Week of Thanksgiving!!

Regular School for Tuesday and a Half Day AM schedule for Wednesday, November 26

 

This week will be an extremely short week due to the National Elections, yet we will be productive.

 

The 6th grade classes will read a short story from the Elements of Literature textbook. Within this reading, students will continue to increase their high- order thinking skills by examining the themes, the author's purpose for writing, character development, plot, etc.

 

The 7th grade class will use the CPS process to brainstorm ideas for an informative essay of their personal Pigman. From reading the The Pigman, by Paul Zindel, we have learned and understood why the main character loved the Pigman so much. Students will dive into their own personal lives and write an essay of their own Pigman and use the Writing Process and the 6+1 Traits to increase the overall value of the essay.

 

The 8th grade class will continue to read their novel, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros. Students will progress and increase their vocabulary, journal writing, HOTS by recognizing the themes of the novel per vignette, and comprehension skills. So far, these students have liked reading this novel and discussing it as a class. I will continue this trend by crafting lessons that will deepen this likeability.

 

Let's have a fabulous week!! Achieving is Believing!!

 

 

MIDTERM REPORTS – Midterm reports were issued last Friday, November 22. These should be signed by parents and returned to the teacher as soon as possible. If you would like a conference and one was not requested by the teacher, please call the school to set up an appointment.  

 

MINI CHRISTAMS BAZAAR – Our school DPTO is organizing an early shopping opportunity for our families on December 5 and 6. The event will last all school day long! Come and support our DPTO and take advantage of the great items that will be on sale at terrific prices!!!!

 

SONGFEST – In order to avoid the late afternoon and early evening traffic congestion, the School’s annual Songfest will be held on Friday, December 13 at 1:30 p.m. Parents are welcome to come and have lunch with our students before the performances. There will be a sale of food, baked goods and drinks. 

 

PREPARATION FOR SONG FEST - In preparation for our Songfest, we are asking parents who have spare Christmas decorations which they would like to share with us for the stage presentation taking place on December.13, to please send them to your child's homeroom teacher next week.We will take good care of them and return them by Monday, December 16. Anticipated thanks for your unconditional support in all of our school activities.

 

CHRISTMAS GIVING TREE:  Nuestro Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) is an international organization that takes in abandoned and orphaned children, providing a home and education.  Here in Honduras, the NPH organization provides for over 500 children in a large ranch near La Venta and home in Tegucigalpa for severely handicapped children.   While many children at the ranch have aunts, uncles, or grandparents that come to visit them and can provide some Christmas gifts, some children at a ranch have no family to visit.  It is these children for whom we would like to provide this Christmas.   On the second floor of the secondary building, an NPH Giving Tree will be set up.   Choose a paper tree that has a child’s information about his/her size for shoes or socks.  Purchase the new item and return it to Mrs. Agurcia’s Room (Rm. 7) by Tuesday, December 10, with the tree tag taped to it.  As well, there are tree tags for basic food items that will be donated to the orphanage.  Cash donations will also be accepted to provide shoes and socks for children whose tags were not selected.  Thank you for giving this Christmas!  If more information about NPH’s work in Honduras, please visit http://www.nph-honduras.org/. 

 

FUNDACION ABRIGO - Discovery School, in solidarity with FUNDACION ABRIGO ( A foundation that provides lodging for families from outside Tegucigalpa who bring patients to Hospital Escuela), is asking our school community’s collaboration. If you would like to participate and help this organization, please send a donation of 1 gallon of disinfectant per family by Friday, December 6. Your contribution will be greatly appreciated!

           

For Secondary Only:

 

SCIENCE FAIR:  Please remember that Science Fair will be held on Friday, December 6th.  That day, all 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10A students will be involved in the fair during 3rd and 4th periods. First period will proceed as normal and 1/2 of 2nd period will be used to set up the fair on the second floor of the secondary building.  As well, students with top projects will be asked to present their project to a visiting judge that afternoon in the library (meaning the library will not be available for classes that afternoon).  Students from other classes will be invited to visit the fair in the following schedule:  6A, 6B, 10B, 11, and 12 during 3rd period, and elementary classes during 4th period (10:53-11:43). More details about the fair will be given closer to the date.

 

Week of November 18

Discovery School will be closed on Monday, November 25, 2013

 

in order to keep our students and staff safe and to enable us to assess the situation and make a measured decision for the remainder of the week.

 

COMMUNICATION --

1.     Parents will receive communication from the school at around 6:00 p.m. on Monday evening, November 25, 2013, concerning school for the remainder of that week, or at least for Tuesday.

