Johnson's Journal October 18, 2013

This weeks brings MAP testing to sixth grade.  This is a test that all students at Jacobson take.  The information from this test enables me to see the strengths of your learner,  skills that he/she is ready to learn, and areas where further work is needed.  This is an online test; the sixth graders will take their Language Arts test Monday, the math test on Tuesday, and the reading  test will be taken on Thursday.  Each test takes about an hour.  As with any task, students are encouraged to give their best effort as the information from this test is valuable when planning instruction.

Our new math unit focuses on decimals.  We will work with decimal concepts such as place value, comparing and ordering, and rounding this week.  We will then move into computing with decimals. Being on top of basic addition and subtraction facts, as well as multiplication and division facts is a must in this unit!

We wrapped up our cells and heredity unit last week, and will switch gears and begin a social studies unit this week.  Sixth grade social studies focuses on world history, and the first unit finds us looking at early man and the technology he developed.  I look forward to lots of interesting conversations as we discuss what technology is and how it has changed over the years.  By the end of the week, we will be diving in to a writing project in which the sixth graders will be applying the skills Mrs. Suntken has taught them about writing dialogue and demonstrating an understanding of what life would have been like more than 40,000 years ago at Border Cave.  Your child will be asking you for help editing and revising his/her work by the end of the week.  I hope you enjoy what your learner has written!  I am looking forward to seeing what they create!

I would like to encourage you to regularly check your student's Take Home folder.  Unfortunately, there are quite a few kids who seem to be competing to see who can collect the most papers in their folder.  Take a look at your child's work.  Are you pleased with the quality of the work they are doing?  If so, encourage them to keep up the good work!  By checking the work that they have completed and that has been checked and/or graded, you will have a clear picture of your child's progress.  The Campus gradebook gives you part of the picture, but I think you will have an even clearer picture by looking at all the work they have completed.  If you see something you have questions about, please contact me if your student can't answer your questions.  If your child knows you are interested in their work and their progress, they will be more motivated to give their best effort!  Thanks for being a partner in your child's education!!!