Weekly Update April 13-17

Announcements:

-Math Study Group:  There will be NO group this Thursday, April 16th. Looking ahead, there will be group Thursday, April 23rd and Thursday, April 30th. 


-Visiting Author: Buck Wilder will be at Gibraltar this Monday, April 13th! He is the author of the series Buck Wilder Adventures, and many more titles! The message he hopes to get across to students is that it is ok to make mistakes as well as how we can learn from them!

-Vaccines: The Public Health Dept. will be at Gibraltar this Tuesday, April 14th for 6th grade student vaccinations.

-Report Cards: Quarter 3 report cards are expected to go home on Wednesday, April 15th.


-JDRF Kids Walk: Our class is so excited to organize the annual JDRF Kids Walk. JDRF's goal is to improve the lives of individuals with type 1 diabetes all while finding the cure. We are partnering with a JDRF representative and have already had one Skype call with her to begin planning. Your child is on a specific planning committee. We will be working on this in class, but somethings may also need to be done at home. I will keep you updated on our progress! The walk is tentatively planned for the end of May. 


What are we learning???

Math:
This week, we will be covering the following topics in math class: order of operations, identifying parts of a number sentence, solving simple equations, and balancing expressions with the pan-balance strategy. As always, I will be updating the Student Links page with games and lessons to review these skills at home. The Unit 6 test and written response will be April 23-24.

Science:
The students will be exploring how much energy they use as a Wisconsinite, American, as well as a global citizen. They will also be thinking critically about current energy issues and use their opinion backed by research to debate with classmates. There will be a quiz on Wednesday, April 15th covering everything we've learned thus far for this unit. On Friday, we will have a guest speaker who will talk about various science-related jobs in the medical field. He is also a Type 1 Diabetic and will share his personal experiences to give us a better understanding of the diagnosis as we continue our planning for the JDRF walk.

ELA:

The students did a fantastic job teaching the 4th graders different poetry styles and analysis techniques last week! I was extremely proud of the way they interacted and taught their younger peers! One 4th grader even asked, "When will we go back to the 6th grade class for another activity?".
For poetry this week, we will be analyzing and discussing three poems: I’m Nobody by Emily Dickinson, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, and Dream Keeper /Dreams by Langston Hughes. On Friday, we will be writing All About Me poems.


Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Ball

mball@gibraltar.k12.wi.us