Lewis and Clark or Industrial Revolution?

Sixth graders have been learning about our country's westward expansion and have learned about the great adventures that a large group of men and one, strong woman took in the early 1800s.  Be sure to ask them about the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  This week, they will learn about the Industrial Revolution in America, and then they will complete a project on one of these American events or times.  They will decide which holds more interest for them, and they will also have some say with the project itself.  Either way, all students will take home a recipe from the 1800s to prepare and share with their classmates.  I have a couple of authentic recipes from which the students may choose.  We will have our 1800s feast Tuesday, December 18th.  I have encouraged the students to be adventurous, as Lewis and Clark were, and taste each of the dishes.  Naturally, this activity is meant to expand their horizons and understanding of the time period, but special diets or allergies will be honored.

The sixth graders also spent time this week honing their proofreading skills and increasing their grammar knowledge.  This small grammar unit which included comma rules, homophones, contractions "tricky" words like a lot versus alot will culminate with a quiz on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

Here is a web site that features a fun Lewis and Clark Expedition game.  Try it to see if you have the knowledge and skills to survive a trip from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean and back again!  "O the Joy!"


http://www.nationalgeographic.com/west/

Wacky Word of the Week: Lugubrious

lugubrious
(adj) Looking or sounding sad and dismal.

Synonyms

mournful - sad - dismal - gloomy - doleful - funereal

Courtesy of MHS

The Big Turkey by CL and LC

Almost every week different classes "lead" an event called Community Meeting. Usually, classes share what they are doing in class, or what they did on a certain field trip. This year, the sixth grade decided that they wanted to recreate a play the kindergartners usually do every year called the "Big Pumpkin". We choose the Big Pumpkin because for some reason, the Kindergardeners didn't do the cute little play about Halloween this year, and we wanted to keep the tradition going. But, instead of making it exactly like the original, we decided to retell the story with a Thanksgiving theme because it was around that time. First, we rewrote the script, using the original songs and lines, but twisting them so they can be Thanksgiving related. Then, everyone picked their parts, got their costumes, and we all started to practice. During this process, someone thought of an idea to make a song to go with it, and we would sing it at the end. We all thought it was a great idea and we created a song, and we created a dance to go with it. The song was called "Gobble Gobble Style." It was based of the popular song,"Gangnam Style," by the artist, PSY. The impressive part about this process was that we were able to do all of this in about 2-3 days. On the first day, we had no idea, and on Friday we sold it! When we presented it in front of everyone, they loved it and all the kids were humming "Gobble Gobble Style" for the rest of the day. Then the following Tuesday, we presented it in front of the Grandparents on Grandparents' Day, they loved it. We had a great time thinking about the ideas and picking the parts! 

If you would like to see our skit, please check it out here! 





Written and report by CL and LC.

Wacky Word of the Week: Formidable

Formidable 
(adj) Inspiring fear or respect through being impressively large, powerful, intense, or capable.

example: "a formidable opponent"; "the challenge was formidable"

Courtesy of CS

Word of the Week

Back in September, MDS taught me a new term, "caddywhompus" while we were stacking chairs in the auditorium. I was tickled by the term and shared it with the class. We decided we would try to use the word throughout the day. That turn of events has lead to the sixth grade's "Wacky Word of the Week." We have a box where anyone can deposit words and once a week, we pull a new word. Our goal is to use it in our daily lives and we acknowledge each other when we do so successfully. This is something we all enjoy and grew organically out of their interest in words.

Here is a list of the previous words of the week:

1) caddywhompus
2) yokefellow
3) sundry
4) vivacious
5) erinaceous

We will attempt to post the word of the week for all of you who would like to play along!

USA Flag

Earlier this year, the sixth grade class was talking about flags and how countries used them to symbolize common history or events that the country had experienced.  I took the class to the flagpole and we realized that TCS was not flying a flag.  Upon investigation, we learned that we had not flown a flag for quite some time, and in fact, our school needed to purchase a new flag.  As a result, we have a new flag and are now responsible for putting it up and taking it down each day.  We learned how to fold the flag properly and how to raise and lower it on the pole.  Here is a picture of our new TCS flag!

SNAPSHOT: CPR on 15 Nov 2012

 Circle of Power and Respect is the way we start our day in the NMY. It is a vital component in our program and allows us to create community, deal with issues, discuss life skills and to have some fun. At this point in the year, the sixth graders are running our circles. They are leading us in a greeting, discussion/share, and an activity. They must manage their time, their classmates and keep the circle flowing. They try on different leadership styles and find what works best for them. We also give each other feedback on how the circle was run and ways to improve for our next circle.

Today, MG lead us in an exciting and unique CPR. He designed his whole CPR around using the giant parachute from PE class as his theme. We all enjoyed the new environment and applauded his creativity and planning. This is our second well-run student meeting and I am excited to see what else the students in store for the coming weeks!

Community Meeting Film and Latest Explorations

Hello from Film and Photography.  It's been a busy month.  If you have not been following on TCSfilm tumblr, take a look at all our work from:

Week 4: "Why, Why, Why?"

Week 5: "Screenings and Specifics" - and if you want to see those films again, they are posted as well:

Train Arriving at La Ciotat, The Imp, Street Scene, R's Keystone Cops

Week 6 "Set Patter" and "Montage"

Week 7 "Wok Talk"

Week 8 "Scriptwriting and Editing"

Week 9  "Day for Night" and "Congratulations to AQ"

Also, if you missed our presentation at community meeting, or just want to see it again, here is our compilation film.

Community Meeting October 2012 from NMY FILM on Vimeo.

Enjoy, and see you next week.

SNAPSHOT: Science 7 Nov 12

I had a fun today with the sixth graders trying to answer two questions: what is a volt? what is a watt? It may sound peculiar to call this "fun," but it is what I love about my job. The class was asked to do some homework to explore and find their own definitions of these terms. What came back were very intense Google/Wikipedia answers. We put them up on the board and we took them apart word by word until we had constructed our own understanding of the terms. I came up with a strangely useful analogy using football and one of our wonderful seventh graders, AH. We learned, we laughed, we wrestled with complex concepts and walked away more knowledgeable, thoughtful and content with a class well spent. 

Thank you, sixth grade for a great class!

SNAPSHOT: Science 30 Oct 12

Excited about Circuits
 The class jumped feet first into exploring electricity. We defined what electricity is and then looked at the two types of electricity: static and current electricity. Developing an understanding of these categories, the students were eager to get into the lab and get their hands on some electrical equipment. Students have had several class to experiment and dig up their understanding of how circuits work. They were challenged to make various circuits: two-battery circuits, parallel and series circuits, and circuits with motors.