Finishing unit 2 on large and small numbers and scientific notation

This week in 6th grade math we are finishing up our second unit.  Today we learned about how to read and write scientific notation and how to convert between standard form and scientific notation.  While working with scientific notation we used positive and negative powers of ten to represent very large and small numbers.  For the rest of the week we will be learning how to use a calculator to work with exponents and scientific notation.  We will also being be playing a game called exponent football to reinforce these skills.

Upcoming assignments:
Test Next Thursday Nov. 5 (Study Packet will be passed out on Thursday)

6th Grade Language Arts: New Book Clubs

This week 6th graders started their new book club groups.  This quarter the theme is “Coming of Age” books.  The books being read this quarter include Counting By 7s, The Outsiders, The Girl Who Threw Butterflies, and Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life.  Students received their books today and met with their group members to develop the reading schedule and set goals and ground rules for the meetings.  Each book club group will meet for eight discussion sessions throughout the month of November.  During each meeting students discuss reading log reflections, literary elements, opinions, frustrations, interesting quotes, predictions, etc.  The concluding assessment projects will be completed in December.  Students will create a book review individually and work as a group to develop a talk show presentation as the characters from their book.

Upcoming Due Dates:

Compare and Contrast Essay:

1st Draft due: Tuesday, November 10, 2015

2nd Draft due: Friday, November 13, 2015

Final Draft due: Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Week 9: 6th Grade Science

Week: 9

Topic:  Electricity:  Electric Charge and Static Electricity

Objectives: 

Explain how electric charges interact. 

Explain what an electric field is.  

Describe how static electricity builds up and transfers.  

Essential Question:

How do electric charges interact?

This week the kids will explore static electricity and discover some of its properties.  We will watch a fun little video called “Travoltage” to better understand the transfer of charges.

Key Terms:

electric force and field

static electricity

conservation of charge

friction

conduction

induction

static discharge

Differentiation:

Observing

Predicting

Inferring

Classifying

Generalizing

Upcoming:

Next week we will begin our unit on Electric Current and Circuits.

World Religions Project

Every year, the 6th grade students have done a research project about world religions in social studies for project fair.  This year, students will be working both in groups and individually to research and create products about the 5 largest world religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism.  This will be a project that will be guided by student inquiry.  This means that students will be generating their own questions about these religions and will find different ways to answer those questions and share their findings with an audience (you!) on project fair night, Thursday, December 3.  Over the past few class periods, students have been looking at pictures, watching videos, and reading news articles about these religions. Then, students have been asking questions about what these sources have made them wonder.  Now, they will be broken up into groups and will decide on what questions need to be asked and answered in order to share knowledge about the religion that they will research with others.  They will also come up with an inquiry question of their own.  This will be a question about religions that students want to answer on their own, outside of the group project.  It may or may not have to do with the particular religion that they were assigned. This project will require collaboration, creativity, and curious minds.  Students will be building these skills along with traditional research and presentation skills.  Below is the rough outline of expectations for this project.  The due dates are subject to change.

Questions for your 6th grader:

• What religion will you be researching for your project?
• What are some of the images that you have seen that relate to your religion?

Take a peek at what the process looks like:

 Wyatt, Ellana, and Ethan are creating questions about Hinduism.

 Lily, Mai-Linh, and Marcus are creating questions about Buddhism.

 Lorenzo, Katey, and Lia are creating questions about Islam.

 Ethan, Jonathan, and Brecken are creating questions about Christianity.

Toby, Collin, and Aino are creating questions about Judaism.

¡La clase de español!

This week the 6th grade class learned more about the verb gustar. We reviewed how we say what we like to do answering the following questions: ¿Qué te gusta hacer?, What do you like to do, ¿Qué te gusta comer, What do you like to eat, and ¿Qué te gusta beber?, What do you like to drink. Students participated in a turn and talk to practice conversation with a partner. Then, they learned how say what others like to do. We will be using similar questions to describe ourselves and others using the verb gustar.  The class has an upcoming quiz next week on pronouns, the verb ser, and the verb gustar.

At home, practice asking these questions and look for the following responses:
¿De dónde eres?  Soy de ... 
¿Qué te gusta hacer?  A mí me gusta hacer...
¿Qué te gusta comer?  A mí me gusta comer...
¿Qué te gusta beber?  A mí me gusta beber...

