Newsletters

November/December Newsletter

I hope you find this newsletter informative and helpful. Always feel free to reach out to me at jbigonia@aos93.org, through Rooms, or at 644-8177. 

5th Grade Homeroom

When students arrive at school, they pass in homework and unpack for the day. They then either go to breakfast or stay in the classroom for a brainteaser puzzle and to connect with classmates. At 8:10 AM, the whole school gathers to do the Pledge of Allegiance in the center. Our 1st academic class, ELA, starts after the pledge. 

We regularly participate in read aloud in the 5th grade classroom. Our second read aloud of the year is The Young Man and the Sea by Rodman Philbrick. This story is a take on the classic, The Old Man and the Sea, and could very well take place in South Bristol. It follows a very determined 12 year old boy who spends his summer vacation lobstering and tuna fishing to make money for his family and to repair his father's lobster boat. The book is very much about character and fighting through tough times with your heart and your mind. We will also be reading short stories from Paul Jennings periodically throughout the school year. 

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the 5th graders will have homeroom time with me for 20 minutes or so. During these times the 5th grade students will develop executive functioning skills, do some read aloud, check grades on Powerschool, play community building games, and partake in other activities.  

5th Social Studies

We began the year with a study of Earth's geography: continents, oceans, major rivers, major mountain ranges, and latitude and longitude. This continues even as we dive into history and prehistory. We'll fairly briefly explore ancient civilizations before studying Native Americans. The students will each be making a world map that depicts the major civilizations of the world in 500 BCE, 1 CE, 500 CE, 1000 CE, 1500 CE, and 2025 CE (one time period map per student). 

Our 2nd unit of the year will be Native Americans, with a special emphasis on our local Wabanaki. Students will research and present their findings about Native Americans from different parts of the current US. They'll look into their culture, customs, government, ways of getting food, and their types of of shelter. We will compare these regions to one another and then work together as a class to learn as much about the local Wabanaki culture as we can. 

Most Tuesdays, I am sending students home with a copy of Scholastic News to read and a single sheet to fill out that reviews the reading. These assignments are due on Wednesdays. This is part of our current events study and I hope this builds good study habits and organization. 

I am using PowerSchool to keep track of work completion and assessment scores in social studies. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work: being a responsible, respectful, and engaged learner.  You can login to Powerschool by going to https://aos93.powerschool.com/public/. You login using the username and password in your child's planner. 

See the 'Syllabi' tab for the syllabus for this class. 

5th Science

We are beginning the year with a study of space. The students have studied Earth's seasons, a planet in our solar system, and day/night and changes in shadows during a day and throughout a year. We are about to study stars, constellations, and galaxies. We also kept a moon journal for one month, learning about the phases of the moon and we'll be making a scale model of the solar system in front of the school. If all goes according to plan, we'll have a star gazing evening at Wawenock Golf Club in early December. 

I am using PowerSchool to keep track of work completion and assessment scores in science. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work: being a responsible, respectful, and engaged learner.  You can login to Powerschool by going to https://aos93.powerschool.com/public/. You login using the username and password in your child's planner. 

See the 'Syllabi' tab for the syllabus for this class.  

6th/7th Science

A reminder: we are doing the 6th grade curriculum this year because we did 7th grade last year and this year's 6th graders will get the 7th grade curriculum next year. 

Our first unit of the year was Matter. Students learned the states of matter and properties of different substances (density, mass, volume, boiling point, etc.) in those different states. We spent a bit of time on the behavior of water. The students learned to discern the difference between atoms, elements, mixtures, compounds, and molecules. The students modeled some common molecules. We studied the periodic table of elements. We also studied chemical and physical changes. 

Our next science unit is History of Earth. We'll learn about Pangea and plate tectonics, geologic time, carbon dating, and how the surface of the Earth is changed. This is a pretty brief unit and will likely take us until the winter break. 

The 6/7 class is also continuing last year's work on our buoys/lobstermen of South Bristol project. We have finished about 74 buoys so far. We have more research to do to make sure we have the buoys of all current lobstermen and to get a brief biography of each that will be kept at the South Bristol Historical Society in perpetuity. Later in the year, we'll make our first display for these buoys and hopefully unveil it to the public. 

I am using PowerSchool to keep track of work completion and assessment scores in science. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work: being a responsible, respectful, and engaged learner. I will also be reporting traditional grades for 6th and 7th grade. The goal is to familiarize students with how they’ll be scored in high school. 60% of a student's grade will be determined by their test/quiz scores on summative assessments and 40% will be determined by classwork and lab scores. All assignments and assessments in middle school can be retaken for a higher score.You can login to Powerschool by going to https://aos93.powerschool.com/public/. You login using your child's gmail account. He/she can show you how to do this and how to navigate around the site.

​See the 'Syllabi' tab for the syllabus for this class. 

8th Science

The 8th graders are currently finishing up their self-selected experiments and presenting their findings to their classmates. This wraps up the Scientific Process unit. 

Concurrently, we've been studying space. So far, we've studied a little bit about Earth, Earth's seasons, telescopes, and several stars in the Milky Way. Each student was assessed about how seasons happen on Earth. They each created a poster to display their knowledge of a star they chose. We'll also be learning about asteroids, meteors, comets, and other galaxies. We'll review the phases of the moon, as well. Finally, the kids will do an activity to help grasp the enormity of the universe. 

​I am using PowerSchool to keep track of work completion and assessment scores in science. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work: being a responsible, respectful, and engaged learner. I will also be reporting traditional grades for 8th grade. The goal is to familiarize students with how they’ll be scored in high school. 60% of a student's grade will be determined by their test/quiz scores on summative assessments and 40% will be determined by classwork and lab scores. All assignments and assessments in middle school can be retaken for a higher score. You can login to Powerschool by going to https://aos93.powerschool.com/public/. You login using your child's gmail account. He/she can show you how to do this and how to navigate around the site.  ​

See the 'Syllabi' tab for the syllabus for this class.