6th Grade Newsletter
Fifth Six Weeks
Life as an Otto Bobcat
Class Websites
Open House
Please join us for the Spring Open House. The format is a come and go setting for you and your student to stop by and see the learning that has been occuring in all of their classrooms this semester. We hope to see you on February 29th from 5:30-7:30!
Don’t have time before Open House for dinner? We will have the Taco Taxi Company here from 5:30-7:30 selling Nachos and Tacos!
Nachos ~ Beans and queso $5.00
Nachos ~ Beef, chicken or both, beans and queso $8.00
Tacos (3) ~ Beef and chicken with Chips $8.00
Burrito Bowl ~ Lettuce, beef, chicken or both, beans, sour cream and queso $8.00
Science Fair
A special congratulations goes to Ananya Sridhar for winning 1st place in the Earth Science division, and Keshav Vasanth for winning 2nd place in the Engineering division at the Regional Science Fair!
Whiz Quiz District Champions!
Congratulations to our sixth grade Whiz Quiz Team for their district championship against Rice MS! Your dedication and motivation to academic success inspires us all!
6th Grade Whiz Team Members:
Vibha Chemangunta
Tyler Gee
Matthew Little
Sidhya Peddinti
Arjun Raghuram
John Reisfield
Neel Shanmugam
Growth Mindset
Growth Mindset and Testing
With STAAR right around the corner, it is important to maintain a growth mindset. The article below elaborates on how students perform when they are learning versus during a summative assessment.
PBIS
Otto students are proud to be Organized, Mindful, and Scholarly. Teachers incorporate these values throughout their lessons and interactions with students. The article linked below provides great ways for parents to help their children develop self-discipline and effective focus strategies.
http://www.kumon.com/resources/grab-their-attention-how-to-help-kids-get-focused-and-stay-focused/
Panyee Football Club: Focusing on Strenths to Overcome Obstacles
What's Happening In Class This Six Weeks?
English Language Arts
During the 5th six weeks we will be finishing the unit “Exploring Textual Design” by working on and completing our CAP, Magazine Moguls. The CAP for this unit invites students to take on the role of magazine moguls who are planning to create and publish a one-time school magazine designed to address a wide variety of textual designs and structures.
After spring break we will start our fourth unit “Imagining Other Worlds”. Throughout this end-of-the-year unit, students will read and study the impact setting has on literature that does not take place in our contemporary society. By studying historical fiction and science fiction, students will be able to further their understanding of how settings impact character development and theme.
Specific lessons in this unit include a study of ethical and thorough researching (including MLA citation), the characteristics of historical and science fiction genres, and how to recognize an author’s “what if” considerations that are revealed in their writing. In this unit, students will thoroughly enjoy their literature journey by imagining other worlds!
Brett Randall
David Giamundo
Mary Herrera
Sara Price
Shelley Lytle
Patricia Garvin
Math 6 and 6 Honors
Christine Mason
Susan Dobrey
Jeanne Dean
Caresir Gonzales
Elizabeth Jacobsen
Math Rocks 6
Science
This six weeks we will be analyzing how choices about obtaining, distributing, and transforming resources impact the environment. Students will develop a plan to conserve resources at home, as well as their school, and community.
We will also analyze the relationship between atoms, elements and their place on the periodic table.
We have lots of exciting activities and labs exploring chemical and physical changes, potential and kinetic energy, comparing different types of light bulbs, thermal energy and insulation, and comparing and 'driving' gas, hybrid and electric vehicles!
Doug Finn
Kathleen Farquhar
Ron Ohlig
Social Studies
For the 5th six weeks we will be finishing our Cultures in Transition unit. We will wrap this unit up with the Africa Test and the Cultures in Transition CAP. For the CAP, students will be assigned a country and will do research to find out the demographics about the country and decide based on these demographics if the country is Developing or Industrialized. The next unit that we will be starting will be Conflict and Cooperation. This unit will focus on 20th Century struggles that existed among nations, including World War I and World War II, and on how compromise among nations is essential for creating and maintaining a balance of power. The unit begins with a look at Europe and the effects of the World Wars on global issues, and concludes with recent attempts to break down barriers to trade and to maintain a balance of power. In addition, students will explore the history of communism in Russia and the impact on human rights. Comparisons with the U.S. free enterprise system are inevitable and necessary for student understanding of such a complicated system. Students will be doing a variety of activities in this unit, which will include individual assignments, group work, hands on activities with maps as well as quizzes and a major unit test, followed by an end of the unit project. This is a unit that the students truly enjoy.
Jennifer Evans
Elizabeth Miller
Miriam Carpenter
Shelly Furlong
Niki Matasso
PACE
During the fifth six weeks we will be finishing our Conflict & Cooperation unit by holding a United Nations World Peace Conference. Students will be representing one side of a current (ongoing) world conflict and presenting the UN with a peace plan. Next, we will be moving into the fourth unit, A World in Transition. In this unit students will look at how the cultures of the world are interdependent, as well as how geography and governments affect the economic development of nations. During this unit we will be reading two historical fiction novels.
Elizabeth Miller
Counselor Corner
Angie Chavez
After school Coding Club
Upcoming events
Parent Meeting
Brown Bag Lunch
"Help a Teenager has Moved into My Child's Body!"
February 19, 2016 @ 12:30
Spring Open House
February 29, 2016
Guidance Topics
March- Recognizing Bullying
April- Being Assertive
Lunch-Movie & Meal
March 3rd, 17th, & 31st
Spring Break
February 7-11
6th Bobcat Recognition
March 21, 2016
End of the 5th six weeks
April 15th, 2016