Sixth Grade

Welcome to Sixth Grade!

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Supply List for the 2011-12 School Year

6th Grade Supply List 2011-12

School News:

Mustang Express

Important Dates to Remember:

• January 27th - MP Revue MOVED TO March 2nd at LDS Church next to WHS
• February 3rd- Irvine Junior Games Registration due (Late Registration is accepted)
• February 6th - 10th - Parent - Teacher Conference Week (Students out of school at 1:00PM)
• February 13th - No School (Lincoln's Birthday)
• February 20th - No School (Washington's Birthday)
• February 21st– Restaurant Night -BJ's Restaurant at 13130 Jamboree Road, Irvine, CA 92602.
• February 23th - Open House (Minimum Day Students out at 1:00)
• March 2 - MP Revue (Talent Show) at LDS Church next to WHS
• March 27th– Restaurant Night- Islands Restaurant in Woodbridge

OSS Forms and Money

Please send in the OSS forms and payments as soon as possible. If you need another form, please visit the camp website at www.thehightrailsway.com to print them off. We have an option to assist families who might need some financial support in order for their child to attend OSS. We ask that you contact our principal, Ms. Livernois, by Friday, January 27, 2012 if you think you will need assistance. Please call 949-936-5900 or stop by the front office and Debbie will make a short appointment for you. Below is just a reminder of the payment due dates:

Full Payment of $300.00 with your check made out to IUSD due by Friday, March 2, 2012. Or an optional payment plan of 3 payments of $100.00 due on:

o   Friday, January 13th
o   Friday,  February 3rd
o   Friday, March 2nd

Jog-a-thon Gift Baskets

Letter to Parents for Jog A Thon

• This year, the PTA will be coordinating gift basket raffles in which ALL children that meet the minimum donation of $40 will have a chance to win.

• Each child that meets the minimum donation level of $40 will be given 5 raffle tickets for every $40 contributed.

• However, in order to make the gift baskets, they need your help!! They have come up with various themes for gift baskets at each grade level. If you have any new and unused items on hand that fit this theme they would love the donations!

Please see the attached flier for all the information and the theme of each grade level’s basket.

Box Top Contest Starts Soon!

Did you save your box tops over the winter break? We hope so! Our annual Box Top Contest started on Tuesday and will run thru Friday, February 17. Meadow Park earns 10 cents for every box top collected. Cool prizes will be awarded to individual students as well as classes who collect the most box tops earn an ice cream party for their entire class. The winners will be announced the beginning of March. This is a win-win opportunity for everyone! Please save your box tops in a clear baggie and send them to school with your child’s and teacher’s name clearly marked. Your support is greatly appreciated so please keep saving your Box Tops!

Irvine Junior Games

The Irvine Junior Games is coming up in May! The Irvine Junior Games is a one day simplified track meet for 4ththrough 8th  graders of IUSD students. Attached is the registration form, but this year, they are encouraging students tosign up online. Please visit the Irvine Junior Games website at http://irvinechildrensfund.org/irvine-junior-games/ to complete the registration.  Our goal is to have at least 50 students, grades 4th-6th, participate and represent the #1 school in Orange County at the event on May 20, 2012 at Irvine High School Stadium.  Everyone is encouraged to participate in a distance and/or  field event. Not only are the Games a fun event and great way to represent Meadow Park, but the Irvine Junior Games are also a fundraiser for child care. Irvine Children’s Fund and Irvine Junior Games donates money directly to each child care site located on all elementary school sites. The students will be meeting with Miss Jackson to go over the brochure and discuss the events as well as answer questions. We want as many students to participate so please know that  financial scholarships are available!  The registration form (brochure)which can be found and completed onlineis dueby February 3rd. Please email Miss Jackson, kjackson@iusd.org, if you have any questions.

