Egypt Night This Tuesday

Hello Otter Families,

We are now officially into our second half of the school year. Last Monday marked the beginning of the third quarter. Grades for the second quarter have been finalized and you should receive report cards in the mail shortly. Our second quarter awards assembly is tentatively scheduled for Friday, February 18, at 1:15 p.m. All students who earned a grade point average of 3.0 or above will be recognized. Please join us to honor our academic achievements if you can.

Believe it or not, it is already time to think about seventh grade. Our students will meet with our counselor, Mrs. Bretz, this Friday to hear what seventh grade has to offer. They will bring home registration forms which must be returned as soon as possible.

This Tuesday, February 1, will be 6th grade Egypt Night. This is an open house event held from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Dartmouth cafeteria. Please feel free to arrive at any time and to stay as long as you like. Egypt Night is a great opportunity for the kids to show off their work and for our families to socialize. Thank you to the many Otter parents who helped us transform the cafeteria into an Egyptian Museum on Saturday. It is always fun to work side by side with our many willing parents to make this event happen. All 6th grade families are invited to attend this exciting culmination of our study of ancient Egypt. Students will have an opportunity to earn extra credit in Language Arts by introducing their family members to Mrs. Lescroart and Mrs. Shimamoto, and in Social Studies by dressing in an ancient Egyptian costume. Extra credit grades will be added to Powerschool at the end of the quarter. I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday night.

Last Thursday we had an enjoyable and educational day at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. The students were able to see authentic artifacts and mummies from ancient Egypt. We had a wonderful docent led tour and I was so proud of the kids when they were able to answer almost all of the questions that were posed to them. They have really learned a great deal about this fascinating civilization. Thank you to our many Otter moms and dads who volunteered to chaperone and so willingly shared their day with us.

In math we are now studying ratios and proportions. This topic is closely related to our study of fractions and we are learning about its applications in real-life situations. This week we will finish the unit and a test will be coming shortly.

In regards to this blog, I like to know that someone is reading it and that writing it is a worthwhile endeavor. If you are a regular reader, please leave a comment. I would really appreciate your input.

Thank you so much for all you do to help our team and for all the support that you give your children. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

See you on Tuesday night.

Mrs. Shimamoto

HELP!!! Sixth Grade Needs YOU

Egypt Night is just around the corner and we still needs lots of volunteers. If you can help on Friday, January 28, Saturday, January 29, Monday, January 31 or Tuesday, February 1, we'd certainly appreciate it. You can sign up on our wikispaces page. Click on the Egypt Night link (in blue) and sign up wherever you can.

Thanks for all of your support.

Mrs. Shimamoto

Egypt Here We Come

Hello Otter Families,

The second quarter of school is rapidly coming to a close. As of this Friday, January 21, we will be halfway done with the school year! We have been very busy with lots of activities related to our study of ancient Egypt. This past Friday, we were treated to an Art Vistas lesson on Egyptian art and studied artifacts from King Tutankhamen's tomb. Thank you to Mrs. Bayerle for presenting the lesson and to the many parents who stepped in to help with the hands-on project.

On Wednesday, January 19, the Egypt projects are due. This is a major assignment, which must be turned in on time. Students will share their projects with the class in a small group setting. All projects will be graded this week and will be posted in this quarter's social studies grade. Failure to turn in a project will drastically affect the grade. On the other hand, a well-done project can significantly boost the grade.

Our field trip to the Rosicrucian Museum will be on Thursday, January 27. Permission slips were due last Friday. If your child has not returned his/her form, please have him/her do so AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. The cost of the trip is $20 for admission and transportation. Please send in your money as soon as you can. If this creates a hardship for your family, please let me know and pay what you can. If you would like more information regarding this trip click on the link in the right hand margin of the blog. Thank you to those of you who have signed up to chaperone the trip. Mrs. Lescroart and I will assign students to small groups, which will include the chaperone's child (unless you would prefer not to have your child in your group) and at least one friend of his/her choosing .

Egypt Night will take place on Tuesday, February 1 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. We will spend Saturday morning setting up the kiosks (display boards) in the cafeteria. On Monday morning and afternoon and Tuesday morning, parent volunteers will continue to work on the displays. We will need many adult hands to get the job done. If you would like to volunteer, please click on our sixth grade wikispace and then click on Egypt Night in the left hand margin.

