Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan. 

     

     Lastly, a friendly reminder to send back your completed permission slips for School of the Wild at Lake McBride as soon as you can. If you have any questions please let me know. There will be a lot of new things in these last two months of school so stay tuned!