Mrs. Hughes' Blog

September Book Report for Sixth Grade

BOOK JACKETS
Students will be given a piece of construction paper with instructions to fold the paper as if it’s a hard cover book jacket. On the “cover” of the book jacket, the student will illustrate a cover for their report. The cover picture will be a scene from the book. You are not allowed to use or copy the original cover. Write the name of the book, along with the name of the author on the cover. On the inside flap, the student will write a description of the main character of the story. On the inside back flap, the student will write a description of the setting of the story. On the back cover, the student will write a summary of their story. They are not to copy any part of the original book jacket for this report. Write your name on the back cover. The student must have the original book with them when they present this book report on September 26th.
Remember that neatness is an important part of your project.

6th grade reading will have a reading test on Monday. The students should read OLD YELLER prior to the test on Monday. A review of the vocabulary words that are in their notebook will help them. The students were given the essay questions to work on at home. They may use their book and bring the essay answers to the test. The essay questions and answers should be neat and written on looseleaf paper then stapled to the test. If they forget to do the essays over the weekend, then they will not be able to use their book on the test day to complete the essays.

5th grade religion will have a test on Chapter 1 on Wednesday. The students should bring their text book home along with their religion notebook. All the information they will need is located in the notes that they have taken in class. Review the chapter prior to the test. We will be playing a game on Tuesday to help review for the test on Wednesday.

What was the real reason Travis hushed when Mama told him that Arliss had not yet told any lie as big as Travis ever told?

Name one way that the time and place in which Travis lived affected him.

What is one lesson the author would like readers to learn from this story?

You may use your textbook to help write the essay. All answers must be in paragraph form using correct spelling and puncuation. Neatness counts! Please write your answers on looseleaf papaer. Thank you.

Write the essay answers on a half piece of paper or index card. You may bring this answer to the test on Wednesday.

Identify 2 things that the wonders of God's creation teach us about God.
Example: When I look at a beautiful waterful, I see that God loves me by creating this.

Describe 3 ways that you can show respect for God's creation.

We will be reading "Mother Fletcher's Gifts" on Monday. Workbook pages 16 and 18 will also be used to enhance our lesson. On Wednesday and Thursday, we will travel to the computer lab to work on a project about the "Harlem Renaissance". This idea ties in with our the story that we read this week. Each partner group will pick an artist from the early 1900's who was part of the renaissance in Harlem. They will find paintings of the artist and create a short report on their artist. They will present the project on Friday.

The fifth grade class will be picking up their drawing materials and drawing their own portrait of Pope Pius X and will be writing a thank you note to him for lowering the age of communion so more people can enjoy this special sacrament.
We will identify the sacraments of Initiation, Healing and Service. They will create a pictoral account of the sacrament and the symbols for each.
We will end the week in a story about forgiveness from Luke 15:11-32. I have a feeling the kids will want to act out this story since it's an activity they often ask to do.
Did you ask your child about the aliens that landed at SJF?

My name is Mike Kozek, and in addition to being on the Fisherfest committee, I have a son in 5th grade, Brian. My reason for writing you today is to let you know about what Fisherfest is doing to provide recycling opportunities and how the students can help, with your assistance.

Every year Fisherfest goes through hundreds of cases of pop, which translates into thousands of aluminum cans over a 3 day period. What we are hoping to do is have students that will already be at the fest over the weekend collect, clean and crush empty cans that can be turned into a recycling center after the fest. I am willing to coordinate the effort on the Fisherfest side of things as far as directing the students where to take the cans to be cleaned, crushed and bagged. High school students will also be available to help with the effort.

Once the fest is over I will take the cans to the recycling center in Alsip and all proceeds may be put toward the 5th grade trip to Springfield in the spring.

I admit to being biased by having a 5th grade student, but I think this is something that can help Fisherfest, the 5th grade class and the enviornment with little effort and great reward for all involved.

If you have any questions, suggestions or ideas, please do not hesitate to contact me at mikekozek@sbcglobal.net, home 773-445-6936 or cell 773-641-2132.

