January Newsletter

House 6D
As we begin the new calendar year, we remain thankful for the continuous amount of
productive, meaningful learning as well as growth as a community in House 6D! Thank
you to you and your families for all your support.
December was action packed! We really enjoyed Spirit Days before break and a super
fun new tradition of a "Door Decorating Contest"
With the start of 2023, comes the close of Term 2 on January 27th. As things start to
wind down over the next two weeks, we will be updating PowerSchool, so grades will/can
still change. But as we near the end of the Term, we ask you to log into PowerSchool
with your students to see what work is missing. We are accepting work up until
Tuesday, January 31st. We are not alerted when/if a student hands in work late, so
please have them send us an email or Teams chat so we can check that it has come in
and update PowerSchool accordingly.

UPCOMING DATES GOALS & EXPECTATIONS

January 16th We were excited to come back after break
No School - MLK Jr. Day and begin 2023 together! In spirit of the

new year, Students wrote New Years Goals
January 18th (with a pun on math operations), set &
PAC Meeting 7:00 PM reset expectations and procedures to recall

our "Big 3", as well as played "Charades" to
January 19th act out classroom routines. Ask your child
Staff Meeting - No After School their favorite part of these activities.
Activities/No late buses

January 19th
Grade 6 Band/Chorus/Orchestra and Jazz
Band Concert 6:30 PM

January 20th
Percent Quiz

January 27th
Term 2 Ends

 ELA
Highlights

CURRENTLY LEARNING COMING UP!

We have been continuing to As we continue to move
work through the class novel through Refugee, we will
Refugee. While tracking story focus in on identifying and
elements such as plot, discussing the major themes
character development, and of the novel. We will then
theme, we have also been extend the story of one of
focusing on author's craft or the characters by drafting a
"reading with an author's narrative chapter of what we
eye." This means we have believe would come next in the
been analyzing how authors novel. We will culminate our
develop characters, setting, work in Refugee with an in
and important objects class assessment on the
through descriptive detail. We story's characters, plot, and
have then been applying these theme.
skills to our own narrative

writing by drafting
descriptive questions and
answers that will help us to
visualize these story critical
elements and describe them in
our writing.

 Math
Highlights
CURRENTLY LEARNING COMING UP!
Students put their Ratio Tool Kit to use Students will continue to learn and
and totally knocked the Ratio and Rates practice strategies to solve real world
Assessment out of the park! I was so percent problems. These will include tape
impressed with their work ethic and the diagrams, double number lines and bar
responsibility they took when they showed models. Later this week, we will connect
off all that they learned. Our House 6D our knowledge of equivalent ratios and
average for the assessment was an 89%! Be scaling to percent when students are
sure to celebrate all of your child's hard introduced to the percent proportion. All
work! of these strategies learned during mini
This week, we began our percent unit. lessons will be practiced throughout math
Students completed inquiry activities to workshop, in small groups, with partners
learn what a percent is and how to use and playing games listed on math menus.
ratios to find the percent of a number.

They also started to learn various

strategies to find the percent of a number,
including making a bar model and using
mental math. We discussed how finding 10%
of a number can help us easily find other
percents. A big point of conversation has
been all about tipping in a restaurant. Ask
your child how they can use percents to
calculate tips.

HOMEWORK AND OTHER DUE DATES
Our students
continue to be very responsible with math homework. Math homework
is the Daily 5 where students are expected to complete five nightly problems. I
encourage students to bring home their "MINK" to use as a resource. This nightly
work is designed to be purposeful and productive practice. Please reach out with any
homework concerns. Below are some upcoming due dates and math assessment
dates.
Friday, January 20th - Percent Quiz
Wednesday, January 25th - Percent Workshop Menu Due

 SCIENCE
Highlights

CURRENTLY LEARNING COMING UP!

