Grade 6

At the beginning of the month, Grade 6 kicked off our February Focus of the Month: Love Ourselves, Love Others, Love Our School and Love Our Community! We began with a whole grade presentation about being a "Bucket Filler, Not a Bucket Dipper," which encourages students to build each other up with kind words and actions. We closed out the presentation with a very competitive game of Blooket! Students then decorated their "Bucket Bags" which have been collecting "Shout Out Slips" their classmates have written to them. (A more sophisticated take on Valentine's Day cards.) It has definitely increased the energy and excitement in 6th grade! On Friday, February 13, before vacation, students will be able to empty their "Bucket Bags" and read their "Shout Out Slips." It is one of our favorite activities of the year!

In Science, we’ve been learning about the Metric System and how to convert between different units. This has given students some great hands on practice measuring length, mass, and volume. From using rulers, triple beam balances, and volumetric flasks students have been getting practice measuring and recording all of these values. We'll continue to work on these skills leading up to February Vacation and when we return we'll be jumping into a new unit of Plant Sciences.

Grade 6 students are in the midst of wrapping up Unit 4 working with ratios, equivalent ratios, and real-world problems consisting of ratios. Students explored writing and comparing ratios using concrete, pictorial, and abstract strategies. They used many types of manipulatives and bar models to represent what they learned throughout the unit. They extended concepts learned with fractions to solve many types or ratio problems.

After winter break students will continue with fractions and extend that with decimals and percentages. Students will add, subtract, multiply and divide decimals and percentages and apply that to real world situations.

As always students continue to revisit past lessons and concepts to continue to build on the skills learned from previous units and grades.

In ELA, we wrapped up our poetry unit and had fun exploring different types of poems and playing with language. Students are sharpening their summarizing skills by pulling out the most important details and main ideas from what they read. We’re also preparing to kick off book clubs with I Survived books, while students continue choosing their own independent reading books that spark their interest and keep them motivated to read!

We are currently working on the five major informational text structures in preparation for our upcoming unit on Ancient Egypt when we return from February break. These text structures include cause and effect, problem and solution, description, compare and contrast, and chronological order. Students are learning how to identify each structure, recognize key signal words, and understand how authors organize information to communicate ideas clearly. This work will help strengthen reading comprehension and writing skills, and it will support students as they read nonfiction texts and share their learning during our Ancient Egypt unit.