Today in 6A!

ENGLISH: Students put their finishing touches on their Unit 9 composition employing figurative writing. My hat is off to Aly Bravata who wrote a stellar piece which just had to be (with her permission) read to the class. The objective of this assignment was not to go on a journey or to tell a story, but to be as descriptive as possible while employing the many literary devices as possible. Aly has done this with masterful precision. Truly fine work. While I have yet to read the entire 6th grade's work, I am truly proud of this particular piece and our students should be as well.

For next week we will be turning to Grammar chapter 2, if your student is interested in reading ahead. We will have our regularly scheduled test that morning.

RELIGION: Students wrote their Chapter 2 quiz in a open-book format.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Students explored the third and final section of the Buddhism chapter. Here we learned about the spread of Buddhism and, despite its lasting influence, its gradual decline. Students learned of the two major schools of Buddhism (Big raft and Little raft) and should be able to best describe the key differences between these two schools. Students will have this chapter test also on Friday of next week so it is essential that students begin their studying over the weekend. I recommend students read each night for 20 minutes in order to be familiar with the content. For homework students are assigned questions 1-5 on page 235.

Today in 6A & 6B

RELIGION: Today's review class also saw students opening their Bibles in order to locate and examine some selected passages. To incentivise these kids I offered a hard candy as reward for the first two groups completed. This was helpful in turning their focus from "getting it done" to "getting it done well and on time."

ENGLISH: After reviewing our flash cards, students were given the remainder of class to complete their drafts of their unit 9 composition which employs figurative language. They will return tomorrow for some peer reviewing and editing, in order to submit by the end of class. If your student does not ask for you to read their work, please ask them for it. I would love all students to have a family member and/or friend to edit their work for them.

LITERATURE: Today was extra special as we welcomed Joe Quy Nguyen to our class. Joe is Martin Vu's great-uncle, was born in Vietnam, and lived there during the war. During his 40 minute talk, he gave our students some valuable first-hand accounts of what life was like for him in 1967-68 in Vietnam as we reflect on the characters from The Wednesday Wars.

Deepest thanks to Joe for agreeing to be with us today!

SOCIAL STUDIES: We continued our exploration into our Buddhism unit as we examined some of the core Buddhist beliefs while reviewing what we learned yesterday. For homework, students are assigned questions 1-7 on page 227. 

MATH (8:00 class) pg 210 13-31 (9:00 class) pg 247-248 1-60

SCIENCE pg 151 1-4

Today in 6A & 6B

ENGLISH: After reviewing our flash cards, students were issued their Unit 9 writing composition in which they are asked to describe the contents of either their desk or their backpack using figurative language. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to practice being descriptive and employing the many different literary devices used to make up figurative language. This composition will be due after class on Friday and I encourage all students to reach out to friends and family to help with peer editing of their work.

RELIGION: Today was very much a review from some information we explored in our previous book, where we explored how the Bible is constructed and organized. We looked at the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and interpreted their significance to Christianity.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Moving right along from yesterday's Hinduism Chapter test, today we began our chapter on Buddhism. Buddhism has its roots in Hinduism and we explored some of the similarities and differences between the two belief systems. Tomorrow we will look deeper into specific Buddhist ideology and reflect on how that compares to what we learned about Hinduism. Students are assigned questions 1-5 on page 222 for homework.

MATH (8:00 class) pg 209 1-12 (9:00 class) pg 254 11-23

Today in 6A & 6B

ENGLISH: We started our New word list yesterday, so today we began with Flash cards, as we will each day. Additionally, on the Sadlier website we completed the Vocabulary in Context, Passage-based Reading, and Improving Sentences assignments.

During our Literature period, students in 6A completed their  STAR math testing for today, the results of which will be made available shortly.

RELIGION: Today we began chapter 2 of our new book, exploring the meaning of some selected Bible excerpts and discerning the difference between a list of facts and the expression of Love between a parent and child (as witnessed in several student writing examples).

SOCIAL STUDIES: Students wrote their Hinduism chapter test today. This was an exceptionally short chapter that students opted to test independently from the Buddhism chapter, which is also exceptionally short, and follows tomorrow.

MATH (8:00 class) pg 205 1-28 quiz Tomorrow (9:00 class) WS 5-3 & 5-4

SCIENCE Pg 148 Questions 1-3

Today in 6A & 6B

ENGLISH: As the start of another vocabulary week, we made our iWords word lists, complete with definitions and associations.

LITERATURE: Students continued working on their Wednesday Wars calendars.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Today was our review period for the Hinduism chapter. This was a particularly short chapter and the test will reflect that brevity. Students are directed to review their notes, the homework for all three sections and the chapter review in order to best prepare for tomorrow's test.

MATH (8:00 class) worksheet 4-3 Quiz this week  (9:00 class) pg 243 1-49 Quiz this week

***NOTE: Students will also be writing their STAR math test tomorrow in 6A***