Weekly News 3-30-12

Holy Week

Beautiful weather is upon us! It is exciting to begin to see signs of new life:  green shoots poking through the brown earth, budding trees, flowers blooming, robins singing.  Spring is the perfect time to reflect on how we, too, have been made a new creation.

Next week is the time set aside by the Christian church to remember the last days of Jesus' life, as well as the pain and death he suffered taking our place to receive the punishment of our sins. In our study of the book of Matthew we are focusing on the events of Passion Week.  Throughout our study, we have been watching the word-for-word enactment of The Gospel of Matthew presented by The Visual Bible.  For some students, seeing the man who has been teaching and preaching, with loving compassion and tenderness, to now be sacrificed on the cross for our sins can be quite emotional. 

I encourage you take time with your family  to reflect on Jesus' life and death, both in worship and in reading the Passion account from one of the gospels.  Why would anyone take such pain upon himself?  It is amazing to think that we could be loved so much!  It's truly beyond our understanding.  And what does this mean for us?  Romans 6:4 talks about how we have been buried with Christ - our sins have been taken to the grave - so that "just as Christ was raised from the death through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."  Celebrate this new life!!

I encourage you to worship with your children on these special days ahead.  We will celebrate the fulfillment of the prophecies as Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Then we’ll join the disciples in the upper room on Maundy Thursday to see the remarkable transformation of the Passover into Holy Communion - Jesus himself became our saving Lamb of sacrifice.  Honor the Good Friday on which Christ died for our sins and the temple veil was torn in two - the separation that sin had caused between us and our Lord is no more.  And finally the glorious day of resurrection, EASTER, when we celebrate our victory in Christ over sin, death, and the devil. There is nothing we could ever do to deserve this love. What a wonderful opportunity we have before us to learn and to grow in our faith -  to praise and thank God for this glorious gift!!

To see a clip from The Gospel of Matthew click this link.  Palm Sunday begins at about 5 min 30 sec.

Weekly News 3-23-12

Research Reminder

We are in the drafting phase of our English research papers.  Students - if your version of Word is not compatible with ours at school, remember to always upload a copy to Google Docs.  You will have several class periods this week to be writing your paper and you need to have something to work on at that time.  Conferences will take place during the school day, but you may also make arrangements to meet with me before or after school. 



Follow in the Footsteps of Jesus

In Religion, we have been following Jesus and seeing his miracles as he turned the words from the Sermon on the Mount into actions of love and compassion.  We had an opportunity today to act out some of the parables we have learned, too.  In our Bible study, a group of people have emerged with grave doubts as to Jesus divinity, the Pharisees.  We now jump ahead in Matthew to Holy Week where the challenge will come to head - are you the Son of God?  The answer puts Jesus on the cross, but not because the Pharisees place him there - because he chose to take our place! 

Consider worship at Zion at the special services during Holy Week and Easter.  It begins with Palm Sunday on April 1.  Check out the church website for details. Zion Lutheran Church

Weekly News 3-17-12

Research Papers Under Construction

We are well into our research paper with students engrossed in their resources and learning many interesting things about our countries.  Our focus with note-taking has been learning how to paraphrase important information, taking notes in complete sentences so much of the composing is formatted during note-taking, and deciding between useful information and what is not useful for our narrow topic.  Students are discovering which of their notes are helpful and which may need to get supplemented with further research as we add up to 75(+) note cards of information.

Up this week: formatting in a Word Doc, thesis statements, outlines and finally: starting the first draft.

Reminder: Students, renew your library books so we have them available during the drafting process!

Achievement Test Week

We will be conducting testing each day this week, sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon.  Achievement tests are one tool to help assess what a child has learned in school and where strengths and weaknesses lie.  The best preparation for testing this week include:

1. a good night's sleep
2. eat breakfast
3. bring #2 pencils (preferably not mechanical)
4. have an AR book to read if you finish early
5. relax! 

3rd Quarter Report Cards Available Online as of Friday, March 16.

Weekly News 3-9-12

Happy National Lutheran Schools Week!

Celebrating Lutheran schools with poster designs

Our stuffed friends came for Pajama Day

Pajama Party Time

Say CHEESE!

Dilbert came to class for Career Day

STOP in the name of the law!

Interior design and veterinary medicine in our future

Cool Cats sportin' our jerseys

Every barber needs his supplies handy

FREAK OUT!

Final rehearsal for our radio drama

"Drinking" Triangletine with the sound effects crew

MOMMY'S COMING   (ask your child)

Weekly News 3-4-12

What's Happening in 6th Grade

Religion - Our walk through Matthew focuses on how Jesus demonstrates his power, authority, and compassion through miracles.  We are beginning to see more skepticism of the Pharisees and get a glimpse of why many of the Jews did not accept Jesus to be the Messiah they expected.

Math - Operations with Fractions can be broken down into steps with a clever acronym and flow chart.  Ask your child what S.O.S. means in math.  We are learning more Geometry concepts with Quadrilaterils.

Social Studies - We move from China to Japan as examples of a countries dealing with population issues.  As we study countries around the world, we see the U.S. connections in geographic, economic, political, and humanitarian relationships as well as how Christians can be a witness in the world.

English -  By now you have seen the research paper information and have helped your child begin research.  This week: Evaluating Resources, Bibliography,  and Note-taking.

Literature - We are wrapping up our Non-Fiction Unit with an autobiography of Beverly Cleary.  In our study, we have learned how writers present information with different types of details: facts, statistics, explanations, examples, anecdotes, and opinions.  This is a prelude to the research paper the students will be writing in English.

END OF THIRD QUARTER - Friday, March 9
Grades will not be updated on Edline again until the report cards are issued on Friday, March 16,  Your  child may have turned in absent work that is not reflected in the gradebook yet.  Remind your child to check with each teacher if they have been absent recently.