6th Grade with Mrs. Gray: Recent Episodes
Mrs. Gray
Please see our Updates & Announcements page for more links and information! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
See our Updates and Announcements page for more details, links, etc. Have a wonderful weekend!
Reader’s Workshop
We will continue our unit called “Making Reading a 10 out of 10”. We are reviewing and establishing systems to support reading and learning some basic strategies for thinking while reading fiction books.
Writer’s Workshop
Be sure to check in with your child about their small moment story. For an extra challenge ask your child to open up the rubric and together you can check and see if the writing met all the requirements. We will move on from small moments to Opinion writing next week and start by giving awards to items in a collection.
Math
5th graders will continue our unit on the addition and subtraction of fractions with unlike denominators by finding common denominators. They’ll also receive feedback on their quiz.
6th graders will continue reviewing decimals, get feedback on their decimals quiz, and move on to studying fraction operations.
History
5th graders will begin to study The Age of Exploration next week. Instead of a quiz this week, the students finished up a project on a well-known Native American.
6th graders continue our study of early humans in particular, hunter gatherer societies and the students will work on their early human timelines. We will review for a short quiz on hunter gatherers on Friday. (We didn’t get to the quiz this week).
Science
5th graders will work with Ms. Parrino in science lab.
6th graders will work with Mr. Nelson in science lab.
PE
The district is providing 3 PE lessons per week. In our distance learning schedule, the students have the following times away from their screens to complete these PE lessons:
Mon 10:00-10:30
Tue 10:00-10:30
Thu 10:00-10:30
*Please note that our recess follows these times directly so the students actually have 45 minutes to be active, work up a sweat, and be away from their screens.
- No School on Monday (Labor Day Holiday). We will still be online next week. The new back to school in-person date will be not until at least September 22nd.
- 6th Graders ONLY: We will be starting the DARE program soon with Officer D’Alena. She needs you to approve your child’s participation in the DARE program.Click here to fill out the permission slip.
- Back to School Night is officially pushed back to a day TBD however I’d like to hold an informal Back to School Night for just our class. I will send a video with much of the information about what I’d normally present at Back to School Night and then I will have an opportunity to join a video call for you to say hello and/or ask general questions. Please follow this link between 4:30 and 5:30 on Wednesday September 9th to participate. The passcode is: gray
Reader’s Workshop
5th graders will be working on our “Building Your Reading Life” unit with the novel, Tuck Everlasting. Here is the link to purchase the book, should you choose to do so. It’s about $6. If you order today, it should arrive by Monday. A free digital copy will be available to all students (but the page numbers may differ).
6th graders will be working on our “Building Your Reading Life” unit with the novel, A Long Walk to Water. The book is about $6 and should arrive before Monday if you order by Friday evening. Here is the link. A free digital copy will be available to all students (but the page numbers may differ).
Writer’s Workshop
We will start a mini-unit on “Living a Writerly Life.” Students will practice strategies that writers use across the week in various pieces of writing. Keep in mind that you should expect to see your child writing every morning after our morning meeting.
Math
5th graders took a pre-assessment today. Next week, we will begin our first unit on the addition and subtraction of fractions.
6th graderss will begin our first unit. We will use geometric principles of perimeter and area to review some skills from 5th grade like adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing whole numbers and fractions.
History
We will be looking at the indigenous people of North America, focusing on their culture as well as how the geography of their home affected where they lived.
We will continue our study of ancient humans by looking at hunter gatherer societies. What was their culture? What technology did they use? How did they survive?
Science
5th graders will work with Ms. Parrino in science lab and we may start our first unit from our science textbook.
6th graders will work with Mr. Nelson in science lab and we may start our first unit from our science textbook.
Dear Parents,
We’re going to have a great upcoming week. Below is a short description of what’s coming up and important links and/or announcements:
Watch these announcements on video here.
Mrs. Gray’s Podcast
- Suggested/helpful supplies for students:
- Red Notebook (Reading), Purple Notebook (Writing), Blue Notebook (Math)
- Post-its
- Pens (I highly recommend Papermate Flair Pens but they can be pricey so any are fine!)
- Online Permission Slips
- 8/27- 3pm- Teachers College at Columbia Webinar for parents: How you can best support reading and writing at home
- How Can Parents Help with Distance Learning?
Reader’s Workshop
We will continue to work on our unit, “To Build a Reading Life.” We will learn the habits of readers and take a deeper look at ourselves as readers through lenses called “Mirrors and Windows.” We’ll use some short stories by one author to do this work while at the same time, learning how to do an author study.
Writer’s Workshop
We will begin our unit, “To Build a Writing Life.” We’ll study the habits and techniques of writers, and begin to make plans for ourselves to grow as writers across the year.
Math
We will continue the week of inspirational math. We will continue watching some mathematics mindset videos. We will also work on number and pattern activities throughout the week as a class community and in small groups.
History
5th: We will look at the branches of government and begin the election process in our class.
6th: We will begin our study of ancient humans by looking at hunter gatherer societies. What was their culture? What technology did they use? How did they survive?
Science
Students will go to science lab this week at their designated times (noted on our Distance Learning Schedule). The sixth graders will be with Mr. Nelson, and the fifth graders will be with Ms. Parrino. We are excited to have them both at Woodbury this year.
Thank you,
Mrs. Gray
Here are next week’s announcements and updates. Don’t forget to look online for important links.
Here’s the podcast version of this week’s announcements and updates. Don’t forget to look online for important links.
Welcome back to school! Listen to information about Back to School Night and get a quick glimpse into the work we will be doing next week. Enjoy!