1. 6 th Grade Weekly Newsletter Volume 4 Issue 1 September 18 th, 2015 Upcoming Events  September 23 rd Middle School Picture Day Science Weekly Review The students reviewed the science safety rules, created posters that depicted and reinforced these rules, and took a quiz. We then began our first investigation on Variables. The Big Question for the investigation is How does investigating a pendulum help you learn to become a better scientist. We began this unit by thinking about what qualities a good scientist must possess and what qualities they possess. We viewed the YouTube video on “A Day Made of Glass” and discussed what scientists are creating right in our area and why we need more scientists in our area. We then looked at numerous scientific notebooks and discussed the characteristics in each. In teams the students came up with characteristics that make up a good notebook and what we should include in our science notebooks. Students also began looking at a pendulum system and created a definition of a system. Science Next Week 9/21 Defining a system and explaining how to decide if something is a system 9/22 Constructing a pendulum, describing and explaining the motion of a pendulum 9/23 Predicting how many times the pendulum will swing in 15 seconds. Collect data and report out 9/24 Identifying and listing the variables that would affect the number or cycles a pendulum will make in 15 seconds. 9/25 Experimenting with changing the release position, mass and string length to observe how these changes affect the number of swings. Social Studies With Ms. Hall This Week Do you know what a compelling question is? Compelling questions address issues found in and across the academic disciplines that make up social studies. Compelling questions reflect the interests of students and the curriculum and content with which students might have little experience. An example of a compelling question is: “Was the American Revolution revolutionary”? This year New York State has changed the framework for social studies. As a result of this change students will be working toward answering a compelling question for each of the seven standards. The compelling question we are focusing on at this time is, “Why does ones environment effect their culture and vice versa?”. Students have been completing maps of the 7 regions of the Eastern Hemisphere and focusing on the characteristics of 6 major regions. OPEN HOUSE Middle School Open House will be September 23 rd from 5:00 – 6:30pm with a Spaghetti Dinner to follow from 6:00 – 7:30pm in the High School Cafeteria. Social Studies Next Week Next week students will have a short quiz on 9/24 about the regions and their characteristics.

2. 6 th Grade Weekly Newsletter Math with Ms. York Week in Review As the first full week of school is coming to an end we have had lots of time to get to know each other and start discussing ratios/equivalent ratios. Kids have also been creating their Interactive Notebooks that are a more hands on approach to learning specific standards that are addressed in the Modules. Student’s seem to be off to a great start and I am looking forward to working with each of them the rest of the year! Volume 4 Issue 1 September 18 th, 2015 Take A Peek At Next Weeks Math!  Monday 9.21 Lesson 6: Solving Problems by Finding Equivalent Ratios  Tuesday 9.22 Lesson 7: Associated Ratios & the Value of a Ratio  Wednesday 9.23 Lesson 9: Tables of Equivalent Ratios  Thursday 9.24 Lesson 10: The Structure of Ratio Tables – Additive & Multiplicative  Friday 9.25 Lesson 11: Comparting Ratios Using Ratio Tables 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 first AR book and quiz is due on October 14, 2015. This past week students presented their shoebox project, took the ELA STAR Test and began reviewing the writing traits. The shoebox project allows students to introduce themselves to their classmates. Each student had to have at least five items in their box that represented who they are. Two required items were a paragraph (developed with the writing process) about them and an acrostic of their name that described their individual traits. The students had a great time presenting their shoebox to classmates while learning more about each other. ELA Next Week Next week students will continue reviewing the writing traits. We will also have a special guest from GST BOCES. Mrs. Tice will provide a presentation to our students on how to be model digital citizens for our technological world. Shoebox Project in ELA More shoeboxes! Students in Pictures Top Left: Allison Jumper Top Right: Asa Farr & Dominic Dowling Bottom Left: Kylie Heigel Bottom Right: Paul Hand