Getting Ready for 6th Grade Camp

Parents,

Can you believe that in about 5 months, we’ll be on our way to Camp Marston in Julian, CA? Time is surely flying fast and I want to make sure you’re ready with all the information you need as well as fundraising ideas to pay for camp. For more information about what takes place at Camp Marston, please check out this video:

Also, some of you have inquired about fundraising ideas for camp and here’s a list of how one may fundraise to bring the cost of $240 down and more feasible for your budget.

Lastly, sponsor letters are a great way to have family and friends invest in a great activity and experience like 6th-grade camp. Here’s a sample letter that I created where you’ll just have to fill in the information for your child. Please click here to access the sample letter.

Please let me know if you have any questions. You’re more than welcome to send payments at your convenience, but know that the FINAL DATE to turn in all the money for camp will be Thursday, April 26th.

The Star Wars Writing Process

 

2013%2f05%2f04%2fcb%2fstarwarslif-3c26e

The last few days during our interim practice SBAC exams, I took the afternoons to focus on giving some practical life advice and informational writing structures to my students. We began by reading the article entitled, 10 Things We Learned from Star Wars, and having a class discussion about these particular life lessons. Next we continued by creating a hand plan by using the strategies by Wilda Storm:

img_6159

The beauty of the hand plan is that it is easy to remember and accessible for students to use as a tool when it comes to writing any form of essay. We continued our writing process the following day by introducing the concepts of establishing the 4 E’s (Evidence, Explanation, Example, and Elaboration) after writing the introduction and conclusion. img_3659

img_5306

img_5475

Please leave a comment on the blogs of my students, and continue to encourage them as writers. Many of them haven’t been pushed this much, and I’m attempting to balance the “force” of how much they can handle as I see them grow. May the force be with you! – Mr. Garcia

Supporting Reading at Home

Parents, it’s important to support your child’s reading at home and while I can share many different strategies, I want to focus on this specific one when your child is reading a magazine, article, newspaper, or anything else they make come across. The following is something that I found on “6 Techniques for Building Reading Skills—in Any Subject” by Susan Barber

Teach Close Reading Skills

Guide students in annotation by directing them to do more than highlight or underline. Encourage students to have a conversation with the text by jotting notes on the text while reading—this keeps students engaged and often increases comprehension. Annotations can include:

  • Defining new words
  • Asking questions
  • Coding recurring words and themes
  • Making personal connections to the text
  • Citing current events
  • Highlighting heading and subheadings
  • Summarizing paragraphs
  • Chunking
  • Categorizing information
  • Numbering and ordering
  • Drawing pictures

The list of possibilities is endless—the point is to have students form their own process when approaching a text. But don’t be afraid to give students specific annotation guidelines such as “annotate the writer’s characterization techniques” or “find examples of . . .” to help them focus. Annotations also help students identify which strategies work best for them as they try to process and understand information. The clip (belows) “Girls Read Comic” from The Big Bang Theory is a great way to introduce the concept of reading closely and its importance.

Supporting your child’s learning at home

Here’s a copy of today’s from our guided reading. Please watch this with your child and ask them questions about it. Ask them the following:

  • What was the purpose of the lesson?”
  • “What did you learn from it?”
  • “How will you take what you learned today and apply it to other readings you’ll be doing in class?”

Apoyando el aprendizaje de su niño en casa

He aquí una copia de hoy de nuestra lectura guiada. Mire por favor esto con su hijo/hija y hacerles preguntas acerca de ello.Preguntarles lo siguiente:

  • “¿Cuál fue el propósito de la lección?”
  • “¿Qué aprendiste de ello?”
  • “¿Cómo va a tomar lo que aprendió hoy y aplicarlo a otras lecturas que debe realizar en la clase?

Encouraging Failure!

I would like to share my thoughts on why failure is important. I’ll be sharing how failure is embraced within our classroom, yet also how important it is for the growth of our students. Reading the article “Embracing Failure: Building a Growth Mindset Through the Arts” it revealed that we don’t normally encourage our students to learn from their mistakes. Often times we want to see perfection immediately, rather than finding the “entry point” of where they are at with whatever academic subject. A lot of support that parents can do is to have full on conversations that make their child think of what went wrong and what they could do to make it better. I’d like to echo the techniques in embracing this from the Edutopia article:

