February 5, 2010 In English, 6th graders will be taking a break from intensive writing and starting something new.  They will be spending the next six weeks becoming etymologists and lexicographers, expanding their vocabularies, improving their decoding skills, and learning all about how words are made and defined. There will be a quiz on Thursday on prefixes. The in-class and homework activities are designed to help them prepare for the quiz.  This week in Math, we had fun exploring angles and polygons.  Next week we will continue our visit to the world of geometry - area, perimeter, and volume.  In addition, we will use our parietal lobe to explore spatial visualization with tiles and cubes.  Many of the activities and games that we have used in class are accessible on moodle. Simply ask your son or daughter how to access. In Social Studies, students will complete the Colony Simulation and evaluate how their groups worked together to achieve their goals. A second diary entry about a crisis in the government of the colony will be completed for homework throughout the week.  In Science, most students have completed their Works Cited document for their PowerPoint this week and will then complete their 5 remaining PowerPoint slides in science and computer classes next week.  During the first part of the week, students will also travel to the RMS auditorium for pointers about the stage, the microphone, as well as presentational etiquette for their oral presentation.  Mid-week, students will select the day of their oral presentations (beginning Wednesday, February 24th through Tuesday, March 2nd).  At the end of the week, students will begin rehearsing their oral presentations.  The science room will be open during lunch all next week for students to work toward meeting their daily project goals.  Flash drives are very useful tools to use during this project.  Please encourage your child to bring his/hers to school.  Finally, there is a homework assignment this weekend (write a final paragraph(s) using the 4th note sheet).  This homework assignment is due on Monday, 2/8. In French next week, we will begin the week by reviewing unit two.  This includes food, drinks, money, time, the day and the date, and weather (pages 42-67 in the text book).  The unit two test will be on Thursday.  The students will also begin working on their own café skits.

Have a wonderful weekend!