Newsletter

Friday September 11, 2015

Mrs. FischerLanguage Arts

We have been continuing with Lesson 4 and The ACES Phone
story. We practiced completing story structure maps to help us
with our comprehension. We also spent some time this week
practicing substantive conversations. This is a new concept for
the students, so we have discussing how to have a deep
conversation with others about different topics. We also took a little time out
of language arts to do some guidance lessons. We discussed identifying
perspectives and respectfully disagreeing. We will be finishing up with Lesson
4 and the students will be taking an assessment next Tuesday (Sept. 15)
over The ACES Phone story and the 10 vocabulary words from the story
(these are listed below).
Lesson 4:
Main selection: The ACES PHONE
Big Idea: We all need to communicate.
Essential Question: How might a character solve a problem by listening?
Target Skill: Story Structure
Target Strategy: Monitor/Clarify
Fluency: Rate
Vocabulary Strategies: prefixes de- and transTarget Vocabulary: clamor, torrent, clustered, doleful, swiveled, coaxed,
transmissions, accustomed, urgent, void
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Email: sara.fischer@indianola.k12.ia.us
Phone: 961-9530 ext. 3146

Library News-Mrs.Wanamaker
Karma.Wanamaker@indianola.k12.ia.us

Chat n Chew is a sixth grade book discussion group that meets once a
month during lunch time with Mrs. Wanamaker, the teacher-librarian and
Ms. Patrick, the childrens librarian from the public library. Students bring
their lunch and discuss their favorite books and what they are reading.
The first meeting will be on September 17th. Students can check the
posters in their language arts classes for more details or see Mrs.
Wanamaker if they have questions.
Mrs. Wanamaker has also been working with science students on parsing a query.
Ask your students what that means! We are researching the importance of different
types of science and how they affect our lives.

Second Step
This week, 6th graders will continue with the Second Step curriculum by participating in lessons 3 and 4.
Lesson 3 focuses on perspective taking in order to build healthy relationships. Perspective-taking also
helps students resolve conflicts. Students will learn how others perspectives differ from their own, and
will apply perspective-taking skills in group and partner activities. In lesson 4, students will learn how to
disagree respectfully. Disagreeing respectfully helps students strengthen relationships, avoid
misunderstandings, and prevent aggressive conflicts. Learning how to disagree respectfully also helps
students take a stand in their beliefs so they are able to avoid risky behavior. Students will apply skills
learned in this lesson in-class. Join www.secondstep.org with the activation key SSP6 FAMI LY12 to
watch videos about the Second Step program and get additional information about what your student is
learning.

Backpacks 4 Hunger
No Child Goes Hungry Over the Weekend
Sign up for Backpacks 4 Hunger- Food for over the weekend
Backpacks are filled Friday and sent home with meals and snacks for over the
weekend.
Backpacks and contents provided by donations and volunteers in the community of
Indianola.
ALL students are eligible.
TO SIGN UP: Contact 961-5755 or your School Counselor, Lacey Cherniss,
at 961-9530 X3106

Computers Ms. Petersen

Kathy.Petersen@indianola.k12.ia.us

In Computers, students should have logged into their Google Drive Accounts by now
and will be sharing their work with a partner. Students will evaluate themselves on
their keyboarding technique and will log into Infinite Campus.

Ms. Loneman Language Arts

This week students
took the STAR Reading Assessment
listened to and answered questions about the main selection, The ACES Phone
practiced working with the lessons vocabulary words
completed a story map for The ACES Phone
Next week students will
review for and take the lesson assessments
reflect upon their STAR Assessment results
practice their writing skills
edit and revise a paragraph they wrote in science class
Important Dates:
September 15thLesson 4 Vocabulary and Comprehension Tests
September 16thRequest to Retake sheets due (Reminder: Students are responsible
for requesting retakes and turning in the requests on this due date.)
September 17th and 18thRetakes offered at 7:30 and 3:30 on both of these days
Reminder:
The textbook can be accessed at home by following these steps:
1.
Go to: www-k6.thinkcentral.com.
2.
Enter the state, district, and school.
3.
Username: langarts
4.
Password: Indianola
5.
Click Log In.
6.
Click on My Library
7.
Click on Journeys Student eBook
Lesson 4:
Main selection: The ACES Phone
Big Idea: We all need to communicate.
Essential Question: How might a character solve a problem by listening?
Target Skill: Story structure Target Strategy: Monitor/Clarify
Fluency: Rate
Vocabulary Strategies: prefixes de- and transTarget Vocabulary: clamor, torrent, clustered, doleful, swiveled, coaxed, transmissions,
accustomed, urgent, void
Vocabulary Practice: tinyurl.com/lesson4vocab
Please feel free to contact me at any time with comments, questions, or concerns.
Email: melissa.loneman@indianola.k12.ia.us
Phone: 961-9530 ext. 3134
Twitter: @msloneman (twitter.com/msloneman)
Website: msloneman.weebly.com
Enjoy your weekend!

