PIB Weekly News
W W W . U S D 2 5 9 . O R G / R O B I N S O N / P I B S E P T E M B E R
UPCOMING
EVENTS:
 September 27:
Picture Day
 September 27:
Robinson Classic at
College Hill Park
 September 27:
Chipotle Night
Hillside location
 October 3: PIB
Applications Available
 October 3: Volleyball at Robinson
 October 4: Cross
Country Meet
 October 7: Volleyball vs. Staff game
 October 10: Volleyball at Wilbur
 October 10:
PTSO Meeting
 October 11: Fall
Sports Pictures
 October 11:
Choir Concert
 October 12: Volleyball at Robinson
 October 17: Volleyball at Robinson
Team News
Progress Reports will be posted today.
We will print and send a copy home on
September 27. Make sure you are
checking Student and Parent Vue for
the most up to date grades.
Mark your calendars! It
only happens once a
year!! This year
Robinson Night at
Chipotle is happening
on Tuesday,
September 27, 5:00-9:00 p.m. Invite
your family, friends, and neighbors!
Simply let the cashier know that you
are there supporting Robinson, and
50% of your bill will be donated to the
Robinson Foundation!
Ms. Lavacek will be offering ZAP time
for students on Monday and Tuesday
during lunch. Students can come in
and work on assignments or read
silently during this time. You can get a
pass from any PIB teacher or Ms.
Lavacek to attend.
September 26-30 is Spirit Week!
Each day has a theme so have fun!
But REMEMBER you must follow dress
code!
 Monday: Hat Day
 Tuesday: Picture Day—Dress your
best for pictures
 Wednesday: Crazy Day and
Mismatched clothes
 Thursday: Sports Day—Wear your
favorite sport’s team attire
 Friday: Purple Out—Support
Robinson and dress head to toe in
purple
Thanks for Showing School Spirit!
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Community Service Opportunity
Trick or Treat Street (TOTS) is a safe,
non-scary Halloween theme
charitable event for children under
10 years of age. Children are
encouraged to come in costume and
"trick or treat" at doors along an
imaginary street. Costumed
volunteers distribute novelties,
candy and sponsor-related items at
each door. This fun experience has
been the only annual WCT & DC fund
-raiser for many years. Recently,
we've added an original musical
production, a clown, face painting,
storytelling and kid-friendly games.
For all of these, we need volunteers
(service hours awarded)- in a non
scary, non revealing costume—to
distribute candy, help with kids'
games, serve pizza at select shows
and assist as needed. Here are the
shifts we are looking to fill:
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29
7am-10am - to help set up - No
costume needed for this shift if
you are not staying for the event
 10am- 1:00pm - volunteers for
games, passing out candy etc..
 1:00 - 4:00pm volunteers for
games, passing out candy etc.
 4:00 - 7:00pm volunteers for
games, passing out candy etc.
 7:00pm- 8:00pm - tear down
event No costume needed for
this shift if you are not staying for
the event
If you are interested in volunteering,
please sign up with Ms. Rowley in
room 212.

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Sixth Grade PIB
Berry—Math
Berry—Science
This week classes will continue our study of variables and expressions by using variables to write
equations and find answers to various problems. Thank you for continuing to support your
child’s work on the computer.
Science classes are preparing for and taking their
first test. It will cover safety, scientific method,
and the metric system. Students will create a
test alert so you’ll know the day. I will also provide a study guide to help them know where to
focus their energies. Next, we start chemistry.
Callard—-Language Arts
Callard—-Spanish
Students are learning about a variety of verbs – main verbs, helping
verbs, linking verbs, intransitive and transitive verbs, and the use of
verb phrases to convey shades of meaning when we write. We are
taking Cornell notes once or twice a week to solidify our understanding.
This week, students began to learn to annotate text as they read excerpts from Helen Keller’s “The Story of My Life.” As we wrap up our
unit on the Big Idea of Relationships next week, we will read Marion
Dane Bauer’s short story “The Good Deed,” which poses some interesting questions for discussion about the concept of reward.
We are in the final stages of production for our original weather
broadcasts. We did have a few production glitches, but now all
groups are in the final editing stage and are using a variety of software, including FlipShare, Viva Video, YouTube editing, and Microsoft Movie Maker, to put together their clips into a weather and
natural disaster segment. YouTube links will appear in next week’s
newsletter. Next week we will also begin work on our present tense
verb folders, which will include both regular and irregular verb
forms.
Flores—Spanish
Mandelbaum—Language Arts
This week students used technology in class and
learned how to effectively work in small groups to
quickly learn new vocabulary for greetings and
farewell expressions. Next week they will learn
numbers 1-100 and how to tell time in Spanish.
There will be a quiz over this new information on
Friday, September 30th.
Next week, we will finish unit one in our Word
Mapping booklet. We will be taking notes for our
research paper and conferencing over novels
they have read since school started this year. The
deadline for the 25 Book Campaign is November
1st where six books must be read to participate in
the reward activity.
Mandelbaum—Social Studies
Marsh—Spanish
Next week we will be taking the chapter 4 test over
Mesopotamia. We will also be doing several short
plays highlighting Hammurabi’s Code of Law. Then the
classes will begin their first DBQ essay (Document
Based Question) of the year. The end product will be a
persuasive essay where students will be citing evidence in order to support their claim.
