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