Language Arts- We continued to work on our narratives, focusing on titles and endings. It is optional homework to continue working on their piece.
Reading- Finished our novels. We are going to the LMC tomorrow to check out fiction books. We will start our Gift Projects tomorrow.
S.S- We continued to work on our being detectives while looking at a site map. We are trying to figure out what group of people lived/live on this site.

Social Studies- Today we looked at a Site Map and tried to be detectives to figure out what group of people lived in that area. We will finish tomorrow.
Reading- MY section- finish reading The Skin I'm In and add to character web. Other group- read any novel and write 1 1/2 pages in your Reading Log.
Language Arts- We did quick conferencing that focused on- "What do you want the reader to feel/know when they are done reading your piece?" All students are now revising- some may have taken their flash drafts home to work on this, but it was not required.

Hope you all had a great weekend. We are starting to have students bring in their Early People Projects- that is fine! The earlier you get it to school, the better. I am willing to edit any writing portions if they are turned in to me by THIS Wednesday morning (via a shared google doc is best).

S.S.- Mr K's homeroom needs to finish their trash archeology worksheet
Reading- Latin Stem Quiz NEXT Monday
L.A.-no additional homework today

Social Studies- EARLY PEOPLE PROJECT- By the end of the weekend, most kids should have a solid draft of their written piece of the project completed and their materials ready for the project-type piece of the project. I also feel they should have a small start on the project or hands-on part. The museum day where parents and guardians are welcome to come and see all the 6th grade projects is October 9th from 11:30-12:30.

Reading- MY section. If you are reading The Skin I'm In, please read up to chapter 26. No responses in your Reading Log required. 

Today we presented in Social Studies our group project: Convincing our class that our assigned Hominid group is the most capable!

Reading- MY section- Read chapters 16-18 in our books and write a page of entry along with continuing your character web.

Language Arts- MAP testing. Bring a book to read for when you finish.

KRUGER:
Science Test Friday!

The lab books should have gone home for studying.  Below are the notes we took in class that should be written in every student's lab book in the "other" section.

KRUGER Math: No hw; working with patterns.  Ask your child to explain how they made their money easy to sum without counting.

 

We are MAP testing for the next 2 days in Language Arts. Today, we completed a flash draft of our seed stories.
Social Studies- Continued to work on our Hominid group project.

SCIENCE 9.21.15 - 9.25.15

In science we are working on the idea of Motion.

Students should be able to define and tell you the symbols and equations associated with:

Position
Distance
Motion
Reference Point
Frame of Reference

FRIDAY IS OUR 1st Quiz - it should be written in every planner!  Study guides will be made in class Wednesday and final practice done on Wednesday & Thursday.

Just a fun look back from our first week and one of our  first advisories (homerooms).  If your child is in my room (155) for homeroom, take a peak at what they're looking forward to this year:

The pictures above show some of the work we did in Language Arts today insofar as what a student composition book should look like after a hard day of work, 6th grade writing standards to push into and an example of what strategies narrative writers can use to write their lead.

One of the things we need to work on in both homerooms is BEING PREPARED for class. Passing time is used for drinks, bathroom, and gathering materials for your next class period. We seem to be wasting a lot of time not being ready once the bell rings. Something to think about......

Language Arts- Homework- Re-Write your writing goals if you think you need to.
Reading- MY Reading class- Read Chapters 13-15, add to character web and write a page of response in your reading log
Social Studies- We started our planning sheet in class for the Early People Project. We also started an in-class group project where we are convincing the class that our Hominid is the MOST capable group. All of this work will be done in class.

Language Arts- HOMEWORK- Write 3 writing goals using the writing checklist given today in class.
Reading- Students that have Duffield 2nd hour- Latin Stem Quiz 9/28/15
Social Studies- We talked about our Early People project and finished a quiz.

What a fun and successful day we had. Our community building time was profound.

Make sure you come to school with your Early People Project on Monday. MY Reading class has some reading (chapter 10-12) and character web due as well as a Latin Stem quiz on Monday. Have a restful weekend.

Thank you for coming last night! It was nice to meet you all. 

Language Arts- Finished our quick conferences today. Homework is to chose your seed topic (small moment topic) by Monday!

Reading- for MY reading class- chapters 10-12 & start character web.

Social Studies- Solidify your Early People Project Topic!

Greetings sixth grade class!

