Hello Parents and Guardians,
We hope everyone had a relaxing weekend! Hopefully we can all detox from the blueberry donuts, walleye sandwiches, blueberry shakes, and other such goodies!
Even though it is a short week, we have plenty going on at school this week. Here's a look at what's happening:
Math: Students will be continuing to work on adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals. Much of what they will be doing is on Digits. Hopefully your student showed you this program last week. If not, be sure to ask for a demo!
Students will also be continuing to work on their vocabulary words, and some real-life problems involving money (ordering food, making change, etc.) They will also start working on learning some of the most common fraction-to-decimal conversions.
There will be a QUIZ on Friday over their vocabulary words (they should have flash cards to study from!), the common fraction-to-decimal conversions (they will have a chart to study!), and basic decimal computation. It will be important for students to study for this quiz; it is not multiple choice and students will have to generate the answers themselves. The decimal computation and vocabulary quiz will be one of the first content grades to be entered into the Math grades, so please check in with your student about their progress.
Math HW: Study for the quiz on Friday, Complete 60 minutes of practice in IXL
Science: Students will have Tuesday to finish recording their Weather Reports. Any last minute work will need to be finished by Wednesday's class time. Students will be presenting their reports to their classmates later this week. We're hoping to post some of the outstanding work to our website. Be on the lookout for those!
Science HW: Finish editing of Weather Report video
Language Arts/Reading: This week students will be completing activities to help them learn about making inferences and author's purpose. These skills will be used as we continue to read many different examples of personal narratives. Students will also be invited to attend workshops on complete sentences and dialogue, as those are requirements for their PBL narrative essay. The great thing is, if students are able to demonstrate mastery of these topics from the get-go, they will be exempt from attending the workshops. If not, we will be able to center our instruction around small groups of students who struggle with these topics.
Language Arts/Reading HW: Complete TWO Achieve 3000 articles, Read 30 minutes each night
PBL Project: Students will begin writing their rough draft essays this week. They will only have Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to complete their rough drafts. On Friday, they will be spending time peer editing and revising their rough drafts. More than likely, they will need to work on this at home! Please encourage your student to show you what they have worked on so far. If they do not meet their benchmark of a completed rough draft by Thursday, their grade for Agency will suffer. (I've attached the rubric for the project if you'd like to take a look!) We are hoping to wrap up our "Who Am I?" project next week, so it is important students keep up with the writing.
PBL HW: Work on rough draft narrative essay if needed
Other Important Dates and Information: *We are hoping to finalize a podcast video to walk you through Echo, the grade book, and other useful tools by the end of the week. For those of you who have emailed me about the inability to log-in, we are working on a solution as fast as we can! *If you are a Twitter user, we have a team handle: @RISAcademy Follow us!*Don't forget to check out our website: http://pblinnovationacademy.weebly.com/
Thanks for helping us get the year off to a smooth start. As always, feel free to email any of us with questions or concerns!
Have a wonderful (short) week,6th Grade PBL Facilitators
We hope everyone had a relaxing weekend! Hopefully we can all detox from the blueberry donuts, walleye sandwiches, blueberry shakes, and other such goodies!
Even though it is a short week, we have plenty going on at school this week. Here's a look at what's happening:
Math: Students will be continuing to work on adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals. Much of what they will be doing is on Digits. Hopefully your student showed you this program last week. If not, be sure to ask for a demo!
Students will also be continuing to work on their vocabulary words, and some real-life problems involving money (ordering food, making change, etc.) They will also start working on learning some of the most common fraction-to-decimal conversions.
There will be a QUIZ on Friday over their vocabulary words (they should have flash cards to study from!), the common fraction-to-decimal conversions (they will have a chart to study!), and basic decimal computation. It will be important for students to study for this quiz; it is not multiple choice and students will have to generate the answers themselves. The decimal computation and vocabulary quiz will be one of the first content grades to be entered into the Math grades, so please check in with your student about their progress.
Math HW: Study for the quiz on Friday, Complete 60 minutes of practice in IXL
Science: Students will have Tuesday to finish recording their Weather Reports. Any last minute work will need to be finished by Wednesday's class time. Students will be presenting their reports to their classmates later this week. We're hoping to post some of the outstanding work to our website. Be on the lookout for those!
Science HW: Finish editing of Weather Report video
Language Arts/Reading: This week students will be completing activities to help them learn about making inferences and author's purpose. These skills will be used as we continue to read many different examples of personal narratives. Students will also be invited to attend workshops on complete sentences and dialogue, as those are requirements for their PBL narrative essay. The great thing is, if students are able to demonstrate mastery of these topics from the get-go, they will be exempt from attending the workshops. If not, we will be able to center our instruction around small groups of students who struggle with these topics.
Language Arts/Reading HW: Complete TWO Achieve 3000 articles, Read 30 minutes each night
PBL Project: Students will begin writing their rough draft essays this week. They will only have Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to complete their rough drafts. On Friday, they will be spending time peer editing and revising their rough drafts. More than likely, they will need to work on this at home! Please encourage your student to show you what they have worked on so far. If they do not meet their benchmark of a completed rough draft by Thursday, their grade for Agency will suffer. (I've attached the rubric for the project if you'd like to take a look!) We are hoping to wrap up our "Who Am I?" project next week, so it is important students keep up with the writing.
PBL HW: Work on rough draft narrative essay if needed
Other Important Dates and Information: *We are hoping to finalize a podcast video to walk you through Echo, the grade book, and other useful tools by the end of the week. For those of you who have emailed me about the inability to log-in, we are working on a solution as fast as we can! *If you are a Twitter user, we have a team handle: @RISAcademy Follow us!*Don't forget to check out our website: http://pblinnovationacademy.weebly.com/
Thanks for helping us get the year off to a smooth start. As always, feel free to email any of us with questions or concerns!
Have a wonderful (short) week,6th Grade PBL Facilitators