We are back into the swing of things after a week off! We had a very eventful and quick week! Here is what we did.
On Monday, we had another Advent practice in the morning. We are really close to being fully ready for our service which is NEXT WEDNESDAY! The students are very excited and are working hard to make it the best it can be! We started our novel unit on Monday as well in Literature. We are reading Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix. It is a story about a boy named Luke who was not supposed to be born due to a population law. The students are really into it and we have had great discussions so far! We are using a book club format every day for Literature. The students sit in a circle to discuss different topics as we read (see pic below!). In Religion on Monday, we made plans with a partner to meet once a week to have a five minute devotion, prayer, or chat about our faith. I noticed a few students this week meeting and reading devotion books. It is a wonderful opportunity to spend a few minutes a week with God and with a friend! On Thursday, we had Advent practice with both fifth and sixth graders. We were able to see the entire service put together and in order for the first time. It looks amazing! We also had Mrs. Helmkamp join our class during Lab to teach us about Digital Citizenship. She cautioned us about the dangers of exaggerating our profiles or trying to deceive others online. The students had to do an activity where they responded to scenarios where others were being deceitful. The students decided if what they were doing was harmful or harmless. In Science, we are learning about graphs and the different relationships between variables as represented on those graphs. They seem really interested about these ideas and are working hard to understand some higher level stuff! Friday was a very fun day! We had a Religion class in the morning and then headed to the Mid Rivers Mall to see Wonder at the theater. The movie was INCREDIBLE! I 100% encourage everyone to see it because it was so good! Make sure to bring a box of tissues too! In the movie, the kids work on precepts, or sayings about really important things. So, after the movie, we wrote our own precepts and this is what our class came up with! (I am so proud of them for writing these that I almost cried because they are so cute!)
We ended the day with Art and Homeroom! :) 5/6 ADVENT WORSHIP: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6 The songs are learned, the dramas are getting polished, and practices are winding down; preparations are nearly complete for our Advent Services on Wednesday. It is time now for families to join in the preparation! The Advent season prepares us for the coming of Christ. Please plan to join us for one of the services to hear the message of how God works in our hearts to prepare us for his coming. Details about our worship services are below. Blessings to your families this Advent season! Thank you, 5th and 6th grade teachers Times: 10:00 A.M. (chapel with Zion students) and 7:00 P.M. Arrival for the evening services: Students are to meet in the JH building (6th grade in our homerooms, 5th grade - upstairs) between 6:30-6:45 P.M. (Pre-service musicians should check in with their teacher by 6:30 and then proceed to the church) Dress: Students should dress nicely for both the morning service and the evening service. Morning – standardized school dress (or costume) Evening – standardized school dress or “Sunday best” - avoid jeans and clothing with writing (unless costume). After the evening service: Parents may pick up students from the Welcome Center in church. ** Reminder: As students are leading worship, please refrain from flash photography during the service. We would be happy to stage pictures after the worship service ends. Scholastic Books: I know I just placed an order this week but the next time I order will be sooner than usual due to break. I am setting my due date on December 11th with hopes that the books will arrive during the last week of school before Christmas break (this date might change). If you would like to order books for your child as a gift, let me know and I will make sure to hide them. I'm pretty sure every student in my class wants to order books so consider it as a great gift! Class code: R6TZX Junior High Dance: The dance is scheduled for next Friday, December 8! Students have been talking about it throughout the day and seem very excited! They are able to requests songs through a link found on 6P Science Google Classroom. The dance starts at 7:30 and costs $6 a child. I hope all can attend! LCEF Have you heard about the Young Investor's Club? When people invest in Lutheran Church Extension Fund, they help fund the building of churches and schools. Zion used LCEF for our church expansion project. And so?? LCEF is offering a huge incentive to encourage new investors - $30,000 off Zion's mortgage for each of the next 2 years. As this is such a lucrative offer, Zion will pay the $25 minimum investment to get your child in the Young Investor's Club. This may be money that just sits in the account for your child, or you (or your child) may choose to add to the investment. Please consider helping Zion and get your child started in a savings plan. See the article on Sycamore for the pdf. Click here to learn more about LCEF.
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I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving break! I will be staying in St. Louis, hanging with family, and eating all the FOOD! I am so thankful for my first year of teaching at Zion and especially thankful to have your kids as my students! I am also thankful to have wonderful parents to work with and ensure growth for the kids! A big thank you goes to you! Make sure you tell your child that I am thankful for them as well. :) We have had a great year so far and I look forward to the rest of the year too!
