Team Almaty Week 7
Week 7: October 9
5 Tips for a 5 Minute Conference
- If you haven't already signed up, do so here: https://www.ptcfast.com/parent_registration1.php Please see the attached document for access codes for your student's teachers
- Arrive early! Especially if you are driving and need to park!
- If possible, bring your 6th grader with you!
- Please look at Aspen ahead of time and identify areas you wish to discuss.
- Be aware that we have to stick to the schedule so if you arrive late, we will have to move on to the next conference.
We look forward to seeing you and having a few minutes of face time with you all! Enjoy the long weekend and see you Tuesday!
Save the Date!
Mon. Oct. 12: NO SCHOOL, Indigenous Peoples' Day
Tues. Oct. 13: Parent Teacher Conferences (no regular school)
Thurs. Oct. 29: Last Day of Term 1
Fri. Oct. 30: NO SCHOOL, Grading day
In case you haven't yet seen it, students should be bringing their agendas & yellow homework folders home DAILY. Many/most of our 6th graders would benefit from a little 1:1 help going through those folders each week to prioritize what needs to be kept, completed & returned, or recycled.
Ms. Trenkle, Individuals & Societies, Team Lead
This past week in Geography students typed their Community Action Letter, addressed the envelope, and mailed it! Congratulations local activists! I am so, so proud of the Community Action Letters students turned in this week! Way to go! To wrap up the end of our first unit, students completed a Unit 1 Reflection posted in Canvas. There is no homework over the long weekend.
We will begin our new unit on Thursday: Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). Before we dive deep into SSA, we will learn about the 5 Themes of Geography (Friday and Wednesday), a lens we will use every unit to analyze and evaluate where we are in the world! Next week be sure to ask your student to sing the 5 Themes of Geography song! A definite ear worm! After the 5 Themes, we will complete a physical map and glossary and work on our political and thematic maps the rest of the week. We will use these maps to help us better understand the region, geographically. Students will have their map quiz on Friday, October 23 in class, using these maps and the vocabulary.
There will be no CEA next week due to the short week. (There is no CEA due on 10/16).
We have finally finished our giant map and started to post the amazing postcards we have received on our map! We have had a great time reading postcards sent to us by so many family, friends, and YOU! Thanks for sending us postcards and keep them coming!!!!
As a reminder, Aspen is updated regularly and papers returned to students once the grade is in Aspen. Students may always bring home papers to share their successes or struggles. Students who see a WS in Aspen should check that they have turned in the assignment and with a name on it. Students who find work in the No Name bin may put their name on it, turn it in to their period bin, and Aspen will be updated.
On Orientation Day students shared a song they would like to add to our class playlist. This Spotify playlist can be found here.
A final request—if you, or anyone you know is traveling, and can send a postcard to our class, or post a picture with description from their travels, it would be greatly appreciated! Please see the flyer below.
Amy Trenkle
Mr. Brown, Math
This week students in Accelerated Math 7 worked n angle relationships and the angle relationships within a triangle in Geometry, while continuing to review rigid transformations and multiplication, and division of decimals. In the upcoming week, students will work on analyzing and calculating angle relationships within a triangle and continue to review geometric relationships (dilation and congruence). This week students will work on angle relationships and the angle relationships within a triangle.
This week students in Accelerated Grade 6 worked on converting measurements from one unit to another using double number lines, tables, or unit rates and choosing a diagram to explain the reasoning. This week students will continue to use unit rates to determine whether two ratios are equivalent and compare speeds and prices using the same units in order to solve problems in real-world contexts. We also will continue to discuss multiplying and dividing by decimals. Homework is assigned weekly every Monday and due every Thursday by 11pm (regardless of holidays). Accompanying work should be submitted by Friday. Students will receive an accuracy per percentage grade for the assignment and will be penalized 10 points from their score.
Students are to pass one iReady Lesson per week where students will be given time during class and must complete by Monday morning. Students are permitted and encouraged to also work on iReady Lessons at home to ensure completion and success.
On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays students will have access to my classroom during recess for “iRecess” which is a safe space for students to quietly work on Math assignments.
(HW/Classwork/Studying) during their recess time. Students must retrieve a pass on their way to lunch with limited spaces available on a first come, first served basis. Students with chronic missing HW assignments may be required to attend “IRecess.”
Marcus Brown
marcus.brown@k12.dc.gov
Ms. Johnson, Science
Hello scientists!
This past week we explored how convection currents and differences in density cause plate motion and then were introduced to seismic waves from earthquakes! Next week students will build and test Earthquake-proof buildings out of marshmallows and toothpicks.
Donations: Thank you to everyone who donated marshmallows and toothpicks. I really appreciate your generosity.
Roots!
We will have our Roots Summative next week on Friday, October 16th. Since this is your student’s first Roots Summative, please ensure that they are thoroughly reviewing the roots beforehand and that they have completed their study guide. Their roots study guide is due Friday, Oct. 16th.
We use Blookets to help students review, and the Roots Summative is no exception! There are two links posted to Canvas – one is for students who have Blooket accounts and want to collect “Blooks” (little icons that you get for completing tasks), and the other is for students who do not have Blooket accounts. Both have the same capacity for reviewing, so please ensure that your student has found the one that works best for them!
Ms. Byrns, English Language Arts
So this week was a little TOO packed and we pushed the Unit 1 discussion to next week. Students did write literary analysis paragraphs that showed how the character change developed a theme in a text of their choosing (from our unit texts). Mr. Shufelt and I met with students in class to provide feedback and suggest changes before grading these paragraphs. Consequently, while they can show you their writing in Class Notebook, they may not have feedback typed into the document since we did that in person.
Students then took the second (and final) Unit Skills Assessment of Unit 1. Any student wanting to complete test revisions on the multiple choice portion of this test can come next Thursday at recess or during Advisory.
As a reminder, Term 1 book projects are due on Monday, October 19th. A few are starting to trickle in and it's great to see their creativity.
Katy Byrns
Library Corner
Meet Deal's librarian Mr. Reichlen! Learn about the great things happening this month at Deal's library. Check out great books and media, read about events at Deal and around the city, and stay connected with Deal's Library:
