Guest speakers - St. Peters City Planners

6th graders look forward to a visit this Wednesday from two of our local city planners.  As a culmination of our study of urban sprawl, our guests from St. Peters will introduce us to their jobs and how development is planned in our local area.  In our Social Studies unit, 6th graders have taken on the identities of Environmentalists, Housing Developers, Smart Growth Advocates, Citizens for Affordable Housing, and Planning Commissioners to argue the issues surrounding population growth in cities.  To prepare for our guests, we will do a webquest exploring the job of a city planner and exploring the St. Peters City website.

Novel Unit

What if our nation struggled with providing food, jobs, shelter, for a booming population?  What if the government said families would be limited to 2 children?  Would you exist?  

Students began a novel unit Friday that has them eagerly turning pages.  Among the Hidden by Margaret Petersen Haddix tells the story of Luke, a third child being hidden by his family when the government buys their woods to put up housing.  (Also relating to our study of urban sprawl in Social Studies)  As we study the novel, we are exploring the literary elements we learned in our short stories unit on a larger scale, as a novel allows for greater depth and character development.  Expect some interesting conversations around the dinner table about how God has blessed us with freedoms in our nation.  

By the way - this novel is the first in a series of seven.  Encourage your child to pick up the next one.  Even reluctant readers can enjoy it!  I have 2 copies of the Shadow Children series in my classroom and they are available through Scholastic. 

 

Advent Thank You/Worship Opportunities

Thank you again for all of your support of our Advent service last week.  We really appreciated being able to lead worship in song and drama.  Please make worship part of your plans this holiday season.  You may check the church website for Zion's special service times.