Incoming Sixth Graders

Dates to Remember

Try It Night with The Music Dept

Thursday Feb 27 5:00pm-8:00pm

• Explore Instruments – Incoming 6th graders can try out different band and orchestra instruments to find the best fit.
• Expert Guidance – Music teachers will be available to help students choose an instrument.
• Course Registration Support – Get assistance with selecting band or orchestra for the upcoming school year.
• Drop In Anytime – Stop by LEMS anytime between 5:00pm - 8:00pm on Thursday, February 27th to participate!
   

5th Grade Visitation Day

Thursday April 24 9:45a-11:45p

• Students come for half a day
• Tours of the building and rooms
• Get to know classroom teachers
• Meet kids from other schools
   

6th Grade Orientation Day

Wednesday, August 13^th
**First Day of School for 6th grade**

• Transition Day for Students
  • NO 7^th or 8^th graders on this day
• Get students used to our building, meet their teachers, and participate in welcoming activities.
   

Wildcat Venture Club

Summer Transition Program

• Students recommended from their elementary school
• Last 3 weeks of summer / 3 days/week
• Helps with early relationship building with our 6th grade team and our Lucile Erwin Middle School community / culture.
   

6th Grade Basics

Lockers

• Each student gets their own.
• Combination Locks…practice!
• Students will get plenty of practice time.
• DO NOT buy the locker shelves! They jam the lockers.

Communication

• School Website – Daily Announcements and News
• LEMS Facebook and LEMS Instagram
• Weekly Newsletter- Delivered weekly via email
• Parent Portal – Must sign-up, if you have not already 
• Email- teacher email example: bradley.martin@tsd.org
• Google Classroom 
• Always be sure to let the school know about vacations and other absences.

Schedule

• Advisory/ELO
• Focus Classes (Art, Band, Choir, PE, etc)
• 4 core classes
• World Language - Spanish and French

Activities

• Erwin offers a lot of ways to be involved at school.
• Be sure to listen to announcements and check the newsletter for when paperwork is due!
• Fall sports start before school, be sure to complete online form found on Erwin website - Athletics.
• Check out lems.tds.org for a full list of activities and athletics

**Check out our Parent and Student Resources page for a school supply list and more.**

 

 

Lucile Erwin Middle School is proud to be an IB World School, offering the Middle Years Programme (MYP) to all students. The IB framework encourages academic excellence, global awareness, and critical thinking through inquiry-based learning. Our students engage in a challenging curriculum that fosters creativity, collaboration, and a love of learning.

To learn more about the IB philosophy, course structure, and how it benefits students, explore the links below:

• IB Middle Years Programme Overview
• What is MYP? 
• MYP Curriculum 

Discover how IB at LEMS prepares students for success in high school, college, and beyond!

For students interested in continuing their bilingual journey, the Dual Language Program is an academic program that enhances the development of content in two languages, English and Spanish, as well as literacy in both languages. This approach ensures students will graduate ready for college, career, and life in a globally competitive economy and a collaborative global community. This unique program builds student linguistic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing in both English and Spanish. Students learn standards-based content as they become linguistically and academically proficient in two languages.

Dual Language courses offered at LEMS...

Dual Language Advanced Spanish Language

• Students will express their own thoughts, interact with other speakers of the language, and understand oral and written messages in Spanish.
• The Dual Language Advanced Spanish Language courses are a continuation of the Thompson School District Dual Language Program.  These required courses focus on the developement of language, literacy, and cultural competencies at the intermediate level of proficiency.

Dual Language Social Studies

• This course focuses on the history, culture, and government of various specific world societies in North, Central, and South America.  Students develop skills used in the social studies disciplines.  Specific content aligns with state standards for the student's grade level.
• The Dual Language Social Studies in Spanish course is a continuation of the Thompson School District Dual Language Program.  This required course provides a greater understanding of social studies inquiry, including history, geography, civics and government, and economics.