My name is Ms. Mora and I am pleased to be your student teacher this semester. This is going to be my second semester in a classroom environment and I am very excited to get to know all of you and for you to know me as well. My Background information. I am a student at UW-Madison in the Middle Childhood Program. I speak Spanish fluently and look forward to working with you all and learning about the different languages spoken in your classroom. I am originally from Mexico, but Madison has become my new home. Although I don’t always enjoy the snowy season, I make the best of it by going sledding with my family. On my free time I enjoy dining-out, and spending quality time with my lovely family and friends. These are a few of my favorite things: Sport to play: soccer Dessert: Flan Color: Magenta Candy: Tamarind Fast food: Chipotle restaurant  Hello Ms. Duffield’s 6th grade classroom! As you may already know, I will be joining your classroom for the next couple of months and I’m super excited to meet all of you!  I am a student at the University of Wisconsin where I’m studying Education and Social Welfare.  I hope to learn from all of you as you give me suggestions and advice to grow as a future teacher. Over the next couple of months, I’m looking forward to learning about your school, your communities, your families and your personal experiences.  Before you share your stories, I’d like to tell you a little bit about mine first. I was born in Kenosha, WI, which is on the border of Illinois and Wisconsin right next to Lake Michigan.  I grew up with my mother and older brother, Victor and my cultural background is Mexican and German. Also, I’ve always loved to sing.  In high school I became involved in musical theatre and I spent most of my time outside of class in rehearsals.  During my junior and senior year I went to the University of Nebraska to perform musicals in front of 2,000 people! It was such a powerful experience for me.  I really enjoyed being a part of the theatre community. Four years ago, I moved to Madison to continue my education at the university.  I became involved with the program Schools of Hope where I tutored at Wright Middle School for three years.  During the summer, I work with the PEOPLE Program and help transition 8th graders into high school.   I also work at two restaurants called Fresco and Steenbock’s on Orchard. In my free time, I love to sing, listen to music and write poetry. I enjoy going on adventures and exploring new places, especially where there’s wildlife and nature. My goal is to live closer to the ocean someday so that I can explore underwater as well! Lastly, I want you all to know that I am here to support you in any way that I can, so please feel free to let me know what I can do to help.  If your families have any questions or thoughts, please let me know.  I’m looking forward to spending my time with all of you.  Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your classroom community. Most sincerely, Ms. Selena Jaramillo (Ms. J)

Language Arts-  Our mentor authors have taught us strategies that we are trying to emulate in our own writing. See the poster above.
Homework - it is up to the child if they feel they need to do writing homework tonight. It is not required!
Reading- Homework- Read chapters 10-12 and start a character web in your reading log- cite page numbers and use all the chapters so far.
Social Studies- Homework- Log on to the TCI website tonight to check to see if your log in and password both work! Continue to think about your Early People Project!!!!

Homework: 
Reading- chapters 7,8,9 and 1 1/2 pages of responding in reading log
S.S.- Early People Project due on Oct 5th

Field trip to the park for community building is THIS Friday. Our team is supposed to wear yellow! If you did not bring in the $2 or signed sheet yet, please do so tomorrow.

Language Arts- HOMEWORK - choose a new personal narrative small moment and write at least a page. Today in class our focus was making sure we wrote about strong emotions & from students' Point Of View

Reading- Latin Stem Quiz- 9/21/15

Social Studies

S.S. Project Update

                                  

Your child has been assigned a Social Studies project for our first unit.  All projects are to be about a prehistoric topic (5,000 years or older).  It is my hope that each student chooses a topic in which they are keenly interested and present it in a way in which they are comfortable. The idea is to learn more about the topic and to share that knowledge with the class. 

            At this point, your child has been given general directions about the project along with a grading criteria and point sheet used for evaluation. A sheet with topic ideas and ways to present was also handed out. Time has been set aside in class to both discuss project ideas and to do some research.  Most of the work, however, will be completed at home.

How Can You Help?

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This entire project should be considered a learning process. Students are learning time management skills, research skills, organizational skills, etc. I hope that you will help guide your child without feeling any pressure of personal responsibility. I want each child’s “lesson” to be valuable, which may mean that some students will have to “learn the hard way.”  I want each student to take ownership for his or her success or failure.

We will be learning how to do more formal research later in the year.  At that point students will learn to take down information systematically on note cards, how to organize information by subtopics, how to write a bibliography, and other report writing skills. For this project, students are asked to make, build, create, demonstrate, video tape, etc. to teach the rest of us about their topic.  Each project should be informative, interesting and seriously presented.  A bibliography is optional. Presentations are usually accompanied by a short written report or outline unless the information is conveyed in another way.  A formal report is not necessary, unless that is the mode of presentation.

         Museum Day  

October 9th from 11:30-12:30 has been set aside as a museum day.  Parents will be invited to view projects along with students from all sixth grade classes.  More details will come later. 

Our students will make presentations in class starting the week of October 5^th and also display their information at the museum on the 9^th.

Contacting Me

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            Please call or email me if you have any questions. I am looking forward to your child’s presentation.

           

Classroom (direct): 204-4704

Email: msikorski@madison.k12.wi.us

Wednesday, September 16th is Go-To-School Night for parents, students stay at home:) Information was sent home today.

