Newsletters

January/February Newsletter

Happy New Year to you all! 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 8:05, the whole school gathers to do the Pledge of Allegiance in the center. Our 1st academic class starts after the pledge. 

Our current read aloud is Rain, Reign by Ann M. Martin. This is a book about a girl and her beloved dog navigating life and a big storm. It is a book that gives a look into the life of a girl 'on the spectrum' and how she sees and copes with life. This book pairs very well with Rules, the book the students read in ELA with Mrs. Wright.  We get to explore many homophones as we read. 

We have advisor time from 11:10-11:30 AM each day. During these times the 5th grade students are developing executive functioning skills, doing some read aloud, checking grades on Powerschool, playing community building games, checking in with one another, and, on Wednesdays, meeting with Lily, our Kieve educator in residence.

6th Grade Math

We just finished lesson 10 in the book and we're approaching the end of unit 2. The kids are working hard and learning a lot. Students can expect some homework each night that we have math. 

Current Unit:

- Unit 2: Decimals and Fractions (Lessons 7-11)

Skills:

- Add, subtract, and multiply multi-digit decimals

- Divide whole numbers and multi-digit decimals

- Understand division with fractions

- Divide fractions

- Solve volume problems with fractions

Next Unit:

- Unit 3: Ratio Reasoning (Lessons 12-14)

Skills:

- Understand ratio concepts

- Find Equivalent Ratios

- Use Part-to-Part and Part-to-Whole Ratios

We also do math games and/or challenges once every two to three weeks. 

Students have 45 minutes (2 successful lessons) of self paced independent learning to do on the iReady Classroom website each week. This 45 minutes needs to be completed between Monday at 8AM one week to 8AM on Monday morning the next week. This helps students review concepts and allows them to try math topics we'll cover in the future. 

I am using PowerSchool to keep track of work completion in math and to keep track of assessment scores. My goal for each student is to score a 3 or better on each mathematics standard. This score indicates mastery of the standard. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work (engaged learner, responsible learner, and respectful 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 school binder. Please reach out if you need login information!

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

5th Social Studies

We are just wrapping up our unit on Native Americans. We first looked at regions of the current US and then narrowed down to the Wabanaki of our area. Native Americans will continue to be talked about through our next units of European exploration and colonial America.   

Our next unit is European explorers to the Americas. We'll talk about explorers as a group and what contributions they made to the world. Each student will choose an explorer and write a research paper about him. 

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. This has been building good study habits and organization. I am very impressed with the students!

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

5th Science

We are coming close to the end of our study of space. We are talking about moon phases and seasons. We'll soon have our assessment. Then we'll do a scale of the solar system activity where students learn about scale and then we'll make a scale model of the solar system out front of the school. 

Our next unit is Earth systems. In this unit, the students will learn about rocks and the rock cycle, and determine the relative hardness of rocks and minerals. We'll study the water cycle. We'll talk briefly about the states of matter. The students will make a series of graphs that show water distribution on Earth. 

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.  You can login to Powerschool by going to https://aos93la.powerschool.com/public/. You login using the username and password in your child's school binder. Please reach out if you need login information!

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

6th/7th Science

We have recently begun our evolution unit. The students are being immersed in Charles Darwin's theory and seeing how species have evolved over time. Students will do a lot of data analysis and reasoning in this unit. We'll learn about adaptations, biomes, variation, natural and artificial selection, geologic time, and recent evolution of humans. The unit culminates with a project where students move a creature to a new biome and, in a news article, describe what adaptations the creature had to make to survive in its new biome. This project can be very creative. 

The 6/7 class will also be continuing last year's work on our buoys/lobstermen of South Bristol project. We have finished about 50 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 the 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. I will also be reporting traditional grades for 7th and 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 classroom.powerschool.com. You login using the username and password in your child's school binder. Please reach out if you need login information!

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

8th Science

 The are currently studying force and motion including identifying Newton's laws of motion in our world. We'll explore the relationship between distance and mass in gravitional pull. We'll do two experiments through online gizmos and two experiments with classroom/lab materials. The culminating project will be designing and building/printing a CO2 car to race against classmates.  

Honors science students continue to go above and beyond by doing an extra assignment every two weeks. I've told the students that a regular assignment (a topic of their choosing) should take somewhere around an hour to complete. The end-of-trimesters 1 and 3 projects should be more on the order of 3 hours work. The trimester 2 project, our big one for the year, I would expect to be around 6 hours of work or more. 

The honors students have been exploring and doing a great job with their work. 

​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. 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 classroom.powerschool.com. You login using the username and password in your child's school binder. Please reach out if you need login information!  ​

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