Thanks for your patience for this week's post; between Parent Conferences and the weekend's Math Conference I'm a little later in posting than I usually like. It looks like we might finally be settling in to some proper fall weather this coming week. The kids did a great job this past week focusing and working hard despite the 90+ temperatures. In Language Arts class, we've continued in A Long Walk to Water. Since it's part of the Global Read Aloud, students have responded to reflective questions posted by other classes and students around the country using both Flipgrid and Padlet (in both cases, scroll down for their responses). In History, students practiced thinking like historians by reading primary documents from ancient Babylon. They read excerpts from Hammurabi's Code of Laws in order to draw conclusions about what life in ancient Babylonia must have been like. We discussed the benefits and drawbacks when considering different sources. In Math, we've begun learning how to divide fractions. This coming week we'll be using physical cutouts as well as visual models to understand why the algorithm works the way it does. Over the past few weeks in Performing Arts Class, sixth graders have been adapting children's storybooks for the stage. With guidance from Mrs. Caldwell, they wrote scripts, blocked, and rehearsed their pieces. Pictures from their final performances are below!
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What a great, silly, busy week! The costumes this week for our different Spirit Day themes were SO fun! From loaning shoes to doing hair, kudos to all you parents who helped their kids get in the spirit! And congratulations to everyone on an excellent Jog-a-Thon! This week in some classes: Language Arts: Students presented their design thinking challenges to each other and provided feedback. We worked through some figurative language review, and were introduced to our new class novel, A Long Walk to Water. We're switching to our next book quickly because it's a part of the Global Read Aloud, which began in early October, and we're going to catch up! History: Students learned the seven categories of what defines a civilization (stable food supply, government, social structure, religion, written language, the arts, and technology). They studied ancient Sumerian artifacts for these very traits to see why historians call it the "first" civilization. Math: Students took their chapter 2 test on inequalities with negative numbers and absolute value. They all did very well! Performing Arts Foundations: Sixth graders worked on choreography for the winter concert and have been learning how to dramatize children's folktales from storybooks, including scriptwriting and blocking. Art: In Art class, students made skull sculptures in honor of Day of the Dead and are painting them this week. Looking forward to another great week! Dress for warm temperatures!
In addition to finishing Out of My Mind, sixth graders worked to build prototypes of possible solutions to problems Melody might face if she attended Laguna Blanca. Groups identified both physical and social challenges. Using the sentence frame "Melody needs a way to ____ because/but ______," they chose to tackle some of these problems:
In History class, we entered the Neolithic Era and learned the impacts of the introduction of agriculture! Sixth graders participated in an response group activity, where they were faced with challenges of early Mesopotamian societies. They suggested solutions to, and read about, food shortages, uncontrolled water supply and irrigation, and attacks from neighboring villages. This lesson demonstrated how geographic challenges fueled the transformation from neolithic farming villages to Sumerian city-states. Sixth graders tackled their first science quiz of the year! They memorized and labeled all the bones in the body, and will continue to study bones and their function for the next couple weeks. In Math, we worked with negative numbers and absolute value, and will have our second chapter test of the year later next week. PE included capture the flag and several fitness drills, while Art class has moved into making scull sculptures for day of the dead. Our first week of October was a packed one! On Monday, we celebrated the opening of the middle school quad as well as Gabriel's birthday. Sixth graders ended the day with the culminating activity to our early humans unit: a cave painting simulation! In each of their "bands", sixth graders used charcoal and paint to depict fairly complex prompts about everyday life in the paleolithic era. Using the materials in the darkness was challenging, but an immersive final experience! Students also completed unit tests in both History (Paleolithic Humans) and Math (Chapter 1) this week. In Language Arts, we completed a close reading of a segment of Out of My Mind, and began our design thinking challenge. In groups of three, sixth graders interviewed each other as if they were Melody--the main character in our class novel--and her experience if she attended Laguna Blanca. They identified problems she faced and have begun drafting ideas on how to address these problems in our community. More to come with this project next week! It was wonderful to see everyone who could make it to Parents Night on Tuesday. I hope your experience that evening was informative and rewarding. As always, please let me know if you have any more questions. |
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June 2018
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