Stratigraphy sandwich anyone? Next, students will learn about Fossil
In this fun lab activity, conducted before Records, Evolutionary History, and explore
break, students used a sandwich model, to evidence to support sea floor spreading
determine the relative ages of different and drifting continental plates. Students
“rock layers” and experimented with will complete stations to practice analyzing
“folding” and “faulting”. While students the fossil record and how it can help us
enjoyed making their rock strata learn about organisms' behaviors and
(sandwich) - there were some mixed environments. We will continue to focus on
reviews when they had the option to eat the "Habits of Mind of a Good Scientist".
(weather and erode) the rock layers. :) All scientists have a few things in
Students are also learning about the common: they all possess similar qualities,
Geologic History of Earth and looked at a characteristics, and values that make
5-meter roll of receipt tape, turned into a them successful. There are so many
Geologic Time Scale. It is so incredible to different types of scientists, and their
see 4.6 billion years stretched over 5 jobs vary, but their habits and qualities are
meters, and to realize how small of amount similar.
of time humans have lived on Earth! Ask Students are reminded that they are
your child to describe how long the scientists this year and will use a rubric to
Precambrian period stretched on the Time rate themselves according to these Habits
Scale. While use these time markings, of Mind.
students are learning about index fossils,
how to identify them, and why index fossils
are important for geologists.

 Social Studies
Highlights

We have culminated our

conflicts and economic

units on the Paleolithic and

developments, and areas

Neolithic Eras - the comic

of tourism to develop a

books came out great! Trans-Continental

We have since launched

Railroad project to

our African geography

highlight 13-18 nations of

unit. We will be learning

Africa that we think

about the various physical

would best support a

features of Africa and

railway system. Students

creating our own detailed

will write persuasive

maps of the continent.

descriptions explaining

We will then research

their choices and the push

population patterns,
and pull factors each

natural hazards, current location presents.

Social Studies
Neolithic Comic Books
 LOOKING BACK
Term 2
WHAT OUR 6D STUDENTS WANT TO SHARE ABOUT THE MONTHS OF NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER

I enjoyed the fraction part and the social studies hominid activity. - Kayla

An activity that I enjoyed was ratios. - Ahriya

In science I liked when we did the ping-pong ball drop and in social studies I liked when we
had to pose for tableaus. - Michael A.

I enjoyed doing the ratios unit. It was challenging, but it was good. - Karina D.

I like learning about percents and fractions. - Julia

I liked learning about equivalent ratios and just ratios in general. - Lucy

I really liked trivia. - Aaron

Before break I liked ratios and coordinates - Tyler

I have enjoyed learning about homo habilis and other math activities. - Lilah

I liked learning about hominids. - Cotton

I enjoyed learning about hominids. - Brody

I liked learning about ratios and our Paleolithic and Neolithic ages. - Olivia F.

I liked like the STEM activity and the hominids - Michael H.

The one I like the best was learning about hominids - Leo

I liked multiplying and dividing fractions - Olivia D.

one thing that I liked learning was adding fractions - Ari

I enjoyed ratios. - Aboubacar

I liked learning ratios - Justin

I liked doing the homo habilis tableau and dividing and multiplying - Ethan

 LOOKING BACK
Term 2
WHAT OUR 6D STUDENTS WANT TO SHARE ABOUT THE MONTHS OF NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER

I enjoyed learning about ratios and doing the paleolithic comic book. - Pranay

I liked learning about early hominids - JJ

I enjoyed learning Ratio Unit rates, Early Hominids, and Index Fossils. - Sindhuja

I enjoyed ratios - Josh

I enjoyed learning about fractions and ratios - Sammy

I liked learning about hominids. - Kit

badminton in gym, and AM meeting. - Sarah

I enjoyed learning about unit rates. - Joe A

I really liked our Hominids unit because I enjoyed learning about early humans. - Raven

I remembered doing ratios and fractions - Kat

I liked learning about hominids. - Nic

I liked Ratios because I've used ratios before. - Riley

Ratios and starting refugee - Max

The winter packet before break - Haylee

One thing that I enjoyed learning about was LCM and GCF. - Saanvi

One thing I liked learning about before break was Hominids. - Bryce
I liked doing the ratios and the hominids tableau. - Jacob

Fun Friday and math. - Sam W

One activity I enjoyed was comparing ratios around the room cards. - Lydia