Sixth Grade

List of 10 items.

• Reading & Literature

  • Read and analyze novels, short stories, memoirs, and poetry
  • Develop critical thinking skills through literary analysis of character, setting, theme, and tone
  • Analyze literature and improve comprehension via whole-class discussions, literature groups, and group projects
  • Connect literature to social studies, readings that are relevant to what’s happening in the world today, and make these connections
  • Read and extract main ideas from non-fiction sources

• Writing & Language Arts

  • Write effective responses to literature, stories, poetry and expository essays
  • Journal as a means of self-reflection and analysis of society Recognize sentence structure and parts of speech with grammar practice
  • Develop critical thinking skills through analysis and editing of one’s own and others’ written work Increase breadth of vocabulary

• Social Studies

  • Understand the relationship between physical geography and how it informs a region's cultural development
  • Cultural geography informs the development of an ancient civilization
  • Ancient civilizations’ cultural universals and their interconnectedness
  • Investigate the lifeways of Ancient Maya and Ancient Egypt
  • Participate in a simulation of an archaeological excavation, its methodologies, and ethics
  • Public speaking skills: practice through simulations and presentations.
  • Research skills: finding and assessing the quality of text and electronic sources, and taking organized notes.

• Mathematics

  • Develop mathematical practices such as using appropriate tools strategically to solve problems, attending to precision, justifying answers and showing understanding in multiple ways, and persevering in solving problems.
  • Area and Surface Area
  • Ratio Concepts
  • Unit Rates
  • Percentages
  • Dividing Fractions
  • Decimal Arithmetic
  • Expressions and Equations Positive
  • Negative Numbers

• Science

  • Lake Merritt - ecology, biodiversity, hydrology, and stewardship
  • Microbes
  • Chemistry and the 5 Essentials of Life -- The Building Blocks of Our Universe
  • Product Testing - experiment design
  • Media Literacy
  • Astronomy - seasons, planetary motion, constellations, chemical composition
  • Digital Citizenship: digital footprints, cyberbullying, media balance, email etiquette
  • Accessing & Utilizing Google Apps for Education
  • Typingclub.com
  • Engineering 

• Spanish

  • Communicate using four modalities: reading, listening, speaking, and writing
  • Paired communication activities
  • Mini Speaking Assessments
  • One-on-one and small group conversation
  • Mastery of present tense and exposure to future and past tenses
  • Exposure to diverse cultures and traditions that make up the Spanish-speaking world including exploration of music and dance

• Visual Arts

  • Drawing: one-point perspective
  • Stop Motion Animation
  • Lake Merrit Map Making
  • Background – middle ground – foreground perspective collage

• Music

  • Sixth-grade choir
  • Intermediate conga drum technique
  • Develop drum ensemble concepts
  • Dividing the beat, pattern development, and rhythm cycles
  • Performance band for instrumentalists

• Physical Education

  • Identifying proper warm-up and cool-down techniques
  • Taking responsibility for independent practice
  • Applying individual skills to team games
  • Demonstrating appropriate sportsmanship in game situations

• Community Engaged Learning

  • Study the ecology of Lake Merritt
  • Clean the lake
  • Monitor the water quality
  • Partner with the Lake Merritt Institute and Friends of the Rotary Nature Center