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: i-ready diagnostic and Factors and Multiples

Activities: Other than doing our best on the i-ready diagnostic, we have started our first unit on factors and multiples. So far, students have worked on finding factors for a single number, finding the greatest common factor (GCF) of multiple numbers, and finding the least common multiple (LCM) of multiple numbers. Next, we will be using the GCF to practice factoring as a strategy to add and subtract and using the LCM to reduce fractions and find common denominators. Our unit will extend into next month with fractions.

Teacher Tip: Give students a couple of numbers and ask them to find the GCF or LCM of both numbers.

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

Topics: About Me writing, acrostic poetry, journaling, Book Project introduction, Fall Haiku, iReady testing

Activities: Language Arts is off to a great start! We spent our first day talking about classroom routines - emphasizing our overarching goals for the year to BE BRAVE and BE KIND. We did a fun movement activity to demonstrate both goals with 100% participation! Our first writing project was called About Me. This was a fun way to share about ourselves and learn more about our classmates.. Next we created acrostic poems with our names as the focus word and made class banners to adorn the room. Two days were spent on the iReady diagnostic test. Students worked hard and now their future iReady lessons will target the skills they need to learn. Journaling and group discussions play an important role in our writing practice and group engagement - and both are successfully underway. Book projects were introduced and students are excited about creatively sharing what they are reading at home. We then worked on Haiku poetry about fall and focused on using descriptive words that create vivid imagery for the reader.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

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

Topics: Discover that a mixture is a combination of two or more materials that retain their own properties, a solution is a mixture in which one material seems to disappear into another. A crystal is the solid phase of a material that forms in an identifiable shape or pattern. When a solid dissolves in a liquid, the solid seems to disappear but can be observed again once the liquid evaporates. Evaporation can separate a liquid from a solid in a solution, and liquids evaporate (they change into a gas and disperse into the air).

Activities: Students made mixtures and solutions with different solid materials and water. They separated mixtures and solutions using screens, filters, and evaporation. They measured solids and liquids. Students compared the mass of a mixture to the mass of its parts. Students discovered that when they added salt to a solution it appeared to disappear, but through evaporation were able to see the salt again. They were also able to observe that once the salt molecule had been separated by water it reformed in a crystal or lattice formation which they were able to observe with their eyes and under a microscope.

Vocabulary: property, mixture, solution, and dissolving.

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

Topics: Class routine, getting to know each other, growth mindset

Activities: We are off to a great start in Robotics, Engineering and Design. We spent our first few days of class getting to know each other a bit and brainstorming goals and expectations for a successful year as Engineers. Innovators and Problem Solvers.

Challenge Project- Cups and Sticks- Student teams were challenged to build the tallest tower using only fifty cups and fifty large craft sticks. Constraints: Limited to using only the provided materials (No glue, tape, or staples). You cannot alter (cut, break, pierce...) materials. Cups cannot touch. Sticks can touch both sticks and cups. Towers were measured by counting the levels of cups. Students recorded the height of their towers as they continue to adjust their design to increase the height of their towers.

Challenge Project: Roller Coaster-STEM projects provide hands-on experimental learning. Curiosity is piqued and students investigate many workable solutions using critical thinking skills and explore by manipulating materials to solve a problem. The roller coaster challenge is a multiple day activity. Task 1: Students worked to answer the question; “How does the height of the first hill affect the success of a roller coaster? Working with a partner, Students design and build a roller coaster, using foam tubes as the track, tape, and a marble as the passenger car, to test different hill height combinations. Students learned that a marble traveling a roller coaster where the second hill height is more than the first hill, does not have enough potential energy to traverse the second hill. Student teams will continue to explore physics concepts of roller coaster design and engineering.

Teacher Tip: Robotics, Engineering and Design topics and activities can be included in your Independent Science class monthly reviews.

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

Topics: Voting Rights, Amendments, Electoral Process, Cast Your Vote!

Activities: We are truly off to a great start in our 6th grade Civics class, We The Kids. For most of the students in this class, they are building on the great work we started last school year and in this important election year, we have kicked things off by exploring voting rights. We used a couple of great .ppt resources from iCivics to guide us as we explored the history of voting rights in the US and examined who gets to vote. Part of this examination was why and how certain groups have been prevented from voting in the past. We learned about poll taxes, a strange "Grandfather Clause" and a literacy test that was used to prevent some people from exercising their Constitutional right to vote. After reviewing amendments that expanded voting rights, we continued our investigation of the electoral process. We used the fictional town of "Isley" to learn about demographics and important issues faced by the community. Through a fun and educational online simulation, students learned how to stay informed about candidates running for office in Isley. We were able to evaluate information and arguments from various sources to identify the different stands taken by candidates on important community issues. Students were also able to compare perspectives and prioritize issues according to personal views.

As students played the game Cast Your Vote!, they recorded notes on the different candidates and responded to a variety of questions to check their understanding.

Our conversations around the work have been super fun and students seem genuinely curious about how this process works. Further, students have begun to ask about starting a student government which is an interesting idea that we might explore further. I am excited to continue our work as we explore more questions around voting, government and community engagement.

Teacher Tip: Topics and work we do are shared in Google Classroom. Feel free to ask your student for a peek at what we have done so far.

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

Mr. Caraco, jcaraco@meridian.wednet.edu