Honors News 9/2/16

Here is the latest news in Honors!

FROST-Good news!!! All students have access to FREE tutoring! PVUSD has developed a free tutoring program for all students in K-6 grades. National Honor Society high school students monitored by PVUSD IT department will be available from 4:30-7:30 Monday-Thursday (excluding holidays) to answer questions and help. The website is frost.pvschools.net. They also utilize Google Classroom and all of the Honors students know how to access that. Feel free to utilize this service.

Classroom Site Funds- Each grade level asks parents to donate to the Classroom Site Fund which are monies that go directly to the classroom. Often, classroom projects and activities require extra funding to make them possible. We ask that each family help teachers cover the costs of these classroom experiences as a one-time donation at the beginning of the school year. These funds will cover the costs of classroom activities including Honors for the entire academic year, with the exception of field trips. I use these funds to pay for my Math Olympiad competitions, Stock Market Game, literature sets, Pi Day activities and prizes, and Dynamath & Scholastic Math magazines. To donate, please go to the PTO website Classroom Site Funds and choose your student’s grade level. Once chosen, it will give you the opportunity to add an additional $5 to your donation for HONORS. I really appreciate you supporting Honors at Sonoran Sky! Thank you for your support.

Our Honors Room Mom- A big thank you to Mrs. Crandall for stepping up to be the Honors Room mom. Be on the lookout in the upcoming weeks for a google doc to set up an email directory so she can keep you up to date on important Honors activities.

4th Grade Reading

In reading, we have started a literature study on Holes. We are learning the literary elements such as vocabulary, setting, characters, and comprehension. Students are desperately trying to figure out what all the digging is about! The students are enjoying this book so far. We have been learning about what a socratic seminar is and the procedures for participating in one so it is a successful dialogue and discussion. We are practicing our discussion skills and mindtime.

We have jumped into Latin & Greek stems. We have learned over 6 stems. Once we have learned 10 stems, there will be a test. We also learned about Quizlet and how to use Quizlet to practice those stems! Practice. Practice. Practice.

We are on week 2 of Tween Tribune. Students are required to read the article, take the quiz on Tween Tribune website and then answer the critical thinking question on Google Classroom. We had a socratic seminar over this week’s concept of Edible Forests. The students did a fabulous job!

Lastly, we have discussed the Masquerade Party Quarter 1 Book Project in class. We discussed possible masks and the summary that needs to be loaded to Google Classroom. More info to come on the location and time of our Masquerade Party.

4th Grade Math-In Math, we are moving right along. We breezed through Chapter 1 which covered Place Value. Students did well on the Chapter 1 test. Chapter 2 is introducing prime factorization, powers and exponents, and multiplication and division of whole numbers. Don’t forget about the Math Quarterly Project due October 7th! Students should be working little by little on it. Don’t wait until the last minute!!!!

Math Olympiads- Did you know you have a MATHLETE living in your house?

Math Olympiad is an international competition where students solve math word problems in a timed competition. They are competing against other students in their grade level around the world!!!! There are individual prizes and team prizes!

“Math Olympiads have been found to:

• To stimulate enthusiasm and a love for Mathematics
• To introduce important Mathematical concepts
• To teach major strategies for problem solving
• To develop Mathematical flexibility in solving problems
• To strengthen Mathematical intuition
• To foster Mathematical creativity and ingenuity
• To provide for the satisfaction, joy, and thrill of meeting challenge”

There are five competitions (NOV., DEC., JAN., FEB., & MAR.) We will be doing practice problems every other week to prepare for our competitions. Math Olympiads are also a way to practice mathematical discussions which we do in class. I never grade Math Olympiad competitions or problems. We correct them in class and I give participation points for attempting the problems and participating in our in class discussions. These problems should not take hours. I tell them to spend 10 minutes on each problem and then move on. If you have any questions, let me know.

Dynamath & Scholastic Math Extra Credit- There will be an option of checking out a Scholastic Math & Dynamath magazines for one week to complete the magazine for extra credit. The magazines come monthly. This extra credit will be added at the end of the quarter to help boost students who are close to the next letter grade.

5th Grade Reading- In reading, we started our first literature novel in class this week, Tuck Everlasting. What a fantastic book to study literary elements, theme, vocabulary, and comprehension. Tuck Everlasting asks the question, “What if?” It’s a great discussion book! Can’t wait to get more into it.

We have jumped into Caesar’s English I. We also learned about Quizlet and how to use Quizlet to practice those words! The Quizlet for CE I is on the Google Classroom website and will be updated regularly! Practice. Practice. Practice.

We are continuing to work on 4 Level sentences. This year, we will be concentrating more on Level 2-4 which cover phrases, clauses, types of sentences, and subject/predicates and direct objects and subject complements. We love grammar!

