Grand Valley State University will be offering the Science Technology & Engineering Preview Summer (STEPS) Camp for Girls again this summer.  The Seymour and Esther Padnos College of Engineering and Computing will be hosting the two consecutive weeks of camp on June 18-21 and June 25-28, 2012. 

STEPS is an all-girl day camp introduction to the world of science, technology, and engineering.  Program activities include designing, manufacturing, and flying a radio-controlled airplane.  Students craft their own airplane using power tools, jigs, and fixtures with enthusiastic support from GVSU engineering faculty and students, community groups of radio-control airplane hobbyists, and other community volunteers.  Each team of approximately 10 girls will be supervised and mentored by a female GVSU student.  Each camp also includes field trips to local engineering and manufacturing facilities, airplane hangars, and the airplane observation deck at the Ford International Aiport.  Another highlight is a short flight on a four-seat Cessna airplane out of the Ford International Airport.  Campers also enjoy a number of recreational activities that can include swimming, climbing wall, chalk decorating, and a team challenge course.  The week wraps up with a Fly Night Graduation ceremony where the girls get to fly the airplanes that they built at a sanctioned fly field in Allendale, Michigan. 

Camp registration is open to any female Michigan resident, between the ages of 11 and 13, who will be going into the 7th grade in Fall 2012.  More information about STEPS, including a printable brochure and application, can be found online. Applications are due March 12, 2012.  Inquiries about the camp can be directed to Sara Maas, STEPS Director, at (616) 331-6025 or maassa@gvsu.edu. 

STEPS at GVSU is partially funded by the Alcoa Foundation, Alcoa Howmet – Whitehall Operations, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Education Foundation, and the Michigan Space Grant Consortium through NASA.  The success of STEPS is due in large part to the volunteers. Volunteer opportunities are open to anyone with education, science, technology or engineering experience.  If you are interested in volunteering, check online to view the schedule and download volunteer forms. 

Bad news!  Much time is needed to find the reading level (lexile level) for each book and to orgranize them so that we know where each book if found within the room.  Thanks to some very dedicated student librarians: Kylie Moomey, Rachel Dieterman, and Kelly Ortega, we are making headway. 

However, we’ll never get done this year at the pace we are able to go.  Here’s where you can help.  If you have Internet and a computer, you could help get our library in tip-top shape.  With a 15 minute training, you could do this from home whenever you have the time.  So, if you’re interested, please e-mail me, Mrs. Clark, at kclark@gpsk12.net  .

Thanks so much,
Katie Clark

Way to go Clark homeroom; I think you made the difference

Reading– So, how many books has your child read this year? Is it more than they have ever before? Are they talking about books with you? I sure hope so! Our goal of 40 books is coming into focus.

At this point, we should be reading approximately one book each week. Students at 6th grade should be able to read 20-30 pages every 30 minutes. If we’re reading 30 minutes 5 X each week in class and at least 30 minutes 5 X each week at home, then that would equal 200—300 pages each week!

Ask you student to show you their Reading Record. Ask them to tell you about their reading log and how many pages are they reading every 30 minutes. Ask them about what books they’re choosing to read and what they like/dislike about them. I encourage you to even read with or read the books they’re reading so you can talk books with them:)

We are currently working on a character analysis project. Your student is diving deep into understanding a character of their choice by evaluating their characters choices, motivations, attitudes, and other’s opinions. Don’t be surprised if your reader starts to sound like their character of choice, maybe even look like him or her, while were doing this project. (This is a reading test grade.)

Math: I have a story to share with you of a childhood memory of mine. My father used to have me recite the multiplication facts, in order, zeros through tens every night before I went to bed. At the time, I just thought he was helping me get through third grade! Well, that is one of the many simple skills my father taught me that I thank him for today. So many more things come much easier if a student knows the basic math facts.

We will be working with fractions, and students need to know the multiplication facts in order to perform all operations with fractions. Any practice your child gets outside of class will help him or her to be more successful.

Learning Connections: As always, I would encourage you to help your student study their weekly spelling words as well as basic multiplication facts.
We have begun to focus our attention on note taking. We are using our social studies text books to work on this skill. Eventually, we will move on to forms of research that will incorporate these note taking skills.

