Dear Parents:

Throughout this year, but especially during this season of Thanksgiving, I thank the Lord and you for the opportunity to serve as your child’s sixth grade teacher! I sincerely appreciate your prayers and value our partnership in educating, nurturing, and encouraging your child as he/she continued to grow in faith, wisdom, knowledge, and love.

We had a wonderful twelfth week of school together! The students express excitement and an eagerness to learn. Their sincere love for the Lord and for learning are gifts they bless me with each day!

I would like to keep you as informed as possible through regular communication.

The weekly newsletter will be posted ONLINE. PLEASE CHECK THE CLASSROOM WEBSITE EACH WEEK TO READ AND REVIEW THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER. PLEASE ALSO REGULARLY CHECK GRADELINK TO GET THE LATEST UPDATES ON YOUR CHILD’S ACADEMIC PROGRESS AND GRADES.

Please review the school newsletters and the school news e-mail blasts sent regularly to your e-mail address.

It was truly a blessing to meet with each of you for Parent-Teacher Conferences on Thursday, November 10. May the Lord continue to bless your children as we partner in providing them with a Christ-centered education.

Please note that students now have a handy online math practice resource link for sixth grade mathematics skills, which they can access by going to my teacher website page. (Special thanks to Mrs. Thomas for setting this up for us!)

FRESH AND EASY DAY FOR ZION was from 3:45pm to 8:00 pm on MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14. 5% of all receipt totals collected on that day during the designated time were designated to go directly to Zion! It was truly a blessing and pleasure to serve you and bag your groceries as you supported Zion through your purchases!

CONGRATULATIONS TO NATE FRANKS! Nate’s essay entitled, "Are You Proud of Your Country?", won third place in the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Essay Contest (Local Fallbrook Chapter). Nate will be honored at a luncheon on November 19. He will share his essay at the luncheon and will receive both a cash award and a medal from the Fallbrook VFW Chapter. (Essays by other Zion students in grades 6-8 may still be in consideration by other chapters in San Diego County for their chapter awards, and those results may not be available until December.)

The Zion Lutheran School Christmas Program, "Once Upon a Time…", will be held on THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, at 7 PM in the ZFC. Preschool through Eighth Grade students are expected to participate. Special thanks to the sixth graders who auditioned! Kacy, Amanda, and Julia, will be using their gifts to serve as narrators. Hannah will play the part of Mary.

Our sixth graders will also be working on a special rap for the program: "It’s Called Christmas with a Capital C!".

Honor Roll, Merit Roll, Perfect Attendance, and the Zion C.A.R.E.S. Awards were given after chapel on the Wednesday, November 16. Congratulations to Brian, who received the Zion Sixth Grade Student of the Month C.A.R.E.S. Award for the month of October.

Please note that Butter Braid Orders will be delivered on Monday, November 28.

Sixth grade enjoyed participating in the Lutheran Schools Service Project Day on Wednesday, November 16. Students did "Dare to Care" by completing service projects relating to home, school, community, and the world. Students took a field trip to Painted Earth to make our Christmas gifts for families, followed by a shopping trip to the nearby Dollar Store in Temecula to purchase items to place in gift boxes to support the Samaritan’s Purse Mission Project: Operation Christmas Child, providing Christmas gifts for children in need in countries throughout the world. We also made and delivered gifts to three local Fallbrook businesses to thank them for their service to the Fallbrook community and to Zion.

PLEASE JOIN ZION FOR EPIC 242! ENJOY FOOD, FELLOWSHIP, AND FUN AS WE CONNECT, PRAY, AND STUDY GOD’S WORD EACH WEDNESDAY, 5:15 -7:30 PM. MEALTIME IS BETWEEN 5:15-6:00. CONFIRMATION CLASSES, YOUTH BIBLE STUDIES, AND ADULT BIBLE STUDIES BEGIN AT 6:00.

Please note that during the season of Advent, soup suppers will begin at 5 pm, and Advent services in the Sanctuary will begin at 6 pm. EPIC 242 Bible studies and Youth studies will take a break during Advent, but will resume thereafter. Confirmation classes will still be held directly after the Advent services. Please note that there is NO CONFIRMATION CLASS on WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30.

You are cordially invited to our soup suppers and Advent services, and to the Thanksgiving Eve Service at 6 pm in the Church Sanctuary on November 30.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO COLLECT AND SAVE FRESH AND EASY RECEIPTS AND BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION! MRS. JENNIFER WILSON WILL AGAIN BE COORDINATING THE BOXTOPS FOR EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR ZION. Thank you for your outstanding support! Sixth Grade has collected the most Box Tops so far with a total of 741! Please continue to save them!!

IF YOU HAVE NOT YET DONE SO, PLEASE TURN IN YOUR CHILD’S EMERGENCY KIT WITH UPDATED INFORMATION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION IN PROVIDING YOUR CHILD WITH WHAT IS NEEDED IN THE EVENT OF SUCH AN EMERGENCY.

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR WEEK:

BIBLE:

Lessons this week focused on the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed. We discussed God the Son’s birth and His saving work of redemption.

The sixth graders led our chapel prayers. Eighth Grade led the Thanksgiving Chapel.

We read and discussed devotions daily. We opened each day with the invocation, pledges, and prayers.

LANGUAGE ARTS:

We applied, reviewed, and learned about grammar daily. We continued our next comprehensive grammar unit, "Verbs". We continued working on subject/verb agreement and on verb tenses. This week we learned about Linking Verbs.

