PIB Weekly News O C T O B E R 4 , 2 0 1 9 W W W . U S D 2 5 9 . O R G / R O B I N S O N / P I B
Team News UPCOMING
EVENTS:
October 7: Vol-
leyball at CMA
October 7: Dairy
Queen Night (East
Central)
October 8: Cross
Country—All City
October 8: PTSO
and Foundation
Meeting
October 9: Fund-
raiser Packets Due
October 9: Vol-
leyball at Stucky
October 15: Il Vi-
cino Night
October 15: Fall
Choir Concert
October 16: Vol-
leyball at Wilbur
October 17: Kona
Ice at Lunch Recess
October 17: 6th
Grade Band Perfor-
mance
October 18: NO
SCHOOL; Last Day
of the First Nine
Weeks
Immunization exclusion day is
Thursday, October 17. Are your
student’s shots up to date? Contact
the school nurse, Krista Miller, if you
have questions.
The Robinson Achieve-A-Thon
Fundraiser last turn in day is
Wednesday, October 9. You can also
get information at:
https://www.usd259.org/robinson/pt
so/achieve-a-thon. Thank you for
your support of our schoolwide
fundraiser
The Safe and Civil Schools Survey is
open until November 1. Our school is
committed to providing a safe and
encouraging place for your child. You
can help us continue to make
improvements to our school by
completing a short online survey. We
want to know what you think, too. All
responses are anonymous. The
resulting data will allow us to see if
the three groups—parents/guardians,
students, and staff—agree or disagree
about important issues. We will be
able to identify what we are doing
well and what we need to work on,
such as safety in a particular location
of the school, students’
understanding of the expectations for
behavior, or communication with
families. It’s quick and easy, just visit
http://bit.ly/rmssafeandcivil2019.
Use the assigned ID: PARENT_RMS and passcode: Q2G3P3S2 Just one
parent or guardian from each
household should take it.
Have questions about homework?
The Homework Hotline is here to
help! Students at all grade levels
who have questions about their
assignments, as well as parents
and guardians who need support
while helping their child at home,
can call or email the Homework
Hotline. The Homework Hotline is
open Monday through Thursday
from 3:30 – 7:30 p.m. Call for
help: 973-4411. Please take
advantage of this support system to
make Every Student Future Ready!
ZAP on Tuesday and Thursday is not
just for students who have a D or F.
ANY PIB student can to come in at
lunch and/or recess on Monday
and Tuesday for additional
worktime for any class in Room
217. Students can get a pass from
any teacher and MUST have their
ID. Computers are available for
students to use during this time.
Make sure you in your community
service forms to your CHARGE
Teacher. If you have any questions
please see Ms. Mandelbaum (6th
Grade) and Ms. Rowley (7th and 8th
Grade). Log sheets are available on
our team page on the Robinson
Website. Sixth Graders need to
complete 15 hours, Seventh
Graders 20 hours, and Eighth
Graders 25 hours. Half of the hours
are due to their CHARGE teacher by
Friday, December 6. If the hours
are not completed Social Studies
grades will be lowered 10%.
P A G E 2
Volunteers Needed
Have you heard of Volunteer Kansas? It’s a website
(www.volunteerkansas.org) for people who want to find
exciting and useful ways to engage in their community.
Students can browse opportunities to volunteer by loca-
tion or by their interests.
United Way has a website that lists
volunteer opportunities for teens. For
more information, visit http://
www.unitedwayplains.org/teen-
volunteers/ .
Turn in hours to your CHARGE Teacher.
Check google classroom for the number of hours
you have turned in.
Pumpkins at the Park
Tanganyika puts on a family-friendly Halloween event, Pumpkins at the Park. Pumpkins at the Park is
by far the largest special event we put on each year. In fact, we need approximately 100 volunteers per
night for the event to work. All of the funds raised by this event go straight into our Winter Fund to help
feed the rare and endangered animals in our care over the winter! Dates Available: Friday 10/18,
Saturday 10/19, Sunday 10/20, Friday 10/25, Saturday 10/26, and Sunday 10/27. Age
Requirements: Volunteers must be 14 to attend without a parent/guardian. Volunteers 11 to 13 may
attend with a parent or guardian age 18 or older. Volunteers under 14 may be limited in what positions
they can fill. Times: 4:30 pm to 10:00 pm (must attend for the full shift). To sign up, visit
twpark.hauntscheduler.com
Woofstock—October 5, 2019
Come and help us out with Fall’s Fluffiest Festival! Woofstock is the Kansas Humane Society’s largest
fundraiser every year and we need lots of volunteer support to pull it off. There will be a Woof Walk, live
music, contests, a beer garden and food trucks as well as activities like Ruff Races, doggy agility course,
children's puppy clinic, water retrieval, a lure course, photo booth, live demos from the WPD's K-9 Unit
and McConnell's Military Dogs, and MORE! Volunteering for Woofstock is separate from signing up to be
a regular KHS volunteer and is a 1 day only commitment. Shifts available are 7am-10am for early setup
and walk, 8:30am-12pm for the morning shift, 11:30am-3pm for the afternoon shift, and teardown from
3pm-5pm. Sign up for one shift or stay and help all day. Volunteer jobs can include anything from greet-
ing guests as the enter the park to helping all of the planned activities run smoothly. Contact the volun-
teer department at KHS with any questions or click on the links below to sign up.If you are interested in
helping out, please fill out an application at https://www.volgistics.com/ex/portal.dll/ap?p=714857794
P A G E 3
Sixth Grade PIB Berry—Math Berry—Science
Callard—Language Arts Flores—Spanish
This week we will finish our work on Ratios. The
test is scheduled for Thursday, October 10. It will
be online, so use MATHIA to get used to answering
questions online and for practicing all the great
new strategies that have been introduced. Our
next Topic unit, beginning Friday, will be Percents.
