6th Grade Newsletter

IAR Testing Week of March 10th

Mar 30 – Apr 3 - 🌴 Spring Recess

April 8 - School Improvement Day – Early Dismissal

As we prepare for the upcoming Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR), we want to ensure a secure and distraction-free testing environment for all students.

Please be advised that all personal electronic devices—including cell phones, smartwatches, and both Bluetooth and wired headphones—must be turned in to the testing proctor before the session begins. This is a non-negotiable requirement to maintain testing integrity.

Students always have the option to leave these items at home if they prefer not to turn them in; however, no student may have a personal tech device on their person at any time during the assessment.

We appreciate your cooperation in helping our students stay focused and compliant with state testing regulations.

To ensure your student has the best possible testing experience, arriving on time and ready to go is essential. Testing sessions begin promptly at the start of the school day, and once a session has officially started, late arrivals cannot be admitted to the testing room to avoid disrupting the focus of other students. Please aim to have your child at school by 8 am so they have time to settle in, store their belongings, and transition into a "testing mindset" without feeling rushed.

A little bit of morning preparation goes a long way in reducing test anxiety and boosting performance. You can help your student be "IAR-Ready" by:

• Prioritizing Sleep: Ensure your student gets a full night’s rest (8–10 hours) the night before each testing day.

• Fueling Up: A healthy, protein-rich breakfast helps maintain focus and prevents the "mid-morning slump" during longer testing blocks.

• Setting the Tone: Keep the morning routine calm and encouraging. Remind them to simply do their best—we are already proud of their hard work!

• Checking the Tech: Remind them one last time about the no-tech policy before they head out the door so they aren't surprised when it's time to turn in their devices.

Students read “Everybody Jump!” by Randall Munroe, a humorous and thought-provoking essay that explores what might happen if everyone on Earth jumped at the same time.

Randall Munroe (b. 1984) is a physicist and former NASA computer programmer and roboticist. After leaving NASA, he became a popular webcomic artist and blogger, and in 2014, Munroe published a collection of writings and blog posts titled What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. True to the collection’s title, the excerpted essay explores what might happen if everyone on Earth jumped at the exact same moment. In answering this, Munroe contrasts human beings’ relative unimportance in the physical universe to our profound effects on one another.

As a class, we practiced generating deeper thinking questions using the AVID questioning strategy, Costa’s Levels of Questioning, which helps students move from basic recall to higher-level analysis and evaluation.

Throughout the week, students worked together to craft their own questions at each level. We concluded the week with a Fishbowl discussion, where students used their self-created questions to guide a collaborative conversation. During the discussion, students practiced active listening, building on one another’s ideas, and supporting their thinking with evidence from the text.

This activity helped students strengthen their critical thinking, questioning, and discussion skills while engaging with a creative nonfiction text.

We are beyond proud of our amazing 6th grade scholars who participated in and completed the February Reading Challenge! Students were challenged to read three books written by African American authors or featuring an African American main character across different genres.

A huge congratulations to the 25 sixth graders who rose to the challenge and earned the reward—celebrating their accomplishment with a “fancy gourmet donut” prize! 🍩📚

Way to go, Lions! We love seeing our students challenge themselves as readers and explore new stories and perspectives.

While March 14th is technically Pi Day, students spent our recent half day diving into the world of π (pi) through a variety of engaging activities. It was a fun-filled morning of exploring the relationship between the circumference and diameter of circular objects. Students measured different circular shapes and discovered how this relationship connects to the mathematical constant π—complete with a delicious MoonPie cookie to make the learning even sweeter!

Next, students worked through several Pi Day math puzzles, challenging their problem-solving skills and encouraging mathematical thinking in a playful way.

To wrap up the morning, creativity took center stage as students designed “sky-pi-line” art, combining math and artistic expression to create unique city skylines inspired by the digits of π.

It was a fantastic way to celebrate math through hands-on learning, collaboration, and creativity—and a great reminder to students that math is everywhere! 📐🥧

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