We are in the flow, being productive, and feeling groovy. This honeymoon is over folks. Routines are established, now just being practiced, soon to be muscle memory. Introductory lessons are over and the curriculum is on the minds of students and teachers. Having a fresh mind that was able to rest and recover from mental fatigue over the summer provides the perfect platform for these first few weeks of school to be super productive, once we feel that flowy groove that we remember from last school year.
This second week of school, we have watched students excited to be presented with new material, challenging themselves, and pumped to start new projects. The momentum will ebb and flow, but we are definitely taking advantage of this time and getting STUFF done!
~LD
Math:
Last week, we began with using tiles to understand shapes and their areas before moving into the deconstruction and rearranging of shapes to find their areas – particularly with parallelograms! Next week, we’ll create formulas for the area of different shapes before building on this knowledge to find the surface area of different three-dimensional shapes.
ELA:
6th grade readers cracked open Roald Dahl’s, Boy, this week, and we are already furiously annotating the fascinating life and language of Roald Dahl. We learned the many ways in which a reader could annotate together as we read the short story “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros, then transferred these skills to Boy. Please remind your student to keep up with the comprehension question packet in their blue take-home folder, as it will be an integral part of class and homework these next 3 weeks. In Civil Discourse, 6th graders learned how to “forget about winning” when entering an argument by practicing intellectual humility and vulnerability.
Next week, readers will consider the dialect and figurative language used in Boy while moving through their comprehension questions. In Civil Discourse, arguers will find ways to self-identify to remind one another of their own humanity. We will then enter into some lower stakes discussions to practice our collaborative arguing skills.
Social Studies:
We are off to a great start in sixth grade social studies! We began by reviewing last year and have moved into our first unit of study which is ancient civilizations. We have worked on our first project in which students had to create their own ancient city which involved a plan, defenses and all the needs the people of their city would need. Going into next week we will begin Mesopotamia and the study of the fertile crescent.
Science:
Sixth graders contemplated the difference between a fact, theory, law, and hypothesis this week. They started to consider the difference between weather and climate and made their own news show. Sixth graders also designed insulated shipping containers that could transport a wooly mammoth (ice cube), which will segway into our climate change unit. Next week, they will learn about layers of the atmosphere and air compression.
Important Dates:
September 2nd – Labor Day
September 4th – MS Curriculum Night (5:30pm)
September 7th – Family Fun Night @ The Charleston Battery