The 6th grade students will learn to count to 100
and will also practice telling time in Spanish. A
brief quiz will let them showcase their skills on Friday.
Sinsel—Math
Math students will continue to work through the Number System unit with addition and subtraction of
integers; look for a quiz on Tuesday or Wednesday. At the end of the week, we’ll also draw our first set
of Chance Cards in the Life Simulation!
P AG E
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Seventh Grade PIB
Flores—Spanish
Jenney—Science
Next week’s focus will be on grammar, specifically
on how to conjugate the verb “estar” in the present tense and how to make the plurals of nouns
and articles. There will be a variety of activities
during the week to challenge students and keep
them engaged. The quizzes over both grammar
points are scheduled for Friday, September 30th.
Seventh graders will begin studying the rock cycle.
Lavacek—Language Arts
Marsh—Spanish
After wrapping our trek into “The Veldt,” we will continue on our Sci-Fi journey and land squarely in “The Twilight Zone” as we read Rod Serling’s script for “The
Monsters are Due on Maple Street.” We will examine
the elements of both science fiction and social commentary. Students will engage in activities that require
them to read, watch, perform, and write as we wander
through Maple Street.
The 7th grade Spanish students will be playing
games to practice and prepare for Friday’s massive quiz over conjugations of estar and making
nouns and articles plural.
Rowley—Social Studies
Sims—Language Arts
We will have an open note quiz over types of governments on Monday.
We will begin a fun team competition called Fantasy Geopolitics
League. It is similar to a fantasy sports team, only using world countries as players and mentions in The New York Times as statistics for
points. Students will work with a partner to “draft” countries of the
world on Wednesday. Daily points are awarded and accumulate, so
students should be watching current events so they can “trade” or
“draft” new countries where world events are taking place. It is a fun
way to get the kids interested in what is taking place in the rest of the
world.
The 7th graders will continue the science fiction
as social commentary unit this coming week, focusing on “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury.
Sinsel—-Math
Stroot—Math
Math students will continue our unit on expressions and equations. Students will get lots of
problem solving practice with writing and solving
real world problems! Look for a quiz near the
middle of the week.
Math 7 Plus students will work on solving multiplestep equations.
Van Horn—Math
We will continue working on solving equations (variable on both sides, and word problems). We will continue working on writing and solving equations in word problems. We will have a quiz on Friday. I am
available before and after school for additional help.
P AGE
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Eighth Grade PIB
Callard—Spanish
Flores—Spanish
We are in the final stages of production for our original
weather broadcasts. We did have a few production glitches,
but now all groups are in the final editing stage and are
using a variety of software, including FlipShare, Viva Video,
YouTube editing, and Microsoft Movie Maker, to put together their clips into a weather and natural disaster segment.
YouTube links will appear in next week’s newsletter. Next
week we will also begin work on our present tense verb
folders, which will include both regular and irregular verb
forms.
Students will take the test over Chapter 4B on
Wednesday and Thursday of next week. The listening and reading sections are on Wednesday
and the multiple choice and writing sections are
on Thursday. Students will also work on a project
next week in which they write an invitation to another person to do something. The final copy of
the invitation is due on Monday, October 3rd.
Jenney—Science
Lavacek—Language Arts
Eighth graders will be taking a test on waves on
Wednesday the 28th, then transitioning topics into
energy.
Students will spend time re-writing paragraphs
focusing on integration of quotes. We will be focusing on the correct MLA citation rules and ways
to keep a quote from ‘floating’ away. We will also
read a final story of suspense before we begin
Fahrenheit 451 for THE BIG READ!
Rowley—Social Studies
Sims—Language Arts
We are focusing on the major events that led to
the Revolutionary War, and the first shots will be
fired this week! We are really focusing on using
writing to communicate understanding, so students will be working on a time write (on demand
writing done in class) and a take home writing
this week.
This coming week, the eighth graders will continue our suspense fiction unit by reading and analyzing Poe’s “The Raven” and “The Hitchhiker” by
Lucille Fletcher.
Stroot—Math
Van Horn—Math
Geometry students will continue to work with conditional and converse statements. Students will
be introduced to writing proofs.
We will be working on Topic 4—Exploring Rates of
Change in Motion Problems. If you are interested
in how they did on their test this week, log in to
Agile Mind with their username and password and
you can see what questions they missed on the
test. I am available before and after school for
additional help.
Algebra students will continue to work with rate of
change.
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.
Marsh, Elizabeth
Berry, Kathleen
6th, 7th, 8th Grade Spanish
Email: [email protected]
Callard, Tracy
Rowley, Michele
6th and 8th Grade Language Arts
Email: [email protected]
7th and 8th Grade Social Studies
Email: [email protected]
Flores, Tara
Sims, Katherine
6th, 7th, 8th Grade Spanish
Email: [email protected]
7th and 8th Grade Language Arts
Email: [email protected]
Jenney, Charles
Sinsel, Jennifer
7th and 8th Grade Science
Email: [email protected]
6th and 7th Grade Math
Email: [email protected]
Lavacek, Molly
Stroot, Mary
Gifted Team Leader
7th and 8th Grade Language Arts
Email: [email protected]
7th and 8th Grade Math
Email: [email protected]
Van Horn. Denise
Mandelbaum, Susan
6th Gr. Language Arts & Social Studies
Email: [email protected]
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.
PIB Contact Information
6th Grade Math and Science
Email: [email protected]