Sixth Grade
January has definitely been an interesting month thus far. The weather has been unseasonably mild, and our reading program has taken on a new look. Your child’s schedule has changed a bit with the implementation of an enrichment block at the end of the day to accompany the intervention block that was already in place. With this major change, your child will no longer have a “study hall” at the end of the day. This will possibly mean more homework if your child is unable to complete the work during their built-in independent work time during each content block. Please encourage your child to not only use their time wisely at school, but also take advantage of any opportunity to get extra help either before school, during recess, or after school with specific questions. Mrs. Schatz and Mrs. Andel are available to help at any of these times!
During the reading/language block, sixth grade students have been practicing comprehension skills such as fact and opinion and author’s purpose, grammar skills such as subject, object, and possessive pronouns, and decoding skills such as identifying prefixes, suffixes, and base words. All these skills have been practiced and will be built upon in future units.
Math class has brought about a return to algebraic concepts. Your child has reviewed work with fraction operations as well as signed numbers. They’ve been told a few “stories” to help them remember some of the rules for order of operations and multiplying and dividing signed numbers. See if he/she can tell you the rules through the story or actions. We’ve also started reviewing the process of solving simple equations which will develop into the use of properties of equality to solve all equations. Practice of any kind will definitely be beneficial as we continue to get closer to the NeSA-Math test. We will be taking a practice test within the next month to see how we are progressing towards those state standards. You will see some information coming home regarding the test as well. Please encourage your child to check over his/her homework carefully as well as practice math facts on a regular basis.
Will there be a World War III? That is a question that we cannot answer, but we have just finished a lengthy unit on World War II and its effect on the world. Students had the opportunity to be a part of textbook circles, view Power Points loaded with maps and photos, watch a DVD featuring a Holocaust survivor, and show what they know through both a paper/pencil test as well as an end of unit project. The beginning of the Cold War as well as the conflicts related to it, including the Korean War and Vietnam War, will be upcoming topics. There will also be a lot of time devoted to understanding civil rights and how those rights have developed over time in the next couple of months.
In our science unit this quarter, we will focus on energy. Students will learn how to identify the presence of energy, types of energy and the ways energy is transformed from one type to another. Energy transformation is key to how work gets done. That is the important word – WORK. Work and energy are closely related. So far, we have discussed potential, kinetic, elastic and have just started thermal energy. We will be busy and need to accomplish lots of WORK.
Con Congratulations and good luck to those sixth grade students selected to participate in the Butler County Spelling Bee: Olivia C., Seth S., Cole M., Will H.
Until next month….
