Congratulations to all 21 of our wonderful sixth grade graduates! What an awesome year we've had! We did it! You all officially have seventh graders in your homes! I want to say CONGRATULATIONS, and thank you, for everything this year. Thank you for supporting your child in last-minute projects, for proofreading writing pieces, and anything else it took to survive and thrive in sixth grade. Thank you for trusting me to help your children grow and succeed. I will fondly remember this class: their passionate debates, their commitment to creativity and excellence in their projects, and their goofy, quirky sense of humor. I am very proud of their growth this year, and have SO enjoyed this group of remarkable kids. Thank you for giving me the privilege of being a part of their lives for a wonderful year. I want to say thank you, also, to all of you who helped with sixth grade events this year. A particular THANK YOU to Patty Murray and Kim Jeter for the enthusiastic work they did as room parents! A few pics below from Tuesday's "Amazing Race" with the Fifth grade: Learning took place right up until the end this week! In math, we completed our unit on positive and negative integers. In history, we learned about the foundations of Islam, as well as debunking stereotypes and misconceptions about the muslim community in our world today. Other classes wrapped up with final writing activities and community building.
On Tuesday, fifth and sixth graders teamed up in an "amazing race" across campus, which required them to solve challenges including math problems, word scrambles, and athletic and goofy challenges! On Friday, students shared some time to reflect on highlights of their year and what they look forward to next year. We spent our final minutes of the year enjoying awesome snacks and time signing yearbooks. THANK YOU ALL, students and parents alike, for a wonderful sixth grade year!
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Monday's Roman Banquet was a huge success thanks to the amazing efforts of all the wonderful sixth grade parents! It was an incredibly fun finale to our ancient Greece/Rome unit and the sixth graders are so excited to continue their Roman studies next year in Latin class. Thank you everyone! Click here for more Roman Banquet pictures on Laguna's Flickr account! Apologies for missing last week's post! These past couple weeks of May have been packed with some exciting activities and solid learning. Last week, sixth graders worked in Language Arts class to write four-paragraph essays about whether the main character of our book, Jonas, has truly been given a job that is an honor (as the community claims) or if it's more of a punishment. We've enjoyed reading through the book together in class; this class has embraced some of the difficult and engaging topics fully in class discussion and debate. In History class, sixth graders learned about the formation of the Roman Republic, the expansion from Republic to Empire, and a little about daily life in Rome before enjoying the wonderful Roman banquet this past Monday! This week in History, we also introduced Christianity as a major world religion that arose during the time of the Romans, and read Christian parables to learn about some of the religion's key values.
Last Friday's middle school service day allowed 5th and 6th grades to both enjoy and 'give back' to a part of our community that makes Santa Barbara very special: our beaches! A representative from ChannelKeeper met the students and reviewed what students can expect to find, information on "microtrash" great Pacific Garbage patch, and how to properly clean and log finds. Sixth graders then enjoyed a pizza lunch and beach time, courtesy of our room parents!
In addition to the Getty, this week students wrapped up units in both ancient Greece (in history) and the coordinate plane (in math). We've continued forward in The Giver, and enjoyed class discussions and writing pieces that begin to grapple with the idea of uniformity/conformity vs individuality. More to come next week!
Students began this week by wrapping up their Mental Health Matters unit. Groups of sixth graders presented about different mental health disorders and how to be supportive to those in their lives who might be affected. Once that unit concluded, we began our final class novel, The Giver. On Thursday, we attended the Pacific Conservatory Theater's production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The play was truly spectacular--the set stunning, the storyline compelling, the music haunting and the caliber of the actors was superb. I actually recommend attending one of the evening performances! There are only about six left for this month, but the same cast and show will be performing at the Solvang Theater festival in July. As you all heard, our bus ride back was a bit of an adventure. Students were great sports and patient as we waited for Mr. Bray and the rest of the Laguna team to pick us up from or stop near Los Alamos. Thank you parents for understanding. This week kicked off with the finale of the Archeological Dig project: the Sixth Grade Archeological Conference! Each of the four teams presented on the artifacts they'd found, and which civilization they believed they had discovered because of it. Each student shared some researched facts about their newly uncovered civilization as well. It was a great finale to a long and rewarding unit! This week in Language Arts, sixth graders completed 3/5 of the Mental Health Matters unit. Students are learning about common mental health disorders, how to be "stigma busters" and how to support someone in a positive way. Students will wrap up the 5 day unit on Tuesday of this coming week. We also held some preliminary discussions in anticipation of our final all-class novel, The Giver.
In History, sixth graders "visited" ancient Athens by completing activities at six different stations. They learned about ancient greek Religion, Architecture, Sculpture, Athletics, Philosophy, and Drama. In Math, we completed Chapter 8 on Algebraic Equations and Inequalities and will be beginning the Coordinate Plane next week.
In math this week, sixth graders learned to write and graph linear equations, and how to solve simple inequalities. In History, students compared the governments, education systems, economies, and treatment of women and slaves between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta. In Language Arts, students presented their library book reports and researched their artifacts and newly discovered cultures in preparation for Monday's Archeological Conference.
We hit the ground running back from break! No better way to kick off the final quarter of the sixth grade year than with the climactic project for the past month and a half: the Archeological Dig! This week, sixth graders buried their secret artifacts up on the hill behind our classroom. The following day, groups rotated to a new excavation site and discovered a whole new civilization! THANK YOU to all the parents who were able to provide waters, snacks, and supervisory support throughout the two days! Thank you in particular to Patty Murray and Kim Jeter for coordinating and contributing! Tuesday: Burying ArtifactsWednesday: THE DIGGroups documented their discoveries by measuring coordinates of the artifact location and photographing it before removing. Over the next week, students will research and present their "findings" at an in-class archeological conference next Friday. Identifying Artifacts |
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June 2018
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