Newsletters

September/October Newsletter

Welcome to our new 2025-6 school year! 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, ELA starts after the pledge. 

We regularly participate in read aloud in the 5th grade classroom. Our first read aloud of the year is How Angel Peterson Got His Name by Gary Paulsen. This book is an autobiographical recollection of Gary Paulsen's childhood in Minnesota after WWII. It is hilarious, engaging, and gives a glimpse of life before cell phones, computers, and even TVs in rural America. 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, etc. 

5th Social Studies

We are beginning the year with a study of Earth's geography. First will be Earth's oceans and continents. We'll move on to identifying major mountain ranges and rivers. Then we'll learn all about longitude and latitude, along with the major dividing lines of our globe. The students will make a world map with the above features labeled. Each student will also make a 2nd world map that depicts the major civilizations of the world in 500 BCE, 1 CE, 500 CE, 1000 CE, 1500 CE, and 2023 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. 

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 will be studying earth's seasons, a planet in our solar system, day/night and changes in shadows during a day and throughout a year, stars, constellations, and galaxies. We'll also be keeping a moon journal for one month, learning about the phases of the moon and 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 November or 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

The 6/7 class will be learning the 6th grade curriculum for science this year because we did the 7th grade curriculum last year and will again do it next year. 

Our first unit of the year is Matter. Students will learn the states of matter and properties of different substances (density, mass, volume, boiling point, etc.) in those different states. We'll spend a bit of time on the behavior of water. The students will learn to discern the difference between atoms, elements, mixtures, compounds, and molecules. The students will be modeling some common molecules. We'll be studying the periodic table of elements. We'll also be studying chemical and physical changes. 

The 6/7 class will also be continuing last year's work on our buoys/lobstermen of South Bristol project. We have finished about 66 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 will start the year learning about the scientific process. Then they'll apply that process to their own science experiment. I would like to have 8 unique experiments that reflect student interests and curiosities. This can be as fun and interesting as students make it. I love seeing what they come up with! Students will present their findings orally with a slideshow and in a written, formal lab report. 

Before we embark on our own investigations, we'll talk a lot about variables in an experiment and how scientists make their investigations reliable, accurate, and useful. 

Our 2nd unit of the year will space. 

The 8th graders will also be developing a cross curricular project they'll work on in Math, SS, Science, and ELA. This will be a great chance for the kids to do a lot of hands on work and learn in a non traditional way. More to come on this project!

​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.