6th Grade MP3 Campus

School Data is open on the 1st for parent reviews. These are due by the 5th. We hope the cut and paste grade level newsletter will be helpful to supplement your remote learning plan reviews. Thank you for submitting in a timely manner and if you need help, please reach out to your SLPC.

Topics: Multiples and Factors and Number Sense

Activities: We ended our unit this month on multiples and factors. Students were able to show improvement of their skills with adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions by using greatest common factors or lowest common multiple. They were then asked to reduce fractions when possible. Students should be automatically reducing fractions when possible before submitting final answers.

We started our second unit on number sense, which covers decimals in operations and positive and negative numbers. We began by reviewing adding and subtracting large numbers that contain decimals. We ended the month by multiplying and dividing with decimals by hand. The end of year assessment will ask them to do this without a calculator, so students need to be able to build the endurance to multiply and divide large numbers containing decimals by hand. We begin with negative number concepts next month.

Teacher Tip:

Teacher Info: Mrs. Alexander, halexander@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Adding Details, Descriptive Writing, Personal Narratives, Figurative Language, Literacy Celebration

Activities: October has been a fantastic month of writing! We kicked it off with an activity that helps us add details to our writing and vary our sentence beginnings. By asking ourselves the 5W’s (who, what, when, where, why), we are able to take bland sentences and make them better! Next we moved on to descriptive writing by playing a game in which we write a description about an item and see if our classmates can guess it. This game quickly turned into a round robin of writing and guessing that students loved. We started our first big writing project by reading personal narratives written by other students our age. Kids quickly saw that when telling their stories they need to include a clear beginning, middle and end, they need to have transitions, and they need to state some sort of lesson learned in the end. After that introduction, students were ready to start planning their own work. We brainstormed ideas, wrote a beginning, middle and end outline, and verbally shared our story with a classmate. When it came time to begin writing our own personal narratives, students were ready to go and the classroom reverberated with the happy sound of keyboards tapping. We took a break from writing one day to go over figurative language as another tool in our toolbelt to improve writing. Through a series of games and activities, students quickly memorized several types of figurative language which we will continue to practice until using it in our writing becomes a habit. The month concluded with our annual Literacy Celebration where we enjoyed fun costumes and energetic literacy games!

Teacher Tip: Encourage your student to submit an entry to The Vibe, our digital school newspaper! Submissions can be emailed to thevibenewspaper@gmail.com

Teacher info: Rachel Oscarson, roscarson@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Our learning objective for this month were the following: Investigate the behavior of solid materials in water, gain experience with the concept of saturation, measure the volume and mass of solids and liquids, compare the quantities of two solid materials required to saturate 50 ml of water, compare the solubility of materials in water, use scientific thinking processes to conduct investigations and build explanations: observing, communicating, comparing, organizing, and relating.

Activities: Students discovered how much salt it would take to saturate 50ml of water. They did this by saturating a solution completely, removing the excess salt, and weighing the final solution against 50ml of plain water. We discussed errors that could have occurred during our experimentation that could account for the differing amounts we came up with as a class even though we were all using the same amount of water, measuring tools, weights, and salt (incorrect measurements of their salt or water, not removing all the extra salt from their saturated mixture, incorrect weighing of the saturated solution). Students repeated this experiment using a new substance, citric acid. Students made the discovery that citric acid is more soluble in water than salt.

Teacher Info: Mrs DeWaard, hdewaard@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Experimentation in design and programming to improve Robots functions, defining head-to-head bout challenges, determining essential parts (ones that have a function) and non-essential parts of a robot design, and how to access and navigate the EV3 computer application.

Activities: Collaborating with a partner, students explored their EV3 kits and were eager to building their "Base Rover". We discussed safe handling of “things with wires,” bricks, motors, hubs and sensors and strategies for keeping moving rovers safe on tabletops. Teams worked collaboratively to build and program mechanical robots that can move forward and reverse, turn corners up to 90 degrees, use various sensors to enhance robot functions, experimental exploration of robot capabilities. Students were given opportunities to provide feedback based on their individual experiences in this class. Information drawn from student feedback is used to adjust instruction. Being motivated learners and problem-solvers is a focus area for this class.

Challenge Project: Moon Lander: Students worked with a partner to design and build a shock-absorbing system that will protect two “astronauts” when they land. Constraints: use only the supplies provided (1 piece of cardboard, plastic cup, three index cards, two ping pong balls (astronauts), six cotton balls, three rubber bands, eight plastic straws, scissors, and 24inches of tape). Constraints on design- cup opening cannot be restricted or narrowed in any way. Astronauts cannot be restrained (if tipped over astronauts should fall out). To test landers were dropped, starting at a height of twelve inches. Drop height was increased over multiple trials. Analysis of each structure’s success was based on the maximum drop height where at least one astronaut remained inside of the lander cabin (cup) on landing. Students evaluated and redesigned their landers to improve performance of their landers. Hands-on projects that require problem-solving and teamwork are the primary focus of this class.

Tip: Include Robotics, Engineering, and Design topics and activities in your Independent Science Class review.

Teacher Info: Mrs. Brannen, lbrannen@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Civil Discourse, Campaigns, Elections

Activities: This class has been doing a deep dive into the complex world of American elections. To kick this off, we took plenty of time to examine and practice civil discourse. How we communicate matters! To model this, we have been getting prepped for a Mock School Election. Our candidates are from two fictional parties, the Snack Squad and the Memory Makers. We looked at examples of discourse between the candidates, some that was civil and others that was less so. We used some conversation prompts, sentence stems and strategies to build some more civil discourse into our classroom work. The strategies helped us find ways to share our opinions respectfully and how to respectfully disagree.

1-Use the ARE strategy to share an opinion (Assertion, Reason, Evidence)

2-Use the RRS strategy to respectfully disagree (Restate, Refute, Support)

Students were able to differentiate between discourse that was civil and uncivil, even when it was nuanced. They recognized that body language and tone had an enormous impact as well. Most of us agreed that talking so politely and with such civility isn't always required but understanding when to be civil is super important.

Next, we explored the platforms of our candidates, 2 from the Snack Squad and 2 from the Memory Makers. Not only did we evaluate what each candidate hoped to achieve, we looked for personality traits, campaign promises and anything that seems like a potential "red flag." We used 8 pieces of evidence to help us understand an important concept: Misinformation. We practiced how to spot it and distinguish between what is most likely to be true and what is most likely to be untrue. Through this, we also examined another important idea, Bias. As students gained more and more insight on each candidate, we conducted a mock "Primary Election" to choose two candidates for the General Election which is still upcoming!

As the work on our Mock Election was underway, students were also doing work to build an understanding of the actual election process. We learned about debates, primaries, caucuses and town halls. We used a .ppt to understand the various roles of the President and have been using a variety of resources to help us understand the complexities of the Electoral College. I have been super impressed by the curiosity students have brought to this work and the insightful questions they are asking. Their enthusiasm has been parlayed into a request to hold class elections here at MP3! This is an interesting proposal that Mrs. Siadal and I are still exploring but as a teacher, it is fun to see students take what they have learned and apply it to their own experiences. Awesome work, 6th graders!

Teacher Tip: See what your student knows about the electoral college. We have discussed which states get the most and least electoral votes and why.

Teacher Info: Let me know if you have any questions!

Jeff Caraco, jcaraco@meridian.wednet.edu