This past week, we had a lot of Advent practice so our schedule was different every day! I think the students liked the mystery of what we would do each day and coming in to see our new schedule posted on the board. They are working hard to make our Advent service a great one! We also had our Thanksgiving food drive on Wednesday and donated a lot of items! I noticed many students in our class coming in with paper towels, cleaning supplies, and toothbrushes! I am so happy with the turnout and we were able to donate a total of 20 dinner boxes, restaurant gift cards, and kids could pick out a toy! We are finally into our Religion books! Our focus shifts from What is in the Bible and the Reformation to the life of Christ and, as Charlie mentioned, we started with Jesus' birth. We will be using the film The Visual Bible: Matthew along with our text to dig deep into Who was Jesus as well as his teachings, miracles, and passion. Check out the parent letter on my Religion tab at the top of my blog! We also started a new science chapter on Tuesday. We are discussing the states of matter and the changes between states. We did a really fun lab on Friday that showed the students how the molecules in gas speed up or slow down based on thermal energy added or taken away. See the pictures below! Midquarter was this past Friday so make sure to remind students to continue reading for AR and try to set goals with them for school in general! They continually work hard each day but sometimes it can get tiring! I hope they keep it up and work even harder this second half of the quarter! Make sure to go through their Friday papers, check grades on Sycamore, and ask about AR so that we can verify they are on track. Advent Reminder Have you marked your calendar? Just a reminder that Wednesday, December 6, at 10:00 AM and 7:00 PM, Grades 5 and 6 will lead the first Advent worship services at Zion Church. We have begun preparations for leading worship including practicing readings, auditioning for drama parts, and learning songs. Scholastic Book Orders I will be ordering on November 28th, the Tuesday after break. Double check with your child if they would like to order any books. This would also be an excellent gift idea for your kids or others! I can be sure to hide any books that will be given as gifts and notify you when they come in! I will order once more in mid-December for this semester. Remember our class code is: R6TZX. We had such a busy week this week that if flew right past us. Here is what we did:
Monday: We had another advent practice in the morning where the kids started to sing the advent songs and become familiar with them. We also picked our actors and actresses for our skit! Thanks to Colin, Kaitlyn, Logan, and Ali for volunteering! Tuesday: Mr. M taught the students about dialects in Literature as I observed Mrs. Riemenschneider. The kids have been hearing dialects in their every day lives and love to tell me about what they have heard! Wednesday: We had early dismissal and I hope the kids had a wonderful afternoon! Thursday: World Cup Stacking Day is held every year on November 9th and our sixth graders were eager to participate! I took lots of photos so be sure to check them out below! They had cup stacking relay races, giant cup stacking, tiny cup stacking, battle cup stacking, and a cup "ball" pit. It was awesome! Hopefully we helped contribute to breaking the world record of number of people to cup stack in one day! We also had another second steps lesson on Thursday about how to address bullying as a bystander. The students learned that they not only should stand up to the bully, but also help and support the victim as well. The geography bee was Thursday night at LHS and I wanted to give a shout out to some of our classmates! Braden received first place during the first round for all of six grade! And Kaitlyn received SECOND PLACE over all which is absolutely amazing!!! Great job guys! Friday: We had a Veteran's Day service in the morning put on by Mrs. Murray. We learned that we need to actively say "Thank you" to all Veterans we see all the time, but especially on Veteran's Day (which is Saturday!). The boy scouts helped lead the chapel service as well and did a spectacular job. For Art on Friday we have started our Christmas Art for the Christmas Art display that Junior High puts on. The students will be displaying a message centered on Christ with images to support the message. The students will be painting with acrylics to make their piece stand out even more. Field Trip - Dec. 1 - Wonder We were graciously invited to join the 7th/8th grade to see the new movie Wonder on Friday, Dec. 1. The movie is based on the novel which is read by our 7th grade. Themes in the novel are the importance of being kind to one another and sharing Christ's love no matter how people may be different than us. Teachers will accompany students by bus. NOTE: our movie costs are covered by Zion activity funds, but a concession fee will be charged to your Smart Tuition. This is a package for large groups and we will not have options at the concession stand. If you do not wish your child to have the concession, contact Michelle Thomason [email protected] our business manager. Fall Auction Round Up It is next week, November 13th through the 17th! We are looking for donations for the Zion School Auction March 16, 2018. You can drop them off before school at the main school entrance or the Early Childhood entrance. For every $25 in donations, you will receive a ticket for an opportunity to win 2 FREE Auction Tickets! Need donation ideas? Grab a leaf off an Auction Trees to help you shop. Any help is appreciated! Thank you for your generosity! Spirit Wear: Reminder that our spirit store will close at the end of the day Monday, 11/13. Last chance to get those last minute items from the store. They will be here for Christmas if you want to give to someone to rep Bobcat Pride! Reminder, they have a ladies medium if you want to try on the henley sample. Also, this is the first time we've offered youth sizes. Lastly, the 1/4 zips can be worn as part of Zion Dress Code to stay extra warm! THANKSGIVING DRIVE for the Seminary is Wednesday, Nov. 15. TJ Order Pickup is Thursday, Nov. 16 from 2-5:00 p.m. in the Commons. On Tuesday, we were able to join 6R for a Reformation 500 Celebration as we watched Luther give his "Here I Stand" speech at the Diet of Worms in front of the Holy Roman Emperor. We enjoyed snacks and the Reformation Rock song written by Lost and Found, a Christian group that's beginning to be a class favorite. We talked about how the Holy Spirit makes us bold to witness our faith. We are wrapping up our study exploring the Latin phrases: Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura, and Solo Christo. Students are challenged to write a statement of faith including these Bible truths. I am saved by Christ alone who died for me. His grace alone saves me, not anything I do to earn forgiveness, but through faith alone is his redemption. I know this through God's Word. It's not about Martin - it's still all about JESUS!
