Greetings 6th Grade Families. We have had a great first quarter here in 6th grade. In the first quarter of school, we worked a lot on Bucknell's expectations and also worked on setting our classroom routines for the year. Once we established our routines for the year we spent some time reviewing previously taught content before we began introducing new content.   

Important Dates & Reminders

• No School- November 8th or 11th
• No School- November 23-25
• No School- December 19-January 2

Language Arts

What are we learning?

In reading, 6th-grade students spent time working on fiction book clubs. Students worked on reading a specific number of chapters each week and then responding to what was read through a reading response. Book clubs met once a week to discuss the book and their responses to reading. For writing, this quarter students worked on writing memoirs. They spent time writing, editing, and publishing a final draft. They did a great job on these!

Home/School Connection

Questions to ask your student:

• What book did you read for the book club?
• What was your memoir about in writing?

We always encourage students to read at home and have assigned nightly homework of reading 20 minutes each night to support comprehension.

Math

What are we learning?

In math this month students worked on multiplying and dividing fractions. Students also worked on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals. In math, we have small group stations where students have been working on ST Math on the computer as well as building math strategies in other areas of math besides fractions.

Home/School Connection

Questions to ask your students:

• What is a numerator and denominator?
• What is a decimal point?

We always encourage students to work on ST Math at home and also continue working on multiplication facts.

Science

What are we learning?

In October we learned about the solar system and what our solar system is made up of. We studied the names of the planets as well as knowing the difference between inner and outer planets. We also studied the relative size of planets compared to each other.

Home/School Connection

Questions to ask your students:

• Can you name all the planets?
• What planets are the outer planets?
• What is our solar system's only star?

Social Studies

What are we learning?

We just wrapped up studying about American Indians. Students chose one  tribe to research further and created a poster with information including geography of the tribe, what their homes looked like, what the natural resources are for the tribe and artifacts from the tribe.

Home/School Connection

Questions to ask your students:

• What tribe did you choose to research and present?
• Name an artifact from the tribe you researched.

Last Thoughts: 

We had a great time on our recent field trip to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Students learned about American art and saw so wonderful art that tied into our curriculum for social studies this year.