Lucile Erwin Middle School is committed to supporting the unique needs of our gifted learners. Before the main Incoming 6th Grade Parent Night, we invite families to join us for a Gifted Education Program Meeting to learn more about our services and opportunities for advanced learners.

• Date: Thursday, February 20th
• Time: 5:30 – 6:00 PM
• Location: LEMS Library

For more details, please read the Introductory Letter below.

We look forward to sharing how we support and challenge gifted students at LEMS!

 

Dear families,

We are excited to welcome our incoming sixth graders for next year and want to give you some information about Gifted Education (GE) services and accommodations in middle school. For many families, this can be a significant change from the services and pull-out groups that students experience in elementary school. As gifted education specialists at the middle school level, our role is to manage the Advanced Learning Plans (ALPs) for our gifted students and support classroom teachers in providing accommodations for these students in their classrooms.

As students enter middle school, we revise the ALP. Different from elementary school, the majority of ALP goals are three-year goals that span the student’s entire middle school experience. Each year we review these and, if necessary, adjust them to meet the student’s current needs. Due to the significant increase in the number of students we advise, there are timelines that we follow for each grade level’s ALP reviews. From August to mid-November we work on setting new goals for our incoming sixth graders. Seventh grade ALP reviews typically occur between November and the end of February. February through April is the time frame for eighth grade ALP reviews. Since the middle school gifted specialists take more of an advisory role, it is the classroom teachers who provide the bulk of the ALP accommodations for students at this level.

All of our middle schools cluster gifted students in their strength areas. This means that GE students are grouped together in regular classrooms to provide an opportunity for them to work together and for the teachers to strategically differentiate for gifted learners. Some middle schools do offer advanced classes and some do not. Please contact the gifted education specialist for your child’s middle school for further details and specifics about cluster grouping in that school. It is rare that we are able to provide focused academic pull-out groups for middle school gifted students.

In regard to math accommodations, all middle schools offer telescoped math classes to our high ability and gifted and talented students identified in mathematics. The “1.5” math class is designed to cover a year and a half of math curriculum in one year. Students will work through the full sixth grade curriculum and the first semester of the seventh grade curriculum. Teachers work diligently to compact the learning for these students so that students may skip content they have already mastered in order to focus on skills that have not been mastered yet. As seventh graders, students would then move on to the “2.5” math class which covers the second semester of the seventh grade curriculum and all of the eighth grade curriculum in one year. Then, as eighth graders, this group of students will be ready for Algebra 1, thus ending up one full year accelerated in math as they prepare to move on to high school.

For language arts, clustering is the primary accommodation provided among all of our middle schools. Within each school and each clustered language arts classroom, the specific differentiation techniques vary. Some schools have full sections of advanced language arts classes and others cluster groups of GE students in typical classrooms to stretch our language arts gifted students’ thinking and communication skills.

Meeting the affective and social-emotional needs of our gifted middle students is very important to all of us. Specific accommodations and services vary greatly depending on the caseload and time the gifted education specialist is at a particular school. Since many of us are part time in our buildings, we focus largely on providing support and guidance to our students with regard to their social-emotional needs. Formalized services vary greatly from school to school and year to year depending on the needs of our students as a whole. When possible, we try to provide pull-out groups to work on these needs. If you have specific questions about support for gifted students’ social-emotional needs please contact the gifted education specialist for your child’s middle school.

We hope that this letter provides your family with the necessary information to feel comfortable with your gifted child’s transition to middle school. Please know that toward the end of the year we meet with the elementary GE specialists to talk about the specific needs of each student we expect to be working with next year. This is a great way for us to gain a basic understanding of the group that will be joining us in middle school. Again, if you have specific questions or concerns about an individual school or your child’s needs, please feel free to reach out to us. Our contact information is provided for your convenience. We wish your family a great remainder of the school year! We are excited to welcome your child to middle school next year!

Sincerely,

The Middle School Gifted Education Team

Sue Teumer and Nicole Doyle
sue.teumer@tsd.org
nicole.doyle@tsd.org
970.613.7600