What an incredibly busy stretch we've had here in sixth grade!!
We kicked of our Jacobson Reading Olympics on Friday with a school wide assembly. I am so proud of the sixth graders and the leadership they gave in presenting this program! Look for photos to come on the BK home page and Facebook page. Just like the Olympic athletes, BK students will be working to earn gold, silver, and bronze medals. Sixth graders who read three books during February and pass the RC quizzes will be designated gold medal readers. Two books earn silver and one book earns bronze. Olympic athletes have pushed themselves to excel; we are asking our readers to push themselves to excel. The Olympics spirit also encourages unity and our BK students will be uniting to help the community by collecting items for our local food pantry. Please give as you are able. Each week, the fifth and sixth graders will be working on a special Olympic themed activity. This Friday, our focus will be Olympic symbols. The Belmond Public Library has also planned activities to coordinate with our Olympic theme. Look for the handout with details of their programming. It looks to be an exciting month!
The sixth graders competed MAP testing this past week. I was very pleased by the growth the students have shown from the fall testing period to the winter testing period in math. Keep pushing yourself to improve your skills sixth graders!
We are busy working with fraction concepts in math. We have worked to create equivalent fractions, simplify fractions, and find common denominators for pairs of fractions. We have also learned to switch improper fractions to mixed numbers and mixed numbers to improper fractions. This week we focus on the connection between fractions and decimals. With a bit of practice we should easily be able to switch fractions to decimals and decimals to fractions. When we can do this with ease, we can compare and order sets of fractions and decimals. I have found many learning activities (also know as games!) to use when practicing these skills. The kids have commented on how these activities make practice so much more fun than lengthy assignments! You do not have to do pages of practice exercises to build skills!!! Mastering these skills is very important as they will be used when we move on to computing with fractions.
We are in the midst of our study of Ancient Egypt in Social Studies. This unit has a variety of activities...art projects, writing projects....and is very intriguing. This week we will play the ancient board game Senet and explore the mysterious King Tut.
The only thing that could make life better in sixth grade is a bit of warm weather! We need some outdoor time after all our hard work in class. Whenever there is an opportunity for your child to engage in a physical activity please encourage them to do so since the weather has limited those opportunities at school. Kids need a balance of activities in their lives!
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