Wednesday we had another Faith Family Event. After opening in Chapel with a Baptism song we went to classrooms for a devotion about color. We learned about the color for Advent. It is blue and represents the HOPE we have in Jesus. We then made Christmas cards to sent to soldiers in the military. An important part of Faith Families is building relationships around Jesus, so we played a get to know you game. We closed in the church with our Baptism Remembrance celebration. It is great to see our older students helping the younger students while they make cards to share the HOPE we have in Jesus. We also had our first Advent practice on Wednesday afternoon. The fifth and sixth grade teachers introduced the skits we will be doing (by acting them out ourselves) and talking about all of the different jobs the kids can sign up for. Make sure to encourage your child to participate in our advent activities! Thursday was a fun day as we were able to act out scenes from the short story "Dragon, Dragon" in Literature! I am attempting to add videos of all of the skits so hopefully you all can see their amazing acting skills! We focused on characterization as the students had to display different character traits while acting. See the videos below (hopefully!) On Thursday, we had another Second Steps lesson talking about bullying. We learned all of the different types of bullying, intentional or not. We also discussed ways to avoid bullying if it does occur. The students had great answers and deep insights about bullying and how to prevent it at Zion. I hope they took this lesson to heart and remember that we are all a family in Christ at Zion and that we know the power of forgiveness! Also on Thursday, the students started their own blog using Kidblog! We will be using Kidblog throughout the year for various classes. Ask your kid about their blog and they can show you what they have posted already! Lastly on Thursday, we had a pep rally for the cross country team and the varsity volleyball team. We celebrated the great accomplishments the cross country team has made, including going to Nationals! In addition, we sent the volleyball team off to State! As I write this post, I am at our hotel after a long round of games and we are having a blast here!! Stay tuned for how we do! This week was definitely a lot of fun! World Sport Stacking Day World Sport Stacking Day will be held on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017. On this day people all over the world will be spending at least 30 minutes stacking cups in an effort to once again set a Guinness World Record for the “Most People Sport Stacking in Multiple Locations on one Day”. Zion has participated in this activity for the past 10 years and we’ve always helped set a new record. This year’s goal is 640,000 stackers. We will have about 250 kids and a few adults adding to that total number. If you can volunteer on Thursday, Nov. 2017 please email Mrs. Steinbacher at [email protected]. 2017 World Sport Stacking Day Schedule- Thursday, Nov. 9 8:10-8:45 4E and 4M 8:50-9:25 5C and 5CC 9:30-10:05 3B and 3K 10:25-11:00 6R and 6P 12:05-12:40 1B and 1T 12:45-1:20 2B and 2S Zion Auction 2017 Fall Auction Round Up is coming Nov 13th through the 17th! We are looking for donations for the Zion School Auction March 16, 2018. You can drop them off before school the week of November 13th at the main school entrance or the Early Childhood entrance. For every $25 in donations, you will receive a ticket for an opportunity to win 2 FREE Auction Tickets! Need donation ideas? Grab a leaf off an Auction Trees to help you shop. Any help is appreciated! Thank you for your generosity! Muffins for Moms - Wed. Nov. 8 Meet in the church basement between 7-7:45 to spend this special time with your kids. Moms or special guests are invited to join us for Chapel that morning. See ya there! Thanksgiving Offering - Seminary Food/Supplies Drive Nov. 15 JH is focusing on non-food items for our offerings. Both younger sem. students and men changing careers have reduced sources of income while they study to be pastors. Please consider adding something to your shopping list to help our seminary families. |
Ministering to families in Jesus' love while embracing and enhancing each child's gifts. Welcome!My name is Jennifer Donner and I am a 6th grade teacher at Zion! I am very excited to start my 6th year of teaching here at Zion with the kids! Some of my hobbies include volleyball, card games, and reading suspense novels. I will update this blog on a weekly basis towards the end of each week. I look forward to this exciting year of learning and growing with God! Upcoming Events:
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