Mrs. DeBruine’s Sixth Grade Classes

It’s once again time for our annual GMS Spelling Bee to determine the super spellers who will represent us at the Regional Bee later this winter.  If you need a little brushing up on your spelling skills before our classroom competition, you will want to visit this site and start studying those spelling stumpers!

http://www.myspellit.com/spellingbee.html

Words from all lists will be used, but for our classroom spelldown you can count on needing to know only those words that are familiar to you.  However, if you make it to the GMS Bee, you can expect any words from all of the lists provided on the spelling bee link.

Dates to remember:

Friday,  January 27th – Classroom spelldown where 2 contestants and 2 alternates will be chosen

Friday, February 3rd – Practice spelling bee where the two finalists from each 6th grade Language Arts class will compete in a bee to familiarize spellers with the procedure before they compete in the school bee

Wednesday, February 8th – GMS Spelling Bee for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade spellers to determine contestants who will represent us at the Regional Bee later this winter

The snow you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived, but maybe now it’s too cold outside to suit you!?  If you are stuck inside with nothing to do, discover that you can have some fun with grammar games (and review what you know and need to know about verbs while you’re at it)!

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hme/6_8/

Brush up on your helping verbs; can you still remember all 23?

http://www.sporcle.com/games/helpingverbs.php

How about a little verb tense jeopardy?  You can play by yourself or against any number of players.  I challenge you to try it then post your score!

Verb Tense Jeopardy

Grammar Gorilla

Use the following guidelines to compose your summary.

*State the topic at the beginning of your summary.

*Look for the repeated words/synonyms in your notes and include those since they would be important.

*Look at your “know” column and include what you read in the original handout prior to your research.

*Organize the information in a logical way.

*Use your own words; don’t copy from the author.

*Summary should be at least 4 but no longer than 10 sentences.

Room 610 is homeroom to 20 smiley students who have settled in and found their niche at GMS.  We are fortunate to have individuals involved in a variety of activities: Band, Choir, Builder’s Club, Yearbook, Student Senate, Rebecca Caudill readers, Fantasy Football among other things.  Keep an eye on our blog for more homeroom and LArts updates!

Since lots of you are enjoying the site where you can “donate” rice to feed the world by simply answering questions correctly, I’ll post the link here (so you don’t have to scroll through several pages of my blog to find it).   Give it a try and have some fun!  Be sure to keep us updated on how much rice you have donated!

http://www.freerice.com/category

Some are long, some are short.  Some have been around since Biblical times while others are more modern.  Yours could be at the top of the popularity list or not, but whatever the rank… it’s all yours and will be with you for a lifetime.  What is it?  Your name of course!  We spent several days discovering the origin, popularity, meaning, and the story of how we were named.  Hope you had fun and discovered some surprising information in your quest.

I love the music AND the message!   Click, listen, and let me know what you think!

Gotta keep readin’

The drawing has been held and the mushers are getting set for the big run!  Take a look at downtown Anchorage tomorrow on the AlaskaCam link below and see if you can get a feel for the hoopla that’s taking place just a few streets over from where the Ceremonial Start begins!

Remember, the Ceremonial Start is not really a race; as Gary Paulsen said, “it’s one big photo op.” It’s also a chance for Idita-riders and fans to meet their favorite mushers!

Things you might want to know…

• Teams use only 12 dogs on Saturday.  This is for fun and 12 dogs is plenty of power to cruise through town and still be safe for the Iditariders.  The Saturday run is 11 miles through Anchorage.
• The race clock starts at 2pm Sunday; that’s when the first team leaves Willow.  Most teams will have 16 dogs.
• The only five time winner of the Iditarod, Rick Swenson, drew the 49^th starting position.  Alaska is the 49^th state.   Swenson said he would represent Alaska well and he’ll make residents of the state proud.

http://camera.touchngo.com/

What has been called “The Last Great Race on Earth,” takes competitors 9-18 days to finish, and covers over 1,049 miles of the most rugged terrain in some of the harshest conditions man has encountered? If you guessed The Iditarod, you are absolutely right!  Always held on the first Saturday in March, the Ceremonial Start is March 5th with the official race (Restart) scheduled for Sunday, March 6th, 2011.

March 5th may seem like a distant date but it will be here before you know it!  Mushers, dogs, and dogsleds will be descending on Anchorage once again for the annual running of this competitive race.  Race enthusiasts compare it to the World Series of baseball, the Super Bowl of football…it’s the major sporting event of mushers and their dog teams, as the all-stars (and some qualifying  rookies) of the dog- sledding world will be competing in this grueling race across the wilderness of Alaska!

Who do you think will win this year’s race??? Or maybe your favorite musher is a rookie who simply hopes to make it to Nome!  During the race we will check each musher’s daily progress on the Internet, watch webcasts featuring the mushers (and their dogs of course), and even experience virtual fly-bys of the race trail!

For a head start on the action, check out the Official Iditarod website below.  Explore all the fascinating links including video clips, GPS tracking of  your musher, everything you might want to know about the race and more!

http://www.iditarod.com/race/

During the big race, one of my favorite sites for photos and up-to-the minute news is the Anchorage Daily News site.  Check this one out for all the latest; it has some excellent links too!

http://www.adn.com/iditarod/

If you would like to receive daily email updates at your home computer visit the Iditarod.com and Anchorage Daily News/Iditarod websites and sign up!  You will receive all the latest news… photos, headlines, and more!  Be the first to know who is leading!

To find out more about the equipment, check out Dogsledding 101

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/sled-dogs-an-alaskan-epic/interactive-dogsledding-101/4355/

……..or accept the challenge to discover if you can navigate your dog sled team through the obstacles!

http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/eco_info/topics/canadas_north/dogsled/index.cf

View nomecam, a live view of downtown Nome where the finishers race under the famous Burled Arch to claim their prize!  If you click on the Iditarod Race link you can watch Ally Zirkle  finishing a past race.  Meet her team too!

http://www.visitnomealaska.com/nome-web-cam.html

Who do the experts predict will win this year’s race?  Read the following link…

http://iditarodblogs.com/news/2011/03/01/iditarod-2011-a-race-of-many-dreams/

One of my very favorite links is the virtual trail fly-by!  Don’t try it if you get motion sickness and before we take off, be sure to fasten your seat belt!

http://insider.iditarod.com/index.cfm?event=media.category.list&mediacategoryid=Virtual%20Trail%20Fly-bys

The link below will take you to the 2011 musher listing and if you click on a musher’s name, you will see a photo and you can read about his/her background including past races.  Many of the mushers also have links to their personal websites/kennels, so if you see a highlighted link at the bottom of an individual’s bio page, click on it for additional information.  Here is the site for the entire roster of mushers:

http://www.iditarod.com/race/musherlisting.html

Now…go have some fun and then post a comment telling your classmates which site you like best!  Will you give us the inside scoop on who you think will win this race???  Earn some extra credit by sharing something you learned about the Iditarod after visiting the sites on this blog.

Test your gaming skills while practicing and testing your knowledge of subjects and predicates.  Try it and let us know how YOU did!

Sink or Swim

Rags to Riches

Mr. Morton’s School House Rocks