Our week will be filled with activity. First, we will perform and
use data from a lab over speed and acceleration to help un-
derstand Newton’s Second and Third Laws. Next, each
group will design and build the Slowest Marble Maze. In
addition, we will observing and identifying Newton’s laws in a
review task card activity. This is all to prepare for the Marble
Challenge Contest and Physics Final during the week of Octo-
ber 14th. I encourage you to give advice and recycled materi-
als to build things at home to bring to school for the maze,
but please allow your child to do the work. I will be checking
pages 16-17 in the Science Spirals this week.
Mandelbaum—Language Arts Mandelbaum—Social Studies
Polson—Spanish Taylor—Math
We are reading, responding and reflecting on Ref-
ugee next week. We will be going over figurative
language and looking for examples in the text. We
will focus on hyperbole, personification and im-
agery.
We are continuing our study of Egypt. We will be
writing a fun journal about the life of an ancient
Egyptian told through the eyes of a Mesopotami-
an spy.
We have finished our novel Refugee, which the
kids have thoroughly enjoyed. Our wrap-up in-
cludes group presentations of character timelines
and activities to build skills in identifying and stat-
ing claims about literary conflict and theme. Next
week, we will finish Lesson 4 in our vocabulary
books. Please note that Scholastic Book orders
are due by the end of the day on Thursday, Octo-
ber 10th.
Students will present their projects for Hispanic
Heritage Month on either Monday, Tuesday or
Wednesday of next week. Regardless of the day
they present, all projects are due to me by Mon-
day. I am especially excited to learn about the fa-
mous people students chose to study and why
they found them so intriguing!
What a fun week we have ahead of us! Students
will be presenting their Hispanic Heritage Projects
Monday – Wednesday. Presentation days have
been assigned to each student and are posted on
Classroom. We will begin reading a 10 episode
silly story at the end of the week.
Understanding ratios: students engaged in high-
level representational and definitional thinking
about ratios. They have focused on reasoning
about ratios and laying a strong foundation, so
that they will be able to apply this reasoning in
future topics. Math Practices: Model Mathematics
& Utilize Patterns.
Flores—Spanish Jenney—Science
Lavacek—Language Arts Rowley—Social Studies
Sims—Language Arts Sinsel—Math
Van Horn—Math
We will continue working on Module 3 Topic 3: Multiple Representations of Equations. The test will be
on Tuesday, October 8. Remember that students are asked to complete 25% of the curriculum each
nine weeks. They will have time each week in class , but some time at home or during ZAP may be
needed to complete this goal. If you need additional help, ZAP is available on Tuesday and Thursday at
lunch in my classroom.
Students will continue through the SciFi galaxy
this week as we wrap up our study of “Harrison
Bergeron.” If there is time, we may also venture
to Mars with Bradbury’s “Dark They Were and
Golden Eyed.” Throughout the unit students have
examined SciFi’s ability to comment on social jus-
tice and the interaction of technology and human-
ity. Students have analyzed, evaluated, and even
performed some of the stories we have read so
far.
The seventh graders will continue the science fic-
tion as social commentary unit this coming week,
focusing on “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury.
7th Grade Math 7+: Math students have recently started a unit on
Probability, and we’ll continue this next week. We’ll also take one
more day for Mathia before the first 25% of the curriculum is due
on Oct. 14. Make sure you check your percentage completed so
you stay on track to finish! This will be a 25 point grade at the end
of the quarter.
