I can't believe it's Thanksgiving break already! This year has flown by, primarily due to the wonderful enthusiasm this group has for learning. This year, I've felt particularly grateful for my circumstances: to get to teach passionate, positive students in a supportive and innovative work environment. Thank you, all of you, for being a part of that. This past week in class, we managed to fit quite a bit of learning around the ERB's each day. In Language Arts, sixth graders drafted, edited, and submitted their first five paragraph essay. The essay asked students to observe what factors (physical, emotional) helped Salva survive his journey, and to draw lessons about humankind from his story. Also this week, students were able to connect in a Google Hangout with another class in Wisconsin and share their experiences with the book. It has been fun to go back and visit the students' written responses on some of the pages, and see middle school students from France and New Zealand responding to them. On Wednesday, we watched a short documentary and learned about Salva's organization, Water for South Sudan. On Thursday, Laguna alum Spencer Dusebout came and shared his experience installing wells and water filtration systems in over 17 different countries with his organization, Hands4Others. Friday's bake sale raised over $200, which the students voted to donate to Salva's organization, Water for South Sudan.
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This week, sixth graders finished reading A Long Walk to Water! Salva Dut, the main character in the text, is a real person who founded Water for South Sudan. Wonderfully, the minute the sixth graders heard the organization was real, they wanted to host a fundraiser to support it. You can all expect a bake sale sometime next week! We also studied the development of theme over the course of the novel, and sixth graders were introduced to the five paragraph essay structure that will be due next week. Since A Long Walk to Water is one of the books for the Global Read Aloud, a goal is to connect with other classes around the country (and world) who are reading it. Thursday, we 'skyped' (Google Hangouts) with a class in Virginia! Students on both ends first had to complete a geography challenge by trying to figure out which state the other was in. They asked questions such as "Are you east of the Mississippi?" and "Is your state landlocked?" and crossed out options on maps in their groups. We then moved on to discussing the book with the other class. In History Class this week, sixth graders worked in teams to write skits about life in the different levels of the social pyramid. While no group got to be the Pharaoh, we enjoyed presentations from Government Officials, Priests, Scribes, Artisans, and Peasants. On Wednesday, sixth graders read about and watched a series of clips on ancient Egyptian religion, mummies, tombs, and the afterlife. They also received an introduction to hieroglyphics, which we'll work more with next week. In Math class this week, we focused on multiplying and dividing decimals.
In Science, students worked to maintain the robust school garden, and began the new Muscles unit. In Art, the students have made calaveras (skulls) for Dia de los Muertos, and those are currently being exhibited in the library. They are just starting a project about American sculptor, Alexander Calder. The kids are making assemblages base on Calder's piece, "The Circus"; mini kinetic sculptures base on the circus. They may be asking to bring material from home ie. wire, wood, fabric, corks, etc. What a fun final week of October! The Halloween Festival was SO well planned and the students LOVED it! THANK YOU PARENTS for all of the setup/cleanup/ booth-operating work you did to make it a special day for your kids! I wanted to take pictures of you all at work but got roped into being a costume contest judge: very fun but I missed getting to thank you all in person. All the costumes were so creative! Halloween wasn't the only great part of the week (although it was of course the most fun)! In Language Arts this week, sixth graders continued reading A Long Walk to Water and participated in several activities intended to build understanding and empathy for the main character, Nya. On Monday, sixth graders were tasked with carrying 3-4 gallons of water up the hill and back behind the classroom. They were also permitted to remove their shoes. This experience was fun for some, frustrating and painful for others, but enlightening for all of them. They then used a water calculator to reflect on their daily water use. Also this week, sixth graders watched and reflected on the virtual reality film The Displaced (move your phone screen or click and drag on the footage on your computer to look around in the film), and discussed the struggle that children their age face as refugees. We also took note of what helps people survive and carry on, in preparation for our Long Walk to Water theme essay. In History, we studied the geography of ancient Egypt and touched on the environmental factors that determine human settlement: topography, vegetation, and water supply. We moved into our "Welcome" of ancient Egypt by beginning our unit with a study of Khufu's pyramid, including the exciting last minute edition of this week's latest news! The timing COULDN'T have been more perfect! Math class this week focused solely on dividing fractions. We used physical models, learned to draw models, then finally learned the algorithm in order for students to grasp the concepts. We'll move into multiplying decimals next week. I realize it's about time I get you weekly updates on what they're doing in specialist classes! Will post some of those updates next week. |
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June 2018
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