 

All classes had an extremely rigorous week of learning. Most students stepped up to the challenges presented to them and demonstrated an attitude that leads to success. That same attitude is needed as we begin this week.

 

In 6th grade, the students will continue to learn about the different types of adjectives, and how to recognize them in a sentence. So far, most students are demonstrating a good degree of knowledge in learning the information, but are not paying attention to detail. We will work in all those areas as we progress within this unit.

 

The 7th grade class had a great week of learning. They are displaying a high degree of enthusiasm and effort as we continue to read the novel, The Pigman, by Paul Zindel. This week, students will finish the novel, discuss it using the novel's themes, and the author's purpose for writing. Also, students will perform on a comprehension test covering the last five chapters to measure their strengths and understand their weaknesses in this area. Good luck, students!!

 

The 8th grade class has picked up the pace as we began reading our new novel, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros. The class will continue to learn and exhibit effective use of vocabulary, write in their journals (occasionally using writing prompts), discuss the author's purpose for writing, and use the novel's themes to discuss every vignette, and increase HOTS.  Also, students will perform on a comprehension test to measure their strengths and understand their weaknesses covering the vignettes previously read.

 

Let's have a great week of learning!!

 

 

 

 

 

MIDTERM REPORTS – Midterm reports will be issued this Friday, November 22. Please make sure you ask your child for his/her report. If a conference was not requested by a teacher but you would like to have one, please contact the school to set up an appointment.

 

FROM THE COUNSELOR: We invite you to visit our teacher and administrator blogs and become a follower of the ones for which you wish to receive updates. There's always valuable information posted on them that you might find useful with your children. All you need to do is click on "Participar en este sitio" or "Follow this site" and provide your name and email information, and you will be notified of updates to that particular blog automatically. You can follow as many blogs as you would like to.

 

FROM THE SCHOOL’S CAFETERIA -  Please visit the Cafeteria blog http://discoverycafeteria.blogspot.com/ for information on the delicious Pecan, Apple and Pumpkin pies that can be ordered for your Thanksgiving celebrations. The cafeteria is also offering a meal for the classroom festivities at a very attractive price!

 

LAST WEEK FOR DONATIONS  FOR “YA TENGO DONDE ESCRIBIR”:  Don’t forget to send in cereal boxes. Wednesday, November 20 is the last day! The grade that brought the most boxes will be awarded a pizza party or ice cream party! Please help us help those in need!

 

CHRISTMAS GIVING TREE:  Nuestro Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) is an international organization that takes in abandoned and orphaned children, providing a home and education.  Here in Honduras, the NPH organization provides for over 500 children in at large ranch near La Venta and home in Tegucigalpa for severely handicapped children.   While many children at the ranch have aunts, uncles, or grandparents that come to visit them and can provide some Christmas gifts, some children at a ranch have no family to visit.  It is these children whom we would like to provide for this Christmas.   On the second floor of the secondary building, a NPH Giving Tree will be set up.   Choose a paper tree that has a child’s information about his/her size for shoes or socks.  Purchase the new item and return it to Mrs. Agurcia’s Room (Rm. 7) by Tuesday, December 10th, with the tree tag taped to it.  As well, there are tree tags for basic food items that will be donated to the orphanage.  Cash donations will also be accepted to provide shoes and socks for children whose tags were not selected.  Thank you for giving this Christmas!  For more information about NPH’s work in Honduras, please visit http://www.nph-honduras.org/. 

 

For Grades 4 – 6 only:

 

Dra. Karen Funes ( gynecologist) will be giving an informative talk on Wednesday, November 20 to the girls from grades 4 – 6  on changes that occur during the puberty stage of development. This will take place from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m.  We will be sending a permission slip with your child this week for parents to sign if they wish for their daughter to attend this presentation.

 

For Secondary Only:

 

COMMUNITY SERVICE CLUB:  There will be a meeting of the Community Service Club on Tuesday, November 19th in Mrs. Agurcia's Room (Rm.7) at lunch.  All secondary students are welcome.

 

SCIENCE FAIR:  Please remember that Science Fair will be held on Friday, December 6th.  That day, all 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10A students will be involved in the fair during 3rd and 4th periods. First period will proceed as normal and 1/2 of 2nd period will be used to set up the fair on the second floor of the secondary building.  As well, students with top projects will be asked to present their project to a visiting judge that afternoon in the library (meaning the library will not be available for classes that afternoon).  Students from other classes will be invited to visit the fair in the following schedule:  6A, 6B, 10B, 11, and 12 during 3rd period, and elementary classes during 4th period (10:53-11:43).  More details about the schedule will be given closer to the fair.

