PIB Weekly News U P CO MI NG EVENTS: December 5: Orchestra Concert December 7: NAL December 11: PTSO Meeting December 11: Dairy Queen Night (East Central) December 12: 8th grade Senate Hearings December 12: Choir Concert December 12: Foundation Meeting December 14: NAL December 15: 2nd Nine Weeks End and Grades Posted December 15: Magnet Applications Due Dec. 15 to Jan. 2: No School January 3: Students return W W W. U S D 2 5 9. O R G / R O B I N S O N / P I B Team News Final grades will be posted on December 15. Make sure you are checking to see that everything is turned in. We received an email from our technology department downtown that Synergy/ParentVue/ StudentVue will be down from 6:00 AM Saturday to 6:00 AM Monday. Sorry for the inconvenience. Please check out Page 2 for important information about the cultural fair projects students are working on. Please make sure the students are not waiting until the last minute to complete these. Our family night is scheduled for January 25. Judge Joseph Pierron, Kansas Court of Appeals, was here on Tuesday to present a program called You Be the Judge. The Judge simulated with the students how the U.S. judicial system work, the process by which a case makes it the Supreme Court and how the justices come to make a ruling by focusing on the fourth amendment. Judge Pierron was very impressed and complementary of our students understanding of U.S. government and the Constitution. They made D E C E M B E R 1, 2 0 1 7 thoughtful comments and asked great questions! 8th graders, we are asking you to fill out an 8th grade information form to help us fill out any teacher recommendations that you will ask us to fill out. The form is on the PIB website under links. Please fill out the form by Friday, December 10. Just a reminder, if you are planning on being absent please let the teachers know so we can give you the work ahead of time. Remember for school excused absences (athletics, music, NAL, IB shadowing, etc) all work is due the day you return. Community Service reminder: half of your community service hours are due by TODAY 6th Grade: 10 hours; turn into Ms. Mandelbaum 7th Grade: 10 hours; turn into Ms. Rowley 8th Grade: 12.5 hours; turn into Ms. Rowley Log sheets are available on our team page on the Robinson Website. If the hours are not completed Social Studies grades will be lowered 10%. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for your support!
P A G E 2 Sixth Grade Cultural Project Mrs. Mandelbaum s Language Arts students will be exhibiting their Final Interview Papers which were written about their oldest living relative. Students built a relationship with their relative and wrote about various life events that were shared during the interview process. The end product is definitely a labor of love and a collection of family history. We also will be exhibiting some projects from the novel True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. Mrs. Callard s 6 th grade English Language Arts students will be developing individual websites showcasing their family s ancestry and traditions using the information from the Interview a Family Matriarch/ Patriarch. Over the holidays, students may wish to talk to more relatives about their memories and family history and do some associated research so that we have plenty of ideas to make their website memorable. Seventh Grade Cultural Project Seventh graders will be creating quilt blocks to visually represent 10 aspects of their culture. Quilt blocks should be created on a full size piece of poster board. The second part of the project is a writing component to explain what the visuals they choose represent to them. One item from the quilt must be researched using a primary source; students need to interview a family member that can explain the significance to the item. One item must be researched using a secondary source; students will conduct research from the internet or library to find the significance of the item. The student project sheet has been handed out to students and is also available on Google classroom. Eighth Grade Cultural Project The Eighth grade Cultural Showcase project involves the students investigating the chemical, physical and cultural aspects of a food item prepared and shared by the student s family. Timeline is: November 27th: Decide upon the food item to be investigated; November 27th: Step by step instructions (recipe) completed; November 30th: Food item content (nutritional analysis) completed; December 8th: Family history and/or cultural connections completed; December 14th: General history completed; January 3rd: Interview completed; January 5th: Physical changes completed; January 22nd: All parts of the project complete and turned in electronically, and printed out; January 25th: PIB Cultural Showcase, all parts of project displayed in print.
P A G E 3 Sixth Grade PIB Berry Math Students will work their way through the Equations Topic in our Third Module this year (Determining Unknown Quantities). We will use what we learned about expressions to create equations to solve various problems. Callard -Language Arts We have started Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. Our focus during this novel study will be on characterization, symbolism, motif, and plot development. Students are working on high school level literature standards as they write notes and annotations directly in their own personal copies. We plan to celebrate the end of the novel with a 1840s British holiday treat day on December 14, so be sure that your child is researching a possible time-period holiday treat to share in class that day. Flores Spanish 6th graders are excited that they are now able to have a conversation entirely in Spanish about what they like and don t like to do! Next week s focus will be on grammar, specifically on infinitive verbs and negative statements. The quizzes over both grammar points will be on Friday, December 8th. Mandelbaum Social Studies Next week we will continue our study of ancient China and begin our India Build-A Book chapter. Berry Science Science classes will be wrapping up our study of energy flow in the ecosystem with a performance assessment on Thursday, December 7. This will be one of the last scores for this quarter. I will also check pages 48-49 in the Science Spirals. Our final 5 days will be Human Growth and Development. HGD pages will not be in our spiral notebook. They will be a booklet stored in binders behind the science tab. I will check pages 50 and 53 from the Science spiral on Monday, December 11 for all classes. Callard -Spanish Students created comprehension questions for our Ramona la Chinche baseball game this week. Next week, we will continue the novel and work on writing short creative chapters about Ramona s winter holidays. If we have time before Christmas, we will also create mini trioramas showcasing our writing. Mandelbaum Language Arts Students will turn in their typed alternate ending of Z for Zachariah on Monday. The rest of the week we will be finishing the organizers for their research paper. Polson Spanish Next week the 6 th grade students will focus on grammar. We will identify infinitive verbs and practice forming negative sentences. There will be a quiz on Friday on both grammar topics. Sinsel Math Math 6 Plus students will continue their study of equations. Watch for a quiz on Tuesday or Wednesday!
