Wow!  The past two months sure flew by!  It has been such a great experience getting to know all of the EY students at Oakdale, Hillside, and Westbrook.  We have been focused on getting into a routine, consistency with EY assignments, and challenging our brain!

Our learning focus this past quarter was Communication.  We began the quarter with a brainstorming session that produced a large web of communication topics.  It is amazing how many forms we use on a daily basis and some without even knowing!

The sixth grade students took part in a writing contest as part of the communication study.  They were given the prompt:  An Unusual Superhero and were asked to write a paper/story no more than 2,500 words in length.  They brainstormed lists of possible superheroes and their powers, created story maps to organize their thoughts, and produced some amazing stories!  We went through the peer editing and revising process to polish the stories and also had a day that each student could read their story aloud to the group.  I look forward to reading some of their books someday…we have authors in our midst!

Another part of our communication study led us into the different aspects of language.  We explored figurative language, figures of speech, parts of speech, and codes.  We created our own onomatopoeias and drew cartoons containing the new words.  It wasn’t as easy to create all new words as we thought!  We also experimented with various codes and had our classmates try to crack them.

This quarter was also filled with a variety of contests available to various students.  We had the school spelling bees during November, followed by the school geography bees in December, and the Westside District Spelling Bee on December 6th.  Congratulations to the winners and participants!  Sixth grade students had the opportunity to attend the McMillan Math Contest on Thursday, November 7th and fourth grade students qualified to attend the Marrs Math Contest on Monday, November 18th.  The Science Olympiad on November 5th provided a great learning opportunity for those students with an interest in science related topics.  Thank you so much for supporting your students in their quest for excellence at these competitions!

It has truly been an exciting quarter and I am looking forward to working with your students as we explore our next topic of study:  science and innovation.  Please never hesitate to contact me with any questions, thoughts or concerns.