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!

First week of April 💐

     March has come to and end and April is already bringing on the showers! Congratulations to Elli from our classroom, Ella from Mr. Ritter's classroom and Julian from Mr. Criswell's classroom for guessing the most correct outcomes in our March Madness Bracket! Each of these students will get to choose a book of their choice to keep as their own. It was fun to discuss the books with everyone and see the younger grades' interest in the event. I encourage you all to read any of the books that you have not yet had the chance to read! 🏀📚

                         

                           

     I have posted the FINAL spelling and vocabulary lists online! This is our very last week of Journey's textbook so study hard and finish strong! A spelling list is also coming home with each student along with weekly math and a new Scholastic book order. Don't forget to order any school spirit wear you might be wanting by Wednesday, April 4th (ending at midnight). All of the proceeds will go to our all school project Hearts for Haiti recycling center! 💗🌎 Here is the link: https://lincolnelementary2018.itemorder.com/sale

     April is sure to fly by, as we have several things to look forward to! During this first week, we start the week off with a performance by Opera of Iowa during an all school assembly. Monday evening at 6:50 pm I invite you all to join in congratulating our classmate Elli in receiving the Iowa City Community Leadership Award! The ceremony will be held at the beginning of the Iowa City City Council meeting, which begins at 7 pm. The meeting is also broadcast on your local TV station if you would like to watch but cannot make it out.

      As we work through the week, we will be finishing up our study of finding areas of various shapes, investigating living and nonliving items under the microscope lens, complete our novel study, and begin a new writing and social studies project.

     Lastly, Friday the 6th also provides a great chance to get out of the house and have some fun. Fifth grade will be hosting Taco Night in the gym from 5-7 pm. 🌮 There will be walking tacos with all the fixings for $5 each or $7 for two! The money raised from Taco Night will go towards funding School of the Wild field trips. Thanks 5th grade! Once you've grabbed your taco you can join Lego and Movie night from 6-7:45 pm. Its sure to be a fun night had by all!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 🦁

Thank you! Great work! Congratulations!

After the first official day of spring and a fairly sunshine filled week, we have the biggest snow of all! Luckily it seems the snow will be melting quickly and warm weather will be coming back.

I want to thank all the family and friends that came out to Lincoln's Fine Arts Night last Thursday. It was a wonderful evening filled many smiles and great works of art! The sixth graders should be proud of their last performance. 🎶 🎨

This week our major changes have been with our diversity of life science kit. It has kicked off with a great start! We are focusing on how to determine if something is living or nonliving. 🌿🌞🌈💧
So far we have identified characteristics we believe to be identifiers of living things and have used them to help us sort items into three different categories: living, nonliving, and undecided. This list will help us throughout our investigations and is sure to change as we determine more qualifiers and/or remove items from the list.
We have also set a few cuttings into small jars of water to figure out if they are living or not. This includes a carnation, potato, branch with leaves, and philodendron which we provide with air, water, and indirect sunlight.
The students have also created mini-habitats consisting of soil, grass, leaves, berries, and sticks filled with some pond water. We will continue to keep these containers sealed and set aside, checking them occasionally for any changes.
Lastly, we have put together five mystery vials to observe over several days for any signs of life. Some of the students have become confident in their idea of what some vials consist of and whether they are living or nonliving.
Each of these activities has already proven to get the students thinking more in-depth about what it means to be living. Challenge your student to determine if something is living or nonliving and request their thinking as to why. 🔬🌱

🏀📚This past week also took us through two March Madness book face-offs! We have found our final two mach: Hunger Games versus Wonder! It will be an exciting match next week!

Weekly math and spelling lists should have come home yesterday in addition to the spelling and vocab words being posted online. Don't forget current events will also be due on Friday.

I also would like to give a shout out to our very own Elli Hagedorn who has received the City Council Leadership Award! This award is given to select students who show leadership qualities that go above and beyond within school as well as around the community. If you would like to attend the award ceremony, it will be held at the Iowa City City Council Meeting on Monday, April 2nd at 6pm. Congratulation Elli!🎉

I hope you all enjoy your weekend and hang in there while we make our way through this crazy Iowa weather!

🌷 Spring 🍀 Break 🌼

Hello and happy spring break! I hope you all are able to enjoy some quality family and friend time over the coming week! Be sure to rest, relax, and enjoy the weather!

March Madness has come into full swing, with the first official voting results today. The following novels have moved forward and have become our Elite 8: Where the Red Fern Grows, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Ghosts, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Giver, The Lightening Thief, and Wonder. I highly encourage our students to read any of these 8 books that they have not already read over break. We will be voting on our Final Four books the Monday we come back from break so the more you know about the books, the more informed your vote will be!

I have posted the new spelling and vocabulary words in case anyone gets anxious and would like to take an early peek at them over break. Weekly math will come with the students on the Monday back from break in hopes of eliminating and lost packets over break.
After break we will begin our final science kit: Diversity of Life, as well as new reading an writing projects. We will continue working with dividing fractions in math before moving on to our next topic of study.

One last note: if you have a planner but it is not at school yet, please be sure to bring it with you on Monday. We will begin to look at it as a tool and start to compare some aspects of planner usage to what it will look like next year in junior high.

Enjoy spring break! I look forward to hearing all about your favorite things when we get back!

🏀 March Madness! 🏀

We have officially entered March and are eagerly waiting for spring to arrive! The weather is turning, and I hope you all have plenty of time to get outside and enjoy it!

I have posted next week's spelling and vocab lists, and weekly math will be coming home tomorrow.

