Newsletter

Friday October 31, 2014

Middle School Conferences November 3, 5, 6

Come to student led conferences any time between the following times:
Monday 4:00-8:00
Wednesday 2:30-4:00
Thursday 4:00-8:00
We look forward to seeing all of you! Be sure to bring your student with you!!
Below are the times teachers will be unavailable during conferences so you
can plan accordingly.
Meal Times-Monday (11/3) and Thursday
(11/6)
(teachers will not be available to conference during their
meal time)
5:00-5:30 Ms. Loneman, Mr. Kotz
5:30-6:00 Mrs. Larsen
Mrs.
5:45-6:15 Simpson
6:00-6:30 Mrs. Vetter

Mrs. Smith (art)

Mrs. Petersen
(computers)

Mrs.
Damman

Mrs. Damman will not be available on Wednesday 11/5

Mrs. Vetter will not be available from 3:15-4:00 on Wednesday
11/5

Art Show!!

The conference art show will feature artwork of the entire 6 th grade class. A special
Impressionist exhibit will be displayed down the south wing towards the art room.
Students will be able to teach visitors about this style of art and its unique
characteristics. Students will also help visitors learn how to discuss and critique
artwork by recognizing certain elements in the piece and forming an opinionwithout just saying the artwork is pretty or I dont like it. All will be impressed
by the exceptional work and creativity of these fine artists!

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

Ms. Loneman Language Arts

This week students continued working with text and graphic features and the
purpose of those features in our main selection, Team Moon. The lessons
suffixes and target vocabulary were also reviewed. Our lesson 15 assessments
were today, so look for these scores on Infinite Campus. Also, we got conference
materials ready, and I walked the students through the whole conference routineyour
child should know exactly what to do when you come to conferences next week.
Whole group instruction next week will include grammar work, and small group
instruction will continue to include work with main idea and details and text and graphic
features. Students were introduced to a nonfiction newsletter today, and they will continue
working on this during small group time next week.
Some parents have expressed interest in staying up to date with daily assignments. I
update my Twitter account daily to announce the assignments that are due the next day.
You dont need to have a Twitter account to view this page. Simply go to
twitter.com/msloneman, and you will be able to access the daily language arts
announcements.
Important Dates:
November 3rdConcept Recovery Sheet Due (if retaking a lesson 15 assessment)
November 3rdConferences from 4:00-8:00 (Ms. Loneman at supper from 5:00-5:30)
November 4thLesson 15 Test Retakes Offered at 7:30 and 3:30
November 5thLesson 15 Test Retakes Offered at 7:30
November 5thConferences from 2:30-3:50
November 6thConferneces from 4:00-8:00 (Ms. Loneman at supper from 5:00-5:30)
November 6thHandwritten Nonfiction Newsletter Notes Due
November 7thNo School for Students
As always, please 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
Have a great weekend!

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

Please stop by the book fair during conferences. The hours of the
Book Fair will be as follows: Monday November 3 and Thursday
November 6 4:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Also Wednesday November 5

2:30-4:00 p.m. Students should be receiving brochures in their READ class.

All money will be used to buy materials for the library.
There is also an online book fair. You can purchase books and have them
delivered right to your door! The school still receives credit for all of the
purchases. Our school book fair is open online October 29-November 18
at this address:

http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/indianolamiddleschool
Science Mrs. Simpson
Dorisa.Simpson@indianola.k12.ia.us

Students have completed the Mix & Match Mass Lab and analyzed the data from
their Science section. Most students are getting very good at using the graduated
cylinders and triple beam balances. Their graphing skills are also improving!
Analyzing the data was not easy for the kids, but they did a great job rising up to
the challenge! We discussed variables and they were asked to make inferences
about parts of the lab.
Students should be studying the eight marked/highlighted terms on their blue
Science Focus Vocabulary sheets. The terms are: Science, balance, graduated
cylinder, grams, mass, measure, milliliter, and volume. They will be formatively
assessed over these terms on Monday (Day 1) and Tuesday (Day 2) of next week.
We have started practicing the skill of measuring with thermometers. This is a skill
we will continue next week.
This Weeks Learning Targets:
I can identify 3 basic parts of a line/bar graph and describe the location of
each.

