Merry Christmas!

A blessed Christmas to you and your family!

Mrs. Riemenschneider

Example of a cell presentation

Christmas Coupons from Mrs. R.

Party prep

Ugly sweaters??

Christmas taboo, charades, and Win Lose or Draw

Our Norman Rockwell inspired art (Sorry its sideways)

Wednesday p.m.  (mirror image reverse from laptop camera)

Friday a.m.

 

Weekly Blog by Callie K.

Hello! We have had a great week here in 6R. We had some special speakers, a new art project, and we are starting to write our own short story mysteries in English class. This week has been really busy, but great. On Wednesday this week, we had St. Peters city planners come in. We learned all about how they handle new building plans, they taught us about some of the St. Peters government structure, and what good architecture is, what bad architecture is, and what ugly architecture is. Also new this week in 6R, we have started a new art project with 2 perspectives and we have been working hard on that. Also new, we have started to write short story mysteries in English class. We have gone over the vocabulary, possible crimes, and we are starting to chose characters and settings.

A note from the teacher: the 6th grade ski trip date and info has been announced! The students were given a purple sheet with a field trip flash save the date on it. The weather conditions could change between now and then, so be prepared for more information. On the sheet it basically has some tips on staying warm, and the exact time we are leaving. The field trip isn’t until Friday February 7, 2014 so there is plenty of time to prepare. There are drivers needed, so if you are interested, contact Mrs. Riemenschneider.

Hope that you had a great week and have a great weekend! 

Collection for Sparrow's Nest

If you missed a chance to send in a donation for the Sparrow's Nest prayer garden, it's not too late! Please send your donation in on Monday. 

Tuesday morning - behind the gym

Cutting the concrete to lay the waterline

Investigating St. Peters maps

Our guests from the city

Learning about zoning and building laws

The good, the bad and the ugly in architecture

Evidence left from our group discussions

  

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.

 ADVENT WORSHIP:  WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4   

Students have enjoyed some lighter work loads as we have been practicing music, narration, and drama to lead worship next week.

 Times:  Wed. 12/4 -  10:00 A.M. (chapel with Zion students) and 7:00 P.M.    

Arrival for the evening services: Students are to meet in their classrooms no later than 6:45 P.M.

Dress:  Students should dress nicely for both the morning service and the evening service.

                  Morning – standardized school dress (or costume)

                  Evening – standardized school dress or “Sunday best” -  avoid jeans and clothing                                                       with writing (unless costume)

After the evening service:  Parents may pick up students from the Welcome Center in church.

** Reminder: As students are leading worship, please refrain from photography during the service.  We would be happy to stage pictures after the worship service ends. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 God's blessings to you and your families this Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for each one of your children in my class this year. What a blessing they are to me!  Thank you, parents, as well, for the support you give to your children and to me. Enjoy the holiday weekend with family and friends!  

Trivia for students:  Name the artist of this famous Thanksgiving painting: 

How was School Today?

If you ask this questions, you likely get a one word answer: "Fine" or "OK".  Help your child talk about their day by knowing a little about what we're learning:
 
Religion:  We are studying the tabernacle and God' leadership of the Israelites.  It was wonderful to connect the term "tabernacle" which means "dwell with us"  to Jesus - Immanuel - God with us!  It is pretty cool to look at our leadership in worship for our Advent service as we see how the Israelites worshiped.  Together we thought of these things to honor the Sabbath and help make worship a meaningful experience.

    *pick out clothes the night before
    *get a good nights sleep and eat breakfast
    *help get a sibling ready for church
    *pray
   *read the bulletin/wall prayer
    *participate: sing, read the liturgies
   *listen
   *turn off electronics
   *look at art, paraments, symbols and think about what they mean
  *think about why a hymn fits with the Bible verses or message
   *take the bulletin home and read the Bible verses for the next week


Social Studies:  Great Lakes Ecosystems and Urban Sprawl - After finishing our Great Lakes study, students presented views on pollution, invasive species and habitat loss in an online Prezi - a more advanced form of powerpoint, with the capability of inserting photos, graphs, and video.  Now we shift focus to looking at the problem of Urban Sprawl and investigate city planning.  Students are taking on the role of city planners as we investigate 3 North American cities. 

English:  Verbs, Verbs, Verbs!  Did you know there are 6 verb tenses? past, present, future, past perfect, present perfect, and future perfect tenses?  Confused?  Us too!  But as the meanings come clear - we are seeing just how specific communication can be.  Imagine coming from a foreign country where verbs do not change for time or in subject/verb agreement!!

Literature:  Our second half of the Short Story unit has us explore theme - a message about life conveyed in a story.  We are currently reading a Jack London story set in the Alaskan Gold Rush and will be writing newspapers to reflect the historical setting and review the plot.

T-Math - Understanding variables and one step equations. We will test after Thanksgiving on the second half of chapter 2.  This Thursday, students registered for the online resources our text has to offer and had a chance to view a few homework tutorial videos.  They located the online version of the text, workbook, and practice worksheets as well.  Great resources available for extra practice!!

Quilling Art

Here are a few examples of our fall art project: