6th Grade Weekly Newsletter
4/19 - 4/23
2021 MAP Testing
Map Testing Information for 6th Grade
- Testing will occur on Wednesday, May 5th (morning) and Thursday, May 6th (afternoon).
- Students will only be testing over Math and ELA ONLY.
- Students are discouraged to bring cellphones and/or smartwatches during those days for interference of validation of these tests. If students do bring these materials, they will be collected and stored in a safe place during the time of testing.
- Students are unable to pair their Bluetooth headphones (ex. airpods) to their Chromebooks while taking the tests with the program. They will need headphones or earbuds that connect by a wire.
- Students NEED to have their Chromebook charged and ready to go during the testing days. This prevents their Chromebook from shutting down during the test.
Friday FPC Incentive (repeat)
Parents and Students need to be aware of the following things in order to participate in our weekly incentive:
- Students need to have their missing/current work turned in by each Thursday by 11:59pm.
- Teachers will be updating grades no later than Friday by 7:30am.
- If a student turns in an assignment during the school day on Friday, teachers are unable to grade it before FPC time and students are unable to participate in the incentive.
- If it is a mistake (teachers do make mistakes), students are responsible to show their FPC teacher that the assignment is not marked missing in their Student Portal.
Congrats to our 6th Grade Students who received this week's Character Strong Trait!
Information from the 6th Grade Team
ELA
This week, we continued our Close Reading Unit. Since we have gone over all the skills (denotation/connotation, tone/mood, and figurative language), we started going through the steps of close reading with a Billy Collins poem titled "Introduction to Poetry". Next week, we will finish the poem and start close reading the poem "Dear Basketball," by Kobe Bryant.
This week we had a quiz over the Close Reading Vocabulary. I will be going over the retake process on Monday with retakes occurring during FPC on Wednesday, April 28th.
We also continued our Social Justice Reading Passion Project. This will act as our overall assessment of this unit. It is an ongoing project that will focus on a social justice issue by reading a book and then using close reading strategies to determine overall meaning by using comprehension, author's craft and structure, and applying historical/cultural contexts. We will have one full work a day a week on Thursdays as well as a whole class discussion to reflect on what we are learning and our progress on Fridays. Projects will be due on May 10th. This seems like it's not due for a while, but it is only two weeks away!
If you have any questions, please let me know!
Science
This week in science we have been continuing our learning on the moon phases. We took a quiz on Friday where they had to draw, shade, and label the moon phases and predict future and past moon phases.
Next week, we will move to asteroids, comets, and meteors.
Math
This week we expanded on our Ratios world by introducing rates and unit rates.
This next week we are going to be continuing to work with unit rates with more activities to show how this is one of the many concepts in math that is used on a daily basis in our lives.
Just a reminder- If a student is wanting to retake the Mid Topic 5 Quiz, then the student must do test corrections with the reflections and turn those in first. after that is checked then the retake can be scheduled if needed.
Social Studies
We wrapped up our unit of Central/Latin America. Students have done an excellent job working on and presenting their jam board gallery walks this week. Students made a lot of connections to Central American life, struggles, and culture by answering their essential question: "What is important and why."
Starting next week we will begin a very short unit over South America. Students will be able to identify and understand the population, government, and culture of all the South American countries. This is the last country that we will cover in the Western Hemisphere before we move overseas to the Eastern Hemisphere to discuss Africa and Europe.
Specials
P.E.
This week we introduced our 2021 Barry School Olympics and each group picked a country that they will represent in a variety of sports and skills events. The students will compete in these events over the next few weeks and we will finish the unit with a celebration and medal ceremony.
Band
In 6th Grade Band, woodwinds and brass students have been busy preparing for our Spring Band Concert! I am very excited to share that we will have an in-person band concert on Wednesday, May 19th in the Barry School Gym. 6th Grade Band will perform at 6:00pm. Please read the attached letter for more information in regards to our Spring Concert and add that date to your family calendar!
6th Grade percussion students have been preparing for our annual Platte County percussion showcase, DRUM! You should have received some communication from percussion teacher Mr. Bailey in regards to this event on May 7th. If you have not, or have any questions, please reach out! Percussion students will also be preparing for the Spring Band Concert on May 19th. Please also read the attached letter in regards to the concert and add that date to your family calendar!
If you are not hearing your student practice at home, please encourage them to do so. Students should be practicing 20-30 minutes per day and have weekly practice journals in Google Classroom that contain weekly assignments.
Choir
Please see the Choir Concert information in the pdf linked below. If you have any questions or comments, please email Mrs. Duffy/Ms. Rolls.
Art
Please email Mr. Elliott if you have questions or concerns.
World Language
From now on, Hannah Rivers will be taking over this class since Mrs. Lackey will out for maternity leave. Please email Miss Rivers if you have questions or concerns at riversh@platteco.k12.mo.us.
This week the 6th graders continued with our French unit. They have been practicing their colors, numbers and greetings in French. Their assessment for this unit (the France Travel Blog) is due on Thursday. After that we will begin our Spanish unit.
Computers
Students have been wrapping up their unit on Google Sheets by taking an assessment. Students voted to work on Google Sites next and finish the year with Google Forms.
Reading 180
Please email Ms. Berglund if you have any questions or concerns.
Important Dates to Remember
Tuesday, April 20th: AMI-X Day - Students don't report to school/online learning day without Google Meets.
Wednesday, April 21st: PLC Day - Students are released at 12:50pm
Sunday, April 25th: Trolley Run Day