Sixth Grade
Curriculum Update :: January, 2014
Art
Community Service
English
Health
In 6th grade health our peer pressure unit leads right into our drug and alcohol speaker and our continued discussions on responsible decision making. The class then turns the focus to the various systems of the body including the nervous system, skeletal system, circulatory system, respiratory system and reproductive system as well as the human anatomy of males and females.
Latin
Math
Music
P.E.
In Upper School PE we will continue to develop our physical fitness and work on muscular strength with a focus on core. PE continues with our basketball unit, as students will participate in a 3 on 3 basketball tournament. Each student was placed on a team based on skill level and teams will compete against the other teams in the class, standings will be kept as well as playoffs and a championship game. We will also begin to focus on jump rope in class as we prepare for the 3rd annual Jump Rope for Heart event in February.
Science
Sixth grade, after researching bridges, will conclude the structural engineering unit by making a Popsicle stick bridge that spans a 20 cm chasm. Once constructed, the bridge will be put to a “strength” test where weight will be added to the center portion of the bridge. Students will be graded on their work ethic and ingenuity in planning and constructing the bridge as well as how much weight it can carry. After this unit concludes, students will begin the study of earth sciences.
Social Studies
In January the sixth grade social studies students will conclude their World Religions Unit with the study of Hinduism and Buddhism. We will take our first field trip to New York City to explore a variety of religious institutions. After completing our World Religions Unit we will begin our study of human rights. We will continue to hone our primary source reading skills by using annotation, summarization, and paraphrasing. We will also use more contemporary primary sources to understand how human rights are addressed in the modern world. We will continue to work on our social science writing skills by using primary source quotes, strong topic sentences, and analysis.
Spanish
Sixth grade Spanish students will continue to acquire language by studying adverbs of location and the verb ESTAR to describe where an object or someone is. Students are presently practicing how to apply the future tense (Ir + a + infinitive) to describe what they and someone else will be doing in oral form. Currently, students are studying the present progressive form. They will be having an assessment once they have obtained proficiency with the structure in oral and writing forms; this structure is used to tell what people are doing presently. Six graders will begin reading the TPR (Total Physical Response) reading text, Pobre Ana. The book will provide ample opportunity for students to: utilize learned vocabulary, lengthen their language expression and improve their overall literacy in Spanish work.