March 6-9, 2023

Dear STM families in Rm. 9, Reading/LA for 6th grade, and 7th grade C.S. Lewis parents:
 
Short but great week ahead!  Calendar-wise, three important things this week: first, we have class photos on Tuesday, which is our PE day, so do NOT have your 6th grader wear his/her PE uniform. Wear the regular school uniform and pay special attention to wearing the correct solid-color black shoe or boat shoe. If your student wants to bring sneakers to change into for PE, that would be fine!  Second, on Wednesday we have a visiting author, Erika Lewis. coming to do a book talk for her new book Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts. She will also be signing books for the students. I plan to order a book for our classroom collection and am attaching an order form as well as sending home order forms!  We are looking forward to the visiting author!  Third and last, be sure to remember there is no school for students on Friday. (School for teachers, no school for students!)
 
 
Report cards, etc:: The 2nd trimester ends this week, so be sure to monitor/sign the last spot on the green sheet on Wednesday and return it on Thursday. Once PowerSchool closes and we begin working on report cards, your student's grade shouldn't significantly change. For LA, there are Verb tests, Verb extra credit, and a few small catch-up items from some of the books that we read. Report cards go home on Friday, March 17th. 
 
STM Auction: I was pretty ambitious and put four things in the auction, so I hope you bid on them: two birthday parties at the pool, a trip to Air and Space in Rm. 9's screen-free activities basket (for students in tis year's 6th grade only) and an adults-only pool 5-7 happy hour co-hosted with Langley-Ann's mom, Aimee Dalton. 
 
Academic News: 
In C. S. Lewis Reading, we have been creating our biographies and once everyone committed to the project, it took off and the results are amazing. Students may have a few weeks to get their cover photo emailed to me and over the spring vacation I'll make their book covers. Next week we will fully immerse ourselves in Ben Mikelson's Touching Spirit Bear and finish the book by the end of March. When we return to school, we will read Gordon Korman's No More Dead Dogs, have a two-week poetry unit, and then read Laurie Halse Anderson's Fever 1793. 
 
In Kestrels, we have finished our book talks (SO GOOD!) and I am providing time in class to work on the writing portion of the Author Study Research project. The five-paragraph essay is for the Reading/Language Arts curriculum requirement for research and essay writing, so we will continue to finish these this week in class. On the 13th, we will begin Jacqueline Woodson's Harbor Me. When we return to school in April we will also be working on a two-week poetry unit, and looking ahead to the third trimester, a few books around the Social Studies curriculum related to Greek mythology (D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths and others) and Medieval (Book of Boy, The Inquisitors Tale, Catherine Called Birdy, Alchemy and Meggy Swann, Crispin, Good Masters, Sweet Ladies.). 
 
6th grade LA: We finished Verbs (finally!) although they'll be back next year, and are working this week on our Persuasive Writing unit, Analyzing Propaganda. The students are viewing different types of advertising, and are developing two advertising campaigns: one is everyone developing a campaign for the Big Toast Company and the other is self-selected. 
 
In Religion, we will be checking the Chapter 15 study guide in class on Tuesday and taking the Chapter 15 quiz on Wednesday. There will be a Unit 2 take-home, open-book test due on Monday. Here is a link to a Chapter 15 review game  that might be helpful.https://isr.loyolapress.com/col_g6_s15
Additionally, so many great resources such as interactive chapter reviews and Stump the Shepherd games can be found here for Christ Our Life: https://www.loyolapress.com/faith-formation/christ-our-life/christ-our-life-2016/parents-and-students/grades-1-8/grades/grade-6/
 
 
Have a great week!
 
Mrs. Morgan