Note taking and research skills are very important for our students as they move towards the Middle School!

Writing: Before break, we turned in our character sketch writing sandwiches. Students who didn’t get a 80% or higher were encouraged to rework their character sketch for a better grade. This rework was due by the Friday before break. Students have the choice to do the extra work for the regrade.
We have started now on developing the setting for our narrative story. Students have drawn a picture of the main setting and filled out of 5 Senses organizer.

We will be working on writing the setting sketch using the show-not-tell technique when detailing what is seen, heard, felt (emotionally and physically), and smelled in our setting. These setting sketches are due Tuesday, January 17th by 3:45.

To complete their polished copy, students can use their keyboarding time, computer class with me, team time, or type at home (file needs to be at school via flash drive, cd, or e-mail).

Social Studies: We are continuing our study of geography in Social Studies. As we move on in the year, we will begin to use the information we are covering to our very own country. Students will develop all aspects of their country: location, climate, resources, products, government, culture, etc. Please make sure to ask your student about upcoming test and quiz dates.

Science: We will spend January digging into our geology unit and will spend February looking at parts of our heart. Look for volunteer slips to come home with information on our heart dissections.

Spring Party Helpers: 6th grade Team will have our next party this coming spring. We have a parent who has volunteered to be the coordinator but we need some volunteers to help. If you are interested, please let your child’s homeroom teacher know or e-mail, kclark@gpsk12.net. Thanks:)

Camp Pinewood (May 9th-11th)
As you are aware, our students have been working on fund-raising for camp to bring down the $85.00 per student for our 3 day/ 2 night stay at Camp Pinewood less. Our doughnut sales the 2nd Friday of every month is bringing in about $200 per month. Our larger sale of a variety of products (thanks to our parent committee and to those small businesses for donating all their earning to our camp fund), raised approximately $1,100.

Here’s the $ break down: 68 students X $85.00= $5,865— $2,000 (approximately)= $3, 865/69 students= $60.00 per student (if we add in the bus costs).

Some of our students have already begun to earn money towards camp. A few have had Christmas $ put towards it, some are making crafts and selling them, others are just doing chores. Please contact your students teacher if you feel there will be a problem with paying the $60.00 by the end of April. We have scholarships for students if needed. We want everyone to be able to have this wonderful experience.

**Also, adult chaperones will cost $8.00 per meal. If we can do more fund raising, we may be able to help off set that cost, but as it stands now, we don’t have money for that.

IMPORTANT DATES:

January 16: No School/In-service for teachers

January 26: PTC meeting: 6:30 pm

February 17-20: Mid Winter Break

HOME/SCHOOL CONNECTION:

Office phone: 254-6041

e-mail: kclark@gpsk12.net chorton@gpsk12.net btravis@gpsk12.net mbassett@gpsk12.net

***Make sure to check your student’s academic progress on INFINITE CAMPUS.

***Also, check out our 6th Grade Team Blog site by visiting the front page of the Cummings Blog site. There is a daily update of the agenda letting you know what homework is and many other things.

Nothing is better during the winter mid-week at school than having a cup of hot cocoa. “Mmmm…, Mrs. Clark, for some reason this tastes better than at home!” I get told this several times on Wednesdays.

Currently, we are out of Styrofoam cups (8 oz size) needed to have our hot cocoa next week. Also, we have enough cocoa for two more weeks, but could also use more of that, too. So, if you are able and willing to donate, we’d be greatly appreciative:)

READING: So, have you noticed your student reading? Have you been discussing books with him or her? We’ve gotten immersed into Reading Zone. As always, homework in reading is 30 minutes of reading each night. Students will present 3 Book Recommendations throughout this trimester with the last one due by 2/22.
The beginning of this trimester, we will be using a Reading Zone novel of our choice (must have read and chosen by 12/12) to analyze the main character: motivation, traits, and growth through the story. Students will list our novel’s main character’s four character traits on a character web, then write a letter written from the perspective of this character demonstrating the character’s voice, attitude, growth within the events of the novel, and explanation of choices the character made within those events. Students will also draw a detailed picture of their character capturing the essence of who he or she is.
In the end (hopefully before Christmas break), we will have a Character Meet and Greet where students will present their character analysis to fellow readers. This requires a great deal of understanding of who the main character is through what was demonstrated throughout the novel.

