September 27, 2010

La Paloma Academy
6th Grade Newsletter
 September 27, 2010
Mr. Festerling

COMMUNICATION
Communication between school and home is important for each 6th grader's success. Parents can email Mr. Festerling directly from the La Paloma website, lpatucson.org, or call him before or after school at 520-721-4205. Additionally, as mentioned in previous newsletters, the student's planner is a great vehicle for communicating daily assignments, test scores, or written notes to parent or teacher.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Now that students can name the difference between the Paleolithic Age and the Neolithic Age, 6th grade is now turning attention to written history and the earliest civilizations. The students will do detailed map work including comparing where the oldest civilizations were located compared to present day countries. These countries are in the news on a daily basis.
MATH
Fractions and decimals are a part of daily mathematics for the 6th graders. As the 6th graders know, success comes from organizing math problems properly and double checking answers (amongst other things). This is especially true with proper decimal placement and multiple step problems. Decimals and fractions are reinforced daily with practice problems and real life word problems.

READING

There are so many components to being successful in reading . . . from affixes (prefixes and suffixes) to literary elements like point of view, from setting to using context clues, to name a few. Sixth graders will apply these and other concepts by reading two more non-fiction adventure selections this week, one by Jon Krakauer, the other by the familiar author, Gary Paulsen. The students will also discuss the parallels between the challenges the authors faced in the wild compared to the life of a 6th grader.

WRITING

After an extensive look at multiple methods of prewriting, the first and ever important step in writing, students will target "showing, not telling" with their word choice in writing pieces. The other focal points for their writing this week (and always) are what is the topic, who is the audience, why am I writing this (purpose), and how am I best going to accomplish the purpose (form).

SCIENCE
The students' wonderful diagrams of atoms are on the bulletin board in the classroom. If you stop by the classroom be sure to locate your child's so he/she can tell you the main parts of an atom. Sixth graders will concentrate on "changes in matter" through reading, note taking, and hands-on experiments.
CHARACTER COUNTS

Ben Franklin said, "The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, a conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity." This week the students will take a closer look at the character trait "respect," which is foundational to one's character in relationships and life. 

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Week of September 9

La Paloma Academy
6th Grade Newsletter
September 9, 2010
Mr. Festerling

MATH
This week in math class, one of the focal points for the sixth graders will be to slow down on homework, line up their work properly, and check over their answers. This will help ensure high quality assignment and assessment results.The upcoming learning concepts include: identifying and applying patterns in word problems, negative numbers on a number line, rounding, and fractions on a number line.

READING
Hatchet book reports are due on Friday, September 10. The students may select from a variety of book report options. The idea for this set of book reports is that each student is able to apply their unique learning style to a book report format they are comfortable with. This week we will also learn more about the author’s point of view in literature and prepare for the final test. The September Daily Independent Reading Time log was handed out. Each 6th grader should be reading a minimum of 20 minutes per night (5 days a week) and recording their time on the DIRT log.

WRITING
The Oil Spill papers were returned to the students for their running portfolio. Each student is assessed on the 6 Traits of Writing including ideas and content, organization, sentence fluency, voice, word choice, and conventions. During the year, we will focus our writing improvement in those 6 areas. It is exciting to compare the student’s growth from his/her first paper to the last paper.

SCIENCE
Students will receive a study guide for most tests. If the student com-pletes the study guide and studies directly from it, he/she will be most successful as it sets forth the material each student is expected to know. This was the case for the most recent test on cells.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Sixth grade continues their study on “Planet Earth”. Highlights will include maps vs. globes, the International Date Line, and latitude and longitude.

OPEN HOUSE
Thank you, parents, for making the La Paloma Academy Open House so successful. Mr. Festerling appreci-ates you; he enjoyed the opportu-nity to meet your families and learn more about your 6th grader. We hope you benefitted from the event as well.
Questions for your 6th grader for the upcoming week. . .
 How can you be sure to minimize small mathematical errors on your math homework?
 How would you rate your involvement in class discussions on a daily basis?
 What point of view is a book you are reading or a video game you play (1st or 3rd person)?
 What is the IDL and why is it so important anyway?

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