Excellent Year

I'd like to thank all of the students and parents for an excellent year! Students, you have made great improvement over the last 9 months, and for that you should be proud. Keep up your positive attitudes, work ethics, and determination, and I know you will have just as much success in 7th grade! Enjoy safe summers and I will see you in August!

Movie

Bridge to Terabithia
On the Thursday, June 4, the 6th grade team will be showing the 2007 Walt Disney movie, Bridge to Terabithia. Below you will find a brief overview of the movie and a link to the Disney website where information about the movie is provided. If you do not want your child to participate in this activity, please contact any member of the 6th grade team.

Movie Overview:Animation master Gabor Csupo directs his first live-action film in this adaptation of the novel The Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson, whose son David co-wrote the screenplay and serves as a producer. Jess (Josh Hutcherson) is misunderstood. Despite Jess' talents as an artist, the school bullies pick on him, his father (Robert Patrick) belittles his dreams, and his four sisters invade his space in the family's cramped house. Jess' bleak world changes when Leslie (Annasophia Robb) moves into the house next door. Bright, creative and outspoken, Leslie also finds herself an outsider in their school. Soon the two are thick as thieves, spending their after school hours exploring the woods beyond their backyards and on the others side of a creek, which Leslie deems the kingdom of Terabithia. Here, they create their own magical world, complete with a Dark Master and his minions, dragonfly soldiers, giant trolls and a tree house fortress. In Terabithia, the two friends let their imaginations run wild and control their destiny, far away from school bullies and the pressures of adolescence.
http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/liveaction/bridgetoterabithia/

Current Events Project Double Check

There is a a little over a week before the Current Events News Broadcasts are due! Students signed up to present on either May 18 or May 19. As the students have been reminded all week--if they have not started recording their presentation, it is probably better to do the presentation live in class! The students are aware that they can earn just as many points doing the presentation live as recording the news broadcast. It has been recommended that if they are choosing to record the presentation, they bring the FINAL PROJECT in ahead of time to DOUBLE CHECK that whatever media they have recorded with works with the classroom equipment. Acceptable forms of media (as stated in the directions) include flashdrives (to be checked for viruses first) and DVDs. As always, I'm greatly looking forward to seeing the final products as the students have been excited to share with me the details of their projects! Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Europe Map Quizzes

To connect with the areas we are currently studying, the students will be quizzed on the locations of various European countries. Our first quiz covered 9 European countries. Over 4/5 of the sixth grade earned 100% on their quiz! Way to go! Those mnemonic devices really helped! Keep using the memory tricks to help you for your next Map Quiz, which will be Weds., May 13.

Thank You, Miss Lambert

Our student teacher, Miss Lambert, had her last day in our classroom yesterday. As indicated by the many nice cards and notes, we will surely miss Miss Lambert.

Current Events Project Check In

The students have been working on the News Broadcast (Current Events Project) for about 2.5 weeks. On Friday, May 1 I will be checking in with each group to see how things are coming along. This will provide a halfway point check for me to see where they may need assistance, but also for the students to check their goals to make sure they are on track with where they need to be. The projects are due on May 18 and May 19. They will have all of class on Friday to work on the project, as well as access to the computers for anything they need to research or type. **The school is not allowing students to ride home on bus routes other than their own. Please do not depend on school transportation to accomodate students meeting at others' houses.

Back to Basics

This week we have moved back to our Prentice Hall World Explorer text book. We are studying the geography of Europe and Russia before moving into the history and culture of Europe and Russia. The students will have one more quiz with Miss Lambert on Tuesday, April 26 before she finishes her student teaching experience on April 30.

Current Events Project

After working with current events all school year, the students were assigned a current events project yesterday. The students will be using their summarizing skills to put on a news broadcast May 18 and 19! Although the students have 5 weeks to work on this out-of-school project, it will not take 5 weeks to complete. They have such an excess of time in order to find time to meet with the peers they selected to work with. They were given a class period to work today, and will have a follow up in-class meeting in a few weeks. It is expected that the remainder of the project will be completed outside of school. The students have received a rubric as well as seen a few examples of newscasts from years past. I look forward to this project each year, as the students always amaze me with their creativity and final presentations!

Quiz

As we are wrapping up our unit on the Renaissance, Miss Lambert is preparing the students for the quiz on Tuesday. They are receiving their study guide tonight, and we will be playing the review game on Monday. Remember, in order to play the review game, the study guide must be complete.

Science Prep

Science prep on the social studies blog? Yes, that's right! The 6th Grade Project Challenge has been hard at work creating educational songs sung to the tune of popular songs; they've named their musical group the Eduk8ers! The song they prepared for the science test this Friday (Energy & Light) is sung to the tune of "Let it Rock" by Kevin Rudolph. You can find the lyrics posted below as well as from their constantly changing website: http://eduk8ers.webs.com/. The Eduk8ers are working to create a fully functioning fun website to help their peers study for various subjects and topics. Look in the next few days for some of their music videos!

(Feat. Roy G. Biv)
I see the light
Shine bright
Releasin' all those photons
When they change
Orbit
Of the atom's center
Energy varies
'Cuz the 'lectromagnetic spectrum is alive, is alive, is alive!

And it takes no time
For the light to shine
Three hundred thousand km per sec
And that's fast

(Chorus)
Because when light
Reflects
Off of a smooth surface
It will not diffuse
It will bounce right back
What are they...really?
Particles or waves now
Let it shine, Let it shine, Let it shine

Now there's a big shadow
Blockin' all the light from
Gettin' through to there
That's why there's no color
And you can-not see
'Cuz the ret'nas in your eyeballs
Need the light, Need the light, Need the light

And the umbra is dark
More than the penumbra
Well I guess the light's
Just absent

(Chorus)
Because when light
Reflects
Off of a smooth surface
It will not diffuse
It will bounce right back
What are they...really?
Particles or waves now
Let it shine,Let it shine,Let it shine

(Rap) Yeah!
Science World
101
Mistah' U.
Let's Listen dude
UV rays
Give you cancer
But infrared
Just a warmth enhancer!
ROCK! The vis'ble spectrum
LIGHT! It luminates 'em
EYES! They let you see
The sun's a source
With lighting force
Light's here like Dude, what up
Then there like hey, 'whassup?
I can turn it on
I can turn it off
Teacher, its just a switch, just flick it up.
Light is faster than the speed of sound.
Reachin' retnas all 'round tis town
Hittin' yo' eyes on the rebound...
Roy G.

(Chorus)Because when light
Reflects
Off of a smooth surface
It will not diffuse
It will bounce right back
What are they...really?
Particles or waves now
Let it shineLet it shineLet it shine
(Repeat Chorus)
Let it shine.......Let it shine........

I'm back like I forgot some'in, which one
Gamma rays or Microwaves
The pigment colors inclu-ude
Cyan, magenta, and yellow
Primary colors are these three
Red, blue, and g-re-en

I wish I could be
As fast as light
And I wish I could see
In the dark
But I can't 'cuz my eyes need the light
And it'd be black n' white