September 23, 2013
Monday A Day Lunch: Burger Bar, Baked Fries, Fresh Fruit & Veggies After School Dinners: Starting September 19th through June 10 every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 5 to 5:30 PM dinner will be served in the cafeteria. All children under 18 can come in for a free hot meal. (Any adult with them will only be charged $4.) Programa de Comida Despue’s de Clases, A Partir del Jueves, 19 de Septiembre Todo los Ninos menores de 18 anos pueden venir a cenar una comida gratis. (A los acompanantes mayors de edad se les cobrara’ $4) Cada martes & jueves, desde el 19 de Sept. hasta el 10 de junio De 5 a 5:30 p.m. Cafeteria de Shuksan Middle School. Picture Day: Picture Day for 6th graders is 9/24. Picture Day for 7th and 8th graders is 9/30 Boys and Girls soccer photos are afterschool on 9/24. Track photos have not yet been scheduled. Open Gym: Open Gym for Students and Families! Noche De Gimnasio para los estudiantes y sus familias! Starts/Empieza: 9/18/13 at/a 6-7:30 p.m. A fun night of various sports and gym games: soccer, basketball, volleyball, dodge ball, etc! Habra’ deportes varios y juegos para el gimnasio: futbol, baloncesto, voleibol, dodge ball 7 mucho mas! Students can sign up themselves and their family in the lunch room during school. Los Estudiantes, registrate para ti y tu familia en la cafeteria. Sports: The following sports are offered this Pre-winter. Deadline for paperwork is November 1. Floor Exercise & Dance: November 7th – January 17th (offered to all grades) Boys Basketball: November 7th – January 21st (offered to 7th and 8th grade) Important! Sports fees and paperwork must be turned in by each deadline to ensure appropriate coaching ratios. Sports packets can be obtained in the front office. All forms to be filled out and signed by both guardian and student. Fees are based on the student’s meal status as follows: Full Pay: $50. Reduced Pay: $35. Free Lunch: $20. PE Shirts: $7.00 ASB cards: $10.00 (required to play a sport) Yearbooks: $25.00 (pre-order) REMINDERS: READING HOMEWORK IS DUE MONDAY! We started our Peace Day celebration with a guest speaker assembly. He was fantastic and powerful, and definitely worth asking your student about (or sharing with your parents, students!) We wrapped Friday up in my class by talking about our weekly community builders. We watched another video clip of Robby "Kid President" Novak. This time, his topic was dreams, which tied in with Peace Day and with our guest speaker. He was invited to speak at the 50th Anniversary of the "I Have a Dream" speech and shares this in the clip. To watch this video, click here. In Language Arts today, we had our first quiz. Students were asked to identify the elements of plot within a story ("Jack and the Beanstalk") using text, video, and a choice of graphic organizers. Next week, we will move on from elements of plot to identifying conflict within a story. In Social Studies this week, our topic of the week was the hemispheres and we also learned about plate tectonics, continental drift, and how the earth changes over time (and is constantly changing) due to volcanic activity, plate tectonics, and erosion. This builds on prior knowledge from 5th grade science and will tie into our study of early civilizations and why they settled in the locations they lived. Today we are wrapping up another busy week at Shuksan! Don't forget: READING HOMEWORK IS DUE MONDAY!
