Johnson's Journal September 19th

                This will be another busy week in sixth grade.  We are finishing up our map skills unit and starting a project to culminate the unit.  The sixth graders will be asked to create an imaginary state and include many of the map parts that we have talked about—cities, a capital, natural landforms, man-made features, a map scale, compass rose, key, and a grid showing latitude and longitude.  The project will be graded on its completeness, accuracy, and creativity.  I will introduce the project on Monday, time will be given to work on it in class on Tuesday, and it will be due on Thursday.  I am anxious to see what creative ideas come forth in these maps!  Daily Geography Practice will be due on Friday.  There were many A’s on last week’s lesson over using a map grid!  I hope to see even more A’s on this week’s packet which covers using latitude and longitude (absolute location).

                We spent the past week in math working with estimation strategies for addition and subtractions, as well as multiplication and division.  Just when we got the crazy rule for estimating sums and differences in our head (Round both numbers to the greatest place of the lesser number), we moved on to multiplication which has a different rule to remember (Round each number to its greatest place).  To top it off, you could also estimate using front end estimation, compatible numbers, and clustering.  With so much material to absorb, you can see why it is important to be focused at all times!  We will start the week off with a review game of Jeopardy and a quiz over these estimating strategies.  Tuesday, the students will have a second quiz to see if they have mastered all the topics covered so far this fall.  After these quizzes, I will see where we need to review and who needs a bit of extra help.

 I will also be taking time to re-work last week’s problem solving assignment with those who had trouble with it.  We are always striving for excellence.  Congratulations to those students who reached the goal of solving at least 85 multiplication problems in five minutes.  Their grades have been adjusted to show their progress.  Students who have not yet met the goal will take another time test on Friday.  I would like to thank those of you who have reviewed math facts with your students. 

If you have not yet checked your student’s grades in the Campus Gradebook, I would encourage you to do so.  If you do not have access to Parent Portal, please contact Trish Morris at 444-4300, ext. 222.  If you are having trouble accessing the “new and improved” Parent Portal please contact me, and I will be glad to show you how to navigate the gradebook.  If you have any questions about your sixth grader’s progress, please contact me so we can work together to help your student successful.