WRITING: We are continuing to prepare for writing our fictional narrative. This is a district benchmark. We have just learned what show-not-tell writing is and after practicing it with our groups, we have begun to write our setting sketch. Your writer has imagined through the writing process the 4 sense description of their main setting. Then, they wrote it into a short show-not-tell scene.

Grammar Shots: We’ve been exploring the English language through noticing and mimicking professional writers’ sentences that show us examples of certain sentence structures. We’ve discussed how we already speak English correctly (for the most part), but now we need to learn why our language is put together how it is– be able to explain the whys.

After practicing these structures, we apply them to our own writing (Grammar Shots Checks). Ask your student what the heck an AAAWWUBBIS Opener is! Or, ask them what the required ingredients of a sentence is! Currently, we’re learning how to add to a simple sentence by adding direct objects and/or prepositional phrases.

SOCIAL STUDIES: In the upcoming weeks, our students will be continuing their study of geography. So far, we have discussed the five themes of geography as well as the tools geographers use while doing their job. We are currently studying the way Earth is constantly changing. Eventually, we will be applying the information gained by creating our own countries. This project should begin shortly after the holidays.

Math : Our decimal unit includes some new technology use. We are excited about our “flipped” classroom. What used to be class instruction is now done at home and their homework is now class work. Some of the benefits to teaching and learning this way are: Students can access the instructional videos for review and clarification, parents can better see what we are studying, and the teacher is available for helping with the entire assignment.

SCIENCE: Our study of Energy went well. Students built a roller coaster and studied the energies required for a frog to jump from one lily pad to another. Our next unit will be geology. Students will be simulating the rock cycle using crayons. Using crayon shavings that represent sediments, they will be adding heat and pressure to show how our rock cycle is an ever-changing process.
We will be attending the IMAX movie Deep Sea 3-D on Wednesday, December 21st in connection with our studying of Biomes and Ecosystems. Please look for and return the permission slip by Wed. Dec. 14th.

Learning Connections: We have continued our weekly notebook in the month of December. As discussed at conferences, we are reviewing many grammar lessons that are key skills our students need before moving on to Middle School. It has amazed me how much our students know and how important the review of basic skills are before the students leave Cummings. As always, please make sure your student is studying their weekly spelling list!

In the spirit of Christmas, we realize that many of you like to give we teacher gifts. In place of this gift, we would ask that you consider donation to the Kids Care family of 2 children we’ve adopted for Christmas. Contact your child’s homeroom teacher for how you can be involved. A monetary donation can be made and someone will shop for any items not donated. We’d like all donations in by 12/16.  *See the Cummings 6th Grade Kids Care post for the complete list of items needed.

IMPORTANT DATES:

December  21st– Christmas Party: Afternoon (2pm); and  IMAX movie-Deep Sea 3-D: morning (9-11:30)

 December 22nd through January 2nd- Winter Break

 January 16th– No School (Teacher In-service)

Thanks to all our Volunteers!!

 Thanks for all the donation of cups, plates, sundae syrups, candy, hot cocoa, etc.!  I’m sure your child will agree; we are having  fun using them!

 Thanks to the amazing # who volunteered to help at our team’s first ice cream social!

Boy 12

Nerf Gun (or walmart gift card)
Coat Huskey 14
Bath Robe Huskey 12
Long sleeve shirts Huskey 14
Socks (7.5 shoe)
Socks (7.5 shoe)…yes I put it on here twice because he only has 1 pair right now
Boots 7.5 shoe
Pants Huskey 14
Pillow
Axe Body Spray/Wash
Irish Spring Soap
Best Buy gift Card
Mechanical Pencils
Gummy Bears
Chapstick

Girl 11

Brown Boots …size 6
Slipper Boots …size 6
Target Gift Card
Chapstick
Diary of Wimpy Kid…Do it Yourself
Walmart gift Card
Winter Coat …size 12
Hairbrush
Long sleeve shirts…size 10
Socks…size 6 shoe
Pillow
AAA batteries
Footie Pajamas…size 12