The Great News....

Wishing major congratulations to 6th graders Ian and Mary-Cass!! Ian won the Charles Ellis Geography Bee Friday and will go on to represent our school!! So proud of our other sixth graders that represented us well: Ashlyn, Sequia, Kishan, Michael, Grace, and Ella. Way to shine!!

And we found out Friday afternoon that Mary-Cass has been selected to read her poem "Dancing" at the DEEP Speaks celebration February 23! DEEP is a fabulous opportunity for our students to work with writers in our community. All of the participants will have their best works published so they all deserve a huge CONGRATULATIONS! Our second semester just started last week and I can't wait to see all of the wonderful writing the kids will create!

A huge thank you goes out to our wonderful students and chaperones for a fantastic trip to the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum Thursday! The kids demonstrated such grace and courtesy and we all had a wonderful time. 

And, last but not least, we had the awesome pleasure of having a guest speaker join us Friday to talk about her experiences in Ecuador. Rachael is a former Ellis student who graduated from SAA, and is now attending Armstrong to be a teacher :). She's been to Ecuador 5 times and did an amazing job sharing her pictures and teaching us all more about Latin America. (Of course, if you ask the kids, their favorite part may have been learning about the horsey dance!)

Due Date Reminder:

Latin America Country brochures are due tomorrow, Feb. 1. Requirements are on Google classroom.

Vocabulary Activities are due Friday, Feb. 5. The list of words and activities are on Google classroom.

NO TUTORIAL ON TUESDAY, FEB. 2. My husband is having Lasik surgery and goes in Tuesday afternoon for pre-op procedures. There will be tutorial Thursday, 2/4.

And for the not so great news.... we learned late Friday that we have a lice problem in 6th grade. All students were given a letter to bring home so if you did not receive one, please let me know via email so I can send one home tomorrow (Monday). Basically, just use extra vigilance in checking for lice on your child and treat as necessary. 

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend with your kids and I thank you for sharing them with us every day!

Ms. Susan

Parent Survey

Families,

Please see information below concerning the Georgia Parent Survey that is available online for you to complete.

Georgia Parent Survey 2015-2016

The time to administer the Georgia Parent Survey for the 2015-2016 school year has arrived.  This is the third year that the Georgia Parent Survey has been administered. Data from the Georgia Parent Survey will be used to calculate the School Climate Star Rating within the College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI), along with the correlation between the student responses on the Georgia Student Health Survey II and school personnel responses on the Georgia School Personnel Survey. 

The Georgia Parent Survey will remain open through Friday, February 26, 2016.  
 
 The Georgia Parent Survey is administered electronically and parents are able to complete the survey using personal computers, smartphones or iPads.  For parents that do not have access to the Internet, you may utilize the computers in the school’s Media Center.  The Georgia Parent Survey has 24 questions and it should take no more than 5 - 10 minutes to complete.  Survey responses are anonymous and will be submitted directly to the Georgia Department of Education for analysis.  Data results from the Georgia Parent Survey will not be available to the public and will not be posted online. 

All parents should participate in the Georgia Parent Survey. The link to the Georgia Parent Survey is posted below. Charles Ellis would love your feedback! Don’t forget to complete the survey before February 05, 2016.     

 Parent Survey Link - http://apps.gadoe.org/schoolclimate/parents.nsf/Survey.xsp
A drop-down menu will appear so that you can select your school district and school.  Thank you!  

The Ellis Bird Nest

As I try to remember all of the things you, as parents and families, need to know, my  mind goes blank! It sometimes feels as if I am the mother bird to 53 wonderful little birdie babies and there is a lot of work that goes on with managing our very special Ellis nest!

Some changes to Hatchet Vocabulary:
There are 30 words on www.vocabulary.com for Hatchet that your child can practice in addition to the option sheet they received this week. There are 10 choices given; they need to complete 5 by Friday, Feb. 5. Two of the choices (Vocabulary Maps and Web Quests) count as 3 choices each because they take a lot of time to do well. The goal is for them to do the work well and truly internalize the meanings of these words. (Once I figure out how to attach a document here, I promise to do so in order that you have a copy of it for your records - however, there is a copy on Google Classroom if you want to check it out there).

Also, please be reminded that we are going on a field trip Thursday to the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum :) We are all so excited! The cost is $5.00 and all money and field trip forms were due today. If your child wishes to shop in the gift shop, they will need additional funds.

And, let's not forget about our Latin American country brochures and the Geography Bee! Once we get the pool of candidates for 6th grade, we'll do a mini-competition that will narrow our number down to 4-6. These students will then represent us at the Geography Bee Friday morning in the Media Center. The students' country brochures are due Monday, Feb 1. Again, more information about this project are available online at Google Classroom.

The kids have had a great time over the past few days with my mother-in-law, Ms. Gloria, coming in to our class to volunteer. Some of them remember her from all of her work in the library back in the days of Ms. Rebecca. I really appreciate their kindness in including her in their activities last week and today.

Off to learn about attaching links, photos, and files....

January 20, 2016

Happy Wednesday :)

It's hard to believe that we've already had 2 weeks of school since the holidays, but time is flying fast these days! On that note, please be advised that your child received their progress reports today that need to be signed and returned. Thank you for following up on this with your child. We greatly appreciate your support.

Social Studies Notes: Students will have a quiz on Chapter 6 tomorrow, Thursday, Jan 21. We completed the questions for Sections 1 and 2 and thoroughly reviewed them in class today.

In addition, your child has been assigned a country in Latin America to research for a brochure project that will count as a test grade. The specific information is located on Google Classroom for your convenience.

In Language Arts, we have been reading Hatchet and have completed Chapters 1 - 5. The students will have 2 vocabulary tests from these chapters. The first test is Monday, Jan. 25. The second test is Tuesday, Jan. 26.

