Grade 6 Update | May 2019

Grade 6 Update | May 2019
Posted on 05/02/2019
Science
We finished up Earth’s story by doing a gallery walk of Cambridge and the New England Geological Timeline. Some students made a geological timeline game, and some made a powerpoint presentation. Students shined by selecting the best geological timeline of Cambridge/New England. Students also persevered in their research of examining how Fresh Pond was created and researching metamorphic rocks in New England. Our students will then focus on “Systems” and the questions: What is a system? What does a system look like? The main phenomenon will focus on transportation systems.

ELA
We are working on making real-life connections to the texts we read! Currently, we are finding a theme to our texts. The purpose of identifying a theme is to help students make personal connections to characters and to stories before they start writing. We are also reminding each other about the differences between central idea and theme in texts. Central idea is the "center" or heart of the story. It answers the question, "What is the text about?" Theme carries a life lesson that the reader can identify with. It is important to make this distinction so that students are clear about what the author's intent of the text is.

Math
Students are working on writing and solving algebraic equations that represent real world scenarios. Students are learning to use variables to represent unknown amounts and then to solve for those unknowns using inverse operations. This skill is the foundation for the work students will do in 7th and 8th grade math when they write, solve, and graph linear equations. In addition, core 4 earned their paperclip pizza party recently. We also have students shining by showing their work to the class on the document camera and shouting each other out for their courage. Students also participated in a statistics boot camp and had the opportunity to create dot plots and histograms to represent class data for spinning a spinner or rolling dice. What’s more, we’re focusing on ownership and passion for academic excellence this month. Students are encouraged and celebrated for revising work so that it reflects their full capabilities. Students are also using exit tickets to see if they understand the days’ lesson, and then working in small groups with a teacher to fill any gaps.

Social Studies
Students have started to explore our unit 4 topic, ancient Egypt. Thus far, students have learned about the mummification process and virtually took part in mummifying a body. They have also begun the explore the environmental factors that affected human settlements and overall social structures that existed in ancient Egypt. Students will work on their final DBQ of the year during the unit by attempting to answer the question, “How did the Nile River shape the lives of the people in ancient Egypt?”

Special Education
MCAS test-taking strategies have been a priority for all students this month. Math and ELA Bootcamps have us running on all cylinders. We are preparing for success every day and have the strategies to prove it! Many students are working on their academic skills before and/or after school. Academic help is offered before school at 8am every Tues., Wed., and Thurs. in Room 1205 with Mr O’Brien & Ms.Babatunde. In addition, students have done an outstanding job with their portfolio reflections and artifact collection. Portfolio exhibits our Putnam Ave. values and spotlights the great job our scholars are doing.

Chinese Immersion
Last month, we learned to identify how physical settings contributed to the development of city-states in Mesopotamia and the features of a Sumerian city. At present, we are taking further steps to analyze artifacts from ancient Sumer and explain how they are examples of the various characteristics of civilization. After this chapter, we will explore the idea of justice by analyzing and discussing Hammurabi’s code.
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