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

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

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

 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