Yikes!  The end of the school year is coming up more quickly than I'm ready for the end of the school year!

 

First, some homeroom things: Kayaking was SO FUN! I took some fun photos from the day out on the kayaks and will send them soon. We had SO much fun!  Any library books at home need to come back to school. On Monday, the 6-9 students (as well as other grades) are taking the Algebra Aptitude test. 6-7 goes kayaking on Wednesday. Thursday there is Conjugation Madness competition in Spanish. In the afternoon, we'll have all-homeroom. At that time your student will turn in their hardcover textbooks, and take everything else home. If your student doesn't think their stuff will fit in the backpack, please send in an extra bag to carry stuff home. No one gets to toss anything here at school. On Friday, it's just homeroom time until we head over to Mass (the liturgy is prepared by combined 6-7 and 6-9), and then homeroom time again. No one needs to bring lunch or backpacks to school on Friday!  If your student is not in school Friday, the report cards will be available for pickup in the office at your convenience. Friday afternoon is one party after another with the rising 7th graders party and then the Hot Dog Bash!

 

Next, some 6th grade academic stuff: In 6th grade LA, we'll present our congratulatory and thank-you speeches, and a paper plate award. Some of the speeches are to classmates and some are to parents - all are very sweet. Our business letters are complete and I really do encourage you to help your student send them to the businesses - you never know what incentives the company may send! In Reading, we are completing a School Survival Guide writing activity online and will finish that by Wednesday. For 6-7, I have not finished the Spy School read-aloud All of their 6th grade writing will be coming home - please take a look at everything and "celebrate" their work!

 

Now, some 7th grade academic stuff: The students need to return their copy of Woods Runner to me by Wednesday. I won't have any 7th grade classes after Wednesday (sadness!) so we'll be creating a plot diagram for Woods Runner and determining the importance of setting in a historical fiction selection on Monday and Tuesday, and reading our most recent writing (which is hilarious - the prompt was "It seemed like a good idea at the time..." I'm also aiming to finish reading Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick to them but time is really running short. Yikes again!  Writing portfolios and journals will also be coming home, and again, please "celebrate" this work and encourage your student to hold onto their Reading/Writing journals for the future - our Wednesday Writes were the source of a lot of effort and growth by your writers!

 

Last, a big thank you: It has been a great year, and truly, I don't know how we did it sometimes, except that more than ever we all had to work together.  Going from so much pandemic uncertainty in August, retooling and reworking lessons, materials, and methods to teach from a cart, classroom quarantines, three trimesters of learning, establishing the NJHS chapter, setting up outdoor classrooms, getting vaccinated, staying in cohorts, wearing masks all day (and getting used to it, which is really the most bizarre thing of all!) to having a somewhat normal STM year - we did it, and I'm so proud of all of us for lifting each other up and moving forward, every day! 

 

Best wishes for a sunny, lovely Sunday!

 

Mrs. Morgan