7th Grade Algebra 1: Math students have recently begun a unit on
solving linear equations, which we’ll continue next week. We’ll also
take at least one more day for Mathia before the first 25% of the
curriculum is due on Oct. 14. Make sure you check your percent-
age completed so you stay on track to finish! This will be a 25
point grade at the end of the quarter.
We will be studying North America (Canada and
the U.S) for the remainder of the nine weeks. We
will have a physical map quiz over North America
on Monday. This does have a word bank. On Fri-
day of next week, we will have a states quiz. All
50 states of the U.S., no word bank and spelling
does count.
P A G E 4
Seventh Grade PIB
Next week students will begin reading the novel
Patricia va a California. I have a classroom set of
the novels, but recommend that each student
have their own personal copy that they can anno-
tate and use outside of the classroom. I have a
pdf copy of the novel on my Google Classroom
page that students can easily access. There is al-
so a link if you would like to purchase a hard
copy on Google Classroom.
Seventh grade student scientists will be continu-
ing their studies of earth systems and energy next
week.
P A G E 5
Eighth Grade PIB Flores—Spanish Jenney—Science
Lavacek—Language Arts Rowley—Social Studies
The action will pick up very quickly during next
week's reading of the novel, as students learn
about a new student who almost dies in
school! (Please don't worry, there is no violence or
mention of weapons!) There will be lots of activi-
ties to aid in comprehension and even some dra-
matic acting!
Eighth grade student scientists will be continuing
their studies of chemistry next week, presenting
their models of chemical reactions on Wednes-
day.
Sims—Language Arts Sinsel—Math
Taylor—Math Van Horn—Math
This coming week, the eighth graders will continue
our study of suspense fiction, focusing on “The
Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe. We’ll concen-
trate on how the author develops characterization
and plot through suspense.
Math students have recently begun a unit on solv-
ing linear equations, which we’ll continue next
week. We’ll also take at least one more day for
Mathia before the first 25% of the curriculum is
due on Oct. 14. Make sure you check your per-
centage completed so you stay on track to fin-
ish! This will be a 25 point grade at the end of
the quarter.
We will continue to look around corners and pre-
pare for surprise endings as we travel through the
world of Suspense. We will be moving on to Lucille
Fletcher’s “The Hitchhiker.” As with our other sto-
ries, we will read the original and examine the film
adaptation. Students have been working hard on
developing literary analysis paragraphs—
integrating direct quotes, elaborating on this evi-
dence, and developing transitions.
We will begin Chapter 6 on Monday, The Ameri-
can Revolution. Depending on your child’s fifth
grade teacher, this may seem like review or may
be brand new and everywhere in between. Re-
gardless, their 8th grade brains can comprehend
much more of the subtleties and complexities
than their 5th grade brain could. This chapter will
take us through the remainder of the 9 weeks.
Beginning this topic with significant knowledge
about geometric shapes and their relationships,
students build from their prior experiences with
opportunities to conjecture about relationships
they have recognized through investiga-
tion. Currently we have been using a compass,
straightedge, and protractor to examine these re-
lationships. Math Practices: Model Mathematics &
Strategically Use Tools.
We will finish working on Module 2 Topic 1, by
looking at linear functions. The test will be Tues-
day, October 8. We will then work on solving line-
ar equations. Remember that students are
asked to complete 25% of the curriculum each
nine weeks. If you need additional help, ZAP is
available on Tuesday and Thursday at lunch in my
classroom.
PIB
Co
nta
ct In
form
atio
n
If you wish to contact any of the Pre-IB teachers with questions please note the following contact information. You can leave a message by
phone for any teacher at 973-8600.
Berry, Kathleen 6th Grade Math and Science Email: [email protected]
Callard, Tracy 6th Grade Language Arts
Email: [email protected]
Flores, Tara 6th, 7th, 8th Grade Spanish Email: [email protected]
Jenney, Charles 7th and 8th Grade Science
Email: [email protected]
Lavacek, Molly 7th and 8th Grade Language Arts
Email: [email protected]
Mandelbaum, Susan 6th Gr. Language Arts & Social Studies Email: [email protected]
Polson, Elizabeth 6th, 7th, 8th Grade Spanish
Email: [email protected]
Rowley, Michele 7th and 8th Grade Social Studies
Email: [email protected]
Sims, Katherine 7th and 8th Grade Language Arts
Email: [email protected]
Sinsel, Jennifer 7th and 8th Grade Math
Email: [email protected]
Taylor, Mike 6th and 8th Grade Math
Email: [email protected]
Van Horn. Denise Team Leader
7th and 8th Grade Math Email: [email protected]
Website http://www.usd259.org/robinson/pib
The page gives team information. A Weekly Newsletter (published Friday afternoons) will be posted. The newsletter will give information about topics of study and events
for the following week. To access classroom websites you will need to use your Parent/Student Vue account.