Reading: My reading class homework- read the next 3 chapters in your book and write a 1 page written response. Please see examples in the front of your Reading Log if you are looking for ideas of what to write.

Motion & Distance

This we've working with the ideas of Motion & Distance, how we might measure those things, and how they're related.  Below is not a scene from the late 90's thriller Entrapment but if you look closely you'll see a series of Air Trolley tracks made from fishing line where they investigated winds vs distance.

MATH:

Digital Textbook Access!  Never again can your son or daughter use the old "I left my book at school" excuse.  Presenting...digital textbook access for all students. Yay! On the first page of the planner is a small paper that should be taped in that describes the website, login and password to access our full math book and homework help (hints) AND you can even access and print any hw sheets from home (like the 1st assignment due Monday called the Mathography).  We all practiced accessing it on the chromebooks and I've been assured everyone has it down.  Book bags just got a little lighter for 6th graders.
Go to:

http://kr4923.textbooks.cpm.org (for 2nd hour math)

http://kr5489.textbooks.cpm.org (for 3rd hour math)

then, they simply enter their login and password on the slip.

 This week we worked on histograms and scatter plots.  Below are the scatter plots of when kids go to bed and get up in the morning for math hours 2 & 3.  Gives you a good idea as a parent if how much your child sleeps in comparison with the rest of the class. ;)

Lang Arts- HOMEWORK- finish your map & write ONE page of personal narrative writing.
We looked at ways to generate personal narrative ideas and used Jack Gantos as a mentor author- stealing his strategy of thinking of an important place and moments that have happened there.

Reading- HOMEWORK- read chapters 1-3 and complete 1 page of responses in your reading log.

Social Studies- We learned about different Social Scientists.

Hope to see you at the school picnic tonight! It runs from 5:30-7:30 and all are welcome.

Reading- We looked at some possible ways to respond to texts. Above is one example of what a Reading Log can look like before, during, and after reading a text.
Language Arts- First day with writing partners and personal narrative unit. We used another 6th grade student's writing to list some writing strategies for good personal narrative writing. HOMEWORK- Write at least 1 page of a personal narrative.
Social Studies- Today we studied one timeline of humans on Earth.

Science

Today we began our first lab for the Force & Motion (Physics) unit.  Students are building "air trolleys" to explore the big idea of motion.  Students are thinking of ways they can measure motion.

Today in LA we worked on a writing sample to showcase what we know about strong writing. Reading- Latin Stem Quiz in on 9/14/15.
Our homerooms came together again to continue working on our social contract (agreements). This should be completed by tomorrow.
In Social Studies, we looked at the 5 themes of Social Studies and created visuals to represent those themes.

Both Kruger & Duffield's homerooms got together today to work on our social contract (agreements). Above is the list we have come up with so far and we will narrow them down on Tuesday. In my reading class, we continued to mark text during Close Reading and you are able to see an example of that above. Have a safe and fun long weekend!

We had a normal schedule today at school! In my reading section, we looked at Close Reading and focused on the "respond" marking. For LA we had an LMC walk through. Creating our first step of the social contract (class agreements), was insightful. Let's think about what it will sound like and look like when both homerooms combine tomorrow and narrow the agreements down more.

Tomorrow, we will start switching for all classes and so it will look like a typical day at Hamilton. If you did not finish your puzzle piece, please do so for tomorrow. For my homeroom: When you come into class tomorrow, your job is to find the HOMEMADE large poster up on the wall (it has 6 words written on it). Once you find it, write down what it says anywhere IN YOUR planner. Bonus activity: write down what young adult book the quote is from. 

Our day was hectic and HOT. Tomorrow will be another day where we stay in our homeroom class most of the day and we will start switching for Reading and Math on Thursday! We did keep our AVID binders here at school as we will finish organizing them tomorrow.

Welcome to Hamilton!

It's going to be a great year.  I'm excited to be back at school and can't wait to get started on this new school year.  Last year was a big year for me personally as I got married and welcomed my first child into the world or rather she welcomed me into her world.  This fall I finally got to see things from a parent's perspective, as I sent my daughter Rose to daycare for the first time.  She's already received her first report card! (she received all smiles for eating her carrots;)  This year I'll be acting as a district representative on the common core science team where we are working with college faculty and others to get our science curriculum more aligned with the new NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) that were put out the last couple years (http://www.nextgenscience.org/next-generation-science-standards).  In years past I have also acted as an assistant coach of the Hamilton Science Olympiad Team and worked with and run various MSCR clubs.  In 2015-16, I'm looking forward to doing some great community building with the students and for the challenges of a brand new math curriculum (College Preparatory Math http://cpm.org/).  CPM brings with it a solid reputation in districts like Middleton and some much needed higher-level challenges to all our students, but will be a change for all of us.

It's going to be a great year,

Justin Kruger