After a week in the Marin Headlands, and a week of standardized tests, the students are back to their academics. In Language Arts, most of the students have turned in the first draft of their essays and are breathlessly awaiting corrections so that they can get started on their second drafts. The Literature Circle groups have finished reading their books and are working on choosing ways of presenting their books to the rest of the class. Ideas so far include, murals, skits, power point presentations and songs. 

In Cultural Studies the students are about to return to their Ancient Civilization projects on Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt.

Homework:

Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Language Arts homework due, Wednesday May 25th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

All students should be either finished, or close to being finished with their research for their essay. They should be working on their outline. Tomorrow we will discuss how to create effective leads for an essay.

Homework:

Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Language Arts homework due Tuesday, May 17th. Turn in the first draft of your essay. (Draft should be between 250 and 750 words. 12 point font, double spaced.)

Language Arts homework due Thursday, Wednesday May 11th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Language Arts homework due Friday, May 13th. Turn in Reading Response Letter to Norman.

Time to Step Up

Wednesday, April 27th is step up day, so the 6th graders will be spending the morning in the upper middle school, getting a taste of what school will be like next year. Spelling will be done during Language Arts on Thursday.

Homework:

Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Language Arts homework due Thursday, April 28th. Either complete Step 2, or continue working on Step 3 of writing your essay.

Language Arts homework due Thursday, April 28th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Language Arts homework due Friday, April 29th. Turn in Reading Response Letter to Norman.

Complete Literature Circle assignment and be ready to participate in group.

The sixth graders are well into their student led literature circles. Using the novels, The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and The True Meaning of Smekday, the students have been taking charge of their own learning.  They have been assigning their own homework, agreeing on amount of pages to be read, and discussing the texts together. This unit will culminate in a presentation in which each group will find a way to share the novel they read with the rest of the class.

Lit Circle at work.

In Writing Workshop the students are about to start the collecting information phase of their writing. We have explored different places to find information, from books, the internet, questions readers may ask, interviews with family members, just to name a few sources. After this step the young writers will go on to create outlines for their essays.

Homework:

Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Cultural Studies homework due Tuesday, April 26th. Read the Geography of Northern Africa handout. Complete questions 1 to 4. 

Language Arts homework due Tuesday, April 26th. Either complete Step 2, or continue working on Step 3 of writing your essay.

Language Arts homework due Wednesday, April 27th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Language Arts homework due Friday, April 29th. Turn in Reading Response Letter to Norman.

Complete Literature Circle assignment and be ready to participate in group discussion.

Today in Cultural Studies the students used the Code of Hammurabi as a spring board to a discussion on the relationship between rules, laws, and consequences. Dividing into groups they worked on creating their own rules. The students were generally struck by the fact that while coming up with rules was generally easy, creating appropriate consequences was much more difficult.

In Language Arts the sixth graders are working on coming up with essay topics. Their first assignment was to write down 20 questions that wanted to know about their topic. 

Homework:

Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Cultural Studies homework due Wednesday, April 20th. Read the Ancient Israelites handout. Complete questions 1 to 4. 

Language Arts homework due Wednesday, April 20th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Language Arts homework due Friday, April 22nd. Turn in Reading Response Letter to Norman.

Complete Literature Circle assignment and be ready to participate in group discussion.

Homework:

Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Cultural Studies homework due Tuesday, April 19th. Finish reading Conquests and Empires handout. Complete questions 1 to 4. If questions are not completed for homework, they will be done in class tomorrow.

Language Arts homework due Wednesday, April 20th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Language Arts homework due Friday, April 22nd. Turn in Reading Response Letter to Norman.

Complete Literature Circle assignment and be ready to participate in group discussion.

Homework:

Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Cultural Studies homework due Friday, March 11th. Do review questions for section 2 Populating the Earth handout.

Cultural Studies homework due Wednesday, March 9th. Prepare for Cultural Studies test on Sections 1, 2, 3.

Language Arts homework due Wednesday, March 9th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Language Arts homework due Friday, March 11th. Hand in Reading Response Letter to Norman.