MATH:

Chapter 5 lessons focused on the concepts relating to "Statistics, Graphs, and Sampling" Student lesson applications involved: bar graphs, line graphs, circle graphs, and pictographs.

Students participated in foundational lessons regarding histograms and determining/graphing relative frequency.

Students applied statistical skills to find the mean, median, mode, and range for given data.

Students worked with a variety math concepts in warm-ups. This included, but was not limited to: rounding numbers, basic computation skills with whole numbers fractions, and decimals; fraction concepts, geometry, place value, probability, problem solving, and graph analysis.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

We discussed History Ch. 5, Lesson 2, about "Life in Ancient Egypt". Students completed their Ch. 5, Lesson 2 reading guide and reviews, and also successfully completed their quiz on this lesson.

Student news team # 3 shared news for the week of November 14.

SPANISH: Students continued their studies using the Rosetta Stone foreign language course.

WRITING:

Ongoing: Writing personal creed of Christian faith and personal faith seal design project

* Next Essay: Writing a "How-To" Essay

* Future project: Poetry Poster

TECHNOLOGY: Students worked on their keyboarding skills and completed their weekly Easy Tech lessons.

ARTS:

ART: Mrs. Vice continued her lessons on drawing animals using pencils and pastel crayons.

MUSIC: Lessons focused on learning and practicing songs for the School Christmas Program. Students

sang, "It’s About the Cross" at the end of this week’s chapel.

P.E: Students participated in conditioning exercises, runs, and games.

May the Lord richly bless you and your family always!

In Christ’s love and service,

Mrs. Soon

I have outlined the planned course of study for the week of NOVEMBER 28- DECEMBER 2, 2011 below:

BIBLE 6: Daily Devotions and Advent Meditations/Devotions; Lessons will include: "Advent" and "The Seasons of the Church Year"; Living in Christ Lesson: Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed (Parts 3 and 4); Weekly Lessons Quiz on Fri., 12/2

MEMORY 6: – The Apostles’ Creed for Fri., 12/2. (We will be working on memorizing Scripture for the

Christmas program in class, but it will be helpful for them to review/study the

passages independently, too.)

LITERATURE: Poetry Unit begins (Poetry will be read in class.)

NOVEL: Students should be reading their selected book for the second quarter. Students have been given book report project options, and will share their books at the conclusion of the school quarter. Students are to choose and read a novel (approved by parents and teacher) for Quarter Two. Each student will share their book reports (oral, written, multi-media format options to choose from) at the conclusion of the quarter.

SPELLING: Lesson #13 HW due Fri., 12/2; Test # 13 on Fri., 12/2

GREEK/LATIN ROOTS VOCABULARY: "JUR/JUS/JUD" Roots Test on Tues., 11/29; Intro. to roots, "BEN/BENE/BON"

GRAMMAR: Lessons Unit: Verbs; Daily Grams #48-51 this week

WRITING: Journal Writing (In Class); Intro. to "How to Essay" (Extended from previous week…)

READING LOG: Students need to read and record daily reading on their monthly reading log. Parent needs to initial or sign this daily each week. Mrs. Soon will check on the first day of each new week. The November Reading Log is due on Thurs., 12/1.

MATH 6: Ch. 5, "Statistics, Graphs, and Sampling" lessons conclude; Ch. 5 test on Wed., 11/30.

Daily Math Minutes 29-32 for warm-ups this week; PLEASE HAVE STUDENTS REGULARLY REVIEW THEIR MATH FACTS (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division.)

SOCIAL STUDIES 6:

History: Read Ch. 5, Lesson 3, for Mon., 11/28, Complete Reading Guide for Ch. 5, Lesson 3: Highlight,

and answer questions on the Reading Guide for Lesson 3; Ch. 5, Lesson 3 Quiz on Tues., 11/29 Geography: DG # 13 due Fri., 12/2; Students should have already e-mailed their request letters for postcards for their postcard project. (See instructions issued week of Oct. 10.)

Current Events: CE # 9 has not yet arrived. Due date: TBA (If it arrives and is issued on 11/18, it will

be due on 11/30.)

News Teams: News Team # 1 reports news week of 11/28.

History Calendar: We will discuss historical facts relating to each day of the month.

Enrichment: Geography Postcard Project

Ahead: "Cool Country" Project

ARTS ELECTIVE: (Music): Lessons: Learning the Songs/Music for the Christmas Program

ARTS ELECTIVE:

(Art): In her next lessons, Mrs. Vice will teach students how to draw people. She will have students

Apply this as they draw a Nativity scene.

PLEASE NOTE:

11/18: Middle School celebrates Thanksgiving together: Thanksgiving Desserts served at lunch

11/19-11/27: LEC/CAPSO Teachers’ Convention/THANKSGIVING VACATION – NO SCHOOL

11/28: School Resumes

11/28: Butter Braid Orders Delivery (Take home same day.)

11/29: Advent Begins

11/30: Advent Soup Supper (5 pm); Advent Service in ZFC (6 pm); Confirmation Class (Begins approximately at 6:50 pm, after Advent Service concludes)

12/8: Annual Zion Lutheran School Christmas Program (7 pm in ZFC)

12/16: Sixth Grade Service Project Field Trip; Christmas Luncheon at Richie’s Diner,

and Class Christmas Party

12/17 – 1/2/12: CHRISTMAS VACATION

1/3/12: School Resumes