Important Dates
Nov. 26-27 No School
School Wide Book Drive/Food Drive
The student council will be leading our annual children’s book and food pantry drive next week. They are asking 5th grade to bring in VERY good used children’s books to donate to the First Lutheran Food Pantry and other places (5th graders may certainly also bring in food items as well). The 6th-8th grade will focus on donating food pantry items. The kids can bring their food items or books to their primetime (homeroom) teacher. Information will be given out to the students next week.
Are you snow ready?
Colder temperatures are here and snow is coming. We continue to go outside each day for recess (unless it is raining or unless the temps are below zero) so your child should dress appropriately for the weather. Once we have snow on the ground- students will follow these guidelines:
-if a student wants to play in the snow (make snow men, go down the slide, etc.), they must have on both snow pants and snow boots
Celebrate History Writing Contest
The local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is sponsoring the annual Celebrate History Essay Writing Contest. One winning essay from this area will advance to the state level. Local winner will receive a certificate and a medal.
This year’s topic: “March 22, 2015 marked the 250th anniversary of the Stamp Act. Passed by the British Parliament in 1765, this new tax required all colonists to pay a tax on every printed piece of paper they used. The Stamp Act was viewed by the colonists as “taxation without representation.” Describe a colonial family’s discussion about the new Stamp Act and what role it played in organizing the colonists against the British King and Parliament.”
Requirements: Grade 5: 300-600 words/Grades 6-8: 600-1,000 words. Essays must be typed and include a bibliography of sources used. Deadline for the essay to be submitted to Mrs. Nowack is January 7, 2016.
The Old Creamery Theater 2016 Writing Contest
Each year students are encouraged to participate in the Old Creamery Theatre writing contest. Students are invited to write a creative, original story about a character or characters that learn a lesson involving one or more of the Six Pillars (Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship). The selected winners will receive gift cards up to $100 and become the basis for Character Chronicles, a show that will be seen by tens of thousands of students all over Iowa (including Decorah Community Schools). Please visit the following website for requirements, story writing tips, and information about how to enter the contest. All entries must be postmarked or emailed no later than January 15, 2016.
Tech Tip of the Week
Nov. 26-27 No School
School Wide Book Drive/Food Drive
The student council will be leading our annual children’s book and food pantry drive next week. They are asking 5th grade to bring in VERY good used children’s books to donate to the First Lutheran Food Pantry and other places (5th graders may certainly also bring in food items as well). The 6th-8th grade will focus on donating food pantry items. The kids can bring their food items or books to their primetime (homeroom) teacher. Information will be given out to the students next week.
Are you snow ready?
Colder temperatures are here and snow is coming. We continue to go outside each day for recess (unless it is raining or unless the temps are below zero) so your child should dress appropriately for the weather. Once we have snow on the ground- students will follow these guidelines:
- without snow boots, students will remain on shoveled sidewalks only
- snow boots are not to be worn all day long; students must bring other shoes to wear
-if a student wants to play in the snow (make snow men, go down the slide, etc.), they must have on both snow pants and snow boots
Celebrate History Writing Contest
The local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is sponsoring the annual Celebrate History Essay Writing Contest. One winning essay from this area will advance to the state level. Local winner will receive a certificate and a medal.
This year’s topic: “March 22, 2015 marked the 250th anniversary of the Stamp Act. Passed by the British Parliament in 1765, this new tax required all colonists to pay a tax on every printed piece of paper they used. The Stamp Act was viewed by the colonists as “taxation without representation.” Describe a colonial family’s discussion about the new Stamp Act and what role it played in organizing the colonists against the British King and Parliament.”
Requirements: Grade 5: 300-600 words/Grades 6-8: 600-1,000 words. Essays must be typed and include a bibliography of sources used. Deadline for the essay to be submitted to Mrs. Nowack is January 7, 2016.
The Old Creamery Theater 2016 Writing Contest
Each year students are encouraged to participate in the Old Creamery Theatre writing contest. Students are invited to write a creative, original story about a character or characters that learn a lesson involving one or more of the Six Pillars (Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship). The selected winners will receive gift cards up to $100 and become the basis for Character Chronicles, a show that will be seen by tens of thousands of students all over Iowa (including Decorah Community Schools). Please visit the following website for requirements, story writing tips, and information about how to enter the contest. All entries must be postmarked or emailed no later than January 15, 2016.
