Sixth Grade News
By Yvonne Matulka
April 18, 2008
It is hard to believe that we only have a half a quarter of school left…..this will be a busy time for your children!
In reading it will soon be time for the students to take the GORT Individual Reading Inventory to check for growth in their silent reading, fluency, oral reading, and comprehension of these readings. You will receive a report on the GORT test with their final report card. The GORT, the achievement test scores in reading, and teacher recommendation are all used to place students for 7th grade reading. Our ECRI reading class has provided them with excellent vocabulary development, fluency, and comprehension strategies to become better readers.
In Language the students are practicing and have begun work on writing a biographical report on a famous American from the 20th century. This is a BIG project that leads to an Oral Presentation in May.
In Math the 6th grade is working on a unit on probability and will begin learning about three-dimensional objects, especially rectangular prisms so that they can be assessed on the principals of volume of a rectangular prism.
In 5th grade Math, students are working on a unit on adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions. In May we will do Unit 9 which has a mixture of topics, including graphing on the coordinate plane, finding area of two-dimensional surfaces, and finding the volume of three-dimensional objects.
In Social Studies, 6th graders have finished learning about the Cold War era, and are working on learning about the Civil Rights Movement, as well as equal opportunities for women, Latinos, and the disabled. Our final assessment in Social Studies should take place in about two weeks.
We are also winding down on giving assessments. We are getting to the point that we have only a few more assessments to give in math, language arts, social studies, and science. It has been a long haul, but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
It is often difficult as the beautiful spring weather arrives to keep our students focused on doing a good job of being responsible students. Please continue to ask “What assignments do you have for homework?” “Are you done with your homework?” Most of the students are doing a great job, but it is always nice to end the year with our best efforts, and I am hoping that is the case this year!
