6th Grade

Welcome to Sixth Grade!

Welcome sixth graders to a year filled with learning, fun, and a variety of activities. This year we will focus on our academics, respecting our peers, organization, and being strong role models to our younger student body. We will have an exciting year that I am really looking forward to!

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me via email, mgeorge@sclschool.com, or leave me a message with the office, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Miss Maggie George

Religion
Texts: We Believe by Sadlier, Family Life by Bensiger
We will be going over chapters in our “We Believe” books in class and talking about our religion topic We are God’s People. Homework will be given throughout each chapter and tests will be given at the end of each chapter. We will also be using our “Family Life” series, which focuses on the integration and development of personalities in the family unit, the community, and the Church. We will also be participating in student-lead liturgies, prayer services and service projects. The sixth graders are expected to perform ten hours of service this year. Also, as a class, we will be attending mass once a week.

Reading
Texts: Quest by Houghton Mifflin, Literacy Activity Book by Houghton Mifflin, Wordly Wise 3000by Educators Publishing Service, Accelerated Reading
The students will be reading many excerpts from novels in the “Quest” reading books that go along with six overall themes: Survival, In Search of the Real Me, Unwrapping Ancient Mysteries, Imagination at Work, Finding Common Ground, and Ocean Quest. After each reading the students will complete Literature Activity Pages in their workbook. Then tests will be given at the end of each theme on concepts we talk about the go along with the readings. We will also be having vocabulary lessons from the Wordly Wise workbook. The students will be expected to complete each lessons workbook pages and they will be tested on those words on Thursdays. We are also involved in Accelerated Reading, which is a third of the students reading grade. It is up to the student to read books from the AR list and take tests on those books before school or after school to reach their point goal.

English
Texts: Voyages in English by Loyola Press, Exercises in English by Loyola Press, Daily Oral Language by Evan-Moor
The students will be reviewing and learning more about parts of speech for part of the class. They will be working in their workbooks practicing these lessons and tests will be given at the end of each chapter. Writing assignments will be assigned throughout the year. Toward the end of the year the students will be writing a research report on an American Scientist. Also, every morning the students will be working on their Daily Oral Language (DOL) packets that will be due every Friday.

Spelling
Texts: Spelling and Vocabulary by Houghton Mifflin
Students will have homework every week including: workbook pages, a writing piece using their words, a cross word puzzle, and a word search. All homework is given on Mondays and due on Fridays. Test will be given on Fridays

Science
Texts: Earth Science, Life Science, and Physical Science by Prentice Hall
Our Prentice Hall Science textbooks will guide the students through the scientific process in each of their specific areas of study. The students will be taking notes and completing review questions and worksheets for each section which will sometimes be assigned for homework. Also they will be assessed at the end of each chapter and unit through multiple choice, fill in the blank, true/false, and essay questions.

In addition to regular class work, the students will have one sixty minute lab period per week. They will be completing a variety of lab write-ups, lab reports, and projects. There will be one or two projects assigned per quarter which will be scored using a rubric.

We will also be using a lot of technology this year, the rolling computer lab and the InterWrite whiteboard. We will be doing a number of in-class internet-based activities and assignments that will reinforce and enrich the topics in all levels of science. The InterWrite interactive whiteboard is a wonderful instructional tool that I will be using on a daily basis. Moreover, we will be using the computers to write up some of our lab reports so the students can become more familiar with using a word processing program in science and the InterWrite board to facilitate during activies.

Students will be learning different ways of thinking and reporting like a scientist. The skills and concepts they acquire in Jr. High will provide them with the tools necessary to be successful in future science classes.

Sixth Grade: Sixth graders will be studying Earth Science. The topics they will study include the Earth's Changing surface, rocks and minerals, volcanoes, weather, and our solar system.

Seventh Grade: Seventh graders will be studying Life Science. They will learn about the building blocks and diversity of living things, cells, plants, animals, ecology, and the human body. Life Science includes the dissection of worms and frogs, which allows the students to better understand body systems.

Eighth Grade: Eighth graders will be studying Physical Science. We will be covering classification and interactions of matter, energy and motion, waves, light and sound, electricity and energy resources.