If you do not think this is a good idea or do not want the 5th grade to participate, that is fine, please let me know that as well.

Thanks for your time.

Mike Kozek

5th grade students can sign up for a 30 minutes time slot any day of the fest. Please let me know by tomorrow what time and day that they will help.
Thanks.
Mrs. Hughes

Welcome to the Cotton Club!
The sixth grade students will perform a variety show in reading class on Friday. They were assigned artist, musicians and poets who were influenced by the Harlem Renaissance. This activity has followed the reading of the story, "Mother Fletcher's Gift".

In religion, we will be studying the beatitudes (Chapter 3). The students will be role playing situations that help them to see how living the beatitudes in their lives will help them find true happiness.
Starting this Friday, we will begin to use a magazine called, "Venture". This is a great magazine that relates directly to the gospel readings for the weekend. There are interesting stories, games and plays that the children will enjoy. We call this "Venture Friday".
Next week, we will be listening to a book on CD. The story is called, "Number the Stars". I think that this story ties in beautifully with living the beatitudes.
Monday-Textbook pages 27-29
Tuesday-Textbook pages 30-31
Wednesday-Role Play
Thursday-Textbook pages 32-33
Friday-Venture Friday

We will spend the week preparing to read "Saving the Rain Forest". We will have a spelling pretest on Tuesday.
Spelling
Monday-pgs. 13-14
Tuesday-page 15/Pretest
Wednesday-page 16
Thursday-spelling test for those who did not receive a 100% on Tuesday
Reading
Monday-Listening activity
Tuesday-Fact and opinion page 88 and 89 in textbook Design a graphic organizer in order to identify valid and faulty statements. Workbook page 33
Wednesday-Design a KWL chart about the topic "rainforest"
Textbook pages 90-91 Vocabulary words
Design a jumble game using the vocabulary words from this selection
1. Make a list of lesson vocabulary words
2. Scramble the letters
3.. Write a clue for each scrambled word based on the definition
Thursday-Exchange scrambles with a friend
Workbook pages 34, 35 and 38
Write a weather report for a tropical area using as many words as possible from the vocabulary of the story. You should describe real and believable weather patterns for the tropics. The reports will be presented to the class.
Friday-BOOK REPORTS ARE DUE
Students will present their book reports to class.

As mentioned in the previous blog, the students will be listening to the story, Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry. This story ties in beautifully with our studies of the Beatitudes. The story is about a ten year old girl and her best friend. It's 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching in their town. The Jews of Denmark are being "relocated" and one of the girls moves in with her friend and pretends to be part of the family. Then one character in the story is asked to go on a dangerous mission. Somehow she must find the strength and courage to save her best friend's life. There's no turning back for her.
The story will take two hours to listen to the entire novel. We will listen each day for 20 minutes. We will do different activities each day. The students will also be introduced to new vocabulary too.
Activities
Monday-Using a map of Europe, the children will locate Copenhagen, Sweden, Germany and Poland Norway, Finland, Russia, North Sea, and the Baltic Sea.
The students will research (for homework) what the celebration of Rosh Hashana is and write a paragraph to describe it. Both the map and paragraph will be put into the folder they will make to keep their activites in place. The children will also enjoy sweets in class since sweets are eaten on the New Year so that the New Year will be sweet as honey.
Tuesday-Students will learn about the Star of David and will research (homework) what this symbol means to the Jewish people. They will draw their own Star of David and write the answer to their homework under the star. The students will also learn the story of the Struma project. They will complete a journal entry as if they were one of the Jews on board that boat.
Wednesday-We will have a delicate discussion about the Holocaust with the students. We will also discuss a bit of Nordic Mythology. We will also talk about the use of dogs to assist soldiers in war.
Thursday- We will look at the story of Little Red Riding Hood and design a web diagram to compare both the stories. We will also discuss symbols that people use to show hate.
Friday-After the completion of the novel, we will play a game of Jeopardy using the characters from the story in a game.
What an interesting week in Religion.