Mr. Klass

As part of their History/Social Science study, next Tuesday morning, on November 8, sixth-graders will participate in Egyptian Scribe Day and host an Egyptian Fair.

To participate in Scribe Day activities, students will need to wear an appropriate headdress and wrap. If you would like to provide your own material, please use one  yard of a striped material for the headdress, and one and one-half yards of a plain white or cream colored muslin for the wrap. Old sheets work just fine for this. You may also purchase material from us for $6.00, and we will hand out the material on Friday so students can decorate their costume over the weekend. In either case, students must have and wear their scribe costume on Tuesday morning to participate in the Scribe activity from 8:30am to recess. Students not choosing to participate or not in costume will have an alternate assignment that morning.

After recess, each of our homerooms will host an Egyptian Fair. Your students will display their information and projects from 11:00-12:15pm. These projects were assigned early in October. Again, students without projects that day will be unable to participate, and they will be given an alternate assignment.

Parents are welcome to visit us anytime that morning. We hope to see you there!

Rock Climbing at Cuyamaca Outdoor School

Cuyamaca Outdoor School – aka 6th Grade Camp – is right around the corner. Students will leave Monday morning as soon as buses arrive – generally around 8:30am. Please have your student at school on time Monday. Unless it is raining, all gear for camp should be left in front of the school. I strongly recommend ID tags or some identifying mark on all luggage and sleeping bags.

There are no porters at camp! So please be sure suitcases and other luggage can be easily handled by your child. Please don’t bring expensive items.

I will be at camp for the week, and I will have access to e-mail – just in case you need to send me a message. Expect some last minute jitters and anxiousness. Reassuring your child that you’ll be at school to pick them up on Friday always helps. They may be getting older on the outside – but like the first story we read in Literature this year, they’re also all the years that came before. So it’s going to be natural for some to have some last minute butterflies.

Students with special dietary needs will meet with the head chef, Leon, before lunch on Monday. He’ll go over their options for meals, and within the constraints of their dietary needs – and what’s in the kitchen, they’ll be able to help choose their own menus for the week.

Students with other special needs will meet with the nurse soon after they are settled in cabins.

Mrs. Dennis, Mrs. Browne, Mr. Rota and I will be at camp all week (day and night), so there will always be someone around who your child knows they can turn to if needed. We’ll be checking in with students frequently – at meals, during activities and free-time, and every morning for a “class meeting”.

I am looking forward to a great week. The weather should be wonderful – not too hot, not too dry, not too cold, not too wet. Pack an extra lip balm, though. We’ll be outside for many more hours each day than we are when we’re at school, and that can leave lips feeling a little rough.

Two pairs of shoes will help one pair dry out in the case of any water crossings – and we will be crossing water! Layers of clothing work much better than a heavy jacket. Outdoor school has plenty of rain gear in the event of more rain. A hat or cap will help with cool mornings and evenings. And students are never too old to bring a special stuffed animal, blanket or pillow.

Though I am not a fan of “disposable cameras”, I make an exception for camp. It’s a practical way to save some memories without sacrificing a good camera. If you do send a non-disposable camera, please make sure to send extra batteries and enough memory to last the week.

If you haven’t yet done so, I encourage you to check out the web page at http://www.sdcoe.net/outdoored2/

Please consider sending your mail to Outdoor School this weekend. It will take at least a day to get there, then another day to get sorted and out to students. Sending mail before Wednesday will help ensure that your child gets their mail before leaving on Friday.

Please address all mail to your student in care of:

Cuyamaca Outdoor School
12561 Highway 79
Descanso, CA 91916

The phone number for Cuyamaca is: (760) 765-3000

The nurse’s phone number is: (760)765-3004

Checklists for packing are available at:

http://www.sdcoe.net/outdoored2/forms/take.pdf

http://www.sdcoe.net/outdoored2/forms/take-spanish.pdf

T-Shirts are still available at a cost of $12 – a check in that amount made out to OEF and the form below is all that’s needed!

http://www.sdcoe.net/outdoored2/pdf/T-SHIRTS.pdf

The schedule on Friday is light. There’s breakfast, then packing and one last whole group activity. Students have a mid-morning snack, and then we leave for home sometime between 10:00am and 11:00am depending on when buses arrive. That places our return to Park Dale Lane on Friday, Oct.14 between 11:30am and 12:30pm. Your students will be anxious to see you and tell you all about their week.

The County Superintendent of Schools declared Friday, Sept. 9 a non-school day for all public schools in San Diego County. That means we’ll resume again on Monday, Sept. 12.

We’ll have a belated Spelling Test and Lit Quiz, so Weekly Progress Reports may be delayed a day or two next week. Also, don’t forget that Reading Logs and Weekly Writes will be due on Monday.

