June Newsletter

Dear Team Keystone Families,

We have reached the final month of the school year! We are so proud of all of the growth we have seen in our Team Keystone students as they have progressed through sixth grade. This was a unique year that began with a lot of change, and we are so proud of the way our students joined together to form a strong community in which to learn and grow. 

Update:

Due to a medical issue, I, Mrs. Foster, will be out from June 9th until the end of the year.  I have truly enjoyed working with all of the students.  I will miss them so much and hope they will visit next year.. As always, they can send me an email anytime.  If I am able to, I will try to make it in on the last day.  If not, I will see them in September. 

Home-School Connection

The last month of the year is a time to look back on all of our successes and to celebrate an awesome year together with some fun activities, like our upcoming Field Day on June 8th. It is also a time for students to make sure that they are fulfilling their academic responsibilities. We ask you to encourage students to look at home for any books that might belong to the school library and our classroom libraries, and to make sure that they are continuing to put forth their best effort when completing homework, projects, and studying for assessments. We continue to promote students taking responsibility for their own learning by checking Aspen regularly and advocating for themselves if they need help in any areas of the curriculum. We want to make sure that students maintain responsible behavior in order to have a strong finish to sixth grade!

Mrs. O’Leary, the Reading Specialist, will be meeting with the 6th graders on June 10th to discuss summer reading requirements. Be on the lookout for communication with more details, and please Save the Date for the Summer Reading Kickoff on June 18th at Unlikely Story!

Additionally, several weeks ago you should have received an email regarding 7th grade math classes. There are two different math classes offered in 7th grade. Students will be placed in these classes based on a variety of data. These placements will be in Aspen the week of June 15th. Please be reassured that all placements are made with the best of intentions while using data from grade 6. However, we know that the process is not foolproof so in the fall, grade 7 math teachers will re-examine math placements as they begin to collect data and develop an understanding of the students in front of them. Each year a few changes are made to better meet the needs of the student.

It is allergy season, and we are currently in need of tissues for our classrooms! Any tissue donations would be greatly appreciated!

Helpful Links:

Our weekly Homework Grid

Our team webpage

 Aspen 

Amazon Wishlist

Current Class Concepts

Applied Literacy

In Applied Literacy, we have been working on using all our active reading strategies to read myths from different cultures around the world. This has been a fun look at how different cultures explained how the world began and other natural phenomena, the heroes different cultures looked up to, and the tricksters they laughed at. We’ve been taking what we’ve learned to teach each other, and create (fake!) “instagram” posts and wanted posters. We’ll even try our hand at writing a few myths of our own! 

English Language Arts

In ELA, we will soon be finishing our final novel of the year, Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper. During reading, students have been focusing on analyzing the author’s use of literary devices, especially symbolism, to help us better understand what we are reading and think more deeply about the text. The students have become quite the symbolism detectives!

Essential Question: How does analyzing the author’s craft/purpose help you better understand what you are reading?

Focus Skills:

• Practice reading actively and annotating to deepen thinking while reading

• Analyze the author’s use of literary devices, including figurative language, symbolism, imagery, etc.

• Participate effectively in collaborative literature discussions

• Gather evidence from across a novel to support an idea

• Continue building narrative writing skills (clear sequencing, incorporating literary devices, dialogue, etc.)

Focus Vocabulary:

Acrid           Admonish            Ominous              Amiable           Wry          Pensive

Gingerly     Adversity          Astonishment        Mused        Imperceptibly

Implored    Incredulous

Math

In MATH, we wrap up our unit on Rational Numbers.

Rational Numbers Unit

Essential Question: -Why is it valuable to understand the relationship between integers?

Focus Skills:

• Comparing and ordering positive and negative numbers

• Finding and interpreting absolute value of rational numbers

• Writing and graphing inequalities on number lines

• Solving real-world problems involving positive and negative values

• Explaining reasoning using number lines, graphs, and mathematical language

Key Vocabulary:

-Rational number                     -Solution set                    -Inequality

-Opposite number                    -Integer                           -Ordered pair

-Absolute value                         -Solution set                    -Origin

Our final unit of the year will focus on Fraction Division.

Essential Question:

How can we use what we know about multiplication and division to make sense of dividing fractions?

Focus Skills:

• Understand division as:

  • Finding the number of groups

  • Finding the size of each group

• Represent division situations with diagrams and equations

• Understand and use the reciprocal algorithm 

Key Vocabulary:

                   Numerator                              Divisor                

                   Denominator                          Dividend

                   Reciprocal                              Quotient

Science

In Science, we will be working on Earth Science.  We will be exploring how organisms have changed over time due to their environment changing!

The winner of the Great Pencil Challenge was Leah Bailey, she won by ½ a cm!  The TOP Ninja was Teddy King, he managed to collect 7 pencils without anyone noticing!

This crew was ruthless!  No one was safe, not even from your Best Friend!  If you forgot to put your pencil away the students would grab it and sharpen it on you.  We had to create a rule stating you could not sharpen a pencil for more than 3 seconds!

 Important Vocab: analogous, homologous, vestigial, adaptations, natural selection, trait, variation, species, extinction

Social Studies

In Social Studies, we are starting our final unit of the year: Caribbean and South & Central America! 

The focus will be on the geography of this region as well as some of the ancient civilizations that lived during that time, like the Olmec, Inca, Aztec, and Maya civilizations and their downfalls due to European Invasion.

Essential Questions:

• What are the most important contributions of ancient societies in the Americas to the modern world?

Key Vocabulary: 

Sacrifice          island          climate        maize       codex 

Important Dates 

➔Monday, June 8th: 6th Grade Field Day (rain date is 6/9)

• Wednesday, June 10th: Half Day, Teacher PDD

• Friday, June 19th: No School-Juneteenth

• Thursday, June 25th: Last Day of School, Report Cards

We have thoroughly enjoyed taking this journey through the first year of middle school with our students and watching them grow as learners and people each day. We will truly miss them next year! 

Best Regards,

The Team Keystone Teachers