We recently welcomed Señor Barajas to the classroom. Sr. Barajas is a undergraduate student from North Park University.  He will be completing his mini-teaching experience with 6th grade and will be with us until the beginning of December. Here is some more information from Sr. Barajas:

Hello everyone, My name is Richard Barajas and I am the new mini-teacher for Señora Yanics. I am a senior at North Park University studying Spanish Education as well as participating in the collegiate sports of Cross Country and Track. I have done many extra curricular activities while at school and I've even studied Spanish in a different country! I am very excited about receiving the opportunity to teach Señora Yanics' wonderful students and establish as well as grow upon my teaching abilities. I have very high expectations for everyone including myself so I am ready to take on the challenge and have some fun! Thank you to the students and the parents for allowing me to come into this space and thank you to Señora Yanics for allowing me to teach her great class. ¡Hasta Luego!

Powers of 10 and multiplication and division of decimals

This week in 6th grade math the class is continuing our second unit on working with really large and small numbers.  We started the week learning about powers of 10.  We learned how to move the decimal when working with powers of 10 with both negative and positive exponents.  This was a difficult lesson for many students.  They often got confused about how many places to move the decimal and in what direction.  We continued to work on this skill today in class and we also reviewed using the estimation strategy to know where to put the decimal when multiplying decimals.  On Thursday, we will review how to use the lattice multiplication strategy to multiply decimals.  We will end the week practicing how to divide whole numbers.

End of Greece Unit

This week, the 6th graders are finishing their unit about ancient Greece.  They will take their test tomorrow.  On Monday and Tuesday, students reviewed study skills and planned out their evidence essay about Greek achievements.  Later this week, the students will begin brainstorming about world religions.  They will begin their project fair projects about a world religion.  Many more details about the project and its due dates will be posted on next week's blog.

Question for your 6th Grader:

• Which Greek achievement do you think had the biggest impact on modern life?

6th Grade Language Arts: Second Quarter Units

Sixth graders concluded the Elements of Stories Unit last week by turning in their short stories and taking their final test.  This week students will be picking books for the “Coming of Age” reading unit.  Students will work in book club groups to explore and discuss the literature.  Throughout the unit, students will meet with their groups during eight meetings and complete both individual and group projects.

We are starting a new genre of writing this quarter.  Students will begin writing compare and contrast expository essays this week.  They will choose two animals to compare and contrast.

Check back for more information and pictures as these units progress.

First Clay Project of the Year in Art

The 6th graders recently completed their first clay pieces of the year. They learned that "ugly jugs" or "face jugs" are considered folk art and were made by African American slaves during the mid-1800's. It is believed that the jugs were used for practical purposes as well as spiritual and artistic expression. They were created with scary often grotesque faces on them and were often used as grave markers or buried with their owners to ward off evil spirits. The 6th graders used clay coil construction to make their vessels and then applied facial features and other details to the outside.
They sure are expressive!

Week 8: 6th Grade Science

Week 8

Topic:  Inside a Magnet

Objectives: 

Explain how an atom can behave like a magnet.

Describe how magnetic domains are arranged in a magnetic field.

Explain how magnets can be changed.

Essential Question:

How did scientists find the atom?

This week the kids are discovering parts of the atom using Fermi questions.  An example of this is, How big is the atom?  How many parts does it have?  Where are they located?  The great part of this lesson is the kids find out how many misconceptions they have and How does a scientist work to make a discovery.  Take a look at their iPads.

Dinner Table Discussion:  Stacked top to bottom it would take one million atoms to reach the height of a piece of paper (not the length or width.)

Upcoming:

Next week we will begin our unit on Electricity.

Pictures are on there way.

MAP Scores Coming Home Today

MAP scores are coming home today via kidmail. If you have more than one child in grades 3-7, all scores will come home with the youngest child. If you have any questions, please feel free to call or email Mrs. Smith.

Week 7: 6th Grade Science

Week 7

Topic:  Inside a Magnet

Objectives: 

Explain how an atom can behave like a magnet.

Describe how magnetic domains are arranged in a magnetic field.

Explain how magnets can be changed.

Essential Question:

Why do magnets and magnetic material act the way they do?