GATE Enrichment Day – February 13th, 2012

GateDayFeb2012
Attention: Parents of GATE Students Grades 4-8
Monday, February 13th is a district holiday; school will not be in session. If you do not have plans for your child on that day, we have good news! Irvine Public Schools Foundation (IPSF) is offering classes for GATE students grades 4-8 in a NEW LOCATION on that day at the Westwood Training Center. This is a fundraising activity for CAC-GATE and all proceeds will go to support the GATE program. These classes will provide students with a day of engaging and fun subjects that may not be offered in their regular classroom. The entire day will cost $75, payable to IPSF GATE Day. Classes begin at 8:15 am and end at 3:00 pm. Students will need to bring a sack lunch and a snack. Water will be provided. No bus transportation will be available. The Westwood Training Center is located at 1 Liberty, Irvine, CA 92620. * NEW LOCATION *

To reserve placement in the classes of your choice, mail this registration form to IPSF Gate Day, 18552 MacArthur Blvd. Ste. 200, Irvine, CA 92612 or fax to (949)263-8343 (Credit Card only). You may pay by check, payable to IPSF GATE Day, or by credit card. Registration forms are due no later than Thursday, February 9th. There are only 120 slots available, and choices will be on a first come, first served basis. There are no guarantees you will receive your first choice. You will be mailed your list of classes; please do not call IPSF or IUSD.

Reading BINGO
Make sure you are reading nightly! Book Report forms can be found on the 6th Grade Level Website!

Book Report #1 due February 10th
Book Report #2 due March 2nd
Book Report #3 due March 23rd

Ways to Study Handout

Ways to Study

Meadow Park Homework Policy

Please read the updated version of Meadow Park's Homework Policy.

Curriculum Update from the perspective of our 6th graders:

Science

Do you know about the earth and how to make a science fair project? Well, we are. Here at Meadow Park, we learn mainly in two places for science in 6th grade: our classroom, and the science lab. In our normal classroom, we learned about the earth’s parts: the crust, mantle, and core, which are the most basic parts of the earth. We are also learning about the continental drift theory and Pangaea. In science lab, we are making a science fair project. Everybody’s projects is different, but everyone has an investigative question, hypothesis, conclusion, and applications. Everybody’s projects are unique in their own way, such as different forms of exercise affecting heart rate, the number of chocolate chips affecting the baking time of a cookie, and much more. If your project is one of the best, then you might be picked to go to the District Science Fair. I really enjoyed learning about science and I am looking forward to learn more about it.

Writing

What’s the difference between Iran and Iraq? You and your favorite character from a book? Fifth and Sixth grade? This month, November, the 6th grade has been writing about comparing and contrasting two different people, places, or things. What is really fun about writing is that we can choose what two things we can compare, except on the district writing assessment. We write a five paragraph essay, revise, peer edit, and type up our masterpieces. When we write, we get to add our own commentary to make the paragraph interesting. You can put your own taste to your essay. You can make it funny, serious, creative, delicious, and even sparkly! Writing is fun, wouldn't’t you agree?

DARE

Don’t you want to live a healthy and safe life? In the D.A.R.E. program, you learn about ways to live a healthy and secure life from a police officer himself. In the month of November, we learned how not to use drugs and make bad choices. D.A.R.E. stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. The officer in our program is Officer Predney, from the police station right in the city of Irvine. Officer Predney is very specific, but humorous to make D.A.R.E. more encouraging to the students. We learn about the very negative effects of drugs and unhealthy choices.

Reading

In reading this past month we are using thinking maps. We used brace maps to see the parts of a dictionary. We used bridge maps for seeing relationships with analogies. We sorted out loads and loads of facts and opinions using tree maps. We read a story about Amelia Earhart, which left many people wondering what really happened to her.

Spelling/Grammar

There are many subjects in school that are entertaining like grammar and spelling. Grammar and spelling helps us improve in writing later on in our future. Grammar and spelling is really amusing and teaches a lot of new methods in learning. We learned about the different spelling patterns like the diverse vowel sounds and for grammar we learned about conjunctions and types of sentences. To cap this month’s spelling/grammar writing I would like to say that sixth grade grammar …IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD!

