What a quick week!

     This week has been very quick with no school Monday, late start Tuesday, and two assemblies! Due to this schedule spelling and vocab was cancelled this week, but will be used next week. These will be the same words that were sent home already, but I will be sending home a new list today just in case!
     The CBMR and pre-algebra testing is completed! Letters will be arriving within the following week regarding Math 7 or Pre-Algebra placement. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. Next week on Wednesday and Thursday, we will be finishing the FAST testing with the aMath and aReading tests in the computer lab. Be sure to get plenty of rest and a good breakfast!
   
     On Wednesday we were introduced to a Great Horned Owl. We learned several interesting facts about this type of owl, as well as why certain animals are kept in the Raptor Center. Ask your kids what they found the most interesting! Today, we heard from three Iowa basketball players about Honesty, Caring, Responsibility and Respect. These three women are the top of their team and sport by following the same traits we do!

     Have a great weekend, and I look forward to getting back to our usual schedule on Monday! 🦁

No School Monday!

     I'm glad to be back after our two week winter break! I hope this week has gone well for everyone and you are staying safe with this crazy winter weather. We have had a great start back in the classroom: moving on to ratios in math, Kinetic Energy and particle interactions in science, new novel study groups in reading (Tuck Everlasting, The Midwife's Apprentice, and The One and Only Ivan), and our big research assignment for writing.
     Next week we will continue working in each of these areas, so feel free to ask your students what they've been learning in each subject area! We will also be starting our FAST testing again, so plenty of sleep and a good breakfast! The CBMR passage readings will be completed throughout the week, while the aReading and aMath will be completed the following week.
     Spelling lists and weekly math is coming home today, vocab is up on the blog. Some students may come  home with their group novels to finish their reading and/or Google Classroom assignment.

Remember: there is no school Monday due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Happy Winter Break ☃

We have had a great couple of weeks in 6th grade! We finished up our novel studies and presented our final projects to the class, we worked ahead on math and science, held a debate in social studies, and had our first field trip! Now it is time for two weeks of rest and relaxation. I thank you all for the warm wishes and send the same regards to your families.
We will start back up on January 8th with our regular daily schedule. Spelling lists, weekly math, and vocab will come home that Monday with the students. I have also posted the new spelling and vocabulary words on the blog if anyone wants to take an early peek.
Thank you all for a wonderful fist half of 6th grade! I look forward to seeing you next year..!

Patriots vs. Loyalists

City High Show Choir

Haiti Recycling Effort

     Today we met Annie, the Executive Director of the Community Health Initiative Haiti organization. This is the organization we are working with in hopes of raising enough money to run a recycling center in Haiti for a full year ($3000). We learned a lot about what Haiti looks like and how the people of Haiti can earn money by participating in the recycling program. Feel free to ask your student about this aspect of our All School Project as they should be able to explain the process clearly after today's explanation!
     Our total All School Project: Lions Care goal is about $5500 for the well and recycling center. The coin drive brought in about $1300 and there have been a few online donations since then. The entire school will be making cards next week that will be bundled and available for purchase. A purple letter is making its way home today detailing more about this activity.
     Thank you for your help in reaching our goal! Lincoln Lions ROAR! 🦁

Shine on Mr. Bernard! ✨

     Yesterday morning we had the privileged of presenting the Shine Award to Mr. Williams! Bernard is our custodian during the day who goes far beyond his daily duties. He works hard, always helps out, check in constantly, talks with the students, and shows a genuine interest and care for everyone here at Lincoln. A handful of our classmates and a parent nominated Bernard through the district website in hopes of showing just how much we appreciate him. There are about 2,200 employees in the Iowa City School District and only 3 are chosen each month based on their nomination letters. This means only 30 employees receive the Shine Award each year. Way to be amazing Bernard!
   
     The superintendent, Mr. Murley, as well as a few other district employees came to the classroom to present a golden apple award, t-shirt, and copy of the nominations to Bernard. Mrs. Langenfeld and a couple teachers were also able to join in the celebration. The students created signs that read "CONGRATS MR.BERNARD!" and shouted surprise when Bernard walked into the room. Mr. Bernard was beyond surprised as he thought he was coming into our room to help clean up a mess. His face was priceless and he was left speechless. As he left our room, the other students and staff had the hallway lined and gave Bernard a much deserved round of applause. Lots of hugs were shared, and tears held back.

We truly appreciate and enjoy having Bernard on our Lincoln Lion team! 🦁

 

Fall Break 🍂

I hope you all enjoy the long weekend and have plenty of rest and relaxation!

