6th Grade Weekly Newsletter
9/13 -9/24
Character Strong Recognition
PIRATES R.O.C.K. Recognition
2021 Homecoming Information
Platte County's Homecoming District-wide festivities run Oct. 4-8, 2021. This year's theme is "Outta This World" – an outer space theme. Click here for the week's spirit days and festivities.
PCHS will host the Victory Rally on Wednesday, October 6, starting at 6 p.m. at Pirate Stadium. The Victory Rally will be a community pep rally with our coaches introducing the fall teams, the crowning of the underclassmen candidates and the Homecoming King, and performances by the Traditions Band, dance team, and PCHS, youth, and alumni cheerleaders. PCHS cheerleading alumni are asked to arrive at 5:30 p.m. for a short practice. Second (or third) generation Pirates (those students with parents who graduated from PCHS) are invited to gather at 5:45 p.m. in the southside stands for a group photo. The event is open to the community. The Homecoming Parade will begin at 3 p.m. on Friday, October 8, and will run on Fourth Street from Thomas Drive to the former Rising Star Elementary. Students will be dismissed three hours early that day. Parents and the community are encouraged to arrive by 2:25 p.m. as Fourth Street between Zed Martin and Thomas Drive will be closed to traffic beginning at 2:30 p.m. Thomas Drive between Siegrist Elementary and Fourth Street will also be closed. If you'd like to participate in the parade, please contact Kyle Perkins or Robin Herron for an entry form by October 6. AGAIN THIS YEAR: There will be a shuttle bus to take parade participants and their sponsors back to the main PCR-3 campus. The shuttle bus will be parked along Zed Martin Drive. Floats will disband in the Rising Star parking lot and will take the path from the former Rising Star playground to Zed Martin Drive. We encourage parents to pick up their participants at the PCR-3 main campus. Immediately following the parade, on the Platte County Courthouse steps, the Traditions Band will perform several pieces including the Platte County "Fight Song" to get in the Homecoming spirit. Wells Bank will also be hosting its annual Community Tailgate Party, featuring a PCR-3 Voice Competition following the parade in the High Pointe Shops Shopping Center parking lot. Come cheer on your favorite vocalists as they sing their way to stardom, and enjoy free food and drinks! Homecoming Football Game: The Pirates will take on the Winnetonka Griffins at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 8 at Pirate Stadium. The Homecoming Queen will be crowned at halftime, and the Pride Band will perform after the game.
Information from the 6th Grade Team
ELA
This week, students took a quiz over Parts of Speech as well as practice punctuation with our 5 Basic Comma Rules. We took notes on Thursday this week and students continued independently practicing on NoRedInk. If students were not able to on Friday because of our Google Applications being out of service, this assignment will now be due on Monday, September 27th instead of Sunday. To help students out at home (since they won't have their notebooks), I have posted our notes on Google Classroom.
Next week, we will be going over Capitalization Rules and practicing the spelling of commonly misused words. Students will be assigned another NoRedInk practice and hopefully, we will have fun with a station activity to master how to punctuate, to capitalize, and spell sentences correctly before our quiz at the end of the week. More information about this assessment will be sent on Wednesday next week through email.
As always, please encourage your student to keep reading at least 20 minutes a day! We try our best as teachers to encourage this habit if students have free time during the school day, but middle school gets busy with assignments to work on and incentives for LiveSchool. It will help students reach their weekly reading goals and, hopefully, make progress on their 1st Quarter Reading Journal that we update weekly on our Library Days.
Science
We have been very busy in science class. We just finished our metrics Unit. The kids took a test on Wednesday, September 22nd. If your child wants to retake the test, their retake form is due Monday, September 27th.
Our next unit is Earth's Surface. We will begin this unit by learning the layers of the Earth and their characteristics.
Math
We are continuing on our positive rational number journey and are moving into fractions. I am excited for this next part of our learning because it is really nice to see students discover that fractions are not so bad. I did want to let you know that our final assessment for this topic is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, 10/7/2021. I will be emailing parents and students next week with our correction process for assessments again since we are taking our first assessment today and possibly Monday if needed. As always if you have any questions, please email me.
Social Studies
In class, we have been working on locating continents and oceans. Students have completed a continents and oceans quiz this week. If that is something that they would like to retake, retakes are available and those will be taken 9/28, 9/29, & 9/30. A retake request form would need to be signed.
This week we have been discussing economic systems. We have learned about traditional, market, command, and mixed economies. We have also discussed how personal finance ties into the economy and the marketplace. This would be a great time to have a discussion with your students about personal finance and the importance of a budget and how they could create their first budget if they haven’t already done so.
In the coming weeks, we will be preparing for our first unit test. The date of the test will be determined depending on the student's progress. Be on the lookout for study material that will be posted on the students' google classroom.
In the upcoming week, we will be discussing governments, developed countries, and developing countries.
Specials
PE
We are finishing up our first groups by playing LaCrosse and Floor Hockey games and will switch groups to do the other activity next week. We completed another Fitness Day with a Tabata workout and will do an outside run for Cardio Day this week.
PE Google Classroom Code: v2rrhgn
Choir
https://barryschoolchoirs.weebly.com/
Check out what is happening in choir by going to our choir website!
Band
If you have any questions or concerns, please email our new Instrumental Music Teacher Mackenzie Brazier at brazierm@platteco.k12.mo.us.
Art
6th Grade is learning about the difference between legal and illegal graffiti. Afterward, students will discuss the Elements of Art (Line, Shape, Color, Texture, Space, Form) and incorporate them into their Graffiti sketches.
World Language
Students have just completed their introduction to the language and culture unit. We learned about what culture is and why we study it, the benefits of learning a foreign language, and even got to have some fun creating our own unique languages! We have started our first of three language studies: Chinese. Students will study Chinese culture, learn to have a basic conversation, count to 10, and identify colors.
Computer Literacy
Students have been learning the ins-and-outs of Google Docs and all the things this program can do. Over the next few days, they will work "remotely" with a partner to create a collaborative business letter using Google Docs. After a quick assessment of learning late in the week, we will move on to learning about Google Slides and Sheets.
PLTW - Flight and Space
The 6th graders have been working hard on completing the flight section of the class. They have created flight plans and even designed a new commercial airplane for a new flight from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. Our next unit will be working on space travel. We will do several activities and experiments to see how astronauts live and work in space.
Reading 180
If you have any questions or concerns, please email our new Reading Specialist Tanya Fleming at flemingt@platteco.k12.mo.us.
Important Dates to Remember
TODAY - Friday, September 24th: 1st Quarter Progress Reports sent home
Tuesday, September 28th/Tuesday, October 5th: 6th Grade Incentive DayMonday, October 4th - Friday, October 8th: Homecoming Week
Friday, October 8th: 3-hour Early Release