Last Friday, we took our second quarter math benchmark exam. The results of this test are now posted on Powerschool. I am happy to report that 85% of our team scored proficient or advanced! On Monday, we will begin our study of ratios and proportions, which is an extension of our study of fraction concepts. For this chapter, in order to meet the needs of all students, we will do a pretest to determine prior knowledge. If a student scores 80% or above on the pretest, he or she may choose to do a challenge assignment in lieu of the regular homework assignment. All students will still be required to take the weekly assessments as well as the end of chapter test.

This week marks the end of our optional team fundraiser. All proceeds will be used to enhance programs this year. Many thanks to those of you who chose to participate. If you have decided not to participate in the fundraiser but would still like to support the team, you may make a donation in any amount by writing a check to Dartmouth Middle School with Otters written in the memo line. Thanks in advance for your continuing support.

I am looking forward to seeing all of you at Egypt Night.

Mrs. Shimamoto

January 9

Hello Otter Families,

We are now one week into 2011. The kids have done a surprisingly good job of picking up where we left off in December. There were a lot of sleepy kids and it was a little rough on Monday, but the rest of the week went pretty smoothly. Hopefully you all had a relaxing time with family and friends during the holiday.

In previous posts I mentioned that our field trip to the Rosicrucian Museum was scheduled for January 20. As it turns out, I was a week off and our trip will be on January 27th. We will need several chaperones that day. If you are interested in chaperoning, please sign up on our wikispaces page.

In Social Studies we are continuing our study of Egypt. All students should be working on their projects at home at this time. The due date is Wednesday, January 19th, but students who bring in their project on Tuesday, January 18th will earn extra credit. Egypt projects will be a major grade and will be included in the second quarter report card. This week, I will also collect and grade the Social Studies notebooks. This will also be an important grade as there are many homework assignments that have been included in the notebook.

In math, we have just finished the chapter on number concepts (fractions and decimals). Last Friday's quiz covered decimal operations, metric conversion, and algebraic equations with decimals. Current quiz grades are now posted on Powerschool. This week, we will prepare for the second quarter district-wide benchmark exam, which the kids will take at the end of the week.

On Friday, we will be treated to our second Art Vistas lesson. We will study Egyptian art in connection with our Social Studies unit. We could use several adult hands to help us with the hands-on project. If you are available after 1:00, please join us. You can sign up on our wikispaces page.

Don't forget that next Monday is Martin Luther King's birthday. It is a day-off from school.

Egypt Night is scheduled for Tuesday, February 1. This is an open house event, where students will showcase their fabulous Egypt Projects. It is a fun night where you can see what the kids have done as well as an opportunity to socialize with other sixth grade families. We will definitely need volunteers to help with set-up and clean-up. Your child will bring home a flyer soon with more information.

As always, thanks for all of your support.

Mrs. Shimamoto

Happy New Year

After a long absence, the Otter Blog returns! Sorry for the lapse.

We ended 2010 with our exciting Gingerbread house project. A good time was had by all. Thanks to the many parents who made this event possible. We could not have done it without you!

I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing two week holiday. It was a little difficult to get back into the swing of things but after one day, we are back to business as usual.

January will be a busy month for the sixth grade. The kids should have finished their Egypt reports in Mrs. Lescroart's class. Now, they should be working on their accompanying project at home. This project is an important part of the social studies grade so please make sure that your child does not wait until the last minute. Projects are due on Wednesday, January 17.

We have scheduled our annual field trip to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum for Thursday, January 20. I will send a permission slip home soon. We will need about a dozen chaperones for this trip. The children will ride the bus to the museum and chaperones will meet us there. In the past, chaperones have gathered at school and have formed carpools to drive over to the museum. If you are interested in chaperoning, I will have a sign-up on our wikispace page later this week.

Egypt Night is also just around the corner. This evening event will be held on Tuesday, February 1. We will need lots of adult help with set up and clean up. Your child will bring home a flyer with more information in the coming weeks. Sign-ups will be on our wikispaces page.

In math, we are finally finishing our chapter on fractions and decimals. We will have our weekly quiz on Friday, and will finish up with the district benchmark assessment next Friday. The purpose of the benchmark is to assess mastery of sixth grade level concepts to date.

As always, thank you for your continuing support.

Mrs. Shimamoto