First three days complete!

Well we have completed the first three days of 6th grade! I have noticed how quickly the students are acclimating to middle school and how quickly they are getting organized and ready for their next class. It has been such a wonderful few days getting to know both of the 6th grade classes.

We have accomplished many things in three days. The students have learned many new procedures and rules that they will need to follow to be successful in middle school. We talked about the skills they will need to use as well as the self control they will need to demonstrate while we have the "read to self" time during ELA. We talked about how important it is to bring a book to class everyday to read.

During Social Studies class we began talking about by people migrate, the way the world's population grew since 1A.D., and the students even wrote their names in Cuneiform. The students had time to participate in a gallery walk where they had to decided what natural resource, out of the ones posted, is the most important resource and one they would migrate to.

Here is a link we watched today that the students found very interested about the population of the Earth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khFjdmp9sZk

Are you excited to start the new school year?

Dear 6th grader, 

          It is almost time to start a new school year. Can you believe it? I hope you had a good summer. I hope you had time to go swimming, hiking, biking, and just time to relax. I hope you had time to spend with your family and hang out with your friends. 

          I am excited that this year I get to teach both 6th grade English Language Arts  and Social Studies. I am excited to teach both because we will really be able to dig deeper into the work and have enough time in our day to do some very intriguing STEM activities. Examples of STEM activities are to  develop your own Ziggurat marble run, mummify an apple, make your own Masada, create an ancient irrigation system, invent an ancient Greece chariot. I love to make history come alive and I hope you develop of love for Ancient history as well. We will learn about the  Ancient countries of Mesopotamia, China, India, Greece, Rome, Egypt. Then end the year learning about the Middle Ages. 

         We are going to start a new ELA curriculum that will really push you and help you to develop the necessary skills to prepare you for 7th grade. The new curriculum will bring in  different articles and readings that will allow you to relate to a topic a number of ways.  We will begin learning about Steve Jobs and what he had to overcome to become the famous and successful "Steve Jobs." We will work on citing answers with textual evidence, supporting a claim, identify the central idea, dig into the point of view. You will also develop and strengthen your writing skills by writing  many different papers such as a compare and contrast,  narrative, and argumentative essays. 

           This year we are also switching the spelling program and will begin working with Words Their Way. This is a program that move with you at your pace. It is a proven program that will help you to strengthen your spelling skills and learn a word for your life not just for the test. 

Well these are just a few of the things you will learn this year. I hope you are as excited as I am. 

See you soon, 

Mrs. Bonner