Social Studies-Mrs. Larsen

Connee.Larsen@indianola.k12.ia.us

We will be taking our first graded assessment over the World Map on
Wednesday, September 16 (ODD) and Thursday, September 17
(EVEN) Students should have a colored world map in their folders to
finish over the weekend and to use to study, and they may want to
look through their geo-journal as well. We will continue to add more
pages to our interactive Geo-Journal of geography facts which we will then assess in
a couple more weeks.

Math-Mrs. Vetter
alisha.vetter@indianola.k12.ia.us

Math 6
This week we continue our work with different data sets to find
the landmarks and Unit 1 in the Everyday Math book;
Collection, Display, and Interpretation of Data. Students
continued working with line plots and stem and leaf plots and
finding data landmarks (mean, median, mode and range) using
the line plots and stem and leaf plots. We also did work with line graphs, and bar
graphs as well as doing an activity reviewing Prime and Composite. Next week we
will continue with Unit 1 including work with Step graphs and circle graphs as well
as reviewing the other concepts we have already covered.
Math 6/7
This week we continued work on Unit 1 in the Big Ideas book-Numerical
Expressions and Factors. Many students have already come in to retake their
Chapter 1.1-1.3 Quiz. Please check with your student to see if they still need to do
that. Not all students needed to retake. We also finished up the Chapter this week.
Students will take a quiz over Lessons 1.4-1.6 on Tuesday 9/15 of next week.
Concepts on the quiz include Prime Factorization, Greatest Common Factor (GCF)
and Least Common Multiple (LCM). We will also review for the Chapter Test which
students will take Thursday 9/17 of next week.
Math 7/8
From Mr. Westerly6th grade students taking math 7-8 Students will be working
on one and two-step equations and finding their solutions. First book assignments
will be given and first quiz should be next Thursday(17 th).
Please contact me with any questions or concerns.
Phone: 961-9530 ext. 3147
Have a super weekend!

Box Tops
Send to school anytime! Collection tubs are located in
Language Arts rooms
and main office.

Science Mrs.Simpson
Dorisa.Simpson@indianola.k12.ia.us

We have been working on parsing a query. Ask your students what that means!
We also researched the importance of different types of science and how they affect
our lives. Students had over 60 minutes of time to research during class. They will
need to finish researching on their own time, if they are not done during class.
Students will also need to complete the back of the sheet as homework, due
Monday/Tuesday, in preparation for a class discussion.

Art-Mrs. Smith
lisa.smith@indianola.k12.ia.us

Art Class website: www.artinspiredbylife.com

This week 6th graders have been studying the elements of art and how the elements
relate to their artwork. Students continue to work on their square1art designs.
Target Goals for this project are below:
1. I am able to recognize and describe the elements of art I used in my
artwork
2. I can apply contrast so my artwork stands out from a distance
3. I can create a unique and original artwork that reflects the interests
of the person this design was made for
4. I can refine my work to create good craftsmanship (neatness in the
coloring and edges, making correct media choices)
Some students volunteered to create dots for International Dot Day and a few art classes
participated in this. The dots that were made will either be displayed at the Indianola Public
Library or Studio Fusco in Indianola.

Upcoming week: We will complete SQ1art and begin a still life drawing unit, which
they will learn all the tricks in drawing objects realistically. Students need to
complete the first section of their vocabulary packet labeled Elements of Art. We
will go over these in class next week.
Sixth Grade Redo/Retake Policy
As a sixth grade, students will be expected to retake an assessment or redo a project/paper if they are
not proficient.

Students who are proficient may choose to retake the assessment or redo a project/paper to improve
their score.
Students are required to make arrangements for retaking/redoing with the content teacher.

Secure = 80%-100%
Nearly Secure = 70%-79.99%
Developing = 40%-69.99%
Beginning = 0%-39.99%

Secure and Nearly Secure are proficient