May 25, 2011

Dear Parents,
This was a big week for projects. All science students completed their 3rd trimester writing projects. The 5/6 students wrote about seed germination. In addition to content, their focus was on writing about chronological events. The 7/8 students were trying to hone their skills writing introductions and conclusions.

The 6th grade math students are starting their final projects, “How I Spend My Time in School.”

The 8th graders are completing a robotics challenge. They will be demonstrating their work on June 10th during all-school assembly. They are blogging about their work at:
http://site.penobscotschool.org/~student/johns/Home.html

Congratulations to Arianna who received a thanks from the US Embassy in Japan. At today’s all- school assembly, Mr. Cole will give her a patch sent from the Operation Tomodachi (Do Your Best) project.

Next Friday, I will be accompanying the 8th graders on their class trip.

May 20, 2011

Dear Parents,

Congratulations to Ethan Snow, Nate Winchester, Nick Szwez and Jacob Reynolds for winning entries in last weeks robotics competition. We brought home first place in speed, slope climbing and heavy pull.

Defining limits for student behavior is a large part of a middle school teacher’s job. Sometimes the “line” is very obvious and sometimes it is more difficult to discern; take the music at the dances. How many references to sex and how many curse words are acceptable in a song? Or, do we go by school policy and ban any song that is “sexually explicit, sexually suggestive”?

What do you think? What songs are in your child’s laptop, iPod or MP3 player? Is it your job to monitor this? Mine?

The 7/8 Science students completed a unit test today and next week they finish their Compare-Contrast papers and begin a unit on issues in Maine Ecology.

The 5/6 students are working on a writing assignment about Seed Germination.

May 13, 2011

Dear Parents,

The focus for this week was science MEAs. 5th and 8th graders completed three sessions of testing.

From May 27, 2011

The 5th and 6th grade continue to study plant biology. They have studied seed types and plant structures. Their next assignment is a writing project.

The 7th and 8th graders are studying animal behavior and adaption. This week they did several activities involving wolf survival. Their next project is also a writing assignment.

The salmon have matured, almost ready for release, and most seedlings are in the greenhouse waiting for the weather to warm up.

Today marks the end of this year’s Robotics Club. After a competition at Beech Hill School, students will display their robots and hopefully some ribbons at the all-school assembly.

May 6, 2011

Dear Parents,

Despite the rainy weather, the garden fence is up, most of the large green house is planted and the first hoop house completed. We moved many of seedlings to the green house; we’re just waiting for the last frost date to pass.

The 5th and 6th grade class trip is starting to come together. Although the activity is still not firmed up, the date is June 10th.

Next week, the 8th grade math students will take their final unit test and begin their last unit project. The 6th graders have begun their last unit, Data Around Us. This is a 7th grade unit! The 5th graders are well into Unit 10 and they too, are studying data.

We had hoped to do student led conferences this trimester but we let the date sneak up on us. We will do traditional conferences because we cannot get the students prepared in time. To sign up you can either call Mrs. Kilpeck or follow this link to sign yourself up.
http://bit.ly/PCSParent