Today, in Language Arts, we will be continuing to analyze the plot structure of stories. We will complete a Plot Pyramid in our Language Arts Journals using the story Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon. Using short stories and children's stories allows for us to focus on an entire plot, from beginning to end, within our class period. We will continue to practice analyzing the plot of shorter stories before moving on to novels. Today in Social Studies, I will be introducing one of my favorite things to share with students: Kid President. Some of your children may already be familiar with this amazing little boy. I enjoy sharing his funny and inspiring messages with my students, and am excited to begin again this year! On Fridays, I like to take a few minutes to share a message with the kids and reflect on how our behavior and attitude affects and can inspire those around us. For those of you not familiar, you can visit his website at www.kidpresident.com. A little about Kid President: Robby is a 9 year old boy with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI), a brittle bone condition which has resulted in him having over 70 breaks since birth. What's inspiring about Robby isn't his condition, but the fact that his condition doesn't define who he is. In spite of all he's been through he not only keeps going - he dances. Robby and his family make these inspiring video clips (they are each about three minutes long) to encourage youth (and adults, too!) to make the world more "awesome" with messages that are at once anti-bully, pro-creativity, supportive of individual differences, and very fun! We will be watching his introduction video and a special message to Teachers and Students today and discussing/writing a response connecting the messages to our life here on Team Shuksan. Click here to watch Kid President's "Pep Talk" SCHOOL WIDE ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS: Open Gym: Open Gym for Students and Families! Noche De Gimnasio para los estudiantes y sus familias! Starts/Empieza: 9/18/13 at/a 6-7:30 p.m. A fun night of various sports and gym games: soccer, basketball, volleyball, dodge ball, etc! Habra’ deportes varios y juegos para el gimnasio: futbol, baloncesto, voleibol, dodge ball 7 mucho mas! Students can sign up themselves and their family in the lunch room during school. Los Estudiantes, registrate para ti y tu familia en la cafeteria. Sports: The following sports are offered for all grades this Fall. Deadline for paperwork is NOW! Track: September 9th – November 1st Boys Soccer and Girls Soccer: September 9th – November 4th Important! Sports fees and paperwork must be turned in by each deadline to ensure appropriate coaching ratios. Sports packets can be obtained in the front office. Fees are based on the student’s meal status as follows: Full Pay $50. Reduced Pay $35. Free Lunch $20. PE Shirts: $7.00 ASB cards: $10.00 (required to play a sport) Yearbook pre order- $25.00 We've had a busy two days! We had our first early release day yesterday and today we had our introductory visit to the library with Ms. Eggert, our wonderful school librarian!
Talking Points:
Today, as is every Thursday here at Shuksan, is College Thursday. This is a day where we share our college experience with our students and wear our college pride shirts and colors. Teachers are given a College Thursday Question, which they will answer to any Shuksan cougar who is interested! It's a fun way to promote education and scholarship among our fantastic school community. Tomorrow is Shuksan Pride Friday! The first period class with the most students wearing Shuksan pride purple will have a week's possession of the fabulous Spirit Stick! Don't forget your purple, Cougars! Happy sunny Tuesday! It's a beautiful day here at Shuksan!
What we've been up to today: Language Arts-- We continued our work in Springboard on our yearlong topic of "change". We shared out our ideas from the previous days' work. Content Objective: I can explore a word using a word map. Language Objective: I can expand a word using words and pictures. Social Studies-- We watched a Discovery Education video reviewing geographic terms from fifth grade as well as introducing new terms, such as fold and fault mountains, gorge, and isthmus. Students shared within their groups the new terms they wrote down. This will give us a good idea about where to continue with our unit on geography. Content Objective: I can explore geography terms. Language Objective: I can write down at least five new or unfamiliar geographical terms. Tomorrow is an early release (3:00) day. Tomorrow is also the first day of Leadership Club with Mrs. Meese. Leadership is open to everyone and is at 8:00 in Mrs. Meese's room. There is still time to turn in paperwork to participate in Soccer and Track and Field (which started yesterday.) This is the first week of Reading Homework. Students are expected to read for 30 minutes, five days a week. They have a homework log to write this down on, and I saw today that many students have already begun! Well done! Check the Important Dates section for news on upcoming events! Happy Tuesday, Ms. Jurgensen Check back here regularly to see updated class information!
I'm so glad to be sharing 6th grade with your families! Visit the "About Ms. Jurgensen" section to learn more about me. I'll be updating the other links on the menu this week. Today is the first day of Reading homework so your students will be coming home with a reading log to complete and turn in by Monday. Your sixth graders will also be showing you their class syllabus and I will be looking for initials or a signature in their planner to show that they discussed it with you. Please email me at [email protected] with any questions or updates about your 6th grader. I love to hear from you! Happy Monday, Ms. Jurgensen |