Hello families,
Thank you for all you have done this year in supporting us teachers and your child! We made it to the halfway point! While we know this is an unusual year, we do still want to maintain our tradition of ramping up expectations as students get closer to transitioning to middle school. To that end, we will be firm with our late work policy. Students will lose 10 points off their assignment grade if it is late. We will also be starting a new station work grade, detailed in the next paragraph. Thank you for helping us prepare your child for the larger responsibilities they will have as a 6th grader!
Beginning on Monday, we will be adding a new semester-long grade, similar to our homework grades. In both math and reading, students will have a Station Work assignment, and all students will start with a 100 in that assignment. If they do not complete the assigned math station or reading station independent work by Friday afternoon, they will lose 5 points from this grade. We want to reward those who have been diligently completing assignments while also trying to motivate students who have been using small group independent time as an additional break to do these practice and enrichment activities. We will be going over this during our Monday morning meeting so all students are clear on this new process.
Please reiterate with your student that cameras should be on throughout the day so we know they are safe and there for the lesson. If their camera is not on, I call will on them. If they do not respond, I will remove them from the meeting and send an email to you. Thanks so much for your support with this!
Please don’t forget to save the date for the Hungary Creek Middle School Curriculum Fair on February 11th from 5:30-7:00! You and your child can get more details about courses offered before you log into PowerSchool the following week to select your child’s classes for 6th grade!
For PE on Tuesday, students will need 1 beach towel, 1 pencil, and 1 piece of paper, 1 small object to sit on, broom or noodle, 5 other small objects to place on the floor.
Sketch books for art will be in the bus loop for pick-up on February 3rd through the 5th from 7:00 am until 7 pm.
mportant Dates:
2/2 – Science Cells & Classification Unit Test
2/3 – Northeast States & Capitals Quizzes
2/5 – Word Trek Lesson 16 Quizzes
2/8 & 2/9 – GAES Picture Days, sign ups required!
2/11 – Curriculum Fair for Hungary Creek Middle School 5:30-7:00, virtual meeting link to come
2/15 – Parent Powerschool window opens for 6th grade course selection
2/15 – Student half day, log off at 11:00 am; *Special Guest coming at 10!*
MATH
We continue working with data and graphing with line plots and stem and leaf graphs. We will also begin our next unit on Mean, Median, Mode, and Range. This unit will use the stem & leaf graphs as well as the line plots to analyze data. In addition to materials in the math folder in Student Resources, don’t forget about the links on portaportal!
LANGUAGE ARTS
Our new unit focuses on media messages and distinguishing between fact and opinion. We are almost finished with Every Soul a Star! Students have been jotting down important events each time we read to get ready to do a project on character development for the novel. We have loved this novel! Ask your student what is going on in the book as we near the end.
As we kick off our celebration of Black History Month, we will read a great article about the Black Panther movie and tie this into the comprehension skills this coming week. We will also be looking at other important African Americans who have made contributions to our country during our morning meetings.
SCIENCE
Our cells and classification unit test is Tuesday. This covers plant and animal cells, vertebrates and invertebrates, vascular and nonvascular plants, and adaptations. Students should be reviewing their digital notebook and actual science notebook, study guide, and organism classification slideshow in the Science folder to prepare. After our unit test, we will take a few days to review the scientific method. Our next unit will begin the following week; we will be talking about matter!
SOCIAL STUDIES
We are continuing to dig into the Northeast Region. Our states and capitals quizzes will be on Wednesday, February 2nd. Students will also be working on a state slideshow project to share with the class.