Here are the words for Test 1: consuming, initial, altitude, current, drone, seep, indicate, overcome, slew, gratitude, lurch, tundra, constant, wince, and stout.

Reminders:
Field trip Friday, Jan 22 to the Lucas theatre
Field trip Thurs, Jan 28 to the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum (This trip will cost $5.00 per child.)

PTA this Thursday evening at 6:30 in the MPR.
Breakfast with Dads: this Friday beginning at 7:25. Any male role model may attend this event with their child. A light breakfast will be provided by the PTA, but you are also welcome to purchase a breakfast from the cafeteria or  bring in breakfast for you and your child.

Upcoming Events

Sending out a very big "Thank You" to all of you that have completed parent conferences to discuss your child's progress during the second nine weeks. If you were unable to meet last week, please let me know your availability so we can reschedule at your earliest convenience (susan.torrance@sccpss.com).

Here is a list of what is happening over the next two weeks:

Tutorial begins this week for Language Arts (Tues and Thurs) and for Math (Weds).

There are two field trips scheduled:

          Friday, Jan 22: Lucas Theatre - Mountain Valley Film Festival

          Thursday, Jan 28: Mighty 8th Air Force Museum

Please make sure you have completed and turned in the permission forms for the Lucas Theatre no later than Wednesday of this week. Thank you.

PTA General Meeting: this Thursday at 6:30

We also have the privilege of participating in the DEEP writing program. This is an after-school program that allows the students to work with real authors and learn how to enhance their own writing. Space is limited to 14 students, so please remind your child to let me know asap if they are interested. Classes will be held on Thursdays beginning Jan 28 from 3 - 4:15.

In Language Arts, we have finished reading chapters 1-5 in Gary Paulsen's novel Hatchet. We will be further analyzing the story to examine themes of survival, sentence patterns, and point of view. In Social Studies, we are exploring Latin American countries. Each child has been assigned a country by random draw and will research required information to create a travel brochure. This project is due Feb 1. You can see the requirements on Google classroom.

As always, thank you for supporting my technology education :)

          

Busy Week!!

Thank you for your patience as I get my "technology legs" in motion! It has been a busy week filled with a lot of great learning, participation, and group work (for me and the kiddos)! Conferences are in full swing so if you haven't scheduled/rescheduled yours, please do so at your earliest convenience. In addition, I have been participating in great professional development opportunities this week in both Language Arts and Social Studies. 

In Language Arts, we are in a very in-depth study of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Our goal is to have completed Chapter 4 by Friday, but many students have gotten so interested in the story, they've read much farther. 

Social Studies has us looking at Latin America. We had a map test on Monday, learned more about the physical geography Tuesday and are trying a few different activities. My homeroom played a cool game to enhance their map skills. Mr. Trent's homeroom got into a very productive and informative debate about preserving the rainforests in Brazil.

Homework for Social Studies is on Google classroom. Language Arts homework this week should consist of continuing to read Hatchet as well as completing two lessons on Compass Learning.

Also, it is with a bit of sadness that we are losing our special "Strawberry" (all of the students have nicknames :)). Her family is returning to Tennessee this week. We wish them safe travels and want them to know that we have been truly blessed by having the Strawberry in our special Ellis family.

Hope your new year is off to a great start!

January 7, 2015

Reminder: There is a quiz tomorrow (Fri, Jan. 8) on Hatchet (Chapter 1). Review your notes on setting, plot, conflict, and character traits.

Social Studies test Monday, January 11 - Latin American countries and physical features.

Conference Week: January 11 - 15

Tutorial resumes: Week of January 18

Parents, please encourage your child to really use their planners for recording work, lessons, due dates, and upcoming tests, papers, etc. It is our goal to help the students remember to do this on a daily basis and any reinforcement you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

January 5, 2016

Hello Families,

Just a few notes about what is going on in class this week:

SOCIAL STUDIES - We started labeling the countries in Latin America today and will label the physical features tomorrow. There will be a TEST on these maps Monday, January 11. Following our map work, the students will complete research projects on assigned countries.

ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS - We read Chapter 1 of Hatchet in class today. Tomorrow we will complete an analysis of this chapter (plot, setting, character traits, etc) and begin reading Chapter 2.

Homework: 1) Return conference forms and 2) complete any Latin America map work not finished in class.

Announcements:

1. There will be a parent information session on the GMAS assessment this Thursday, Jan. 7 at 5:30 in the MPR.

2. The Chatham County magnet school EXPO will be held this Saturday, Jan. 9 from 9 -3 at the Savannah Mall.

Resource: A great website for reading non-fiction is www.newsela.com. This site has news articles about a wide variety of topics and you can choose articles based on your child's Lexile score. Our class code is 827EV7.

We are already off to a fabulous and productive start to the new year! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope that you and your family had a lovely winter break and are ready for our 3rd nine weeks marking period. Time really flies! You will be receiving conference forms Tuesday, January 5th to discuss your child's progress during the 2nd nine weeks. Please return these forms by Friday, January 8. These conferences will be scheduled with your child's homeroom teacher only. However, if you have concerns regarding math and/or science, you can email Mr. Trent directly to schedule a conference.

Three quick notes: 1) Compass Learning (www.thelearningodyssey.com) is an excellent resource for reading practice. Additionally, your child is expected to complete a minimum of two lessons per week. 2) Conferences will begin the week of January 11. 3) Due to conferences, there will be NO tutorial for 6th grade until the week of January 18.

Regarding our plans for the next couple of weeks, we are going to begin a novel study on Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen. We have enough books for a class set, but you are welcome to buy the  book if you would like your child to have a personal copy. Additionally, we'll be working on a DBQ regarding Latin America as well as studying this country intensively as part of our Social Studies curriculum.