This week the kids will go inside the magnet and see how atoms align inside the magnet creating the magnetic domain.  

Upcoming:

Next week we will begin our unit on Electricity.

Pictures are on there way.

Athens and Sparta

Last week in Social Studies, the 6th graders learned all about the differences between the famous Greek city states of Athens and Sparta.  They each created a menu project that showed their knowledge about the two cities and the Peloponnesian War, in which both sides fought.  Last week, students acted out the Peloponnesian War in a simulation.  This week, students are learning about Alexander the Great and how ancient Greek achievements affect modern life.  Students will take their test on ancient Greece next Wednesday, October 21.

Questions for your 6th grader:

• Would you rather live in ancient Athens or ancient Sparta?
• What menu item did you create for your Athens and Sparta menu?

The 6th graders fighting as a phalanx.  Ask your 6th grader what that means!

Large and small numbers and adding decimals

This week in 6th grade math the class started unit two on working with very large and small numbers.  We started the week off by reviewing standard notation, expanded notation, and number and word notation of really large numbers up to the trillions place.  Next we will go over the same concepts with very small numbers down to the millionths place.  (I have made a big point all year about not saying the word point and using the word and when reading decimal numbers for this lesson.)  We will then end the week reviewing addition and subtraction of decimals.  During these lessons there is also review questions about box-and-whisker plots and histograms, which are new graphs we learned about last lesson.

Question to ask at home:
How do you read this number 3.786?

Below are pictures of students working on the open response

portion of the test with a partner last week.

6th Grade Language Arts: Scholastic Story Starter

VIP Day was a great opportunity for students to share what they have been working on in Language Arts class with their visitors.  Students also got a chance to play a verbal story telling game using the Scholastic Story Starter on the Promethean Board.  The Story Starter looks like a slot machine filled with silly story ideas.  Students spun the wheel for the initial idea and then added more details to create a story with their visitors.  The story starter can be used for verbal or written storytelling.  Just type in a name and click on the grades 4-6 button (the prompts can be enjoyed by all middle school grades even though they are labeled as grades 4-6).  

Here is the link if you are interested using the Scholastic Story Starter with your child at home:

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters/

Upcoming 1st Quarter Assessments & Due Dates:

Literary Elements and Techniques Final Test: Thursday, October 15th, 2015

Short Story 2nd Draft Due: Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Short Story Final Draft Due: Friday, October 16, 2015

Football in PE!

"This unit we have been doing football. We have all been doing a good job on form throwing the ball, and we enjoyed playing the game Knock-out Football. We have done a couple warm-up games like juggling, spikeball, and fainting goats."
- Jonathan

Unit 1 test

This week in 6th grade math we are completing our first unit on data and graphing.  Tomorrow the class will be working in pairs on the open response portion of the test and on Thursday they will be taking the unit 1 test.

6th Grade Language Arts: Elements of Stories Unit

The 6th grade short stories are really coming together.  The writing challenge for all students this quarter has been to take their creative ideas and organize them to create clear and interesting plot lines.  Students will participate in a revision and editing writing workshop on Thursday to improve their stories.  Be sure to ask your child to share his or her short story with you.  This unit will come to a close next week with the final draft submission and the final test.

Upcoming 1st Quarter Assessments & Due Dates:

Literary Elements and Techniques Final Test: Thursday, October 15th, 2015

Short Story 2nd Draft Due: Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Short Story Final Draft Due: Friday, October 16, 2015

Week 6: 6th Grade Science

Week: 6

Topic:  What is Magnetism?

Objectives: 

What are the properties of a magnet?

How do magnetic poles interact?

What is the shape of a magnetic field?

Essential Question:

Why do magnets float?

This week the kids will discover the magnetic field of a magnet by using iron filings. 

Dinner table discussion:  Have your son or daughter show you their magnetic field discoveries.  

How does the field react when there is only one magnet.

What happens when there are like poles and when there are unlike poles?

What happens to the field lines when the magnetic strength weakens?

Upcoming:

Next week we will go inside the magnet to see how it works.

Might be of interest. . .

#BeingThirteen - Inside the Secret World of Teens airs October 5th at 9 p.m. This Anderson Cooper special has been in the works for 2 years and promises to be thought provoking.