The Fighting Gnomes

This website will house short updates from the T4 Sixth Grade Teachers at Salem Middle School.

Gnomes Read Notes

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Wringer pgs 104-141.pptx (77 KB)
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Hello all,

This week we will meet again for Gnomes Read in the Media Center.  Thankfully the times have not been switched on us again so we will meet back at the regular time of 12:10 to 12:39.

At this Gnomes Read meeting we should have read up to chapter 27 or through page 140.  The questions are attached here, let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks for sharing this time with us.

Mr. Hutchinson

Wringer Lunch Time Change!

Dear Parents,

We are horribly embarrassed this morning because we just realized that our school's lunch schedule has been changed due to end of grade testing.  That means our Wringer book club won't be meeting at our regular time. 

Sixth grade lunch happens from 11:28 to 11:55 today -- so that's when we'll be meeting to discuss the second section of Wringer.

We know that the late notice means that many of you may not be able to rearrange your schedules to be here and we're sorry for the mixup.  If you can make it, though, we'll see you then.

Our apologies in advance,
The Gnomes

Gnomes Read Wringer: Questions for Friday's Book Group

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Questions_WringerLunch2.ppt (109 KB)
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Embedded above are the questions for our Friday book club meeting on Wringer.  If you're coming, consider giving them a look and seeing what you think!

Really looking forward to seeing you there.  We are INCREDIBLY proud of our team for reading together. 

#verycool

Hope this helps,
Bill Ferriter


Gnomes Read May 4

Good Morning Readers,

This is a reminder note about our first Gnomes Read lunch meeting for this 4th quarter.  We will meet tomorrow from about 12:10 until 12:39.  We do have to change our meeting place for this week as the media center is double booked and full of 7th and 8th graders this Friday.  We will meet in our team pod area and then break into a classroom or two.  After you sign in with the main office just come up the back stairs and come around to the 6th grade wing.  Mr. Hutchinson will be front and center pointing the way.  We have about five confirmed parents and about 40 students joining us tomorrow.

We look forward to another great conversation and powerful reading experience.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Mr. Hutchinson

Gnomes Read

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Gnomes Read wringer.pptx (73 KB)
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Good Morning,

This Friday we will once again meet as a Gnome Read Group.  We are reading Wringer by Jerry Spinelli and as of Friday we should have read up through page 78 or chapter 15.  You will find the seed questions embedded here for your early review.  Please join us during the 6th grade lunch from 12:05-12:39ish.

The Media Center is double booked for this Friday, so if you could drop a quick email to Mr. Hutchinson at jhutchinson@wcpss.net so we can gage our numbers, we will find a suitable replacement location.  Once we have solid number we will let you know where we will be meeting.

Let us know if you have any questions.  See you Friday.

The Gnomes

Free Kiva Gift Cards Available

Dear Parents,

As many of you know, I run a student microlending club here at Salem. 

In our club, we raise money through fundraisers and then use that money to make loans to people in the developing world who are looking to improve their lives.  The club -- which you can learn more about by watching our video -- is a great way for kids to learn more about what life is like in some of the world's poorest nations.  It's also a really easy way for students to make a difference in the world beyond their community.

I wanted you to know that the microlending service that we use -- Kiva -- is currently giving away free $25 gift cards.  That makes this the perfect time for you to start your own Kiva lending project with your family simply because it's free.

My plans are to use Kiva lending with my daughter Reece to mark important holidays. We'll make a loan every Christmas and every Easter when she's old enough to understand what we are doing and why it is important. 

If you're interested in claiming one of the free $25 gift cards, here's the link:

http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/teamkidscare

Here's to hoping that some of y'all take advantage of the opportunity!  Even if you only make one loan, you will have made a difference too.

Be well,
Bill Ferriter

Gnomes Read Wringer: First Meeting Scheduled

Dear Parents,

As you know, we've just started our second team book club of the year -- choosing Wringer as the focus of our study. 

Our first club meeting will happen during lunch (12:10-12:37) in the Salem Middle School media center next Friday, May 4. 

If you or your child plan to participate, we ask that you read through the end of chapter 15 -- which is something like 70 pages -- by that time. 

Also, as hard as it is, please don't read ahead in the book!  We don't want anyone giving away important events in our conversations. 

Hope this helps -- and hope to have you join us during our fourth quarter Gnomes Read adventure!

Bill Ferriter

New Opus Content

Good Morning all,

Since our track in I have talked about getting students to write about some of their adventures from track-out so we could share them on our class blog.  Some of the students are starting to get some really excellent work up that you may want to check out.  You may also gently encourage your student to write about something that happened to them recently.  It doesn't have to be a big overseas journey, writing about visiting the new wing of the science museum downtown would be great. 

This is a can do assignment and not graded, just a great way to practice writing narratives and share their adventures with their peers.  Students can write their adventures out and then type them at school, or type them at home and bring them in on a flash drive, or even type the adventure and email it to Mr. Hutchinson at jhutchinson@wcpss.net and I will transfer it to the blog.  If you are comfortable with a picture or two you may send those to me as well.  Remind students that they should never use last names when writing on for the internet.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Mr. Hutchinson

EOG Testing Form

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p.pdf (225 KB)
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Dear Parents,

Embedded above, please find an important form that needs to be signed and returned to school ASAP.  It was handed out in our homerooms over the last few days -- so you may have already seen this. 

It specifically asks what your wishes are in the event that your child makes a 1 on this year's end of grade exams.  While all students who score a level 2 will be automatically retested, students who make a level 1 can opt out of retesting with parent permission.

Hope this helps,
Bill Ferriter

Wonder Precept Wall


Hello all,

I hope this short week has been an easy transition for you all. 

I wanted to send a quick message and update you on our Gnomes Read precept project from our reading of Wonder.  Over track out the school received about 10 postcards and now that we are back a few more have started coming in. 

 We are asking all students, even the ones who didn't read Wonder with us, to come up with a precept.  A precept is just a line of text that has some significance to the person.  My precept is "What is past is prologue."  We are planning to have extra postcards for students to write their precept on, but if you want to find a postcard this weekend that would be wonderful.  We know not everyone will participate, but we think it would be very powerful to show off as many Gnome Precepts as we can.

Here is a picture of our hall display, which is starting to look really cool...

Image
Mr. H and The Gnomes