Yehawww!

This week flew by. I literally don't know where it went (probably the same place this weekend flew to as well)!

We headed west this week by first describing the Great Plains, then figuring out some advancements and technologies for life out West, and discovering that camels were actually an essential plan to help people move west! We made several observations, inferences, and predictions (one of newly learned science skills) to help us figure these things out!

In math we reviewed the steps for decimal operations. Our "notes" consisted of a sort and then we talked through some examples and glued in our notebooks. We also became math journalists to share these steps in our own words in our Daily News: Decimal Operations Volume One.

Other great things this week:

• Active and engaged students! 

• Getting my book fair portrait! 
  

• Students self-monitoring their own progress and making good choices to become even better students! 

• Awesome students who remind me daily to take a picture of our SAC sign up sheet!
  

• Glorious fall days! 
  

Ms. D's Weekend Snap Shot: 

We had a surprise birthday for my pseudo-nephew (really my little cousin). He wants to be a firefighter and every good firefighter needs a good fire dog (even if it's neon orange).

Saturday night sunset at the Saddle on the parkway!

This is my dad's nephew water witching our land looking for a strong source of water to dig a well. This old practice can only be done by certain people who have the magic touch! You must take a small forked branch of peach or wild cherry and hold it tightly in your hands. Then you have to turn the branch over without changing the grip of your hands on the branch. If there is strong water under the ground. the branch will begin to curl back upwards on it's own. It is the coolest thing to watch! It was so strong here, that he already broke one branch! 

Teacher: Shaper of Decent Human Beings.

This week we had several conversations about productive and unproductive noise and energy. We also discussed how each affects our class and what gets accomplished and what doesn't. I am sharing this because in all honesty, classrooms don't always go as perfect as the blogs make them seem, and our jobs as teachers are not always about math or history or english or science...sometimes they are more about imparting how to be productive, kind, and decent humans in this world. Our classroom was filled with several instances this week in which it was more important to have those kinds of discussions (even if they are hard) than converting fractions.

Monday Meeting is quickly becoming my favorite part of the week! We watched a segment on 9/11 and discussed the importance of not forgetting the sacrifices people made during that tragedy. That led right into our meeting in which our discussion centered around bravery-what it is and what it looks like. To wrap up our meeting, we all wrote examples of what it means to be brave.

This might become my new life motto. 

We wrapped up Reconstruction this week with several discussions about policies related to the 13-15th amendments. We got so wrapped up in talking about how some people in this world still don't receive basic human rights and examples of discrimination and segregation see today. The passion that filled our classroom for the injustices of this world warms my heart and fills me with hope for the future. I can't explain what it feels like to be teaching the future movers and shakers of this world!

In math, we continued our FDP study by tackling some challenging word problems. We also played FDP headbands and had a blast all while looking silly!

Other exciting things this week:

• Meeting Captain Lovitt at the Buckaneer Book Fair! It was a swashbuckling of a time! 

• All the exciting stories that everyone comes to school and shares!

• This awesome hat! 
  

• Students lending out supplies to those in need!

• Ms. D and Mrs. Thomas switching classes for Monday Meeting for the first time! 

• Ms. Nelson's birthday! 

• Our first student teaching opportunities! 
  

• Visits from 7th graders! 

• Student-drawn portraits for teacher's wishlists at the book fair. 

• Ms. D's homeroom showing how ready, safe, respectful, and responsible they are during a fire drill.

• One student sprouted an eye in his ear! 
  

Ms. D's Weekend Snapshot:

I saw some of you at the Livestock and County Fair this weekend while I was volunteering! One of our very own students won the mutton bustin' in his division!

The Southwest VA Wildlife Rescue did a couple of presentations. This guy is a red-tailed falcon! This was his first big show and he did a great job! Did you know he can (and prefers) to eat mice whole and in one bite? 

This little lady is named Princess Espresso the possum. She has metabolic bone condition that keeps her from being released in the wild because her bones didn't form right and are very soft. Her favorite snack is cheese. Did you know possums will "play possum" involuntarily has a defense mechanism? They have no control over when it happens! 

This is Zombie the screech owl. He is full grown and has quite a background story. He was hit on I-81. When they were doing x-rays to see what was wrong, he died. The vets brought him back to life and then he died again during surgery. They brought him back, but knew they couldn't keep doing that. He died a third time, but came back on his own, and is doing great today! no wonder they named him Zombie!

This is Tango. He was not at the fair, but was happy to see me and get some belly rubs when I came home from the fair. This was his way of telling me that I spent too much time with too many other animals. 

I saw the Lumineers for the third time the other day! 

Reconstruction: Let's Have a Party.

Another fun-filled week in 6th grade! This week, we really took some time to talk about how to show all the Pillars of Pride. In an honest and open class discussion, we talked about ways we can be more ready, safe, respectful, and responsible. Sometimes we have to have the hard conversations in order to truly self-monitor and be the individuals we know we can be!

