An End to Another Great Week!

Although we had a good bit of rainy weather this week, it all cleared up today! The weather report for the weekend is great, so make sure you enjoy the outdoors! The Houston Pumpkin Festival is this weekend!

Our team enjoyed discussions using our roles for McD's Cafe today. We tried to apply our roles as they were modeled in class yesterday. Everything went well, and we're anxious to continue our reading of the story to find out what happens to our main character Bud. Many of us think that he won't be going back to the Home, instead continuing a search for his father. We're sure it will be a wonderful adventure, and we hope it ends happily.

In Math, we continued to practice the Distributive Property. This property is helping us to sharpen our mental math skills.

We continued to "Rock On" in Science! Our team brought in rocks from home and Mrs. Haddox helped us to discover the types of rocks they were. We learned about igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. We'll have a lab on Monday exploring metamorphic rocks.

Homework:
Language Arts - Quizzes on Monday. Please study your vocabulary, spelling words, and review the story 'April's Mud.' Read pages 45-95 (Ch. 6-10) in Bud, Not Buddy, complete your new role, and be ready for discussion next Friday.
Science - Read page D79 and do questions 1-5.

McD's Cafe Welcomes a Special Guest!

Get a Voki now!




Get a Voki now!


Our team welcomed Mrs. Dziak back to N.S.I. for McD's Cafe! She puts the D into McD's! Mrs. Dziak talked with the team about the importance of reading. She helped the students understand that there isn't a job in life where reading is not important. Reading is a part of all life! She discussed many examples! She also shared how she became a reader, what she reads everyday, and how reading has helped her in her work. Finally, she encouraged the team to find what they like to read. She explained that some reading is assigned, but there are times when they can choose. Mrs. Dziak's message was to have fun with reading.

After drinks were served, Mrs. Dziak shared Chapter 3 of Bud, Not Buddy. Camden gave a great summary of the first two chapters before she began. Our team is enjoying this story, along with all the other 6th grade teams. We can hardly wait to find out what happens to Bud as he continues his search for his father.

In Math class today, Mrs. Haddox reviewed the Distributive Property. We took notes and practiced applying the property in problems.

Homework:
Language Arts - Quizzes for 'April's Mud' will be on Monday. Study spelling and vocabulary. Read Chapters 1-5 (p. 1-44) and prepare your role for McD's - part 2 tomorrow.
Math - Revisit R1-10 and then P10.

N.S.I. - A Part of Consol Energy Center Mosaic!

http://www.mariomosaic.com/mosaic/

Type bluemling@gmail.com into the locate box.

Please check out the link above to see the special piece of N.S.I. that is a part of the Consol Energy Center as a result of our generous donations to the Mario Lemieux Foundation during last year's Beard-a-Thon. Mr. Bluemling forwarded this link to us today, and we were so excited to view it. Follow the directions beneath the link to see our tile! Thanks to Mr. Bluemling for sharing!



Today, our North Strabane firefighters visited with valuable information to keep us safe! They shared information about fire safety, showed us their protective uniforms, and let us view a video of how quickly a fire can start and get out of hand. We are so thankful for them! We're lucky that they care about us and protect us.

In Language Arts, we practiced the skill of cause and effect as it applies to our story April's Mud. The story was reviewed thoroughly in class. Quizzes will be on Monday. Some time was also devoted to reading Bud, Not Buddy, as well as role preparation for this week's McD's Cafe. We will have a guest tomorrow who will take part in the modeling of a discussion for the first portion of our novel. This is a very special guest, and we are looking forward to her visit.

Learning Station time went very smoothly this afternoon! Our team practiced many skills, from Mathematical Properties to identifying Cause and Effect. We'll attend our last two stations tomorrow!

Homework:
Language Arts - Quizzes on Monday! Also, read the first 5 chapters (p. 1-44) in Bud, Not Buddy and prepare role. This is due on Friday.
Math - R1-10 and R1-11 in practice book.

It Happened to Me!

"HEY, IS THAT MRS. MAC COLORING ON THE WALL?"

Today, Team Enterprise was introduced to a new writing assignment that will help us focus more on the "Ideas" trait of writing. Many things happen to us in life! Some we forget, and some we can't help but remember. The events that really stick with us are those that evoke strong emotion. Mrs. McIlvaine modeled the assignment by telling a story about an adventure she and her brother Doug shared when they were very young. The story helped everyone in class understand a little more about how Mrs. McIlvaine ended up as a teacher. After everyone heard the story, Mrs. McIlvaine wrote the main points of her story as told in chronological order. After reading the points, we decided that although this told the story, it wasn't nearly as interesting as the original story told verbally. The great details were missing! These details were what made us sit on the edges of our seats! The story wasn't nearly as exciting without them! Mrs McIlvaine pointed out that we need these details in our stories. Tomorrow, we will tell the stories that have happened to us! We will write our main points in chronological order, and then prepare to tell our stories in writing WITH DETAIL! If we can remember it, and we can tell it, we can write it!

Today, we enjoyed a little of Bud, Not Buddy in Language Arts class. We listened to the first chapter and discussed Bud's life as a foster child. The story, told from Bud's point of view, is very touching. We are enjoying Bud's Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself. So far, his life has not been easy.

We also enjoyed some time to read April's Mud. We are looking forward to discussion tomorrow. Be ready with your answers to the Comprehension Check questions.

In Science, we were ROCKING OUT! We discovered the properties of Igneous Rocks! Using our resource book, we completed a lab observing 7 different kinds of rocks.

Properties of addition and multiplication were the basis for our mini-white board game in Math. We used our fast skills to complete problems and identify properties. We enjoyed the fast-paced competition!

Homework:
Language Arts - Quizzes on Monday (spelling, comprehension). Read chapters 1-5 (p. 1-44) in Bud, Not Buddy and complete role.
Math - p. 29, 1-18. Make sure you identify the properties.
Science - Lab Observation Sheet

The New Novel is Here! Yay!

Team Enterprise, along with all other sixth grade classes, received their new novel today called Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. We are very excited to begin this story! After having practiced our McD's Cafe roles on a short story, we were ready to receive the first for this novel. The students couldn't wait to open their books!

In addition to our new novels, we learned about some new words that will be a part of April's Mud, a short story we'll be reading tomorrow. This story is about a girl named April who lives in a converted school bus while her family builds a home out of adobe - dried mud. She sometimes feels embarrassed about her family's lifestyle. Tomorrow, when we read, we'll see how April's feelings change. As we read, we'll be looking for cause/effect relationships in the story.

In Social Studies, our team was out to prove what they knew about maps! We took our Chapter 1 test today, and if you had walked into our room, you would have smelled the wood burning!


In Math today, the students collaborated in groups to match examples of the different Properties of Addition and Multiplication. The groups creatively came up with ways to distinguish the different properties.

Rock on! The Science classes were introduced to the three types of rocks. Our first lab will surround information about the igneous rocks. Mrs. Haddox encouraged the students to bring in rock samples...and even their pet rocks...for display in the back of the room. Maybe it is a start of a Rock Museum?

Homework:
Language Arts - Practice book p. 22 (vocabulary review). Also, read Chapters 1-5 (pages 1-44) in Bud, Not Buddy. Prepare your assigned role for Friday.
Math - Write examples for the 7 properties of Addition and Multiplication. Be careful to set up your paper as described in class.
Spelling - Study your assigned words.
Science - (Room 202) Read and complete vocabulary on rocks.

Very Interesting!

As I was viewing the news on the internet today, this video caught my eye. I thought you might find it interesting too! Does it relate to any of the Themes of Geography? Which one, and why?