With another full week in the books and Labor Day weekend fast approaching, it amazes me how quickly the beginning of school has gone so far! With a new schedule, new off campus adventures and new cross curricular projects, these middle schoolers are adapting and thriving to all the wonderful things going on here. It is amazing to see first hand just how well everyone is doing and how hard they are working on being the best they can be. Though I am looking forward to enjoying the long weekend (as I am sure many of you are!) I cannot help but express my excitement for this school year, because if it is anything like the start we have had, this is going to be one special year!
-KH
Upcoming Dates:
- Off Campus: Sixth – Wednesday, Sept 2nd
- Labor Day (No School) – Monday, September 7
- Cooper Cluster Lunch – Wednesday, September 9th
- Middle School Curriculum Night – Wednesday, September 9th 5:30pm-6:30pm
ELA: This week in 6th grade ELA, we continued Boy by Roald Dahl, and developed our annotation skills further. We completed an intensive review of figurative language, working to not just annotate examples of it in our novels but also slip in sticky notes where we might write down ideas about the meaning behind the figurative language. Readers also considered Dahl’s point of view on leadership and adult influence as we enjoyed his whimsical childhood stories. On Friday, 6th grade was tested for vocabulary. Be sure to check out their grade in their take home folders next week. Test corrections can be made on all ELA tests that are below a 90 for partial credit back by the following Wednesday!
Next week, readers will near the end of Boy as we mark it up for new literary elements like tone, word choice, and dialect. We will also begin our first grammar unit of the year with a test planned for 9/11.
Science: This week in Science, 6th graders explored air and air pressure through hands-on investigation. Students clamped off syringes and attempted to move the plungers, discovering firsthand how air particles create resistance when they are compressed. They even created mini rockets powered by air pressure! Students also learned about the different layers of Earth’s atmosphere and compared the conditions found at each level.
Next week, students will review what they have learned so far and take a quiz on Thursday, September 3rd. We have reviewed a study guide together to help students prepare. Students will also begin investigating how differences in air pressure affect weather and how scientists can use pressure patterns to predict wind.
Social Studies: Sixth grade has been working hard on the rise of civilization and their introduction to the Mesopotamian society. They have learned about how we start to develop society and jobs, as well as new inventions and technologies as. With that they have begun their first project in which they will design their own city state. This was an important step in human development and they are putting their own spin on the concept. We will finish this week and will be displaying them at curriculum night.
Math: This week in math, 6th graders created and practiced the formula for finding the area of a triangle. We created it by taking a triangle, making a copy, and connecting them to make a parallelogram and recognizing that the area of a triangle is half of that parallelogram. We used a lot of decomposing and rearranging as a strategy to help us do this! Next week, they’ll take their first assessment of the year on Wednesday. It will assess their understanding of the area of square, rectangles, parallelograms, and other trapezoids, along with different triangles. They received a study guide this week, which we’ll review on Tuesday!
