NEWSLETTER FOR SIXTH GRADE

MARCH 2020

6th Grade F.A.M. day 2020 

(F.A.M. = Functional Applications of Math)

Friday, March 20th

We ALL use math every day!  

This year, we are going to give parents, family members, friends, and community members the opportunity to SHOW students the math we use every day.

The 6th grade math teachers are looking for volunteers to come in (for either a half day or whole day) and have conversations with students in small groups about the math you use everyday.  Math is everywhere! We’re looking for all walks of life to pique students’ interests and spark conversation. The stay-at-home Dad who figures out the budget, or how long the laundry detergent is going to last, or the best cable deal or lease for the car; the family musician; your plumber; the civil engineer; your neighbor who interned at WaWa; the waitress - or the restaurant manager - or the restaurant owner; the former Marine; your brother in law who is in logistics; the financial planner; the realtor;  your cousin who is an insurance adjuster; the accountant; the nurse; the architect; the Grandmama who worked for NASA...we want ‘em all! The broader the better!  

If you are interested in spending the day talking to 6th graders about math, fill out the google form using the link and Kelley Peck will be in touch soon with more details and logistics.  Please send the link along to anyone who uses math, ever, and wants to come in for a day of conversations.

What potential speakers need to know:

Be prepared to talk for about 10 minutes about how you use math.  Props/examples encouraged but not required - feel free to bring, show, or highlight some of the “tools” of your trade.  You will give your “talk” to start your discussion during up to five periods of the day, a couple of times each class period.  Each discussion will be with a small group of students, in the classroom, but not “presenting to the whole class.” The goal is to initiate and engage in conversations about math out in the “real world.”  

Here’s the link to express your interest!

https://forms.gle/q6cCs4qxDuHvbbd4A 

Social Studies   During the month of March, sixth grade students will continue their study of South Asia with an emphasis on India.  Students will investigate the physical geography of South Asia and will also be taking an in-depth look at the culture and recent history of the region.

Math   The Math 7 students have finished learning about statistics and data displays.  In this unit, the students used several methods of analyzing and displaying data to make inferences about the data.  Different methods of collecting information from samples to apply generalizations about populations were presented.  These students have now moved on to a geometry unit on angles and properties of parallel lines.

Math 6 students are wrapping up their study of the coordinate plane and graphing.  Next they’ll be working through two chapters on data displays and statistics, focusing on measures of central tendency.  They’ll eventually apply these as they learn how to calculate the MAD (Mean Absolute Deviation) and create Box-and-Whisker plots.

Pre-Algebra students are in the middle of a unit on central tendencies, data analysis and probability.  Students are making connections to real-world uses of these concepts along with complex situations dealing with dependent and independent events, permutations and combinations, and mutually exclusive events. 

Reading  Students will begin the study of informational texts this month, focusing on various pieces that exemplify different types such as biography, autobiography, narrative, humorous, descriptive, and expository.  The concept of responding to a piece of literature, rather than simply summarizing it, will also be reinforced during this unit.   

English    Student will be reading The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963, and will be working on argumentative essays.  The goal is to write a well-organized, multi-paragraph essay that states a claim and uses logical, research-based facts to support it.  Students will also include a counter-claim that addresses the dissenting view of their topic.  We will continue working in our Writer’s Notebooks.

Science     We have begun our third unit, From Bacteria to Plants.  Students are currently learning about bacteria and viruses. After researching different infectious diseases, students will design a wanted poster explaining all the symptoms. The second chapter will focus on the study of protist.

Music

Mrs. Gyza’s 6th grade music classes will be completing a project using Garageband on the iPad cart.  Students will select a poem and turn the words into song lyrics.  The students will create their own music using Live Loops for two verses a chorus and a bridge.  The students will then record the vocals to their own song.

Miss Daniel’s 6th grade music students are finishing their garage band projects in which they had to create music using Live Loops and record lyrics from a poem they selected. In the next month or two, students will be starting the ukulele unit. 

Mr. Seaton’s music classes recently completed a project using Garageband on our new iPad cart.  Students were tasked with selecting a classic poem and turning the words into song lyrics.  The students created their own music using Live Loops for two verses and a chorus to create a song that uses a ABAB form.  The students were then responsible for recording the vocals to their own song.

Miss Daniel’s 6^th grade music classes are completing their GarageBand projects. Students are learning how to listen to the beat of the music they’ve created and rap/sing/rhythmically speak their lyrics to the beat. Soon, we will begin the ukulele unit. Students will expand on what they learned last year by learning new, and more advanced, chords, songs, and techniques.

Humanities

Students in Mr. Seaton’s Humanities Music classes are currently studying the Baroque Period in western music history.  Most recently, the students viewed a BBC Documentary about the life of J.S. Bach.  With our new knowledge of his compositional techniques, the students are working in small groups to perform a 3-part spoken fugue.  We will soon be starting our iPad fugue project.

Art

6^th grade artists are completing a clay relief landscape sculpture inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night.  Students used slab, coil, score and slip techniques to recreate their own interpretation of this famous Post-Impressionist painting. Painted in June 1889, The Starry Night depicts the view from his room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an idealized village.

Physical Education

5^th, 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade students will participate in a team handball tournament this month. Students will be put on a team and play several rounds against teams from all classes.  This tournament will help students work on their team building, cooperation, strategy, and individual skills.

Health

6th grade students will begin learning about the nervous system.  Information learned will include: location and description of the various body parts associated with this system, types of neurons and their parts, parts of the brain, and the path of an impulse.

World Languages:

FLEX-6 Spanish

In 6^th grade Spanish, we are finishing up our unit on body parts and what hurts. Ask your student to show you his/her project about ¿Qué te duele?

FLEX-6 French

6^th grade French students are finishing a unit on body parts.  They will now begin a unit on family vocabulary and adjectives so they will be able to describe themselves and their families.