PE

This month in P.E. starts…

Now! This was a very exciting month filled with amazing goals, crazy dribbling, and tons of running. This month and for the rest of the year on every Friday we spend fifteen minutes running laps on the field or the blacktop. The amount of laps run every time we do this is through the roof. On every Monday and every Thursday of the year we will do our sports activity, this month we finished our soccer unit and are in the middle of our basketball unit. Right now in basketball we are working on lay ups and free throws. Come back next month to hear more about P.E. and don’t forget to Read all about the other sixth grade subjects.

Social Studies

This month in social studies we had A LOT of fun. Mostly we were preparing for the Walk Through the Ancient World Presentation. For this activity, our class split up into three ancient parts of the world: Egypt, Greece, and Rome. In each of our teams, or countries, we prepared a skit about a day in our part of the world. On the day of the presentation we presented our skits as well as each person’s character card lines and expert card lines. Each team was trying to earn the most points and win. At the end, the presenter announced the winner: Rome (Webster’s class)!!! On that same day, we also made mosaics out of beans; we learned how they were made in the ancient times. As well as this wonderful presentation, we read a whole chapter and took a test: this chapter was about the early humans. This month, we learned many interesting and amazing things about the ancient civilizations and early human life!

Math

Sixth grade math is mind-boggling. It is from fractions to integers to decimals to algebra. You can learn a lot in sixth grade math. One of the things we are learning in this special month of November is fractions. We estimate with them, relate them to real life, and make decisions with fractions. You wouldn't’t believe how much you use them every day! One example is that when something is on sale, it is some percent off. Then you can do the math and figure out if it is on a good price or not. Fractions are amazing.

Team Kids  

There are many people that are under-privileged in our communities. This month we started a program called Team Kids, basically a way for kids to be an active part of their community. The program is open to everyone in our school, but only kids in 5th and 6th can be part of the leadership team. Team Kids has set up challenges for the kids at our school such as homelessness, bullying, and hunger. We have successfully met our goal for homelessness and bullying. This week was hunger, and I definitely think all the amazing kids at Meadow Park helped out and we met our goal. For the final challenge, we are holding a school-wide carnival in an attempt to raise money for CHOC Hospital. Kids can buy tickets to play at all the different fun booths and games. This program has inspired tons of kids to get up and make a difference in the community. I know it has been a big inspiration for me. I’m sure everyone will have a blast at the carnival, and we’ll make tons of money for all the sick kids at CHOC Hospital.

Reading Bingo (Book report forms)

2nd trimester parent letter 2012

2ndTrimesterBingoCARD-2012

Examples of Fables Fairy Tales and Myths

Adventure

AnimalFiction

Biography

Fable

Fairytale

Fantasy

HistoricalFiction

Humor

Mystery

Myth

Nonfiction

poetry

RealisticFiction

ScienceFiction

ScientistBiography

Back to School Night

Thank you for joining us at Back to School Night. We enjoyed seeing so many parents there. If you were not able to attend, you can access our presentation by clicking on this link: 6th Grade Back to School Night Presentation. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Science Forms:

Communication - Home/school communication is essential. Please feel free to send a note to school or e-mail anytime you have a question or something to discuss. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

We use the following methods to encourage on-going communication between teachers and parents.

Weekly Work - a Thursday Folder with your child’s completed work and important school notices will be sent home every Thursday. Please make it a practice to review these papers with your child and praise him/her for his/her efforts. There is a communication sheet where questions or comments can be noted. A parent signature is required each week. The signed Thursday Folder needs to be returned to school the following school day.

Homework - The purpose of requiring homework is to develop responsibility and study habits appropriate for sixth grade. Please support our efforts by providing a quiet area, time and materials dedicated to homework. The average time for written homework each night should be 60 minutes which includes 20 minutes of reading time. Homework will be assigned daily. 6th Grade Homework Policy (click here for more information regarding the 6th grade homework policy)

Other Information - School begins promptly at 8:10 a.m. Please reinforce the importance of punctuality with your child. They do miss instruction and disrupt others when they arrive late.

Thank you,

6th Grade Team