6th Grade News 3/25 – 4/5/19
HUMANITIES
In ELA last week, we began our new unit on “Coming of Age.” Each student has chosen to read either The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt or Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead. Both books follow middle school-age kids experiencing normal, “tween” and teen challenges related to friendships, family, clashing emotions, and identity formation. Students are discussing their reading in small book clubs of 3-4, practicing their speaking, listening, and compromising skills while they converse. We’re using these texts as a lens through which to confront issues relevant to the kids’ lives, as they come of age and explore their own identities alongside the characters.
In Social Studies, we ended our unit on ancient Egypt with an exciting “Journey to the Afterlife” simulation. According to Egyptian mythology, souls of the deceased would face a series of challenges before being welcomed into the afterlife. To imitate this process, students created and attempted to pass ancient-Egypt related challenges in order to “make it to the afterlife” themselves. Enjoy the photos of our simulation at this link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/hfUYRbUybh7BNYyS9
Have a great weekend,
Naomi
JUDAICS
I am blown away by this class and their sense of wonder and need to question the Torah text so deeply! Every day another kushiyah is asked they makes the whole class erupt into deep philosophical discussions. Was Moshe humble or did he lack confidence? Why didn’t G-d just changed everyone’s feeling to understand G-de greatness instead of gardening Pharaohs heart and using so much violence. How can Moshe be a G-d to Pharaoh and Aaron, isn’t there only one G-d? These are just a few of the amazing questions students brought up this week. We discussed Moshe as a hero and a leader and looked closely at G-de role in encouraging him along the way. We are now diving deep into the patterns of the Plagues and seeing what we can learn by looking at textual patterns. We will use this information in the joint Jeopardy project with Humanities. I recommend asking your child what they are thinking about Moshe, G-d and the plagues in our text. They all have beautiful reflections!
Shabbat shalom,
Laura
MATH
The 6th Grade has just finished Chapter 10, which focused on The Coordinate Plane. Coming up next, we will be learning about the area of plane figures. We will focus on and discover the area of rectangles, parallelograms, triangles, and trapezoids. Through the next chapter and the next few weeks, we will be talking a lot about perseverance and what it means to to persevere in the classroom. Our lessons will focus around students brainstorming and supporting each other when solving challenging problems, it’s gonna be a blast!
HEBREW HERITAGE
SCIENCE
Science has started the construction of unique informational disease games. Students are applying their research into the many aspects of their game. Working together, students are problem solving and improve on their game designs. We are at an exciting time of this STEAM project as we observe these games coming together. In the weeks to come, we will continue to build these games and get ready for our STEAM event after the Passover break.
Mike Noll and Samantha Butwin
BAR/BAT MITZVAH – with Phyllis