6th Grade Newsletter November 2017
Dates to Remember 11/9 - Picture Retakes 11/22-11/24 - No School for Students Announcements from the Content Teachers
Life Science The next unit of study is going to beLS.4 The student will investigate and understand how organisms can be classified. a) the distinguishing characteristics of domains of organisms; b) the distinguishing characteristics of kingdoms of organisms; c) the distinguishing characteristics of major animal phyla and plant divisions; and d) the characteristics that define a species. This an exciting area of study. It is the naming of all living things. It will include a trip to our local pond on a single celled animal hunt. And the main eventDissection of a frog. I know we are all looking forward to that. Well maybe not the frog.
Yours in science, Ms. Lane Mr. Sperka
English
Fall is a great time for reflection and looking ahead. As we take a moment to think about the past quarter, many thoughts come to mind. We've been very busy with teaching your children about fiction with a focus on the five elements. In fact, you may want to ask your child to sing a rap about setting, plot, character, conflict, and theme! We've also studied writing and how we can become better writers through our ideas and how we organize those ideas. Our scholars have also sat through their first battery of reading assessments. At this point, we feel like we have a solid grasp on where your child is as a reader, both strengths and weaknesses. Speaking of reading, we encourage each of our students to practice their reading nightly, and we think you should too! Our school library has tools for our readers to access enjoyable independent reading books. Therefore, we hope your child is bringing home books everyday they can and want to read! We visit the library every two weeks. Over the next few months we will be diving further into fiction as we study imagery and how authors utilize similes and metaphors to help us gain a better understanding their message. Then we will transition into nonfiction with a focus on how authors gain our attention with their use of titles, subtitles, and graphics, among other structures. We will also study predictions, main idea and supporting details, and how authors organize their nonfiction text. Additionally, we look forward to merging your child's experience with nonfiction with their own writing. There are many ways for you to be a partner in your child's education. You may ask to look at your student's agenda nightly and encourage reading everyday. Soon we will be receiving new books in our classroom libraries - we are very excited! In order to help protect our new books, we would gladly welcome donations of gallon-size baggies. These baggies will allow us to send new books home with children, and remain protected while in transit. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact your child's English teacher. Best regards, 6th Grade English Team
Math So far 6th grade math has been working diligently on ratios, converting fractions decimals and percentages, working with integers, order of operations, arithmetic and geometric sequences, and proportional relationships. We are currently working on integer operations, and will be testing next week. 7/8 math has so far learned about the real number system, has worked with squares and square roots, learned about scientific notation, worked on integer operations, and is currently learning about multi-step equations. If you are willing to donate any supplies, teachers are currently in need of pencils, lined paper, glue sticks, hand sanitizer, tissues, and expo markers. We appreciate any donations! Thank you for your support! - The 6th Grade Math Team
Social Studies In sixth grade social studies (which is US History, Part 1, until the Civil War), we have covered the Causes of the Revolutionary War, along with the major events and personalities of the Rev War. Please look at your student’s Interactive Notebook and check the pages we have completed. We did have a quiz on which students were required to use their pictures on Page 88 as a student created guide. There will be a unit test the week of October 30. Upcoming content includes the New Government for a New Nation. (Above Right) This area of study (Articles of Confederation, Constitution, Bill of Rights) is always a challenge for students to comprehend. Have your student share this information with you and please ask for feedback. If you dare, see if you can draw upon current events to further involve your student in discussions which coalesce the past with today’s challenges. From there, we ‘move west’ as America’s contiguous borders are established from the Louisiana Purchase to the Mexican Cession and all points in between using Manifest Destiny as our guiding principle, Please keep a look out for the maps (esp. the Concept Map) as students understand how America got to be what it is now, geographically speaking.
