Pajama Day!

Just a quick note that since the 6th grade Panoramic Picture is scheduled for Friday, we will have Pajama Day on Wednesday, March 2nd (not March 4th, with the rest of the school).  This way kids will not need to worry about changing clothing for the panoramic picture.  :)

Harry Potter Literature Study

We have wrapped up our literature study of Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid, an adventure story involving Egyptian gods, which the students loved.  While reading this story, I learned that many members of our class have never read my personal favorite children's books, Harry Potter.  I found this surprising, and decided to remedy the situation right away!  So, I sorted students into Hogwarts Houses, and we have begun a literature study of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  This is the first book in the series, and often serves as a "gateway" to reading for reluctant readers.  Our class is reading along to the audio book of the story, and completing a literature study packet, along with other projects relating to the story.  Hopefully, by the time we have finished, our students will become hooked on the series and read the other 6 books as well.  Students will also have a couple of Potterverse events in the next year to look forward to: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opening up at Universal Studios Hollywood on April 7th, and the Harry Potter prequel due in theaters this fall, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Congratulations to Parth!

One of our students has had quite an accomplishment, and I wanted to celebrate it with all of you!  Parth S. picked up the hobby of photography this summer, and has been diligently taking nature photographs for months.  Recently, he entered a photo contest with the National Wildlife Federation, and won!  You can view the winning photos here: National Wildlife Federation Kids.

Congratulations Parth!  Keep capturing moment in nature.  You have a good eye, and a great talent!

Make a Wish Update

I wanted to update you all on our class's contribution to this year's Make A Wish campaign.  In total, our students wrote an amazing 10,068 letters!  These letters will go a long way towards helping make the wish of a critically ill child come true!  I am very proud of our students, and I hope you are too.

Have a wonderful Winter Break everyone!

Parent-Teacher Conferences

This week I will be holding parent-teacher conferences every day after school.  Please be prompt for your scheduled time, as we only have 20 minutes to meet, and conferences are scheduled back-to-back.  If, for some reason, you are no longer able to make your scheduled conference time, please let me know as soon as possible.  I will do my best to reschedule you for some time this week; however, in some cases, we may have to reschedule for after the Thanksgiving Break.

I look forward to meeting with each of you and discussing your child's progress in 6th grade.  I also hope that you all have a restful Thanksgiving break, and enjoy time with family and friends!

Make-A-Wish

In the run-up to the holiday season, our school is once again participating in the Make-A-Wish letter writing program through Macy's (learn more here).  For every letter our students write, Macy's will donate $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which helps grant wishes for children diagnosed with life-threatening diseases.  One example of a kid helped by Make-A-Wish is Miles, who dreamed of being "Batman."  The foundation, along with the city of San Francisco, helped make his wish come true!

I am pleased to say that our class has jumped into the spirit of things, and in the past 2 weeks, have written over 1600 letters!  That is $1600 towards making the wish of a kid like Miles come true!  I'm so proud of our 6th graders, and look forward to seeing how many letter they write before the December 9th deadline.  

New Work up in the Gallery!

Our students have been working hard this month, so I decided to give them a couple of "Art Breaks."

Our first project was a Prehistoric Cave Painting to finish out our Early Humans unit in Social Studies, and to compliment our literature unit on Boy of the Painted Cave.  I was very pleased with how these turned out!  Extra points if you can find one student's prehistoric "shout out" to Star Trek.  :)

The art project we did this week was just a fun project for Fall.  We drew owls and colored them in crayon.  Then we painted over them with a black watercolor wash.  The paint bubbled away from the crayon, creating the effect of an owl at night.  I love how each child's owl is unique and how many of the students got creative with backgrounds.  I believe these paintings will decorate our room nicely throughout the Fall!