Algebra equations

This week in 6th grade math we finished up our unit on proportions, ratios, and percents and we are moving onto our final unit on algebra.  We started the week off by taking our unit 8 test, which took two days to complete because there was a great deal of computation on the test.  For the rest of the week, we will begin to learn about the distributive property.  We will start by looking at area models and then apply that to creating a formula for the distributive property.

6th Grade Language Arts: Poetry Review

This week, sixth graders will create a poetry review.  Poetry uses sounds and images to reach beyond your mind and grab your heart.  Other forms of writing may inform or entertain, but a poem’s purpose is to make you feel and respond—and sometimes even soar!

One great way to respond to a poem is to write a poetry review.  Like a book review, a poetry review tells what a poem is about.  It also explains what makes the poem work so well.  Students will choose a poem that they enjoy by class on Wednesday and then they will begin writing their own poetry review.

The American Colonies

Last week, students finished their Enlightenment unit by taking a quiz.  Now, we are shifting our focus from European history to American history with a unit on the American colonies.  This will help prepare students for the curriculum in 7th grade, which will cover early United States history. Students will be using a lot of primary sources for this unit to look at the formation of the colonies from multiple perspective including the colonists, Native Americans, and slaves.  For example, today, they looked at primary sources from the perspective of John Smith, the leader of the Jamestown colony.  They used primary and secondary sources to defend their opinion about whether or not the story of Pocahontas saving John Smith's life was really true.  Later in the week, they will learn about the Plymouth colony.  Next week, they will finish the school year by completing a project about the different colonies and their last test will be on Friday, June 3.

Question for your 6th grader:

• Did Pocahontas save John Smith's life?

The Enlightenment

Over the past few weeks, the 6th graders have been learning about the Enlightenment in Social Studies.  They are learning about many "new" ideas that changed the way people viewed society and government in Europe during the 18th century.  Last week, students discussed the question "How do humans achieve knowledge, freedom, and happiness?".  They did a graffiti wall activity where they brainstormed what each of those words means and how people can achieve them.  Then, students came up with their own definitions.  We used these words throughout the unit and looked at ways that different groups of people tried to achieve them during the Enlightenment era.  On Thursday, they read primary sources written by Enlightenment philosophers about the role of women in society and discussed them in a socratic seminar.  Tomorrow, they will debate what the role of the common people in government should be.

Questions for your 6th grader:

• How do people achieve knowledge, freedom, and happiness?
• How much power should the people of a nation have in the government?

Ratios/Proportions

This week in 6th grade math we are finishing our 8th unit of the year on ratios and proportions.  So far this week, we have learned about reductions and enlargements.  We started by measuring figures to show how enlargements and reductions are the same shape, just different sizes.  We then built enlarged figures and used proportions to show how you can figure out lengths of sides.  For the rest of the week, we will compare ratios by renaming them as n-to-1 ratios.  The unit will then be over and we will have a review day.  For the review day, I had the students work in groups to create problems from each section and we will go over those problems.

Test on Monday May 23rd.

Week 34: 6th Grade Science

Week: 34

Topic:  Viruses

Objectives: 

List characteristics of viruses and state reasons why viruses are considered non-living.

Describe the components of the basic structure of a virus.

Explain how both active and hidden viruses multiply.

Discuss both negative and positive ways that viruses affect living things.

Essential Question:

 Can something be non-living but alive?

This week the 6th grade class will begin the unit by discussing the essential question.  They will look at why a virus is similar to a key, their size (proportions), and then create their own virus. 

Key Terms:

virus

host

parasite

bacteriophage

Differentiation:

Inferring

Making Models

Math: Proportions and dimensions of a circle

Upcoming:

Students will be making their own virus models.

Proportions

This week in 6th grade math we are continuing to work on our unit on proportions.  This week, the class has applied their understanding of proportions to ratios and percents.  We have spent a great deal of time going over how to correctly write and solve a proportion and the class has done very well with this.  For the rest of the week, we will be working on using proportions to calculate the fat content of different foods and how to use ratios to describe size change factors.

We will have our unit 8 test next Friday March 20th.

6th grade Battle of the Books

Sixth grade did a great job with their first ever Battle of the Books in the library.  Each student was required to read a book for one of four teams.  The books were: "The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963" by Christopher Paul Curtis, "Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbit, "Fever 1793" by Laurie Anderson, and "Freak the Mighty" by Rodman Philbrick.  Prizes for answering the most book related questions correctly for their team were gift certificates to Potbelly's.  Round 2 has just begun!  Ask your child about it!

Week 33: 6th Grade Science

Week: 33

Topic:  What is life?

Objectives: 

What are the features of life?

Explain where living things come from.

Identify what all living things need to survive.

Essential Question:

 Can something be non-living but alive?

This week the 6th grade class will begin the unit by discussing what is non-living and living.  They will review the features of life and explore the experiments of Pasteur and Redi to see where life come from.

Key Terms:

spontaneous generation

autotroph

heterotroph

Differentiation:

Observing

Predicting 

Controlled Experiment

Upcoming:

Classifying