In history this week, we started our discussions of how the Civil War ended and the Reconstruction time period after. We discovered the US was a hot mess (as I like to call it) after the war and there were a ton of problems, physical and emotional, to take care of. To tackle these problems we broke into partner groups to explore what we thought should be down. The ideas were endless, ranging from taxes, form a new government, seek help from other countries, to throw a big ole' party with disco balls and make everyone get along again (we quickly realized this might not be realistic or the best solution...if only the world worked that way though!). We also discussed how we had to establish some changes to our Constitution to help ensure equal treatment under the law. Some students have already discovered this still doesn't fix everything! Check out the problems our planning committees had to tackle!

In math, we continued our exploration of FDP with a little help from a tasty treat...skittles! I didn't have to say that twice to get us locked in on using them as a manipulative to explore FDP relationships. Our quilt is from last week is ready to be put together soon! Here is some of our skittle math in action!

 

Other great things this week: 

• We got a new student! His name is Sam and he is on top of it and ready to learn. He is so cute, it's unBEARable.
  

• Students sharing their sports schedules with us so we can come cheer them on! 

• More compliments from other teachers! 

• How excited students get when they know something and can't even stay in their chair! 

• I finished the second book in the Magisterium series and can't wait for the 3rd that came out last week! I love getting suggestions from students and they have really been pouring them on lately! 

Ms. D's Weekend Snapshot: 

                          

                                   

The last of my own hot peppers from the garden for the year and two of my hens, Lucy and Pearl (more affectionately known as LucyPearl because I can't tell them apart!) free-ranging!

     

The view from my house the other morning was gorgeous! 

         

I went to Mrs. Conroy's Friday night and visited her new baby goats and calf! She gave me a bunch of jalepenos which I canned today! 

Did You Say Cold?

First thing I need to get off my chest this week is how much I LOVE these kids! I just look at them and my heart melts. Have we had a few bumps? Yes. Are some days harder than others? You bet. Does that mean I love them any less? No way. We had another great week at CES! 

This week we completed our important cities t-shirt project. Students were assigned a city at random and had to make a t-shirt with information to represent that city. We then practiced our presentations and shared what we learned with each other and next week I will hang our shirts on the "line" for everyone to see! Here are a few exceptional examples! 

  


We also reviewed what we knew about the Civil War by watching an episode of America the Story of Us. This is a great series that PBS put out a few years ago. It is a documentary, but it plays out like the latest action movie in theaters due to it's awesome special effects and break downs. This episode was a little "gross" as some kiddos put it because it breaks down the true nature of war--death.  We are going to be talking and seeing a lot of mature things this year in history related to many different wars. We talked about how war is ugly and how often the death and destruction are never realized and misunderstood because everyone avoids the tough issues. 

In math, we made a graphic organizer to help us keep straight how to convert between fractions, decimals, and percentages (FDP)! I forgot to take a picture of a notebook, but here is a quick pic of one of the day's notes board.  

I love this unit because everyone gets so excited when they discover percents! The light bulbs quickly turn on at how easy it is to convert between these three types of numbers and how they relate. It's a breath of fresh air because you wouldn't believe how many adults try to tell me fractions, decimals, and percentages have nothing to do with each other! We each started an FDP quilt square that will be compiled into an entire quilt next week that I can't wait to share with everyone! I know it is going to look stellar! 

We started our spiral warm ups in math this week. Instead of practice questions related to what we are always studying in the moment, these warm ups are a set of quick questions that help us review our skills all year long and keep practicing them, even when we learned it 6 months ago. One of the questions this week was to classify the date as a prime or composite number. Well, September 1st is neither because one is just it's own little creature! A couple of students taught me a term they made up last year to classify one: Cream! It's neither prime nor composite, but cream is a mixture of both doing it's own thing. You learn something new everyday! 

Other exciting things this week: 

• Starting a book challenge page attached to this blog (the tab beside Home)! Check it out! 

• Students saying it was actually cold in our classroom! Brrrr! 

• A student from last year telling me the number of nice things she has said to people since I challenged her class last year to be kind to others and spread happiness by genuinely complimenting at least one person every week. 

• The election of our SCA officers and classroom representatives for this year! Check out these wicked cool posters! 
                                           
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• A first grader telling me how much she loved Ms. Punzel (my alter ego she has deemed me with since arriving at CES). 

• Chaotic Crafts during enrichment period. The result: masks that we could wear during non-class times. This may seem unproductive, but let me tell you the enthusiasm and creativity during this time was on point! Sometimes there are more important things than book smarts...like filling the soul with happiness and imagination.
   
  
  
  

• Fantastic discussion during our weekly meeting about how it is better to try and fail, then to cheat and win! 

• Compliments on how well we did during the lockdown drill. One visitor to our classroom commented it looked like we had been practicing everyday for weeks! Definitely shows how serious we were taking safety in our classroom! 

• Seeing students past and present at the football game while selling concessions with Mrs. Thomas! While I have a ton of fun going, these are my favorite games to watch!                                 

Ms. D's Weekend Snap Shot: Here are a few scenes from around my house! 

One of my cats taking a ride with Papa J and I to inspect the work on mine and my sister's houses. 

My "baby" rooster turned 4 months old this week, got an official name (Pete), and is learning to crow! 

The butterfly bush bloomed in this cooler weather and had several visitors!