January 31, 2020

Hello!

News on our Ottawa trip. We have rooms for 52 people reserved at the University of Ottawa and a bus for 52 people with Premier Coach. The news is, it is a bit more expensive than we had hoped, but still a good deal. The room, breakfast Friday, and the bus costs about $100 per person. We will work next week on a museum plan and get full cost out to you by email. We will need to fill all of our spots to make this economically feasible, so please consider joining us. We will try to keep the cost under $150 per person. We need 11 parents to join and pay. We can provide scholarships for kids if you ask (but not for adults.)  It is important that we know right away if a student cannot come. Don't worry if they are just nervous. We have successfully overcome many anxieties in the past. Stay tuned for more updates.

This week in math we began dividing fractions! A reminder that we have done this math before and these strategies in solving them! It feels different because of the year difference, but it's still the same math. Students are doing a wonderful job applying what they are learning to their work. This week there was more instructional time for modeling and number talks, so we are hoping for more individual work and practice time in the beginning of the week next week.

In science we continue our unit of Motion & Stability. Student's explored the idea of gravity this week with stations to complete, a lengthy reading with note taking, & we ended our science with an OK GO video that shows a Rube Goldberg machine that shows the laws of motion in action. Take a peek! (It is also a great idea for a snow day/ "feeling bored" activity.)

OK GO music video

Next week we will explore friction and air resistance and why these are very important when looking at the laws of motion. We will continue with stations (in the science lab), readings and applications. The idea is that we will be taking the Bend 1 assessment around the 14th of February. There will be a study guide and opportunity to use their growing resources!

We started our writing unit. We will first focus together on student activism, then segway to our personal research for National History Day. We will all learn to make a website this year.  The timeline is approximately:
Monday - library intro to topics for NHD
Tuesday - website workshop with Mr./Mrs. Langdregin (District tech integrationists)
Wednesday to Friday - finish first essay on student activism
Next week, start reading and note taking for NHD
Two full weeks
vacation
Finish up Friday March 6th
Marking period ends February 21
Report cards mailed March 13
We will do our writing post assessment March 5/6
Present websites on Monday March 9 (this gives about a month for kids to prepare for the contest on April 4th (no one is required to do this)

Shwew... that was a lot.  Keep reading. Don't forget to read for pleasure.

Check this out! Many of you have had questions about curriculum in 6th grade. Our district has been working endlessly on creating a webpage that will answer those questions. Click the link on our webpage (listed below) or the link attached here. Happy scrolling!

Work due this week: Word study due Thursday
Friday due Math refection, math menu, math pages 2.1, 2.2., 2.3 (note: Ms. Roberge is emailing those with weekend homework due to extensions on this due date)


Work due next week: Student activism essay due Friday the 7th, word study due Thursday, NO MATH due this week, NHD topic decided

January 24, 2020

HAPPY FRIYAY!

Hello Aurora families,

January is flying by and we are chipping away at the Ottawa trip details. Today, we applied for rooms on June 4 (Thursday) leaving on June 5 (Friday) NOTE: THIS IS A CHANGE FROM OUR PREVIOUS PLAN. It turns out the rooms cost twice as much on May 14 as they do after May 22nd. June 4 was the first date that worked out. Please let us know if you can come with us. We hope to get the price for each person down to about $125 (US funds.)   This would be for adults too and cover room, breakfast on Friday, three museums and a comfortable coach bus. If too many of us want to go, we will ask parents to carpool, but we can fit about 12 parents on the bus. Thank you to those who have reached out. We are working diligently on this so that you can plan the rest of your school year out with doctor appointments, etc.
UPDATE: We have confirmation that we can have this date.

In math this week we continued our work on fractions! We revisited the idea of modeling multiplying of fractions (part to part) and also multiplying using mixed numbers (part to whole). We will continue this idea into our new learning happening next week, working on dividing fractions. We will spend the next couple of weeks looking at how to model our thinking with dividing fractions and how to decide if it is a division problem in word problems.

2-4-2's are DUE TODAY! Students who did not finish their 2-4-2 will need to show Ms. Roberge what they have done Monday morning.

MobyMax times have differed slightly this week. Due to the shortened week, 20 mins is required this week and 30 minutes are required next week (totaling 50 minutes). A reminder that ALL FACT FLUENCY needs to be at 100% by NEXT FRIDAY. That is one week away! Keep working hard Aurorians!

In science we explored the idea around inertia. Students worked through rotations that were hands on around the idea that an object in motion stays in motion and an object at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by a force. Through video notes and group activities, students seem to be getting this BIG IDEA down. Check out these rockstars working on the "FLOP!" station.

    

                                              

In LA and Social studies, we have been reading from text sets on our chosen topics of: Titanic, climate change, diseases or space.  We have learned to write note the central idea, important main ideas and write a summary. On Monday, we will give a shot at writing a full "all about" report on the topic as a journal write.

