Cluster Challenge
Congratulations to to the following students for correctly answering last week’s Cluster Challenge:
- Anna McGuffee
- Kara Thompson
- Emma Barrett
- Giselle Santillana
- Jonathon Mills
- Brianna Kelly
- Julia Casbarian
Special recognition goes to the following students for providing the correct mathematical solution to last week’s challenge:
- Corinne Cassel
- Marco Trevino
- Patrick Revilla
Ready for this week’s challenge? Ok! Go!
English – Annotated Bibliography Take Home Test
For this test, you are to use four of your history fair sources to create an annotated bibliography. For help in created the MLA style citations please go here:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
You will need to scroll down to the bottom for help with individual entries.
For help in writing the annotations, you may use the same website, or go here:
http://www.nationalhistoryday.org/AnnotatedBibliography.htm
Remember everything I have taught you: alphabetical order by author or title, indent the second and subsequent lines, and use 12 point typeface if you are word processing your bibliography.
Your test is due Monday, October 26 for odd periods and Tuesday, October 27 for even periods.
Matter and Energy Test
There will be a science test covering Chapters 1 and 2 Wednesday and Thursday, October 28 and 29. This test will cover our Matter and Energy Unit. Tutorials will be available this afternoon and Monday and Tuesday afternoon from 4pm to 4:45pm. Download the study guide here and in ParentStudent Connect.
Exciting News!- Upcoming Field Trip
A Christmas Carol Field Trip
In November and December 6C students will read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. As a culminating event, we will be going on a field trip to see a live production of A Christmas Carol- A Ghost Story of Christmas at the Alley Theatre. Our field trip will take place December 17th, 2009. The projected cost of the trip will be $11 per person and permission slips will be sent home the first week of November.
We will need parents to help chaperone our trip. If you are interested in joining us, please contact Ms. Parker for more information. In order to chaperone, you will also need to be registered with HISD’s VIPS (Volunteers in Public Schools) program. You should be able to register by using the following link:
Also…
Our purpose for reading A Christmas Carol is to explore character, theme, and literary devices through classical literature. We will be reading the book together in class, and it is recommended that students have their own copy of the book to make notes and to re-read passages as necessary. We are able to order copies of the book for $1 each through Scholastic and students are receiving an order form for copies of A Christmas Carol which should be returned by October 30th. I am strongly encouraging students to purchase a copy of the book, but a class set will be available for those who are not able to.
ParentStudent Connect
We are very excited about the features and transparency that ParentStudent Connect offers to you, parents and students. One question we have received regards the ability to send notes to the teacher when you have concerns about an assignment. Currently there is no teacher notification that a note has been posted unless a teacher purposefully inspects a student profile. In order to receive responses in a timely manner, please use the email links that you can find in the left sidebar of our cluster website. Thank you for your consideration.
History Fair, etc
Students,
I was very impressed Friday with all of the notecards I saw! Great job staying on schedule and continuing to research- I know it’s been tough at times. Keep up all the hard work I’m seeing!
Coming up- the fact card check was to make sure we were all on track. CONTINUE TO RESEARCH! The deadline is fast approaching, and you don’t want to leave things till the last minute.
The next deadline: Nov. 6th with the rough draft of your bibliography AND process paper, both of which you have been talking about/ working on in Mrs. Geraci’s class. More info to come from me later.
This week: we’ve been talking about natural resources in South America. Friday the 23rd is our South America/ natural resources quiz. Also, we will be talking about culture and continuing with our Junior Achievement Global Marketplace lessons.
Enjoy the beautiful weather. 
Make Up Test Opportunity
Sign up sheets for science make up tests have been posted. Available times are Friday during 6th grade lunch, Friday after school, Monday during third lunch, and Monday after school. I encourage all students who desire to sit for a retest to review their test booklets and pay special attention to questions 15-20. The retest will consist entirely of passages and questions over experimental design (problems, hypotheses, conclusions, variables, constants, and controls) and scientific law and theory.
As I will be out Thursday, October 15, any students wishing to sign up for the retest should see Mrs. Baumgarten. I will return Friday, October 16.
Cluster Challenge! Go!
Congratulations to Emma, Julia, Ari, Patrick, and Grant for correctly answering last week’s Cluster Challenge question!
Here’s this week’s question. Remember to submit all solutions to Mr. E.
Reading- Character and Plot and Vocab…Oh My!
It has been couple of weeks since my last post so I wanted to take this chance to update you on a few things we are working on in Reading.
Character and Plot
Overall, students did a wonderful job on the test over character which we took a couple of weeks ago and it has been returned to students. Analyzing characters is a skill which we will be developing and incorporating with other skills throughout the year.
We have also been exploring plot and conflict over the past week and will continue to work to determine how authors use plot, conflict, and characters to create an interesting story.
Vocabulary Quiz
We will have a vocabulary quiz Friday. This quiz will cover words beginning with the prefixes, pre-, post-, mono-, and poly-. We reviewed all the words that would be covered on the quiz Monday and Tuesday and all students will receive a study packet by Thursday.
In Other News
Independent Reading Books- Students are learning a journaling strategy called Dialectical Journaling. It is very important that students have their Independent Reading Book (IRB) with them each time they come to class. While I know that it is easy to leave a good book on the nightstand after reading at bedtime, please help you child remember that they will have opportunities to read during the day and they will need their book for reading class. Throw it in the backpack each morning because you never know when you will have the chance to read (and don’t forget to record your minutes on your reading log)!
Current Event Article- We will be learning a strategy for summarizing that should come in handy when working on History Fair projects. I am asking all students to bring a current event article that interests them to class Monday/Tuesday of next week. If students do not have their own article, they will be forced to use the articles I have chosen (and I can’t guarantee they will be interesting).
Basic Science Skills Test
Students will be taking a basic science skills test Friday, October 9. As a class, we have generated topics for this exam:
- Math- including hand calculation of averages and long division
- Scientific process- including problems, hypotheses, data types, variables and experimental design
- Measurement- including proper units for volume and area, displacement method for volume
- Safety- including proper laboratory behavior
- Equipment- including the use and function of equipment
Students should use their notebooks and the “What is Science?” section pages 10-21 of their textbook to review. I will be available for questions, Thursday afternoon, October 8.
