Team Almaty Week 2
Week 2: September 4
Save the Date!
Mon. Sept. 7: Labor Day, No School
Tues. Sept 8 & Wed. Sept 9: 6th Grade Family Workshops (6:30-8pm)
Wed. Sept 16: Back to School Night (6pm)
Sat. Oct. 3: 6th Grade BBQ (11am-1pm)
Find a Tote
While students will leave their backpacks in their lockers during the day, they can use a simple canvas tote bag or a string cinch bag to carry their computers, agendas, and other materials between classes.
Ms. Trenkle, Individuals & Societies, Team Lead
We are off and running in Geography! This week students set up their Geography Binders, took their Oceans and Continents Quiz (and received their score back), set up and logged into their Aspen account, and helped to make our giant world map for the classroom!! Phew! We have been busy!
Binders: For Geography, we set them up together and all students will leave their binder in the classroom on their class period shelf. Students may take any papers from their binder at any time and put them in their yellow folder to take home, to share with parents/guardians, or to study.
First Quiz: Our class averages were outstanding for our first quiz of the year on the oceans and continents. All quiz scores were have been entered into Aspen and shared with students. Students who earned an 8 or below (66%) may retake their quiz on Tuesday and will do so during class. Please note, moving forward, map quizzes aren’t retaken.
Giant World Map: Geography class wouldn’t be complete without a world map! Students are helping to create our world map. We will use it as a resource for our class and to share postcards sent to us! Ask your student which tile they made for our map and what three facts they included for their specific map tile! New this year!: We will also be adding a map of the US to our giant map wall! Stay tuned!
Aspen: All students set up their Aspen account in Geography class on Friday. Aspen is where students (and parents) can access grades and receive academic feedback. All students logged into their Aspen accounts. The log in information was taped to the inside of the student agenda so that they can access the website and login information at any time. Please have your student show you and practice logging in!
Next week we will dive into our Geography curriculum with vocabulary and map skills, particularly the use of cardinal directions, using a legend, scale, and longitude and latitude. They will have a formative next week on vocabulary. Students will work on the skills on paper copies in class and can take them home to study and practice
On Orientation Day students shared a song they would like to add to our class playlist. This Spotify playlist can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3esQkInfhlZoxvn59nqBMI?si=3l97B6cHQ26PFeEzp76Prg
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 completed the BOY Assessment. The results and data from this assessment will be reviewed in the coming week to determine whether students will take Accelerated Grade 6 or Accelerated Grade 7 Mathematics based on the attached Deal Math Acceleration Policy. Reports from the assessment will be available to parents upon entire school completion of the assessment at parent’s request. Students assigned to Grade 7 Mathematics will receive an adjusted schedule if necessary. This week we also discussed multiplying and dividing decimals by whole numbers and decimals.
Homework is assigned weekly every Monday, and due every Thursday by 11pm. Accompanying work should be submitted every Friday. Students will receive a completion grade for accompanying work and an accuracy per percentage grade for the assignment.
This coming week students will continue to discuss multiply and dividing by decimals while also discussing ratios and related content. Student will also begin completing Weekly Passed iReady Lessons where students will be given time during class to complete and pass one iReady lesson per week 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.
Marcus Brown
marcus.brown@k12.dc.gov
Ms. Johnson, Science
This week, students practiced classroom procedures and wrote a letter to their teacher describing their first week of class. Through this activity, students learned how to use a rubric for assessment and feedback using Criterion D.
Next week, we will begin Unit 0: Nature of Science. After taking a pre-assessment on Tuesday, students will start learning about scientific practices and the scientific method, with a focus on making observations and exploring what it means to be a scientist.
Later in the week, students will learn about independent variables, dependent variables, and controlled variables. They will also participate in an engaging Mystery Envelope activity. During this investigation, students will use their observation skills to infer the contents of sealed envelopes, providing an interactive and hands-on learning experience.
We are looking forward to an exciting week of scientific discovery!
Roots for this week:
Sci = to know (science, unconscious)
Pre = before (prekindergarten, prepare)
Post = after (postgraduate, postgame, postpone)
Script = to write (description, postscript)
-ic = like, of (scientific, terrific, dramatic)
Keepers (words from last week that will be on this week’s quiz): uni, bi, tri
Ms. Byrns, English Language Arts
Hello 6th Grade Families,
THANK YOU for sending in classroom supplies. I hesitate to say this, but we might actually have enough pencils for the year (this would be the first time ever)! Again, thank you!
With all of our supplies, we were able to get students organized with writing notebooks and organized binders (feel free to check out at Back to School Night). This week we also introduced our Unit 1 Vocabulary, read a short article about the “Big 5” personality traits, and read our first short story of the unit, “Home.” Most students are doing a good job of bringing their independent reading books to class each day (though 5th & 6th periods could use a little work on this!). As a reminder, students are welcome to check out books from our classroom library as soon as they return their previously checked out books.
Next Tuesday & Wednesday, students will complete the MAP Growth Reading Assessment. Unlike the iReady Math test, their ELA class will not change based on these results. This should be a low stress event! During our normal class time, we will have a discussion about “Home” and write literary response paragraphs with Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER).
At home you can ask your child about which of the “Big 5” Personality Traits are strongest in the members of your family.
The Big Five Personality Traits:
Openness to new experience
Conscientiousness
Extroversion
Agreeableness
Emotional stability (😉 )
Finally, if you are planning to come to one of the 6th grade information nights next week, Mr. Shuflet and I will be presenting on Tuesday. The focus will be on how to encourage your child to read!
Katy Byrns
ELA 6 Resouce with Mr. Shufelt
This week we learned how to use context clues in images and example sentences to predict the meaning of unknown vocabulary words. We read our first text, "Do People Really Change?" which introduced us to the theme of Unit One. We also began learning how to break down a writing prompt. Next week we will finish practicing breaking down a prompt and move on to our next short story, "The Scholarship Jacket." Next week we will also set up our binders, which will stay in the classroom along with the composition notebooks for easy access throughout the year.
The Canvas page for this class is now active, and students can find copies of the weekly readings as well as the previous weekly slide decks.
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:
