HOUSE 6D NEWSLETTER

OCTOBER 2022

WHAT A START!
Students have had an outstanding first
month of 6th grade! They have jumped into
new content and have begun to build a great
6D community. Be sure to ask your student
about The Big 3 they developed to ensure
everyone can be and do their best at school.

The ropes course last week was an awesome

experience and team building opportunity! Team
work can be a powerful tool for propelling
students, energizing community and cultivating
reasoning. We will be posting some snapshots of
the day on our house Instagram soon. Be sure to
fill out the digital media release.

CONGRATS TO OUR STUDENT

COUNCIL REPS!
BRYCE SOPHIA LEO
SAANVI COTTON RYAN

REMINDERS UPCOMING EVENTS

House 6D, Extra Help - after
OCT. 7TH
school on Thursdays
Professional Development
No School
Check our Weebly for updated
dates and homework OCT 10TH
HOUSE 6D - Home (weebly.com) Columbus Day - No
School
Check us out on Instagram
OCT. 20TH
and twitter @amshouse6d
Staff Meeting - No after
school activities
WISH LIST
OCT. 21ST
Tissues & More Tissues Warrior Walk
 ELA
CURRICULUM UPDATE
SEPTEMBER
Last month we launched our
Reader's and Writer's
workshops. The students
reviewed how to choose "just
right" texts, built their reading
stamina to be able to read
without interruption, and
practiced monitoring their
metacognition as they read.
We also launched our first unit
in our new "CommonLit"
curriculum; Characters who
Grow and Change. In this unit
we are reading nonfiction texts
and fictional short stories to
learn about how our
personalities change over
time. We practiced finding
evidence of characters growth
in our stories.
OCTOBER
This month we will be
continuing the unit and
reading the short story The
Scholarship Jacket as well as
watch a video from NBA star
Steph Curry as he explains
growth mindset and
neuroplasticity and how it
applied to his rise to success.
Our unit will culminate in the
writing of a literary analysis
essay. We will work on
breaking down a prompt for
meaning, planning a response,
and drafting an essay on our
own growth and the important
people in our lives that have
influenced us.
 SOCIAL STUDIES
CURRICULUM UPDATE
SEPTEMBER
Last month we have been
practicing the skills of social
scientists; historians,
archaeologists, and
paleontologists to be able to
study the prehistoric beings
that would become the first
humans. This has included
working with timelines that
go back hundreds of millions
of years and the dating
methods (BC/BCE and AD/CE)
used.
We also reviewed map skills
such as looking at different
types of thematic maps and
finding locations with
latitude and longitude
coordinates.
Most recently, we have
practiced making reasoned
judgements while analyzing
ancient artifacts.
OCTOBER
OCTOBER
This month we will use our
social scientists skills to go
back hundreds of millions
of years ago to look at the
earliest prehistoric
humans, or hominids, and
research what changes
occurred in the earth to
force these creatures to
adapt, how they grew and
changed over time, and
eventually became the
homo sapiens we are today.
We will then look at the
earliest modern humans
and see how they
developed the first
civilized settlements and
moved from hunter-
gatherers to farmers.
ELA & SOCIAL STUDIES
HIGHLIGHTS
 MATH
CURRICULUM UPDATE

SEPTEMBER OCTOBER

During the first few weeks of

Students began October
school we launched Math
reviewing GCF, LCM and Prime
Workshop. Students reviewed
Factorization. They took their
workshop norms and
first math quiz this Thursday.
procedures. They discussed the
Next week, we begin reviewing
power of a growth mindset and
fraction concepts. Mini-
that everyone can do math well!
Lessons will include fraction
They began working on their
representations, equivalent
first Menu (due Oct. 12th). This
fractions, and adding &
first menu includes "Must Do's"
subtracting fractions. From
and "May Do's" to practice
there, we will embark on all
Greatest Common Factor, Least
fraction operations. These
Common Multiple and Prime
skills will begin conceptually
Factorization. Mathematicians
and lead into appropriate
have worked in small groups,
algorithms.
with partners, and
independently completing MINKS & MATH
"Time to Tile" mats, QR Code HOMEWORK
Stations, Versatiles, math MINKS - Grade 6 students have
added to their Math Interactive
games, practice sheets and
Notebook. This is a valuable
more! Ask your student about
resource that will serve as a
working at the vertical reference tool throughout our units.
whiteboards to complete tasks. They can be used during classwork,
homework and most in-class
assessments.