I have sent home spelling lists if there are any eager beavers who would like to get an early start on their studying. They are also posted on here along with the vocabulary words. Weekly math will come home Monday, due next Friday along with a current event. Please encourage your children to keep reading and writing over break, but also enjoy the time with family and friends.

Lastly, thank you for your concerns, as some of your students have shared I have been a bit under the weather this past week. I am happy to say that I am back to my usual self this week, and plan on starting next week strong! 🦁

Kensuke's Kingdom

     This week marks the end of Kensuke's Kingdom! 🌴 Everyone seemed to enjoy the novel and had a lot to talk about in our discussion today. Kensuke's Kingdom is a fictional novel that is created from very realistic possibilities. By the end of the book many of our classmates were questioning if the novel was true or not! We had a discussion about why the author would choose to make it seem so realistic and how that can help increase reader's attention.
     Kensuke's Kingdom brought a lot of insightful work, so be sure to ask your child about it! I will have all of the response sheets graded by next Monday, and their summaries are completed online in Google Classroom if you would like them to share those with you.
     We also had some time to complete a few projects along the way. The first project we worked on was mapping Peggy Sue's journey. This required students to use Google Maps to locate and trace each stop that was discussed in the novel. The second project was to map Kensuke's Kingdom. This project consisted of an image of the island Michael and Kensuke were stranded on, leaving the details of where certain animals, shelters, and events took place up to each student to map. Following the map projects we completed a message in a bottle. This is something Michael tries to do, but it doesn't turn out so well. For this project, each student pretended they were stranded on the island and wrote their own message in a bottle.
Great work on this novel project! 👍

How the time flies...

Can you believe we are already working our way through November? Neither can I! There are a few major things coming up that I'd like to share and remind you about.
     1. Conferences are this Thursday evening and next Wednesday all day. Please be sure to sign up! If you are already signed up, don't forget these are 3-way conferences. This means the student, parent, and teacher are all participating in the conference if possible. I look forward to meeting with you all!
     2. You may have noticed your child does not have a spelling or vocab list this week. This is because we are not using our regular Language and Reading textbook this week through Fall Break.
     3. Now you may be thinking: What are you doing with your time then?? Well, be assured we are working hard! The entire 6th grade is reading the novel Kensuke's Kingdom and completing various comprehension tasks along the way. All of this work is completed in school, but I encourage you to ask your child what they read about or did today with Kensuke's Kingdom!
     4. We are still completing weekly math each week, as well as current events (with the exception of this Friday, as we are reading through Time For Kids).
     5. As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to reach out at any time! I am always available for you!
     6. Scholastic went home last Friday. If you are wanting to order from any of the flyers that were sent home please submit the order by November 30th. If you are wanting to order through me, send the completed order form(s) to school along with a check/cash for the total amount. If you would like to order online, simply use our class code: RCYJT. The book fair is also going to take place starting the 13th (a note went home about this). Remember: you can never have too many books!

Go Lions! 🦁

Halloween Celebration

Sorry for the late update! I hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween! It was great seeing all of the costumes here at school, and being a part of the traditional Lincoln Lion Parade! We enjoyed the brisk air, exercise, and fun that followed. Here is a picture of our class in costumes, as well as the staff dressed as Lion Cares Super Heroes!

                           

Guest Speakers

This past Friday the 6th graders were very lucky to have a group of students from Cornell College come talk to us about natural disasters (and what causes them), tectonic plates, fossils, and geodes. These are all things we have been studying thus far in science! It was great to meet soon to be scientists, especially to see five of the seven were female! After a whole group introduction, the students were able to move around in groups to learn more in-depth with each of the individual scientists. After the rotations, we all gathered back into one large group to watch as the students cracked open a geode for us. I encourage you to ask your students what the most interesting thing they learned from these scientists was!

 

Today in... SCIENCE!

So far this year in science, we are working with rocks and fossils. With these, we are looking at how they are made, how we can identify them, where we can find them, and how old these objects really are.

Today we focused on time. In order to help us visualize just how old fossils really are, we made a timeline out of receipt tape! Each of the "major" events of life formation were marked on our timeline using centimeters and meters. This visualization made it very easy to see just how long it takes for things to evolve and change over time. While we were making it we started with present day and worked back in time, but in the video we started at the Formation of Earth and worked our way through time to TODAY! I think we were all amazed at just how long the timeline ended up being (46 meters)! 😃 Enjoy the video of our completed timeline:

The students who spoke said the following "major" events: Earth forms, first life, first algae, fossils, fish, land plants, insects, trees, amphibians, dinosaurs - Mesozoic, mammals, birds, horses, primitive humans, ice age, Homo erectus... TODAY (shouted by all).