Weekly Team Correspondance

Friday, August 21, 2026

Good afternoon, parents and guardians. Thank you for taking the time to read our weekly updates!

Cal-Wood Outdoor Education Center - We’re going on an overnight, outdoor education field trip in October, in Jamestown Colorado!

Cal-Wood Trip Selection Forms were sent home on Monday, and they were due today. Due to the size of the camp, we will be dividing the 6th Grade class into 2 trips. Students will attend one of the 2 trips. The dates are as follows:

Trip 1: October 5-7

Trip 2: October 7-9

***Thanks to those guardians who volunteered to chaperone the trip. We will get back to you soon.

More information and permission slip packets will be sent home in the next few weeks. If you have any questions, please contact Lisa Sumerfield at lisa.sumerfield@bvsd.org

For more information on Cal-Wood, check out the school programs at www.calwood.org or watch this video.

Back to School Night: Please join us on Tuesday, August 25th from 6:00 - 7:30 for our middle level back to school night! During this time, you’ll hear a presentation from our admin and then have the chance to meet all of us while you run through your child’s 8 period schedule. Please have access to their schedule through Infinite Campus or a physical copy of their schedule so you know where to go! We’re looking forward to meeting you and helping you learn a bit about each of our classes. Keep in mind - back to school night will provide general information about each class and is not a parent teacher conference.

PTA Information: Our PTA has asked us to share this PTA FLYER with you! Also, this flyer about joining and supporting out PTA.

Class Updates

Social Studies (Mr. Haxton): We started our first assignment which was due on Block Day this week. It was an activity with a menu of tasks that allowed me to get to know your child better. Feel free to have them show it to you (Assignment 101). We’re off to a great start so far.

Language Arts (Ms. Hand): This week in Language Arts we finished up our first assignment which was an acrostic poem that the students completed using their name. We also began to dive into thinking about nonfiction texts and how we can use evidence from the text to find the central idea. By the end of the week students completed a mini poster over a nonfiction text of their choice. Next week we will continue to work with nonfiction texts and determining central ideas.

Science (Mrs. Sumerfield): This week we completed our Classroom Tour, and started our study of Lab Safety. Ask your student about their Lab Safety Poster, and thank you for signing their Lab Safety Contracts!

Reading (Mrs. Techmanski / Ms. Aria): This week in reading class students visited the library, read a short story, set up our Reader’s Notebooks and became more familiar with our classroom routines. Next week students will take the beginning of year Commonlit assessment so we can get an idea of their reading abilities. FYI - Mrs. Techmanski will be taking maternity leave starting September 8th and Ms. Aria will be taking over for her at that time.

Math (Mrs. Allison): This week we finished setting class norms and took our beginning of the year MAP test. Next week both 6th grade math and Advanced 1 will begin looking at rational number concepts including positive and negative numbers and absolute value. Homework will begin on most days next week.

Math (Ms. Weisflog Advanced 2): This week we’ll continue getting to know each other and complete a few math tasks. We will also develop our code of collaboration! Students will need their chromebooks WED-FRI in math to complete MAP testing.

Click HERE to see what we’re doing and important due dates! (Updated every morning!)

Math 180 /Read 180): Our first few weeks have been spent talking about growth mindset, courage and classroom norms. This week we finished our MAPS assessments and have started digging into the curriculum.

Thank You!

Mark Haxton mark.haxton@bvsd.org

Lisa Sumerfield lisa.sumerfield@bvsd.org

Katie Hand katherine.hand@bvsd.org

Chelsie Techmanski chelsie.techmanski@bvsd.org

Jeri Tagawa jeri.tagawa@bvsd.org

Kirsten Allison kirsten.allison@bvsd.org

Lia Weisflog lia.weisflog@bvsd.org

Greg McDonald (6th Grade Counselor) greg.mcdonald@bvsd.org

Beth Zoppa elizabeth.zoppa@bvsd.org

Link to the 6th Grade Website

Friday, August 14, 2026

Good afternoon, parents and guardians! We’ve made it through the first few days of 6th grade! We are truly enjoying these sixth graders, and it’s been fun getting to know them. Students are figuring out their schedules, lockers, passing periods, and more. We enjoyed welcoming students to Aspen Creek on Wednesday and loved hearing students and parents participate in Profe’s welcome song! The song rings true, “Every little thing is gonna be alright!”.

Each week on Fridays, you’ll receive this email update from us. Typically, you’ll find a description of what’s happening in each of our classes, including important information about upcoming projects, due dates, and other relevant details. Some parents find it helpful to read this email with their child and ensure all three of us (student, family, and teachers) are on the same page. If you would like us to include anyone else on this email, such as grandparents, tutors, etc., please reply to this email with the information needed.

Class Pet: Mrs. Allison has a class guinea pig, Pumpkin. Before Pumpkin comes to school, we like to check to ensure there are no allergies that need to be considered. Please reach out to Mrs. Allison if you think that a class pet may not work for your child. Thank you.

Support Plans: If your student is coming from a school not in BVSD and they are on a support plan such as a 504, IEP or ALP, please let us know. Sometimes record transfers are not seamless and we want to ensure we are supporting your child.

Reading Survey: Please share your insights into your child’s reading history on the Reading Survey assignment which students should be bringing home. The more information we have about your child as a reader, the better we are able to support them!

Chromebooks: Students are going to need their chromebooks in Social Studies class on Monday. Please remind them to charge them over the weekend.

Science Lab Safety Contracts: Science students are bringing home their Lab Safety Contracts. We reviewed them in class today, but please review them with your student and sign and date them. They’re due on Tuesday, so if by chance the contract didn’t make it home, you’ll still have Monday to get them signed. Thank you!