Homework - Mathematicians will

have daily 5 math problems each
evening as well as a constructed
response. These are due on the last
day of the school week. We correct
them together in class
 SCIENCE
CURRICULUM UPDATE
SEPTEMBER
We began science this year by
completing our first STEM
challenge- designing Pumpkin
Chunkin catapults! Students
learned about the Engineering
Design process, researched
catapults, and worked as a
team to design and test their
catapult in a variety of Pumpkin
Chunkin events! There was a
class competition and many
innovative designs were
showcased.
After our STEM challenge we
began our astronomy unit.
Students are learning about the
size of the universe and what
makes up the universe. They
even learned how to write their
galactic address!
OCTOBER
Students continue to explore
our first astronomy guiding
principle. They can explain
that the universe is a vast
space broken into smaller
groups, such as galaxies, solar
systems, and star systems. This
month we will further study
rotation and revolution. We will
model this through moon
phases, in order to reason that
the interactions in space cause
predictable, repeated
phenomena. There will be many
hands on activities in the grade
6 science lab. Stay tuned!
SCIENCE
HOMEWORK
This "MOONTH" students will
complete a month long project.
This is the "My Moon Phases
Journal". In this month long - at
home- project students will
track the phases of the moon to
build their understanding of
the phases. We started this is
class, but students should have
this in their Homework folders
to complete each night.
Due Date: October 28th
MATH & SCIENCE
HIGHLIGHTS
 What our 6d Students
Want to Share
"A lot of my friends from last year are here. So me and my friends are together." - Riley

" It's be really fun making new friends and the work hasn't been too hard." - Jacob

" I really like Mr. Golder and Mrs. Williams there both really nice and come up with fun ideas they
help our house be a better place." - Aaron

"I think school is fun because the teachers are really nice and helpful." - Lucy

"I really like the stem pumpkin thing. I like building it with my team." - Olivia F.

"The first month of school was wonderful and the teachers are so kind." - Kayla

"It was great! and our class is the best !!!!" - Kat

"I say that the school year has been good so far." - Tyler

"We have Homework every week!" - Amelia

"I like school so far." - Michael A.

"I loveeeee jolly rancher wars, even though we haven't won yet. Still, I think all the team building
things and cool activities we do are pretty nice." - Karina
 What our 6d Students
Want to Share
"I like how we get extra recess when we turn in our homework, and I like jolly rancher
wars. I like 6th Grade so far." - Luke

" my first month of school was good i learned a lot and made new friends." - Ari

" 6th grade is the best." - Sam W.

"I have won a lot of games." - Josh

"The adults are nice, and I enjoyed the Pumkin chunkin." - Joe A.

"It's been so fun learning new things!" - Haylee

"Something about the first month of school is that my favorite special is Spanish and my
favorite subject is Math." - Bryce

"The first month of school has been fun and a little harder than last year." - Sarah

"My first month of school was good. I made a bunch of friends and worked hard.. " - Kiniya

"I like this school better than my last one because the food is a whole lot better and because
this school is a lot bigger than my last school.." - Pranay

" It has been going pretty well and I have made lots of new friends." - Nic
 What our 6d Students
Want to Share
"My first month of school was great we learned a lot in math and Ela, it was a lot of fun
the teachers made it a great month !" - Saanvi

" Art is my favorite - it is really fun!" - Sophia

" I think that the first month of school has been super fun and I feel that I have learned so much
more." - Sammy

"My favorite part of 6th grade so far was the ropes course because I got to work on team
building." - Lydia

"I love the teachers!" - Meabh

"The adults are nice and one thing I like about my first month of school is math workshop." -
Rhianna

"One thing I love in 6th grade is that I love the teachers there very nice and helpful and I like
extra recess." - Lilah

"I love Fridays because we get froyo and we go out side for extra if we do our home work." -
Brody