We are on week 2 of Tween Tribune. Students are required to read the article, take the quiz on Tween Tribune website and then answer the critical thinking question on Google Classroom. We had a socratic seminar over this week’s concept of Edible Forests. The students did a fabulous job!

Lastly, we have discussed the Masquerade Party Quarter 1 Book Project in class. We discussed possible masks and the summary that needs to be loaded to Google Classroom. More info to come on the location and time of our Masquerade Party.

5th Grade Math- In Math, the students are working really hard. We wrapped up Ch. 3 this week. Students struggled with division of decimals by decimals. This might be a good thing to practice from time to time. We will continue to work on this skill as well. Next up is Chapter 4 which covers multiplying and dividing fractions and decimals. Don’t forget about the Math Quarterly Project due October 7th! Students should be working little by little on it. Don’t wait until the last minute!!!!

Math Olympiads- Did you know you have a MATHLETE living in your house?

Math Olympiad is an international competition where students solve math word problems in a timed competition. They are competing against other students in their grade level around the world!!!! There are individual prizes and team prizes!

“Math Olympiads have been found to:

• To stimulate enthusiasm and a love for Mathematics
• To introduce important Mathematical concepts
• To teach major strategies for problem solving
• To develop Mathematical flexibility in solving problems
• To strengthen Mathematical intuition
• To foster Mathematical creativity and ingenuity
• To provide for the satisfaction, joy, and thrill of meeting challenge”

There are five competitions (NOV., DEC., JAN., FEB., & MAR.) We will be doing practice problems every other week to prepare for our competitions. Math Olympiads are also a way to practice mathematical discussions which we do in class. I never grade Math Olympiad competitions or problems. We correct them in class and I give participation points for attempting the problems and participating in our in class discussions. These problems should not take hours. I tell them to spend 10 minutes on each problem and then move on. If you have any questions, let me know.

Dynamath & Scholastic Math Extra Credit- There will be an option of checking out a Scholastic Math & Dynamath magazines for one week to complete the magazine for extra credit. The magazines come monthly. This extra credit will be added at the end of the quarter to help boost students who are close to the next letter grade.

6th Grade Reading- In Reading, we have been discussing literary elements such a plot and theme. Students wrote their first book review on our first book, Frederick. I wanted to model how to write a book review in class and give them practice here at school, so they are prepared to write their own for their Quarter 1 Book Review Project due 10/2! This week, we started a literature study on Westing Game. This book is fantastic! We will continue to work on the literary elements, vocabulary, and comprehension skills. We will also be having a few socratic seminars as this novel deals with themes such as appearances and identity.

We have jumped into Caesar’s English II. We also learned about Quizlet and how to use Quizlet to practice those words! There is a quizlet on Google Classroom that will be updated regularly. Practice. Practice. Practice.

Since 6th Grade was a PILOTS camp, they got a week off of Tween Tribune. Reading nonfiction literature is essential to comprehension and building vocabulary skills. Nonfiction reading adds a new dimension to a student’s repertoire by introducing text structures and organization that you do not find in fiction literature. Therefore, each week students will be required to read an article from Tween Tribune and summarize, analyze, and dissect that article and respond on Google Classroom. We will then have socratic seminars to discuss that topic.

Lastly, we have discussed the Masquerade Party Quarter 1 Book Project in class. We discussed possible masks and the summary that needs to be loaded to Google Classroom. More info to come on the location and time of our Masquerade Party.

6th Grade Math-The students have been working hard so far this first quarter. I am amazed at how well they have assumed the leadership role here on campus. Impressive! We wrapped up Ch. 3 before the students left for camp. They did well! Class average was a 85%! Nicely done.

Next week, we will be jumping into Chapter 4 which covers fractions, decimals, and other rational numbers. Don’t forget about the Math Quarterly Project due October 7th! Students should be working little by little on it. Don’t wait until the last minute!!!!

Math Olympiads- Did you know you have a MATHLETE living in your house?

Math Olympiad is an international competition where students solve math word problems in a timed competition. They are competing against other students in their grade level around the world!!!! There are individual prizes and team prizes!

“Math Olympiads have been found to:

• To stimulate enthusiasm and a love for Mathematics
• To introduce important Mathematical concepts
• To teach major strategies for problem solving
• To develop Mathematical flexibility in solving problems
• To strengthen Mathematical intuition
• To foster Mathematical creativity and ingenuity
• To provide for the satisfaction, joy, and thrill of meeting challenge”

There are five competitions (NOV., DEC., JAN., FEB., & MAR.) We will be doing practice problems every other week to prepare for our competitions. Math Olympiads are also a way to practice mathematical discussions which we do in class. I never grade Math Olympiad competitions or problems. We correct them in class and I give participation points for attempting the problems and participating in our in class discussions. These problems should not take hours. I tell them to spend 10 minutes on each problem and then move on. If you have any questions, let me know.