October 21st-25th

This week, sixth graders are wrapping up our unit on culture and geography, and beginning to transition into our first civilization, Mesopotamia.  Students will begin delving into Mesopotamia next week.  This week, they will be doing some reading and writing response work tied to culture, as well as investigate how and why farming is an instrumental step towards the development of civilization.

Last week, students took a short pre-assessment identifying the continents and oceans.  There will be a post-assessment next Tuesday, October 29th.  Students who demonstrated accurate knowledge of all continents and oceans during the pre-assessment will not need to take the post-assessment.  Students will be informed in class if they need to take the post-assessment or not.  Practice work will be distributed to students who need to take the post-assessment, and should be used by students to study for the post-assessment (the practice is not due for a grade).

Homework this week:

Continents/oceans post-assessment will be Tuesday, October 29th

October 15th-18th

I hope you all had a wonderful three day weekend!  This week in class, sixth graders are spending time working on their Artifact Project.  Rough drafts of the project are due on Wednesday.  Students kicked off the project today in class in their school Google account- we are doing the project in Google Presentation.  Final projects will be due on Friday, October 18th.  Most of the project should be done in class, but students will likely need to finish up their work at home for homework.

Homework this week:

Artifact Project rough draft due Wednesday, October 16th
Artifact Project final draft due Friday, October 18th

October 7th-11th

This week, students are starting the week taking a look with current events by taking a look at the present conflicts in Syria and in Egypt.  Students will also spend time plotting catastrophic events using coordinate points, and will learn about a new artifact project at the end of the week.  We will also have a short assessment on the geography themes on Thursday and Friday this week.  Please remember that parent/teacher conferences are being held this Thursday, October 10th.  If you still need to schedule a time, please contact your child's conferencing teacher.  If you are unsure of who the conferencing teacher is, contact your child's advisory teacher or me for clarification.  School on both Thursday and Friday runs from 9 AM to 12 PM, and there is no school on Monday, December 14th in recognition of Columbus Day.

Homework this week:

* Study Geography Themes Notes
* Artifact Project visual rough draft due Tuesday, October 15th
* Artifact Project written rough draft due Wednesday, October 16th