Tech Tip of the Week
NEWS FLASH!!
From Mr. Peterson: In science we had a quick quiz on chemical and physical changes and the law of conservation of matter. Our goal has been to introduce some key vocabulary, but to spend some time this unit on how scientists construct scientific arguments, too. The quiz reflects some of that thinking about how evidence operates in science. In reading, we are studying informational text. In 1st hour we’ve been looking at how to research a topic using questions. We’ve spent some time paraphrasing and learning how to take notes. We had a short quiz on main idea/details and summarizing. You can see the results on your child’s Schoology account. In writing we are using those notes to craft a text that teaches and explains.
From Mrs. Nowack: Please continue to have your child make observations of the moon (and document this on their calendars). This week’s learning in science class focused on Earth’s movements, how/why shadows change, and stars! In reading class, students finished and presented their Keynote presentations as well as continued to read their guided reading books. You should see your child reading about 20-30 min/night. This week in language class, we have continued with summarizing.
From Mrs. Suhr:
Social Studies Alive! books are due to be returned!!!! - In Mrs. Suhr’s social studies classes, we have a classroom set of textbooks. These books are allowed to be checked out when students need to finish homework at home. All of my extra texts have been checked out, and there are none left to be checked out by other students. Please check at home to see if your child has one of these texts and send it back to school. Thanks in advance!
Social Studies - Next week students will be starting Chapter 6 in our text on early European settlements in North America.
Language - We will be starting a unit on Historical Fiction next week.
I will be sharing information about the Old Creamery Theatre writing in class next week.
From Mrs. Halweg: This week we reviewed the skills we learned during the first two math units this school year. If your student received a 1 or 2 on their rubric, they met with me in a small group to review and practice these skills. They then completed a mini assessment to demonstrate their understanding of the concepts. We will continue this next week with units 3 and 4.
From Mr. Kelley: This week we used the Scholastic website titled “The First Thanksgiving”. http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/. The students were immersed in videos, articles, and primary source artifacts centered around this time period. We wrote a letter to imaginary pen pals in another country explaining the story of Thanksgiving. As we come back from break, students will begin studying the three early colonial regions.
From Mr. Peterson: In science we had a quick quiz on chemical and physical changes and the law of conservation of matter. Our goal has been to introduce some key vocabulary, but to spend some time this unit on how scientists construct scientific arguments, too. The quiz reflects some of that thinking about how evidence operates in science. In reading, we are studying informational text. In 1st hour we’ve been looking at how to research a topic using questions. We’ve spent some time paraphrasing and learning how to take notes. We had a short quiz on main idea/details and summarizing. You can see the results on your child’s Schoology account. In writing we are using those notes to craft a text that teaches and explains.
From Mrs. Nowack: Please continue to have your child make observations of the moon (and document this on their calendars). This week’s learning in science class focused on Earth’s movements, how/why shadows change, and stars! In reading class, students finished and presented their Keynote presentations as well as continued to read their guided reading books. You should see your child reading about 20-30 min/night. This week in language class, we have continued with summarizing.
From Mrs. Suhr:
Social Studies Alive! books are due to be returned!!!! - In Mrs. Suhr’s social studies classes, we have a classroom set of textbooks. These books are allowed to be checked out when students need to finish homework at home. All of my extra texts have been checked out, and there are none left to be checked out by other students. Please check at home to see if your child has one of these texts and send it back to school. Thanks in advance!
Social Studies - Next week students will be starting Chapter 6 in our text on early European settlements in North America.
Language - We will be starting a unit on Historical Fiction next week.
I will be sharing information about the Old Creamery Theatre writing in class next week.
From Mrs. Halweg: This week we reviewed the skills we learned during the first two math units this school year. If your student received a 1 or 2 on their rubric, they met with me in a small group to review and practice these skills. They then completed a mini assessment to demonstrate their understanding of the concepts. We will continue this next week with units 3 and 4.
From Mr. Kelley: This week we used the Scholastic website titled “The First Thanksgiving”. http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/. The students were immersed in videos, articles, and primary source artifacts centered around this time period. We wrote a letter to imaginary pen pals in another country explaining the story of Thanksgiving. As we come back from break, students will begin studying the three early colonial regions.