  1. Teach Your Kids That It’s OK to Make Mistakes
    • Hearing the words that it’s okay to make a mistake will release the tension and pressure for failure. In all reality, encouraging your kids to make mistakes on something they’ve never tried will allow them want to take more risks. There is nothing like the comfort of knowing that the support system at home will be well received when they know that failure will not define who they are.
  2. Teach Your Kids to Take Risks
    • Taking risks allows opportunities for life lessons and even new ways to solve problems. Don’t just limit this to academics, but rather let this be the outlook on life. Ask your kids, “what risks have you taken this week that will help you become a better person?”
  3. Teach Your Kids to Appreciate Feedback
    • I remember as a child that it wasn’t so much the feedback that was given to me that would shut me down, rather it was how the feedback was communicated. Always be sure to encourage them in a setting that will allow them to feel secure and safe, and never upset or intimidated on what you’re sharing with them. This will allow them to be open to receiving and then giving feedback.
  4. Teach Your Kids How to Provide Critical Feedback
    • When giving feedback to your kids and encouraging them to do the same, teach them the sandwich method. “Praise, truth, and praise!” An example could be, “Sebastian, I love how you completed the five paragraphs that were required, however look at capitalizing all the nouns that are needed in your writing…however, it’s still a great start to what you’re completing.”
  5. Give Your Kids Opportunities to Provide Critical Feedback
    • One of the ways I love to encourage this is give students an opportunity to share their thoughts on this blog, as well as share what their peers could be improving on. That’s the purpose of this blog, to write and encourage each other to become better writers. At home start with something simple, “How did you like dinner…and be honest? Too much salt or not enough?” Feedback can be as simple as that when as your kids to give you support.

These are just little pieces of advice in allowing my students and your kids to grow as a whole, while becoming the best they can be for our future tomorrow!

Mr. Garcia

Welcome to the 2016 – 2017 School Year

Hello Parents,

Welcome to our a new school year. I’m excited to introduce to you our blog where you’ll find all the information you need to have a successful year with your child. Please click here to visit the class syllabus to go over all the expectations in all areas of 6th grade for the year. Please do not hesitate to email me at christopher.garcia@cvesd.org if you have any questions or message me on Class Dojo.

Here’s to a great year!

Mr. Garcia

Padres,

Bienvenido a nuestro nuevo año escolar. Estoy muy contento de presentar a usted nuestro blog donde encontrará toda la información que necesita tener un año exitoso con su hijo/hija. Por favor, haga clic aquí para visitar el programa de clases para repasar todas las expectativas en todas las áreas del 6to grado para el año. Por favor, no dude enviarme un email a christopher.garcia@cvesd.org si tiene alguna pregunta o mensaje yo en Class Dojo.

Vamos a tener un gran año.

Maestro García

 

Camp Information/Informacion de campamento

Parents, the following is a video that will explain what camp is about. After that you’ll see the forms that you need, and then the presentation slides that were used for our camp meeting.

Padres, el siguiente es un video que explique lo que el campamento se trata. Después de que verás los los papeles que necesitas, a continuación, visite diapositivas de presentación que se utilizaron para nuestra reunión de campo.

Important Forms/ Formas Importantes

Parent Guide Form: Click Here

Guía para los padresclic aquí

Student Medical Form: Click Here

Impreso de historia médica: clic aquí

Equipment List: Click Here

Lista de Equipo: click aquí

Camp Store Price List: Click Here

Welcome/Bienvenidos

IMG_1685

Dear Parents,

I wanted to take the time to introduce myself and thank you for this opportunity to finish off the year as your child’s teacher. My name is Mr. Garcia and I am excited to be here and excited to partner with you for your child’s education. I will only have your child for a short time so I want to make a contribution that will last a lifetime. I know my teaching must begin with making children feel safe and comfortable to come to the classroom, as well as helping all the children come together into a learning community. This community is made up of unique individuals, each with his or her own learning style, interests, history, hopes, and dreams.  I look forward to a wonderful partnership in your child’s education.

Please do not hesitate to contact me through Class Dojo, email christopher.garcia@cvesd.org, or calling the school at 619-420-7071.

Respectfully,

Mr. Garcia

Queridos padres,

Yo quería tomar el tiempo para presentarme y darle las gracias por esta oportunidad de terminar el año como maestro de su hijo/hija. Mi nombre es Maestro García y estoy emocionado de estar aquí. Sólo voy a tener a su hijo/hija por un corto tiempo, así que quiero hacer una contribución que va a durar toda la vida. Sé que mi enseñanza debe comenzar con lo que los niños se sientan comfortables y cómodos cuando vengan a la escuela, así como ayudar a todos los niños se reúnen en una comunidad de aprender. Esta comunidad está compuesta por individuos especiales, cada uno con su propio estilo de aprendizaje, intereses, historia, esperanzas y sueños.  Espero una colaboración maravillosa en la educación de su hijo.

Por favor, no dude en ponerse en contacto conmigo a través de Class Dojo, correo electrónico christopher.garcia@cvesd.org o llamando a la escuela al 619-420-7071.

Respetuosamente,

Maestro García