P A G E 4 Seventh Grade PIB Flores Spanish Students will present their discrimination projects on either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Regardless of the day they present, all projects are due to me by Monday, and should be sent by email to me at: tflores@usd259.net. Students will also begin practicing for the National Spanish Exam on Thursday and Friday next week. Lavacek Language Arts We will continue to move through our poetry unit. This week, students will be working on their book-in-verse book reports and choosing a poem to present at our Poetry Café. We will specifically be looking how to analyze poems for tone, musical quality, and theme in order to better present them. The café will be the week of December 11 (have not set date yet). Students are invited to bring a snack or drink to share for this more information coming! Rowley Social Studies We will continue working on Europe, adding in Russia by the end of the week. We are working to finish this unit by winter break, with a unit quiz on Wednesday, December 13 th. Jenney Science Seventh graders will be studying the changes in life on earth over time. Polson Spanish The 7 th grade students will be presenting their discrimination projects to the class on Monday through Wednesday. Thursday and Friday will be spent taking our first practice test for the National Spanish Exam. Practice scores will be posted in Student VUE, but will NOT count towards the student s grade. Sims Language Arts This coming week, we ll continue our poetry unit. We ll read and analyze a variety of poems and poets, as well as write different kinds of poetry. Sinsel -Math Math 7 Plus students will continue their study of Probability. Watch for a short quiz on Friday! Stroot Math Math 7+ students will take a quiz on Thursday over simple and compound probability. The last test of the semester will be over Module 4 (probability). It is scheduled for the last Wednesday before the break. Van Horn Math We will continue Module 4: Analyzing Population and Probability with a test over Topic 2 and 3 on Thursday. Remember all late work is due before we take the test. Students are required to complete 30 minutes of Mathia each week. I am available for additional help Monday and Tuesday at lunch. Thank you for your support!
P A G E 5 Eighth Grade PIB Callard Language Arts We are reading O. Henry s timeless holiday short story The Gift of the Magi as we review the literary elements of symbolism, motif, plot twist, allusion, and irony. The Lesson 4 Wordly Wise quiz will be on Monday, December 4 th, and we will complete Lesson 5 before winter break. We hope to carve out some time before the break for students Flores Spanish Next week s focus will be on grammar, specifically on how to conjugate the verb venir in the present tense and when to use the verbs ser vs. estar. There will be a variety of activities during the week to challenge students and keep them engaged. The quizzes over both grammar points are scheduled for Wednesday, December 13th. Lavacek Language Arts Fahrenheit continues to consume us this week as we move into Part II. Students will be presenting sections of Part II to their classmates. They will create multisensory lessons that cover a variety of literary devices and topics and teach the lessons to the class. They will also develop an assessment tool to check that their peers understood the lesson. Sims Language Arts This coming week, we ll continue reading and analyzing To Kill a Mockingbird. The reading log and annotations assignments will be due on Thursday, Dec. 14, so please talk with your student about their progress on these projects. Callard Spanish Students created comprehension questions for our Ramona la Chinche baseball game this week. Next week, we will continue the novel and work on writing short creative chapters about Ramona s winter holidays. If we have time before Christmas, we will also create mini trioramas showcasing our writing. Jenney Science Eighth graders will be wrapping up chemistry and begin their studies of motion. Rowley Social Studies Students are busy working on their papers for the Senate Hearings. Rough drafts are due on Tuesday; final drafts are due on Friday. Students will need to have 5 hard copies of the final draft in order to give one to me and for each member of their unit team. The hearings will be held on December 12 th, from 8-10:30. Students are asked to dress professionally for the morning, then they are welcome to change if they wish. Parents are welcome to attend. Stroot Math Algebra students will take a quiz on Tuesday over Systems of Equations. Next, we will study Systems of Inequalities. The last test of the semester will be cover units 6 and 7. It is scheduled for the last Wednesday before the break. Van Horn Math We will have start Topic 7: Systems of Linear Inequalities when we return on Monday. Our last test will be before Winter Break. Students are required to complete 30 minutes of Mathia each week. I am available for additional help Monday and Tuesday at lunch. Thank you for your support!
If you wish to contact any of the Pre-IB teachers with questions please note the following contact information. You can leave a message by phone for any teacher at 973-8600. Berry, Kathleen 6th Grade Math and Science Email: kberry@usd259.net Callard, Tracy 6th and 8th Grade Language Arts Spanish for Native Speakers Email: tcallard@usd259.net Flores, Tara 6th, 7th, 8th Grade Spanish Email: tflores@usd259.net Jenney, Charles 7th and 8th Grade Science Email: cjenney@usd259.net Lavacek, Molly 7th and 8th Grade Language Arts Email: mlavacek@usd259.net Mandelbaum, Susan 6th Gr. Language Arts & Social Studies Email: smandelbaum@usd259.net Polson, Elizabeth 6th, 7th, 8th Grade Spanish Email: epolson@usd259.net Rowley, Michele 7th and 8th Grade Social Studies Email: mrowley@usd259.net Sims, Katherine 7th and 8th Grade Language Arts Email: ksims@usd259.net Sinsel, Jennifer 6th and 7th Grade Math Email: jsinsel@usd259.net Stroot, Mary 7th and 8th Grade Math Email: mstroot@usd259.net Van Horn. Denise Team Leader 7th and 8th Grade Math Email: dvanhorn@usd259.net Website http://www.usd259.org/robinson/pib The page gives team information. A Weekly Newsletter (published Friday afternoons) will be posted. The newsletter will give information about topics of study and events for the following week. To access classroom websites you will need to use your Parent/Student Vue account. PIB Contact Information