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Mrs. Hoover
6th Grade ELA
As we continue our journey through the school year, I want to take a moment to highlight a critical skill we are focusing on in the classroom: closely reading and analyzing text. This skill not only supports your child’s academic growth but also fosters essential life-long abilities such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication.
What is Close Reading?
Close reading is more than simply going over the words on a page. It involves careful attention to the meaning of a text, analyzing the author’s message, and understanding how specific language choices shape a reader's understanding. This method encourages students to delve deeper into the text, moving beyond surface-level comprehension to ask questions, make inferences, and uncover themes and patterns.
Why is it Important?
Critical Thinking: Close reading teaches students to think critically. By analyzing the author’s choices—such as the use of imagery, tone, and structure—students learn to evaluate information thoughtfully, consider multiple perspectives, and build reasoned arguments.
Better Understanding of Complex Texts: As students progress through middle school and beyond, they will encounter more challenging readings. Close reading prepares them to handle complex materials by equipping them with strategies to break down and comprehend difficult passages.
Building Stronger Vocabulary: While analyzing texts, students are exposed to richer, more varied vocabulary. Understanding words in context is key to expanding language skills, which in turn improves writing and speaking abilities.
Strengthening Communication Skills: Close reading helps students articulate their ideas more clearly, both in discussion and writing. Being able to reference the text, support their points with evidence, and present their views confidently are essential skills for academic success and beyond.
How Can You Support This at Home?
Ask Questions: After your child finishes reading, ask them to explain what they’ve read. Encourage them to describe the plot, main ideas, and any connections they’ve noticed. This helps them practice summarizing and thinking more deeply about the text.
Encourage Thoughtful Discussion: Challenge your child to think about why the author made certain choices. Questions like "Why do you think the character acted that way?" or "How does this part of the story make you feel, and why?" prompt your child to analyze text on a deeper level.
Model Close Reading: Share the books or articles you are reading with your child and discuss them together. Demonstrating how you ask questions and analyze the text helps reinforce these skills in a natural, engaging way.
Mr. Gregor
Mr. Gregor
6th Grade Science
White Team Science!
We’re wrapping up an exciting unit in sixth-grade science, and I wanted to share the great things happening in our classroom!
Since the beginning of the year, our students have been learning about NASA’s Traits of a Scientist. This engaging unit has sparked curiosity and helped our young scientists develop key skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork. Through hands-on activities, group discussions, and projects, students explored how real-life scientists approach problems, make observations, and test hypotheses. It’s been fantastic to see them embodying these traits as they dive into their own scientific inquiries!
Now, we’re shifting our focus to something that’s out of this world—Mars! As we begin our new unit, Exploring the Red Planet, students will take on the role of space explorers, learning about Mars’ environment, history, and potential for future human exploration. We’ll be discussing everything from the planet's weather patterns and geological features to the technology NASA uses to study it. They’ll also engage in hands-on projects that challenge them to think like engineers, designing solutions to problems astronauts might face on Mars.
It’s an exciting time in our class, and we’re looking forward to the adventures ahead. Encourage your students to share what they’re learning at home—we’re sure they’ll have lots of interesting facts and ideas to discuss!
Thank you for your continued support, and as always, feel free to reach out with any questions. We are in need of items from the Amazon wish list, if you could help?
Mr. Himes
Mr. Himes
6th Grade
In Social Studies, Mr. Himes’ students have continued working through our first unit in class which covers people and the environment, culture and society, and economic basics. Included in the attached picture is our “Wall of Wow” showcasing some exceptional projects that we’ve completed in class over the past couple weeks. Projects on the right include our lesson on the 6 main world religions where students had to make a poster highlighting key facts about the religion they chose to research. Additionally, projects on the left are from our economics lesson where students were tasked with creating their own candy store, items they would sell at it, and how supply and demand would affect how much they sold their created candy (or chips!). At the end of October we will be finishing up this first unit with students creating their own country as their culminating project. November will bring us into our next Social Studies unit - a continuation of Geography basics - before beginning to learn about the Eastern Hemisphere.
Mrs. Guiswite
Mrs. Guiswite
6th Grade Math
In math class, the students are mastering how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions and decimals. More importantly, the students are learning how to determine which operation to use in word problems. They are also beginning to put fractions and decimals into their calculators to check their work. We have spent a lot of time on these foundational skills that will help the students not only for the rest of the year but for life!
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