Today in 6A!

ENGLISH: Students wrote their test for Unit 12 Vocabulary and Chapter 5 Grammar. This test marks the end of our Grammar lessons. Students will not be tested explicitly on grammar but will be expected to put their lessons to good use. Our writing assignments will increase and students can expect these writing assignments to dovetail with their other subjects. This means that students will find themselves researching and writing for Social Studies during their English class.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Our review session took place after we reviewed the homework from yesterday's lesson. Students should spend some time each night reviewing the material they can expect to see on their test Monday.

RELIGION: The quiz students wrote today mark the end of our Family Life unit. We also took part in the Stations of the Cross to close out our day. I was a bit disappointed to see that many of our students were not performing the responses. I find this unacceptable and since we attend a Catholic school, I find myself duty-bound to hold my students accountable to this participation. So in the future, students who do not perform the responses in either mass or during stations of the cross, will find themselves with a detention that will be served with Mr. VanRuyven so that they may practice their responses. 

Today In 6A & 6B
Mr. V was out sick

MATH (8:00 class) pgs 282-283 1-26 Chapter Test next Monday  (9:00 class) pg 320 1-16 Chapter Test next Tuesday

SCIENCE  Chapter Test next tuesday

Today in 6A & 6B

RELIGION: Our lesson today marked the end of our Family Life unit. We will review chapter 5 tomorrow and write our quiz on Friday. Today we talked about basic human rights and things that we do and can do for the common good of all people. It took us on a bit of a tangent regarding how Western countries use foreign aid to help developing nations.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Continuing from our work yesterday, our students took the information that they gleaned from the mummification process and, in groups, created and gave presentations in the 4 different writing styles (Narrative, Expository, Descriptive, Persuasive). This made for some entertaining fun as students are learning how the same bit of information can e used for different purposes.

Today in 6A & 6B

ENGLISH: Our lessons for today were our last from the Grammar text book. I implore students to not disregard the knowledge in this book after Friday's test, because the writing we will complete as the year continues will lean heavily on these lessons. Today we spoke about body paragraphs as well as Introductions and Conclusions. Students practiced revising poor paragraphs and making them more interesting. We also looked at some news items from today and how they are written to communicate meaningful information in unified and fluent patterns.

LITERATURE: Prior to advancing in our read, we unveiled the assessment for the Egypt Game. Students will be completing a character analysis that centers around the actions of that character. Students may choose any character in the story, but as we read, they will record the actions of that character and how those actions speak to the character's values and qualities. This document will be used to write a 1-2 page essay that explores the nature of that character.

RELIGION: We got a bit side-tracked during our conversation today as students had a lot of questions regarding how to budget and manage pressures once they move out on their own for college. I shared my experience with them that may or may not correlate with what will be their experience in 6 short years.

SOCIAL STUDIES: After learning about life and death in Ancient Egypt yesterday, students went on a fact-finding mission to explore the mummification process. Some of the responses to their packet required them to infer the answer as not all responses were spelled out directly. This will be take up tomorrow and students will prepare presentations of their understanding of this vital process.

MATH (8:00 class) WS 5-6 & 5-7  (9:00 class) WS 6-7 & 6-8

SCIENCE Worksheet packet

Today in 6A & 6B

ENGLISH: As we start our grammar week, and prepare for Friday's test, we enter our LAST grammar chapter. This chapter sums up all of the grammar work students have done this year as we explore the construction of an essay. Why, might you ask, would we learn how to write an essay after we have already written an essay? Well, in this way, the concepts that we have discussed come to the student as more of a "refresher" or "review" of material. In this sense, it is much more likely that a student will remember these lessons in the long term as they examine the writing they have already done in hindsight. That said, much of what we are studying this week is what we have preached all year long, so the repetition helps significantly.

LITERATURE: We collected out Where The Red Fern Grows books today and started our new read, The Egypt Game. Tomorrow, students will be shown their assessment for this book, which will involve examining a character from the book and writing a profile of that character. If students would like a preview of this assignment they can check their Google Classroom accounts for Literature.

RELIGION: This week's chapter is the last of our Family Life unit. We are examining the term "community" and what that means for us as Catholics within our society at large. Additionally, our lesson today spoke to family finances and home economics and I encourage my students to reach out to their parents to discuss the many ways in which our families make "ends meet."

SOCIAL STUDIES: Our lesson focused on life and death within Egyptian Society and the role that religion played. This is a very similar lesson to what we have seen in Mesopotamia and India, so students are making strong connections between our units. Homework is found on page 115 #1-5.

MATH (8:00 class) pgs 269-270 1-12  (9:00 class) pg 316 1-29

SCIENCE  pg 191 1-4