Friday, September 9, 2011


Thank you to all who were able to come to the open house. I know many of you had multiple events that evening so scheduling was a challenge. For those of you who were not able to come, I have put the notes I handed out with a couple of additions at the bottom of the blog. PARENTS OF 6TH GRADERS: There was an additional handout for you. If is included as well.

Thank you, Andy Wildenberg, for getting us an Ethernet cable today (Friday).  We now have Internet and printing capabilities. I will start the keyboarding next week and put up the website I will be using by Monday. J

If you or your child took home the sunglasses poem or the Magic Circles at open house, please return them on Monday so I can get a grade. Then they can take them home. 

NWEA Testing Schedule

Monday AM:  Reading
Wednesday AM: Math
Thursday AM: Language

I will bring a snack for the kids on Monday. If any of you would like to provide a healthy snack for Wednesday and Thursday mornings, please email me. porischt@billingsschools.org

I will be gone Tuesday AM for a training.

SUBJECT UPDATES:

READING: Both classes are reading required books.
LANGUAGE: Continuing with diagramming adjectives and writing (both creative and expository)
SOCIAL STUDIES: 5th graders will be working in-class this week on their big map project. They will be bringing it home by Friday to finish it up. There will be a list of required items on the back of the tagboard. They must go beyond the required items to get an A.
SCIENCE: Continuing with our study of acid from last year.
MATH: Students need to teach you something that is due on WEDNESDAY!
SPELLING

5th grade
 Unit 3 Long i and o

BASIC:
sign, reply, strike, mighty, height, excite, apply, slight, define, spider, silent, brighten, groan, thrown, stroll, compose, dough, odor, control, approach

CHALLENGE
require, reproach, defy, plight, opponent

REAL WORD VOCABULARY
Life Skills: Cooking

sift, whole grain, ginger, spatula, utensil, pastry, liquid, preheat

Unit 4  Vowel Sounds  /oo/,  /yoo/

BASIC: glue, flute, youth, bruise, stew, choose, loose, lose, cruise, jewel, dilute, route, cartoon, avenue, include, assume, souvenir, accuse, view, confuse

CHALLENGE:
conclude, pursuit, intrude, subdue, presume

REAL WORLD VOCABULARY
Math: Probability

impossible, probable, outcomes, ratio, percentage, option, likelihood, algebra

6th grade

 Unit 3 Vowel Sounds /ou/, /oo/, /o/, /oi/ (but not always spelled with os in them)

BASIC: mound counter, devour, crouch, scoundrel, boundary, gloomy, maroon, droop, bamboo, vault, dawdle, haughty, thoughtful, flawless, exhausted, annoy, rejoice, hoist, oyster

CHALLENGE:  bountiful, aloof, adjoin, taut, turquoise

REAL WORD VOCABULARY
Science: Classification

zoologist, vertebrate, amphibian, genus, invertebrate mollusk, aquatic, terrestrial

Unit 4 Vowel + r sound

BASIC:  flirt, hurdle, earnest, urban, smirk, rehearse, surface, yearn, source, scorn, afford, mourn, formula, parka, radar, discard, parcel, starch, frontier, fierce

CHALLENGE:  horizontal, circuit, reimburse, formidable, monarchy

REAL WORLD VOCABUALRY
Science: Radar

transmitter, antenna, electromagnetic, encounter, forecasting, surveillance, physicist, innovation

OPEN HOUSE HANDOUTS

Sign in                                                           

Bullying contract—please resign and return. There was some language that changed.