 

 

Week of November 11th

6th grade students will finish reading the short story, "The Smallest Dragonboy," by Anne McCaffrey from the Elements of Literature textbook, and complete the Making Meanings questions at the end to increase students' awareness of HOTS. After completing those questions and discussing them, students will begin their unit on adjectives.

 

HOMEWORK:

Students will complete various exercises from the Elements of Language textbook

 

The 7th grade students will continue to read the novel, The Pigman, by Paul Zindel. Students will increase their skills by studying vocabulary, comprehension, HOTS, themes, and author's purpose by reading this novel and having discussions in Literature Circles. Also, students will conduct a one act play based on a chapter between 6- 10.

 

HOMEWORK:

Students will study and read various chapters

 

The 8th grade class will begin reading their novel, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros. By reading this novel, student will understand the author's purpose for writing, the themes, and increase comprehension by examining the characters and their lives as they live on Mango Street. During this unit, student will journal using writing prompts and reanalyze their roles in Literature Circles.

 

HOMEWORK:

Students will study and read various chapters

 

Let's have a fabulous week!! Believing is Achieving!!

 

 

 

 

FROM THE SCHOOL’S CAFETERIA -  Please visit the Cafeteria blog http://discoverycafeteria.blogspot.com/ for information on the delicious Pecan, Apple and Pumpkin pies that can be ordered for your Thanksgiving celebrations. The cafeteria is also offering a meal for the classroom festivities at a very attractive price!

 

DONATIONS NEEDED:  Don’t forget to send in cereal boxes for “Ya Tengo Donde Escribir” between now and November 20. The grade that brought the most boxes will be awarded a pizza party or ice cream party! Please help us help those in need!

 

 

For Grades 4 – 6 only:

 

Dra. Karen Funes ( gynecologist) will be giving an informative talk on Wednesday, November 20 to the girls from grades 4 – 6  on changes that occur during the puberty stage of development. This will take place from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m.  We will be sending a permission slip with your child this week for parents to sign if they wish for their daughter to attend this presentation.

 

For Secondary Only:

 

PASSING GRADE ACCORDING TO THE MINISTRY OF EDUCTION - We would like to remind parents that the passing grade, according to new regulations, is 70% for the Ministry of Education. Your child needs to score at least 70% in order to avoid coming to recuperation exam/s. We encourage you to check blogs and Engrade on a weekly basis, and to keep close communications with teachers.

 

STUDY SKILLS WORKSHOPS - To help improve students' overall academic performance we will be offering the following mandatory Study Skills Workshops taking place at the Library:

 

• Middle School (grades 6-8): Wednesday, November 13, from 8:00-9:40 am
• High School (grades 9-12): Wednesday, November, 13 from 10:00-11:40 am

 

These workshops are geared to students in particular.On a later date we will offer workshops that are more focused on parental support at home.

 

The University of Michigan and Hope College will be visiting us on Tuesday, November 12 at 10:00 am.

 

Week of November 4th

NO SCHOOL, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8 due to TEACHER WORKSHOPS!!

All middle school students had a great week of classes in English/ Language Arts!! Let's keep creating value daily!!

All 6th graders will continue to use the Writing Process and the 6+1 Traits of Writing to publish their final drafts of their essay. Most students have used the class time well to understand the steps to effective writing and nearly complete their essays. Students will view a rubric to show how they will be graded and read their essays before the class. At the end of each essay, each student will field questions from their peers about their essay.

The 7th grade students will continue to read their novel, The Pigman, by Paul Zindel. While reading this novel, students will continue to journal using prompts, know the author's purpose for writing, discuss the themes of the novel, increase vocabulary, deepen reading and comprehension skills, and establish high order and critical thinking skills. So far, the class has performed well, but some students have not and need to pick- up the pace. Students will end the week with a vocabulary test.

The 8th grade class is moving along, but has slowed a bit. In order to stay on pace, they need to motivate themselves instead of looking to me as their sole means of inspiration. Students will continue to learn about comparative and superlative adjectives and close with learning about misplaced and dangling modifiers with the help of the textbook and the 8th Grade Grammar Notebook.

Let's have a great week of learning!! Believing is Achieving!!!
"The Best way to predict your Future is to create it."   Abraham Lincoln