Grade 6

Click here to see an overview of the curriculum of this grade.
Click here to view the School Handbook (general policies for grades K through 8)
Click here to see photos from 6th Grade
Click here to see the Classroom News for this year.

Info for Parents

Opening Day Letter from Mrs. Curley

Welcome to a new school year! I am delighted to be back at St. Mary School, and look forward to working with your students in Sixth Grade. Sixth Grade teachers this year will include Mrs. Sullivan (Religion), Mr. Moakley (Science), Mrs. MacDonough and Ms. Lordan (Math), Mr. Ferdella (P.E.), Mrs. Corazzini (Spanish), Mr. Gannon (Music), Mrs. Wiseman (Art), and myself (English, Literature, and Social Studies). We also give a special “Welcome” to our new classmates, Bailey, Benjamin, and Henri.

The school day for students in grades 5-8 begins at 8:15 a.m., with the prayer bell at 8:25. There will be a 10-minute homeroom period to start each day. During this time, we will take attendance, get organized for the day, and hold brief class meetings and discussions. Mr. Moakley and I will be in the 6th grade room for this homeroom time, as well as before school, after lunch and at dismissal.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call me here at school at (508) 842-1601, or send a note or email, and I will reply as soon as possible.

I wish you all a wonderful school year!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Curley

Some hints on how to help your child succeed in science

Science is perhaps the most dynamic subject that a middle school student will study. It is forever changing as new information and understanding displaces the outdated and unknown.

With this in mind, St. Mary School replaced all of the science texts last year with the most up to date middle school books that Prentice Hall offered. These texts are a system that will take the student from grade five to grade eight using a similar format. The texts not only provide current scientific information, but they also contain information on how to learn science.

Every chapter begins with a title page that includes the publishers web site (www.phschool.com) that has activities related to the material in the text, and a list of other activities that the students can do. Some of these I incorporate into the classes, others can be done at home. The Discover activities that begin each section are nice into to the subject being studied and can often be done out side of the class. Some of the “Try This” activities are specifically designed to be done at home and involve the family. These activities can be a great tool for understanding the important ideas of the section.

Each section begins with Guide for Reading which is two to three questions, that when answered, are the essence of the section. There are also checkpoint questions mixed into the text that the students should be able to answer before they move on.

Each chapter includes a study guide at the end of the chapter, as well as a practice test that has questions similar to the type that will be found on their quizzes and tests. I encourage the students to take these practices and correct them because it is better they discover what they don’t know before the quiz, then I discover what they don’t know during the quiz.

Every text has a skills handbook near the end. These are the science skills that the students will be developing as they study science. They are not a separate block of instruction in the curriculum; these skills are part of all the activities related to science. As such, they will be continually part of the curriculum. As their teacher I am continually assessing the students on their strengths in these skills and adjusting the curriculum when a greater emphasis is needed on a given topic. The individual students should be referring to these sections as needed.

Lastly, I strongly encourage all students to have an appropriate dictionary available in their study area at home. Although the text provides a glossary for the key vocabulary included in the book, there will be times when they will be presented with an unfamiliar term.

I will continually encourage students to understand the importance of critical thinking and understanding in science so they will be better positioned to deal with the new information as it arrives.

Thank you,
Michael T. Moakley

Curriculum Night

Homeroom time: Our school day begins at 8:00am. Students arriving after 8:05 are marked tardy. The time from 8:00 to 8:10 is used for class meetings, community building, planning, and getting organized for the morning classes.

Prayer time: Every day we start and end our day with prayer and say Grace (in Latin!) before lunch. Students are expected to stop whatever they are doing and participate.

Homework book and student planbook: All students are given a planbook at the beginning of the school year and are expected to have it with them for every class. Students are to record their homework assignments in their planbook. A homework book is maintained in the classroom where assignments are recorded. At the end of the day students are allowed to check the homework book to verify that they have written all assignments in their planbook.

Homework: Sixth Grade students can expect between 60-90 minutes of homework per night. There is weekend homework in Sixth Grade.

Books and possessions: Each student has a cubby for storing books, notebooks, folders, etc. Students are expected to keep their cubby neat.

Snacks and water bottles: Snack time for the upper grades is at 9:45am. This is a working snack. Students are asked to put their snack in their desk in the morning to avoid interruptions to their class. Students are encouraged to have a water bottle.

