Mr. Kohler's Classroom News
December 5, 2014
Important Dates and Upcoming Events
Dec. 8-12 Santa's Workshop (our class shopping day is Monday, Dec. 8)
Dec. 19 Holiday Party @ approximately 12:30, with book exchange
Dec. 19 Frankenmuth Carnival for students who sold more than 7 items
Dec. 19 November Reading Incentive Activity for students who moved up a rank
Dec. 22-Jan. 2 Winter Break, Return to school on Jan. 5
Reading
6th Grade--We are just finishing up with The Great Gilly Hopkins. The students are having a great time reading this book. There have been several days that I have had to ask them to keep the laughing a little quieter, as they were reading. As the students read through the book they have comprehension activities to complete (these can be seen on the website). Just a reminder that your child needs 16 AR points for the second marking period. You should have seen, on their progress report, where they are currently at with this goal.
Social Studies
Next, the students will begin to learn about the European explorers that came to the Americas. Some of the main explorers we will learn about are: Columbus, Coronado, Cortes, De Balboa, Pizarro, De Soto, Ponce De Leon, and Magellan.
6th Grade--We have been focusing on Geography for the past several weeks. We have looked at the Earth's Physical Geography, Human Impact on Geography, Cultures of the World, and How We Interact With Our Environment. The past couple of days we have been looking at physical maps, and the students are currently creating their own physical maps. This is something that is fairly new, since most maps they have done in the past were probably political maps.
Next, we will begin to focus on the Geography and Cultures of both the United States and Canada.
Math
6th Grade--They have been working on basic algebra formulas and balancing equations. This skill is not the easiest for kids to pick up on, but I have been very happy with the progress they have made so far. We have been working on solving problems with either one or two variables, or creating equations/formulas for problems using variables.
Both Grades will be moving to fractions next.
Science
In 5th grade science, we’ve been working on cells and the human body. We did several activities to reinforce the concepts and organelles, and we took a quiz on the parts of a cell. We then started the human body by studying the skeletal system and will move onto the muscular system next.
In 6th grade we have started our unit called Forces and Motion. We talked about terms like motion, variables, point of reference, and learned how to calculate speed. We did several activities to test the students’ hypothesis on which variables affect speed and built ramps to find out the speed of marbles. We will be talking about balanced/unbalanced forces and the different types of friction next week.
Writing
We have also been working on writing short constructive response answers to a reading passage. This is something that the students need to be able to do for the spring assessment, but it also helps them to go back to a story and find the important details that support and answer the question.
Holiday Book Exchange
Christmas Program
Dancers need to be here at 6:00.