I can define variables and give examples.

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

Website: www.artinspiredbylife.com
This

week Students accomplished these goals:

Started creating their impressionist paintings
Applying the terms tone, tint, value in their paintings
Applying the impressionist technique of short quick brush strokes

LAST DAY TO ORDER SQUARE 1 ART IS MONDAY! The back of the

catalog has ordering instructions. It is simple and preferred if ordering is
done online, but check or cash payments are also accepted. If you lost the
access code to order online please email me and I can get that to you.

Products will be in by November 17th. I hope all families will take

advantage of this great opportunity to order custom gifts with your child's
artwork on it. Thank you for your support and participation! Funds will go
towards additional technology and art supplies for the Art Dept.

Language Arts with Mr. Kotz

Hello all! We have just completed the comprehension and vocabulary tests for lesson
15: Team Moon. Retakes for these will be available at 7:30 and 3:30 on Tuesday,
November 4th and at 7:30 on Wednesday November 5th
Early next week we will work on intonation, phrasing, and overall reading
fluency with a readers theatre activity. After this activity, we will focus on Main Idea and
Summary of non-fiction texts.
Throughout the week we will be working on a newsletter. This newsletter requires the
students to use short books (provided by me) to create a page long newsletter. In order to use
these books outside of my classroom, students may use this link:
Future of Nasa:
http://wwwk6.thinkcentral.com/content/hsp/reading/journeys/na/gr6/Online_journeys_leveled_readers_9780
547356167_/lr/bl/lesson15/lesson15.pdf
Life on a Space Station:
http://wwwk6.thinkcentral.com/content/hsp/reading/journeys/na/gr6/Online_journeys_leveled_readers_9780
547356167_/lr/ol/lesson15/lesson15.pdf
Meteors, Comets, and Asteroids:
http://wwwk6.thinkcentral.com/content/hsp/reading/journeys/na/gr6/Online_journeys_leveled_readers_9780
547356167_/lr/al/lesson15/lesson15.pdf
Further Notes:
I look forward to seeing you at conferences sometime next week!
Please feel free to use this link of our text book to have your students our main
selection outside of class:
http://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/content/hsp/reading/journeys/na/gr6/ese_9780547360300_/launch.html#
As always, please feel free to contact me if you have questions or concerns.
Jonathan.kotz@indianola.k12.ia.us
515-961-9530 ext. 3118

Computers Mrs. Petersen

Kathy.Petersen@indianola.k12.ia.us

In Computers, students will be evaluating web sites as sources of information.

Students will divide into teams, research one of the Seven Wonders of the World,
and share their knowledge with their teammates through Google. They will evaluate
their resources in terms of their usefulness and validity.

Social Studies-Mrs. Larsen

Connee.Larsen@indianola.k12.ia.us

Our Geography Dictionaries are due Monday (ODD) and Tuesday

(EVEN). We will be working on a big map project for the next three
class periods called Cartographers Challenge. This will be a
culminating assessment over all we have learned so far this year
about maps and the tools of geographers. Next week, be sure to ask
your student what theme they chose to use to create their map.

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

This week in math we continued Unit 2-Operations with

Whole Numbers and Decimals. We continued working on
multiplying decimals, multiplying and dividing by powers of 10
and dividing whole numbers and decimals. We retook a Place
Value Quiz.
Next week we will continue with Unit 2 including Scientific
Notation and more work with Exponential Notation. I hope to wrap Unit 2 up soon.
Please contact me with any questions or concerns.
Phone: 961-9530 ext. 3147
Have a nice weekend! Stay warm!!