Nuts & Bolts
This Wednesday, October 6th is Picture Day! Order forms were sent home Friday with students. (If your student was absent they will be bringing their order form home on Monday.)
Absences: Our new reality is that there will be times when students have to quarantine or miss school because they are sick. If students have a device at home, they should check their email and Google Classroom. They can also email us to see if there is something they can work on from home. Unfortunately, much of the work we do at school, from discourse about novels and math problems to group science projects are not easily replicated at home. Gone are the days of workbooks and worksheets. We will do our best to get any student who is absent caught up on what they missed once they return. If there is going to be an extended absence, we will work with families to get material home to students.
From the nurse: If your child stays home or is sent home with cold-like symptoms, they need to have a negative COVID test to return to school. Please be proactive. Kids end up with more/longer absences if they wait to get a test and this is disruptive to their learning.
We pride ourselves in making learning on our team relevant to what is going on in the world. All of our current topics across each curriculum area are no exception. Within each area, students are also being asked to defend their thinking. This is an important transferrable life skill that we work on daily with the students both in speaking and writing. Read on to find out what we've been up to on Wizard's team...
Science
We continue our work with understanding the variables that can affect solar collection. Students have now added to their learning that they can trap solar energy and that the surface area of a box will affect the amount of solar energy it collects. At the end of last week, they were designing their first solar collection box. The goal was to implement all of the scientific concepts learned thus far into their design. We'll be testing them this week to see which designs do collect the most solar energy.
Math
Last week, CBMS made the decision to no longer allow energy drinks to be consumed during class. This has not been an issue on our team but we took the opportunity to apply our understanding of ratios to analyze the sugar content in a variety of beverages including energy drinks. We went on to compare the drinks using unit rate or teaspoons of sugar per ounce. Students will also be reading about the consequences of consuming high amounts of sugar, especially from sugary beverages.
 |
| Students were surprised by the number of teaspoons of sugar in these containers |
Language Arts
We are continuing to read Ghost Boys. Emmett Till is one of the historical characters in the novel who tries to help the main character, Jerome, understand why at the age of 12 he was shot by a police officer. On the day that we learned about Emmett Till, our guidance counselor, Jennie Hempey joined us for our discussion circle. She was there to offer students emotional support as his story is a difficult one to learn about. The next day, I posed this question to the students... "Do you think 6th grade is too early to learn about the terrible realities of racial violence and injustice in America? Why or why not?" Here's a sample of the responses I received from students that represent the general opinion of our Wizards. They impress me daily!
 |
Comments
Post a Comment