Literacy | WORK DUE |
This month, we have dedicated three weeks to preparing for the ELA test. We will practice reading different kinds of texts, answering multiple choice, short response, and extended response questions. Since we don’t know exactly what kinds of passages or questions will be on the test, we try to instill some test-taking habits in students. Most importantly, they should read -- and re-read -- with some questions in mind: “Who is in the text? What am I learning so far? How does this part connect?” It’s important that they annotate (rather than just underline or highlight) because we’ve found that this holds them more accountable to the text. Students will receive Plan and Prepare grades based on the quality of their practice. Please feel free to reach out with any concerns. We’ve also been working on building reading and writing stamina. The best preparation is to continue to read regularly -- at least 30-40 pages a day! Please encourage students to read with their minds “on fire”! | ELA Test: Wednesday-Thursday March 25-26 |
Math | WORK DUE |
6th Graders are continuing to work through the unit, Prime Time: Representing Factors and Multiples through Algebraic Expressions. Students are looking at the multiplicative structure of numbers, using exponents. They will be writing numbers in factor strings leading them to discuss the “Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic”. They will also be looking at a visual model for Distributive Property. By mid month, students will be coming home with a Test Prep booklet to practice some questions. Be on the lookout for that. | Homework daily. Sometimes it is a handout or finishing up class work. Please review your child’s planner. Homework is copied down in math class and reviewed in homeroom. Quiz #3 - sometime around March 5, 6 or early the following week The quiz is mostly using understanding about prime factorization and GCF, LCM. Quiz #4 - week of March 16 The quiz is mostly about Distributive Property and interpreting a word problem to see if it is GCF or LCM. Test Prep assignment will be given on March 6 (601) or week of March 9 (602, 603). Assignments will have a clear due date - please spot-check your child’s planner to stay on top of work. |
Science | WORK DUE |
We recently launched Unit 3: Climate Change. The essential questions we are thinking about throughout the unit are:
The class will be publishing a podcast series about climate change for their project. Each research partnership will take on a specific subtopic of climate change for their podcast episode. | HW Daily: Currently, students are doing 15-20 minutes of research each night on their climate change subtopic in order to build background knowledge. They can research their topic by reading and/or watching texts on Padlet or by borrowing books from the science library. For each text, students are jotting one or two main ideas, and providing supporting details that they can share with their research partner. |
Social Studies | WORK DUE |
We just began a unit on Ancient Greece. Students are working on immersion research to grow their understandings about this ancient society. We are very lucky to continue our learning on Greece with an upcoming four-day residency at the New York Historical Society. As part of our Anti-Racism Month at IS 289, Sixth Graders recently collaborated with seventh graders to learn about hate speech and common forms of racism we sadly still see too often in our society. Students will be completing this work in the upcoming week, and will begin to come up with ideas of what to do when they encounter hate speech in their everyday lives. | 601 New York Historical Society Residency Field Trips: March 9, 10, 12, 13 602 and 603 New York Historical Society Residency Field Trips: March 16, 17, 19, 20 |
Advisory
For the remainder of the school year in advisory, students will be focusing on the following topics:
For the first Tuesday of each month, students will have the opportunity to build community by playing games. The second Tuesday of each month, they will reflect on academic work. For the other Tuesdays in the month, they will focus on the topics of relationships and building trust, as well as bias.
- Community building through play
- Reflection on academic work
- Relationships and building trust
- Bias
For the first Tuesday of each month, students will have the opportunity to build community by playing games. The second Tuesday of each month, they will reflect on academic work. For the other Tuesdays in the month, they will focus on the topics of relationships and building trust, as well as bias.