Outdoor School forms will need to be returned to me as soon as possible. Please don’t wait for the “due date”. Requests for Outdoor School scholarships should be sent to me immediately. I’ll forward them directly to the appropriate sources to ensure confidentiality.

Camp is coming fast! October 10-14 is our week at Cuyamaca.

You can help your child earn their way to camp.

$20 of every Entertainment Book sale goes directly to the student’s account for camp! (Parents, this means a book really only costs you $20!!!)

Please plan to attend Park Dale Lane’s Back To School Night this Wednesday, August 24 – 6:00pm. (7:00pm for sixth grade.)

In A Million Words or Less…

To help me better understand your student, please tell me a little bit about them. For example, what do they like? dislike? What do they do well? Where do they need guidance? What hopes do you have for their future? What hopes have they expressed for their future? How can we best help your student this year?

Please have your child help with this. Though they do not need to do the writing themselves, it is part of their weekly writing homework this week. (Due on Thursday – 8/18)

August 14, 2011

Please see Parent Letters Section for this letter

May 31, 2011

Dear Parents,

Students are looking forward to June and all of our special end-of-the-year activities.

We begin the “Eggsperience of a Lifetime” today. Students will receive their egg baby and take care of their egg babies throughout the week. There should be plenty of work to do across the curriculum with their egg babies.

As the week continues we will also be planning for the annual “Egg drop”. It’s a good time to remind your student that participation in these activities is contingent on good behavior. Unfortunately, some students will not be participating with egg babies. This week, however, starts a brand-new slate. So anyone who wants to participate in the next fun activity, the egg drop, should continue to show us their appropriate behavior and earn the privilege of participation in our next fun activity.

We will have our annual Open House on Thursday evening, and everyone is invited. Students will be showing off their inventions, artwork, written work across the year, and much more. Please join us that evening from 6:30 to 7:30pm.

We still need drivers for the end-of-the-year fun day at Boomers on June 15. Drivers are needed for both the morning (9:00am-10:00am) and afternoon (1:00pm – 2:00pm). We can use as many drivers as we can get, but we won’t be able to go if we don’t have enough! So please check your calendars and let me know. You will need to fill out a form and have proof of insurance if you plan to drive. So please let me know this week if you are able to help us out.

As a reminder, we are asking for $10 from each student to help cover the costs of our end-of-year activities and Boomers trip. About 1/3 have paid so far.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.

May 16, 2011

Dear Parents,

This is our last week of testing.  Thanks for helping your students to get a good night’s sleep and a good breakfast – particularly on test days.

As we enter the middle of May, it’s time to begin working on our end-of-the-year activities. Please help us work with your students to insure that they are following school policies. Electronic devices, including cell-phones, should be turned off and stored in backpacks during the school day. Phones carried by students in their pockets or phones that ring during the day are taken to the office. Parents will be responsible for picking up the phone.

Some students are having trouble remembering to return signed Reading Logs on Fridays. Responsibility for work completion remains as important now as it was earlier in the year. Students who do not complete assignments in a timely manner will receive a progress report.

Appropriate behavior needs to be practiced at school at all times. Repeated violations of school rules may lead to the loss of end-of-the-year activities. These violations include, but are not limited to: texting friends during the school day, disrespectfulness towards other students or staff members, defacing books or other school property, and inappropriate behavior on the way to school or on the way home from school.

We are asking for $10/per student for the end-of-the-year activities (this includes Boomers).

If you have questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me: steve.klass@eusd.net

May 9, 2011

Dear Parents,

This week and next week students will participate in STAR Testing with California Standards Tests (CST) in English/Language Arts and Math. 6^th grade testing will occur on Tuesday, May 10 and Wednesday, May 11 from 8:30am – 10:10am and on Tuesday, May 17 and Wednesday, May 18 at the same time in the morning. Make up tests will occur on May 19-20, if needed.

To help students do their best on these tests, we’re cutting back on homework on those days. To that end, we will not have spelling lists this week and next week. We will also do writing in class this week and next. Students should continue to read nightly for at least 20 minutes and have their Weekly Reading Log signed and turned in on Fridays. We’ll still have math work to do, but no homework on Monday and Tuesday nights this week and next.

A good rest the night before, and a good breakfast on test days is important. Even if your student typically isn’t a big breakfast eater, it wouldn’t hurt for them to eat something on those mornings.

Please reinforce with your student that the STAR Tests are designed to learn what they’ve learned in sixth grade this year. These are not pass/fail tests, and students shouldn’t feel anxious about them.

As always, should you have any questions or concerns about test time, please let me know.