1. 6 th Grade Weekly Newsletter Volume 4 Issue 24 March 18 th, 2016 Science Next Week 3/21 Students will begin the Engineering Challenge unit, Save the Penguins. This unit’s focus question is: How can you use an understanding of heat transfer to engineer a dwelling to keep a penguin safe in a warming climate? Students will begin by looking at a picture and writing what they see. They will also watch a video on the changes that are taking place at our poles. 3/22 The students will be given a challenge that they need to work as a group to complete. They are competing against the other teams in their class. 3/23 The students will use verbs to describe what they did during the design process yesterday. They will also reflect on what they would do differently. 3/24 Students will view pictures of occupations in engineering and will visit the Engineering Design Process. Science Weekly Review This week students put their journalistic skills to work and wrote a newspaper article from the viewpoint of a news reporter covering the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. They researched the information and wrote an article describing the sights and political tones of Nazi Germany at a time when Hitler declared all Jewish athletes were to be removed from any German athletics. Students also viewed a brief video recapping the 1972 Olympic in Munich, Germany. It was during this time the Palestinian organization known as Black September took 11 Israeli athletes, coaches, and officials hostage. This was fueled by the continuing conflict between Israel and Palestine over control of the holy land in Jerusalem. They have been working on an informational packet highlighting the impact a religious conflict can have on world events. NEXT WEEK 3/21 Review the 1972 packet for quiz on Tuesday 3/22 A short quiz on 1972 Olympics 3/23 Begin 1980 Olympic packet and video on the cold war 3/24 Continue working on the packet and a quick review. 3/25 NO SCHOOL Social Studies 3/14 The students completed Task 2: How does convection take place in the air around us. Students viewed how air acts when it is heated and cooled in the Convection Chamber. 3/15 The students created a flow chart to show the transfer of heat in the air. 3/16 The students defined convection current, convection, convection cell. They also answered the Big Question: What role does density have in the transfer of heat energy and how does it impact weather? 3/17 The students reflected back on the convection chamber and answered questions about it. Students completed a pair share review on convection, conduction, and radiation. 3/18 The students took a test on Unit 5 which covered conduction, convection, and radiation.. Our 6 th grade classrooms had career day on March 9, 2016. We did this to show the possibilities of jobs for when we get older. One career we learned about was a meteorologist. Joe Veres from WENY news came to talk to us about his job. Joe not only described to us about his job, but how serious it can be at times. Joe brought in a tornado simulator to demonstrate to us how a tornado words. To make the tornado, Joe put warm water in a cup and added dry ice. He then turned the fan on. This created a tornado from the gases coming off the dry ice. The tornado may seem like the deadliest type of storm, but actually more people die from heat waves. Emma K.

2. 6 th Grade Weekly Newsletter Math with Ms. York Week in Review This week students have continued working with one and two step equations. They have been using identities and properties of equality that were introduced earlier in the module to solve one- step, two-step, and multistep equations. Students have been solving problems by finding the measurements of missing angles represented by letters (4.MD.C.7) using what they learned in Grade 4 about the four operations and what they now know about equations. Student have also been using their prior knowledge from Module 1 and Science class to construct tables of independent and dependent values in order to analyze equations with two variables from real-life contexts. Volume 4 Issue 24 March 18 th, 2016 Take A Peek At Next Weeks Math!  Monday 3.21 Lesson 32: Multi-Step Problems in the Real World  Tuesday 3.22 Lesson 33: From Equations to Inequalities  Wednesday 3.23 Lesson 34: Writing & Graphing Inequalities in Real-World Problems  Thursday 3.24 Review of Module 4  Friday 3.25 NO SCHOOL 15 Instructional Days Until the Math State Test April 13 th – April 15 th ELA with Mr. Knowles *All students are required to read at least three AR books every marking period. One of these books has to be based on Social Studies. The three AR books and quizzes will be due on April 13, 2016. This past week students continued Module #4, Unit 1. In this research based module, students are exploring the benefits and harmful consequences of the use of the controversial pesticide DDT. In Unit 1, students read, journaled, and used evidence to support their analysis of chapters 3-7 from the novel Frightful’s Mountain by Jean Craighead George. Students viewed another video by John Stossel that discussed the use of the pesticide DDT. On 3/18 students completed a vocabulary quiz on habitat, nictitating membrane, alliteration, and onomatopoeia. ELA Next Week Next week students will continue Module #4, Unit 1. In this research based module, students will explore the benefits and harmful consequences of the use of the controversial pesticide DDT. Students will read and journal chapters 8-10 from the novel Frightful’s Mountain by Jean Craighead George. Students will read closely to practice citing evidence and drawing inferences from this compelling text as they continue to think about the interactions between people and the natural world. You can find Module #4 here: https://www.engageny.org/resource/grade-6-ela-module-4. https://www.engageny.org/resource/grade-6-ela-module-4 **Nine instructional days remain prior to the ELA State Test, April 5-7. Useful Website For 6 th Grade Modules http://www.oakdale.k12.ca.us/ENY_Hmwk_Intro_Math Resource with Ms. Smith Week in Review This week in resource room we have been working on the order or operations. The students know the correct steps to solve order of operation problems by using PEMDAS. We also have been working on creative writing pieces. We have been learning a lot about St. Patrick's day through reading different articles. Next Week Next week we will be looking at equations and continuing to read books at our Lexile levels.