6th grade Social Studies
·      Mrs. Beatty: Gracyn, Ana, Drayden, Henry, Ezra, Malcolm
·      Mrs. Reitz: Bailey, Ananya, Hannah, Micah, Collin, Travis

Geography Bee (Dec); Spelling Bee (Jan)  for BOTH grades

Math
·      Common Core: We (District #2) will have to come into line by 2015
·      Grouping by NWEA scores—can challenge & move up
·      Mondays—algebra; Wednesdays—Math Counts (7:30 & noon—same lesson)

Class, Class (Call and Response)
·      focusing all

Money System
·      Payment for each day ($5)
·      Loosing things –pay to get them back/get a copy
o   directions?
·      Pay $1 for talk-outs
·      accountants/bankers—deposit the $$ each week.
·      auctions: 1/month. May bring items from home. Make sure all are rated G.

Online Grades

By the end of 1st quarter (maybe sooner?)

Pink Slips
·      Purpose: Communication, communication, communication, accountability

AR
·      HERE!

Internet/keyboarding
·      HERE!

Blog

For students who have Mrs. Beatty for Social Studies:

6th grade only  Items in red need parent volunteers.  Underlined items are funded by the sale of the coupon books.

Morning announcements
Students sign up to say these on Monday AMs. Not required

Field Trip on May 30st (Wed) to Lewis and Clark Caverns ($3600)
·      Will need parents to go along ( 1 or 2 at the most)
·      Coupon books pay for items underlined; we keep ½ of the profit
·      If you do not want to sell coupon books, you can send $70 or whatever you can afford to send. No one will come knocking on your door for the balance.
·      There is an incentive for selling the most coupon books
o   1st            $30.00
o   2nd             $20.00
o   3rd             $10.00

Student Council @ Poly Drive
·      Run by parents during lunch
·      typically meet 1/month
·      need 1, 2, or 3 parents for this (between all 3 classes)

Moss Mansion Field Trip—Dec (no date yet; I’ll post it when I receive it)
·      Need a parent volunteer

Talent Show in Feb-typically not run by parents
·      Traditionally, 6th graders have had their own “number” in the Talent Show

Night of the Notables—end of March?—not run by parents
·      Dress up as character; give a speech

Last Th of the School Year—not sure about parents at this one
·      Walk to Rose Park 12:30-3:00

Yearbook
·      Need parent volunteers

End of the Year Slideshow
·      Parents come in and take pics
·      Put slideshow together for the last day (set to music)

PINK SLIPS
To try and improve communication and responsibility regarding late work, I am asking that students who do not have work done fill out a pink slip, give it to you, have a conversation with you about why the assignment is late, and return it to school the next day. If it is not returned, the student is asked to call and leave a message for you. This is not meant to be humiliating; it is meant to improve communication and make them more aware of late work. Last year, one whole white board listed names of students with late work. I am trying to have them be more actively involved, rather than passively look at what I have written. If you have a concern about this method, please call me.

SATURDAY LIVE
Saturday, September 24

Registration for the FunWalk/Run and the 100 yd dash is in the stapled packet.

RUBBER DUCK REGATTA
Sunday, September 11 from noon to 4 PM @ Riverfront Park
Information is in the stapled packet.

Rainbow Words (Spelling)--explanation
Students write the words they missed on the Spelling Pretest 3 times using a different color each time.


iKeepBookmarks.com

I will be putting frequently used bookmarks on this web site so you or your children can access them from home. Right now I have one called Calculation Nation there. It is a FANTASTIC site for math practice (at their level) and logical thinking. [My current favorite is neXtu. J] I will be introducing the games in class. However, students may access them at any time and read the directions for playing them.

Students need a login name and password. I have created 4 currently. They all center around the name of Zeb and a #, and the password is my last name with a #. You will need the underscore in the user name.

Accounts:

User name: Zeb_1 Password:   porisch1                 
User name: Zeb_2    Password:   porisch2                         
User name: Zeb_3   Password:   porisch3                          
User name:  Zeb_4  Password:   porisch4


I have made these accounts for Calculation Nation so that the students can challenge each other. They will know that if a “Zeb” is online, that it is someone from the class. Each account has to have a separate email address associated with it, so at the current time, I only have 4 set up.


I will be updating this page as we get nearer to the first day of school so check back before then. 



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