Newsletters

March/April Newsletter

It's hard to believe, but our awesome, cold, snowy winter is beginning to wrap up along with the 2nd trimester. 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 Ms. 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 14 in the book and we're at the end of Unit 3. The kids are working hard and learning a lot. Students can expect some homework each night that we have math. 

Current Unit:

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

Skills:

- Understand ratio concepts

- Find Equivalent Ratios

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

Next Unit:

- Unit 4: Ratio Reasoning: Unit Rates and Percents (Lessons 15-18)

Skills:

- Understanding Rate Concepts

- Use Unit Rates to Solve Problems

- Understanding Percents

- Use Percents to Solve Problems

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 just finished our European exploration unit in social studies. The students each researched a major explorer and the reasons for their journeys. They also focussed on the contributions each explorer made to European knowledge. 

Colonial America is our current unit. We are primarily using the Discovery simulation from Interact. The students start by taking a General Attitude Survey to ascertain what they think the biggest challenges were for colonists. At the end of the simulation, the kids take the same survey to see what changed in their opinions. Each student will be their own colony, choose a reason for coming to the "New World", outfit 3 ships with supplies and colonists and settle the east coast of present day United States. They will trade with and perhaps do battle with neighboring colonies and with Native Americans. Each round of the simulation (about 1 year), students will choose how many people they want to farm, fish, hunt, or do battle/defend the colony.  Students draw cards each round to determine their fate- weather, hunting, farming, fishing, and General Welfare. The realities can be harsh and students learn how hard it could be to be a colonist. Many events that really happened in the 1600s come up in the simulation. During this unit, we also talk about the fate of Native Americans, identify the 13 original English colonies, and learn about the era outside the simulation. Students have a blast with this simulation and learn a lot. 

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! We also watch CNN10, a 10 minute daily news show (we watch it once a week) to keep up with current news. 

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

5th Science

We just finished up our space unit by making a model of the solar system outside the school. The students first learned about scale, then used that knowledge to fit the whole solar system between the front entrance and Salty's. Check it out when you come to school!

Our current 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 recently finished our evolution unit. The students were immersed in Charles Darwin's theory and saw how species have evolved over time. Students did a lot of data analysis and reasoning in this unit. We learned about adaptations, biomes, variation, natural and artificial selection, geologic time, and the relatively recent evolution of humans. The unit culminated 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

 They are currently studying force and motion, including identifying Newton's laws of motion in our world. We are exploring the relationship between distance and mass in gravitional pull. We did 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.