Bathroom breaks: One boy and one girl are allowed out of the classroom at a time. Students must sign-out in a log book where they record the time they left the room and the time they returned. Students are encouraged to use the bathroom before class and at lunch time to avoid leaving the room during class time.

Jobs: Classroom jobs are assigned on a rotating basis. Jobs will change at the beginning of each month. Students are expected to do their assigned jobs.

Service projects: Students in Sixth Grade are the recycling coordinators for the school. On alternating Tuesdays, members of the class gather the recycling buckets from throughout the main school building, the pastoral center, and the preschool.

Between Thanksgiving and Easter, the Sixth Graders also assist the preschoolers in crossing the parking lot at noontime, allowing parents to remain in their cars with younger siblings during the harsher weather

Classroom News - October 2008

Literature

Grade 6 is in the midst of our first unit of study in the new Literature anthology, “Elements of Literature.” We are studying the short story. The students are using this literary genre to study the basic elements of fictional writing, specifically character, setting, conflict, plot, sequence of events, turning point, resolution of conflict, and theme.

Soon, we will begin a drama unit that will take us into December. Students will be reading selections from several different plays, while learning about several different types of drama. The students will become familiar with stage directions, lighting, costuming, and special effects in addition to learning about the literature of drama. Students will then become immersed in the world of the theater, as they prepare to perform a brief play for an audience

English

In English, we have been working on subjects and predicates, nouns and pronouns, punctuation, sentence structure, F.C.A’s, and “Must-Do’s.” All of these skills are helping with our writing!

In spelling, we have been studying high frequency words and frequently misspelled words. Students are finding many of these words quite challenging! In addition, spelling grade-level words correctly in everyday use continues to be an important part of our spelling curriculum.

Social Studies

In social studies, we have just completed the first unit, “Learning About Our World.” The theme of the unit was “Patterns in Diversity,” and the students learned that in our quest to understand our diverse world, we study geography and culture, seeking to find patterns, and make connections, to try and help us understand the history of the world.

We have now begun our second unit, “The Rise of Civilizations.” The students are eager to begin studying about ancient civilizations, particularly Ancient Egypt! Over the course of the next few months, we will explore several ancient civilizations, and learn about how the writing, cities, governments, and inventions that arose from them anchor today’s world. Students will work on several projects, including a time line of the civilizations we study, as well as several projects on specific cultures. Most of the work for this project will be done during social studies class, and during our library/computer class time. The students are already looking forward to the projects!

Math with Mrs. MacDonough

As the first quarter draws to a close, the sixth grade can look back with pride at their progress and accomplishments so far this year. They have worked successfully with place value, rounding decimals, order of operations, and the properties of multiplication and addition. We have reviewed prime factorization, greatest common factors, and least common multiples. The students have enjoyed integrating variables into their problem solving and using different strategies to solve word problems such as working backwards and looking for patterns. We have begun a unit on decimal and fraction operations and look forward to the months ahead when we will be measuring, graphing, and analyzing data. Additional resources related to our text can be found at www.eduplace.com.

Math with Ms. Lordan

Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students enter the math room each day eager to begin our time together by writing the date and objectives of the day in their notebooks. Next they contemplate the RAP question(s) of the day. This activity is designed to involve everyone in the study of mathematics immediately upon entering our classroom. RAP is an acronym for Review and Preview. The questions posed often assess students understanding of the objectives from previous lessons or preview their knowledge of the next topic.

Our class motto is Marcel Proust’s: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Our goal is to look at all of the beautiful landscapes provided by nature as well as the landscapes in our textbooks and on practice sheets, workbook pages, the white board, or assessment papers, through the eyes of a mathematician. We are learning the importance of reading, following directions, and using our textbook as a resource tool. We have come to the conclusion that any reading involving mathematics requires our undivided attention.

SIXTH GRADE students have expanded their knowledge of place value to include numbers from billions to millionths and can write real numbers in expanded form three ways, one of which involves powers of 10. They have reviewed the four operations with whole numbers and decimal numerals while reviewing the skills of ordering, comparing, and rounding. We have explored two ways to estimate answers and excelled in using the properties of addition and multiplication to evaluate expressions. PEMDAS is assisting us with the order of operations. The problem solving techniques that we have employed are finding a pattern, determining if an exact answer or an estimate is required, working backwards, and making a decision about the reasonableness of an answer. This lively group of individuals brightens each day with their enthusiasm and desire to learn.