6th Grade Weekly Newsletter
5/3 - 5/7
Friday FPC Incentive
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.
- Our last incentive day will be Friday, May 21st.
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 reviewed the steps of close reading with Kobe Bryant's poem titled "Dear Basketball." Then we finished by having students attempt determining meaning on their own either writing a theme, making an inference, or a connection using the RAP Paragraph structure.
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. Projects will be due on Monday, May 10th at the end of the hour.
If you have any questions, please let me know!
Science
This week in science we have been working on the planets. The kids have been working hard completing scavenger hunts, Venn diagrams, planet charts, and finally a planet project.
Next week, we will begin reviewing for our second part of our space test. This test will include the following topics: moon phase, planets, and asteroids/comets/meteors, solar and lunar eclipses.
Math
6th Grade did great this week with managing a test review while preparing for MAP testing. Now that MAP testing is finished, the students are in the home stretch for the school year. It is important that they stay aware that we still have a lot of learning left to do this year.
Our final assessment over Topic 5 will be this Monday, May 10th. We will do a quick little unit over converting fractions, decimals, and percents, with a final test over this mini topic on Monday, May 24th.
Remember if you have any questions or concerns, please email me. Have a great weekend.
Social Studies
First off, I want to give an "excellent job" to all students for completing the MAP testing this week. All students did a great job focusing up and working hard on their testing dates.
For class, we have been working on studying for an upcoming quiz over European Colonization of Africa. We have been spending a lot of time preparing guided notes over this subject and have spent time reviewing the information to be prepared for the quiz. Currently, the quiz is scheduled for Tuesday 5/7/2021. Students are encouraged to continue to studying their notes in the days leading up to the quiz.
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!
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
Barry will be hosting an in-person spring choir concert in a few weeks! I am so proud of all of the hard work that students have put into choir this year, and I am looking forward to your students having the opportunity to share their work with you. Please put the spring choir concert on your family calendar for May 18th, 2021. Please read the attached letter for more information.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out!
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 6th graders learned about a few celebrations from Hispanic culture (Cinco de Mayo and the Quinceanera) and worked on their assessments. They will be presenting their One Pagers on Friday. Then on Monday they will be starting their Chinese unit with Mrs. Lackey, since Friday is my last day. I've enjoyed teaching the 6th graders so much!
Computers
Students have been learning about some basic coding for music and art this week. We will continue the art coding and add some code for creating sports games next week.
Reading 180
Please email Ms. Berglund if you have any questions or concerns.
Important Dates to Remember
Wednesday, May 26th: 3-Hour Early Release - Last Day of School
Wednesday, May 26th: End of 4th Quarter/2nd Semester
Tuesday, June 2nd: 4th Quarter/2nd Semester Reports go home