We have started our health lessons which revolve around basic personal wellness: hygiene, injury, violence, illness, consumerism, and conservation. We finished up working with percentages and are moving on to dividing fractions (remember to use the reciprical, or the multiplicitive inverse). During our writing we have been working on adding detail and using our creative minds to write stories based off of pictures I project for the students. Many seem to enjoy these!

Reading this month is going to be a fun competition mimicking the March Madness basketball tournament. I have created a display in the hallway for 5th and 6th grade to "bet" on. Each student has filled out a bracket, and will vote which books move on to the next "match". We are starting with the "sweet 16", moving through the "elite 8", on to the "final 4", and ending with "the game".
I am excited to be trying this new method of encouraging students to read books that have been popular among their peers so they can debate and persuade others of which book will be the 2018 March Madness Winner!
I will keep adding pictures of the bracket progression so you can inquire about the tournament with your student. Please encourage your student to read any of the following books that they have not already read: Fuzzy Mud, Where the Red Fern Grows, The Hunger Games, Crenshaw, The One and Only Ivan, Harry Potter, Amulet, Ghosts, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Swindle, The Giver, Ghost, Pax, The Lightening Thief, Wonder, and Rules.

The Last of February

This week has been a productive one! Conferences were held Thursday evening, with the full day conference session next Wednesday; remember, no school for the kids! We also had our Hearts for Haiti celebration yesterday and today for winning the classroom contest portion of the activity. The South East Junior High show choir visited Lincoln today to perform their routine for the school!

I have posted new spelling and vocabulary words as we will still work on these next week with the no-school conference day. Weekly math will be coming home today and due next Friday, but there will be no current events because we will have T.F.K. next week.

The kids may also show you a "Best Buy Shopping" worksheet which is encouraged to be tried this weekend at home. In math we have been working with percents; finding the percent of a number, finding what percent of a number is another number, and so on. This worksheet is a way for the students to make the connection between math in school and math out of school. We see percentages all around us through shopping, money, and various other scenarios. I encourage you to ask your students about this worksheet and even add some of their own examples they may have seen over the weekend to the worksheet. The provided worksheet can be completed through imaginary items and prices, online things, or things they saw in-store.

In writing, we have just finished up our literary essays, which can be viewed in the hallway. We are also wrapping up our Chemical Interactions science kit, so feel free to ask your students what they have learned about kinetic energy, why the mirror in the bathroom fogs after a hot shower, or what the frost on your dry windows in the winter is called and how it gets there. 

The students have also finished reading their individual novels and are about half-way through their projects. I am expecting to finish these up by Friday and start having presentations throughout the week as they are completed.

In social studies we have been looking at the Constitution and its preamble, the Bill of Rights, and all of the work that goes into creating and amending these documents. I encourage you to have conversations with your student about things that are taking place in the world today that relate to rights and get them thinking about the "big picture" of our own everyday interactions. We have done several activities through these two units and will be completing a mock trial revolving around a government mandated curfew. Each student has been assigned a team role, and has been encouraged to think about how that person would react to this new ruling and debate it from that point of view (even if it isn't what they personally believe).

Thank you to those who I have already met for conferences and I look forward to seeing those of you who have conferences on Wednesday! I hope you all have a great weekend and get out to enjoy the weather as it is expected to be a bit warmer in the coming days! 

💗 Big Hearts for Haiti 💗

The tally is in... the school as a whole collected an amazing $921.98!!! Wow! As we found out this afternoon, our class won the friendly class competition, reaching an awing $227! Way to go class! We will celebrate our full hearts throughout next week with the presence of Mr. Lincoln, as well as have a little celebration of sorts. Be thinking of some possible ideas!

I have posted week 20 spelling and vocab so feel free to check those out over the weekend. Weekly math has been sent home, along with a letter about Lincoln's Fine Arts Night.

Have a fantastic weekend, and again, thank you to everyone who has helped throughout this wonderfully crazy week!

Lincoln Lions ROAR! 🦁

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The week has been jam packed with learning and celebrations, for today, I want to focus on the celebrations and share my gratitude for all of you amazing Lincoln families!

Pancake day on Monday was a success! 🥞 The kids enjoyed making their own pancakes and had more than their fill. I didn't know 6th graders could eat so many pancakes in one sitting!! I even felt the need to caution some of them before heading out to recess where they were sure to feel the affects of their fluffy pancakes. An extra appreciative thank you goes out to all of the parents who helped orchestrate this event. From the cheerful faces, supplies, decorations, and helping hands. Thank you!

Wednesday was quick to follow with yet another successful event: Valentine's Day. We had plenty of apples and goodies for all. Thank you everyone for being sure to include all classmates and to those who helped supply our class with delicious apples for a snack!🍏 I was extremely proud of the class when, after they had left, Ron entered our room and exclaimed "Wow! Very impressed. Very impressed." Our room was picked up so well it took him by surprise on a day consisting of celebrations and extra treats. Ron was very appreciative and I challenged the class to aim for this sort of reaction every day. Way to be responsible 6th graders! 😊

Lastly, the Hearts for Haiti drive has been proving to be an amazing fundraiser for our water well and recycling center. I am proud to say, as a school we have collected just over $800 in four days! I am also amazed to share that $216 of that collection has come from our classroom! 💕 Our hearts could not be happier to reach such goals for our friends in Haiti. Tomorrow is the last day to purchase a heart for Haiti, so if you are still looking to give a heart for the cause, tomorrow is the day! I will be sure to let you all know the results from tomorrow's collection of hearts! A huge thank you to the contributors!