Pacific Intermediate Newsletter

Pacific Intermediate families,

November brings lots of activities as well as the close of the first trimester of school! The last day of the first trimester is November 10th, and we will have a half day of school with our students dismissing at noon. The next day, November 11th, is a professional development day for our staff, and school will not be in session.

November is a time for reflection and giving thanks. On November 10th, we are going to honor our community veterans for Veterans Day. We will start with pancakes with patriots beginning at 8 am, and have an assembly for our veterans beginning at 9:00 am. Additional information will be sent out on how veterans can be involved with these activities.

We are also going to run a hygiene product drive. We have had a large demand from our students this year who have not been able to afford personal hygiene products such as deodorant, shampoo, and toothpaste. We would like to collect these items for our students in need, and additional information will be released when it has become available. Please make sure you are having hygiene conversations with your students at home, and if you need supplies, please work with our school nurse to secure them.

We will also be conducting a Change War at school this year instead of our traditional canned food drive. The money raised from this will go to directly to purchase food for Thanksgiving baskets to support families in need during Thanksgiving.

As a reminder, we are off of school the whole week of Thanksgiving, November 21st - November 25th. School will resume the following Monday, November 28th. We hope during this time you have some great times with family and friends, check out a great book from our library, sneak in some of those doctor’s appointments, and come back to school recharged and re-energized for December!

Yours in education,

Matt Agee

Pacific Intermediate Principal

Mrs. Alcorn~Math

Mr. Gilcrease~Language Arts & Reading

Mrs. Bielicke~Science & Social Studies

Mrs. Aubuchon~Math

Ms. Shearin~ Language Arts & Reading

Mr. Wengler~Science & Social Studies

Ms. DiBlasi~Math

Mrs. Menley~ Language Arts & Reading

Mrs. Jackson~Science & Social Studies

Math students are finishing up our unit on division this week. Next week we will be starting our unit on Algebra.

We are finishing up with parts of speech and moving on to commas. The writing process has been our most recent focus. With this knowledge, students have been working on their Halloween narratives and incorporating dialogue into their writing. Students have been working with point of view and will be discussing perspective. Along with point of view and perspective, we will be talking about the author's purpose. Students continue to work on spelling every other week.

Science: Have you heard about our decomposer labs? Students strengthened their understanding by growing mold and observing worms! We have been busy learning about the web of life and applying the scientific method in class, but are excited to move into our next unit. Fifth graders will begin exploring Earth's systems. This includes concepts about our water, our place in the universe, and human impact on our planet.

Social Studies: Like the pioneers during the westward expansion of the United States, we are traveling through our country's historical timeline. Our next focus will be on the Industrial Revolution and it's impact on American life in the 1800s. This will lead us to slavery, the Underground Railroad, and the Civil War.

There will be an ESL (English as a Second Language) Parent night on November 29th at 7:00 pm in the PHS cafeteria. This is an informational meeting in which parents can meet principals and counselors from schools, as well as learn more about the school district. Students will also have a special presentation for their parents.

Math~ Mrs. Weil

English~ Mrs. Stumborg

Science~ Mrs. Todahl

Social Studies~ Mr. Slaughter

Math~ Mrs. Voss

English~Mrs. Boling

Science~Mrs. Vondera

Social Studies~Mr. Effan

Reading~Mr. McMahon

It seems like the year is flying by. Please make sure you are checking SIS for missing assignments and updated grades. Your child will have homework on most nights. Please check in with them to make sure it is getting completed. Also, if you are sending an email about your child, please include their first and last name. Happy Fall!

Math:

Regular math students will be starting Ch. 3: Ratios and will move on to decimals, percent's, and fractions. They have homework every night and should be bringing it home.

Advanced classes will be starting Ch. 5 Algebraic Expressions and moving to solving one-step equations.

Social Studies:

We are finishing up our chapter about Mesopotamia. Next, we will be looking at the history of Ancient Egypt, and the major impacts their society had on the ancient world.

Reading:

We will be reading the novel Freak the Mighty. We will also be working on figurative language. This unit involves media comparison and projects.

Science:

This month we have been reviewing the Metric system. Students have used new pieces of equipment such as graduated cylinders, Triple-Beam Balances, and rulers. After Thanksgiving break, we will start the Sound and Light Unit.

English:

Students just finished their first major project and presentation, which used student-created surveys to collect and report out information. Next, students are going to be learning about transition words. We will use transition words in our next big project which is a personal narrative essay. Students will be writing about events they experienced in their lives.

Trimester 1 will be ending on Friday, November 10th. Most sixth-grade students will start their second exploratory class beginning Trimester 2. Report cards for Trimester 1 will be emailed out to all parent/legal guardians on November 18th. Hopefully you will be happy with your child’s grades, and they will reflect all of their hard work. Parent involvement and clear expectations are crucial to achieving higher grades, displaying appropriate behaviors and establishing good study habits. Working as a team we can help your student overcome obstacles to success. However, it is important each student takes primary ownership and responsibility for their success or failure.

Last month character education lessons focused on “Drug Prevention” efforts to recognize and celebrate Red Ribbon Month. Students discussed how drugs prevent us from reaching our goals and how it affects all areas in our lives such as health, relationships with friends and family, and school/career goals. Additionally, we discussed how drugs can lead to addictions, criminal issues and loss of life. In support of Red Ribbon month, we celebrated with Red Ribbon Spirit Dress Up Days and an Essay/Drawing Contest. Students could voluntarily enter the contest and share their pledge to be drug free and encourage others to choose to be drug free.

The first week of November the Children's Advocacy Center will be presenting a program called “Kid’s Rights” to all 5th graders which deals with body safety. Additionally, I will be in the 5th grade classrooms discussing the importance of accepting and respecting others individuality and diversity. Students will practice their social skills and acceptance of others by having two-days of lunches sitting in new places and getting to know classmates better. October 31st – November 4th all 6th grade students will be receiving a five-part lesson plan from Compass Health Network called “Changes and Choices” which deals with peer pressure, anger management, grief, addiction and abuse prevention.

As our tradition has been the last several years, we have joined with a local church which donates gift cards to families in need for their “Thanksgiving meal.” If your family is struggling, please contact us and let us know you could use one of PI’s Caring Thanksgiving Baskets. To encourage our students to be part of their community and help others, we will be providing an opportunity for students to participate in our “PI Caring Community Change War.” The Change War will be the week of November 1st – November 4th.Monetary donations will be used to help us provide each family a complete “Thanksgiving Dinner Basket” to include vegetables, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, fruit, and dessert items. To make things more fun and increase donations, we will have a competition between homeroom classes with the top two 5th and top two 6th grade homerooms receiving school recognition along with the reward of a playoff dodgeball game to determine grade level “Dodgeball Champions.” Then both grade level champions will playoff at a December school assembly to have bragging rights to be “PI Dodgeball Champions.” We hope to encourage donations, but still emphasize to students “Caring means feeling a genuine concern for the well-being of others without expecting something in return. Joy is received in helping others.” Your help in providing change for your child to donate is very much appreciated.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break. Appreciate what you have and enjoy your time with family and friends.

Pacific Intermediate

195 N Indian Pride Dr.

Pacific, MO 63069

www.mvr3.k12.mo.us

Phone: 636-271-1425

Fax: 636-271-1465