Next week, we will investigate teen activists and apply some more report writing skill and technique. In two weeks, approximately 5th, students will decide their topics for our National History Day projects. Then we will synthesise all of our reading and writing skills. All of the topics we have investigates so far make excellent topics as does colonization which we studied with India and will look at together in social studies.  The theme for NHD this year is "Breaking Barriers in History." All students will create a website. Here is my model from 2014, Encounter, Exploration and Exchange in History. Ms. Lamb

http://nhdswing.weebly.com/

Work due next week:

(2.4.2 due today)

Friday - math menu- MATH PAGES - and math reflection - there will be time in class for all of this

Word study due Thursday

Finished three articles and summaries due Monday (for LA)

Friday, January 17, 2020

Hello Team,

We are in the process of securing out dates for our trip to Ottawa. We are trying for May 14-15. I have contacted the University of Ottawa and are working on getting a price. Next is the bus.  Once we know the amounts, we will send a formal notice and request for a deposit (as they need deposits.)  Please start getting your paperwork in order. Every adult needs a passport or enhanced license. Every child needs a passport or original birth certificate with raised seal.  More to come next week on this.

We do have homework on Team Aurora. Check here to see upcoming due dates. We go over this very regularly, yet sometimes students don't have their work done. We hold homework club in our room almost every day until 3:25.  Work includes journal entries (usually one or two per week), word study due on Thursdays (change from Mondays), Mobymax minutes (30 per week), math menu and 2-4-2. We do have a lot of time in class to do this work, so not everyone needs to take it home. EVERYONE reads at home daily - 20 pages.

In LA, we are moving into reading groups for non-fiction next week. The topics include: climate change, the Titanic, diseases, space travel. We will read, talk, writing summaries and pull together central ideas that connect or texts.

This will prepare us for our own research for National History Day which will start in early February. The theme this year is Breaking Barriers in History

This week in math we continued to explore adding and subtracting fractions. We checked in with our math understanding by taking a mid year Moby Max assessment which sees what math students can do independently and what math is challenging for them. *This is not the only assessment used in seeing where a student is at.* 

We took a check-in for adding and subtracting fractions which most seemed to be understanding. Those who still struggle with some concepts will have small groups and other opportunities to ask questions and grow their understanding. 

We also took a preassessment for multiplying and dividing fractions. We will need to revisit reading word problems, modeling our thinking, and showing our work on all assignments! This helps to see where misconceptions are. 

In science we focused on force, specifically gravity. We participated in an activity, watched a few videos and kept on being researchers by taking notes. The idea is that students will have strong science notebooks to be able to complete an inquiry task as an assessment in the coming weeks. 

Today, we had a full school presentation for Martin Luther King Day. We learned and heard from a guest speaker. Later in class we discussed groups that have been oppressed and needed to changes laws.  We also spent some time in gratitude for what we have and appreciate in the world.


Work due this week:
Word study - Thursday
Reading - daily 20 pages
journal - summaries

Friday January 10, 2020

Hello!

Welcome back!
We are look forward to everyone having some #2020vision as we move toward the second half of 6th grade. 

So many things have been happening the past week and a half. We luckily had a slow start back to school with a few pre-assessments in math and LA. We had a celebration for our hard work in our integrated India projects, by sampling some yummy snacks from our very well known Chennai, India and had some Chai tea. The students' response was very positive! Thanks to Ms. Lamb for finding some culturally/ethnically appropriate food for students to savor. 

A new calendar has been given to ALL students with all of the January assignments on them. We took time on our first day back to do this. It is also posted on boards in Ms. Lamb and Ms. Roberge's room. 

Students then began their week full of new learning, review and hard work. In math, we began our new Let's Be Rational unit which focuses on all operations (additio, subtraction, multiplication, division) of fractions. This unit can feel uncomfortable to some, as these are big concepts. Please check in with your child to see how they are feeling about this new unit, and encourage them to come check in with Ms. Roberge if they have any questions or concerns. 

Students received their new math menu that is due 1/17/2020. This whole week has been about book work and reviewing ways we add and subtract fractions. Next week, we begin exploring the use of models to explain our thinking and ways these relate to number sentences (or equations). Moby Max is still a homework task. Students must complete 30 minutes each week of Moby for homework, totaling an hour by the time their menu is due. I do check this weekly and give kids a heads up to let them know they need to catch up. If your child has issues with internet or computer access at home, please have them set up times to stay after school, use their study hall wisely, or find other means to make sure this is complete. FACT FLUENCY NEEDS TO BE COMPLETE BY 1/31/2020!

NEW SCIENCE UNIT! 
We have been loving the new changes we have done in social studies and science by having smaller groups. 
We just started our new "Force and Mobility" unit, which focuses on the Isaac Newton's Law of Motion. These first few weeks will be heavy on information, which students will then use for an inquiry task toward the end of the month. So far we learned about what the three laws are and have begun to think of and research examples of these laws in action in our lives. Check in with your child about this. It's pretty rad!