What's happening in Grade 6?

Thank you for your patience! As things have begun to settle and everyone is more familiar with the Grade 6 schedule, the blog has made it's welcome!

What's happening?

Science:  we are still in the midst of our electricity inquiry and have applied our knowledge of simple circuits to our Cardboard Challenge games.  You can learn more about the Challenge here:

  

We established success criteria and have worked through an integrative thinking design process.  Students created a draft of their idea and were then asked to join a partner (or two) and to merge their ideas together.  In doing so, students learned and practiced many critical communication strategies such as:  how to provide effective feedback to peers, how to market one's own idea in a positive and open manner and how to accept that not every idea will "work".  Once the next draft was complete, students were responsible for ensuring that materials, measurements and other components to assist them in crafting their game were prepared and available. We discussed success criteria, constructed our criteria together and learned more about collaboration and creativity.  Students were extremely excited to share their games with other classes and were excellent hosts.  Despite a few malfunctions and some frustrations with wiring, light bulbs and batteries, students managed disappointment extremely well.  Pictures were posted on Twitter...sign up to enjoy!

For the next day or two, our focus will be on an independent reflection piece which will have students reflecting on the entire process (recounting the beginning stages to establishing next steps for future events).  I'm extremely proud of their resilience, creativity and collaborative skills. Way to go Griffins!  I hope many families will join us tomorrow (Oct. 22nd)  between 5 and 7 pm to enjoy the games!

Math:  We are finishing up our current focus on Number Sense and Numeration--whole numbers, place value, factors, multiples, prime and composite numbers, and multiplication and division.  It may seem like a great number of concepts, however all are connected in a wonderfully, mathematical way!  Students brought home grey duotangs with practice for each of these concepts.  While I do not have a "homework plan", my expectation is that students practice basic math facts, explore websites, etc. each evening (along with a minimum of 20 minutes of reading).  We have a busy year ahead, and in order to improve in terms of efficiency and accuracy, students must practice outside of school hours. Thank you for your support!

Language:  We are participating in the Global Read Aloud project this year.  Students have been listening to and discussing Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mulally Hunt.  This is a fantastic book which has most students making connections to the experience of our main character, Ally Nickerson.  We have begun our Writer's Workshop sessions as well.  A Book Report type of monthly homework will be sent home in November.  Students are currently working on one now in order to practice in class prior to working independently.

Please continue to check the website, in particular the Agenda/Calendar page for updates and classroom news. Working without a paper agenda can be challenging, so do not hesitate to reach out should you be confused or have questions.

I will continue to update the blog, calendar, Twitter and Remind.

Have a great week!