Grade 6 Advent Liturgy

Next week marks the first week of Advent, and so we will be having an Advent Liturgy on Monday. This year, our class is responsible for organizing this liturgy. All students who were interested in doing some sort of reading were given one, and we are going to be hosting the liturgy on Monday at 1:30 in the gym. All are invited. Hope to see you there!

Math Test Friday!

On Friday, December 1st, we will be having a math test for our Geometry Unit. This has been a fairly easy unit for students. The only area many students struggle with is usually the section about "Constructing Shapes". In the "Homework" section to the right, I have placed a link to the workspace we used throughout this unit. It covers everything they need to know for the test. Please review this material with your child to ensure they are ready for the test on Friday. Good Luck!

Holy Trinity Parent Information Evening

Holy Trinity will be hosting a parent information evening on January 25th, 2018, at 7PM. Please save the date. More information will follow, but they wanted us to let all the parents of our grade 6 students know about the date.

Constructing Shapes & Geometry Workspace

Lately in class we have been learning geometry. One part of this that students often have difficulty with is constructing shapes using specific angles and side measurements. For example, in the video below, the question posed is to construct a parallelogram called BACD so that

• AC = BD = 5cm
• BA = DC = 2cm 
• angle ABD = 120 degrees and angle BDC = 60 degrees

When I teach students how to construct these shapes, I first ask them to make a sketch of the shape they are supposed to be drawing if possible. In this case, they should make a sketch of a parallelogram. They also need to stop and think at this moment about what they know about a parallelogram:

• opposite sides have to be equal and parallel
• opposite angles have to be equal 

At this point, students can sketch the parallelogram and  place the labels in the appropriate places. At this time, they can ensure they have the correct lengths and angles in all the right places as well, before they start actually drawing their shape using a ruler and protractor. To see how to draw the shape accurately, please watch the video below.

Here is a link to the geometry workspace that I created for this unit. It covers all of the main concepts we will learn in the unit, and has explanations of each. Feel free to use it as much as you wish to assist your child. 

http://j.mp/2zldX2K

Reflex Angles

We have been learning about measuring angles lately, specifically reflex angles. A reflex angle is any angle greater than 180 degrees. Before teaching about measuring these angles, however, we reviewed the three main types of angles: acute, obtuse and right angles.

We then learned about benchmark angles. I explain that a right angle is a good helper when we are estimating angles, and then if we cut a right angle in half, then we know it is a 45 degree angle. On the other side, if we split the difference between a 90 degree and a 180 degree angle, a good benchmark is a 135 degree angle. These can help us to estimate any angle that we see within a reasonable amount.

The reason I often insist on students estimating angles before measuring them is because many students make the error of reading the wrong side of the protractor when they measure. For example, they may measure a 60 degree angle, but call it a 120 degree angle because they looked at the wrong number for their reading. If they estimate first, it can help students to recognize that they have done this. Here is a game to practice estimating angles:

Banana Hunt

To measure a reflex angle, we looked at an acute angle first, and then examined the angle on the other side, which is the reflex angle (see diagram).

Next, I ask students if they see the shape that the acute and reflex angles make. If you join the two, you will see that it makes a circle, or a 360 degree angle. All angles have this, so to find the reflex angle, all we do is measure the inside angle, then subtract from 360! Here is a video that helps explain this. It shows another way to measure reflex angles as well:

Finally, here is a webpage that reviews reflex angles and has a few questions for practice:

Reflex Angles

Science Test Monday!

In our afternoon class, we are wrapping up our units in Grade 5 (Human Body Systems) and Grade 6 (Biodiversity). Today I sent home review sheets for both grades that students can use to study for the test. If they know the material in the review sheets, they will do fine on the test on Monday. 

If your child has misplaced their review sheet, you can download it from here:

Grade 5 Study notes:Study Notes 1  Study Notes 2

Grade 6 Study notes: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jYSDUiQkPCVfXKQHhvhLFxM0U0_Tp2YLvnN5bQXAqVc

Students have recently finished preparing a presentation about a single Human Body System or a "Mindomo Map" which outlines how the Animal Kingdom is broken down between vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as the major groups with some characteristics of each. On Thursday, we will be finishing the presentations and playing some Kahoots! to review the material from these units.

Next Math Unit - Geometry

In math, we have begun learning about 2D geometry. Our first lesson was a review of how to use a protractor to measure angles. Tomorrow we will be learning about a new type of angle - the reflex angle. In this unit we will be learning about classifying shapes according to attributes and learning about concave and convex shapes. Next week, we will begin constructing shapes according to specific parameters. Students usually have a difficult time with this concept. It is helpful if students have their protractors and compasses for this lesson, so please remind your child to bring his/her geometry set next week. Finally, we will be identifying nets of 3D figures and determining if a particular diagram is actually a net of a figure or not, as well as learning about how to draw 3D shapes using isometric dot paper.

I have created an entire unit in Hapara which we will be using to learn from, and for students to review.  If you have any questions about what we are learning, please feel free to take a look at the workspace to see the content being covered. I have included the link below. If it does not work (I am not certain if parents have access to Hapara), then please have your child log in from their school account:

http://j.mp/2zldX2K

Literature Circles Begin this Week

Literature Circles

In our morning class, we have begun literature circles as part of our language homework. We will be doing the book they have for the next four weeks, after which we will do a few weeks of Raz-kids again, before doing another book. Today we tried to organize ourselves into groups based on the book we chose, and figure out which pages we need to read this week and for each of the next four weeks. Literature circles can get confusing, so here is a brief explanation of how it works:

1. At the beginning of a cycle, I will either put students into specific books, or I will allow them to choose their own.  Often if they choose their own they are more interested, but they sometimes choose books that are too hard. For this first time, I chose the groups.
2. Next, we spend a bit of time getting organized. The groups get together and have a "meeting" in which they break the book up into roughly 4 equal parts. They are responsible for reading each part over the next four weeks. For example, if the book has 20 chapters, they would read chapters 1-5 in week 1, 6-10 in week 2, and so on. I encourage children not to read on in case they give something away to their group.
3. They also divide up the jobs in their meeting. The rule is that they can only do a job once in the cycle. Also, the Discussion Director job and Summarizer jobs must be done. They cannot be left out. Here is a link to our planning Literature circle planning sheet
4. Throughout the four weeks, I expect students to:
1. read the section they are supposed to each week
2. do their job for the week and bring it on Friday

That is it for Literature circles! It is meant to work like a highly structured book club, and hopefully gives students a starting point to have rich conversations about the books they are reading.

A few tips:

1. try not to have your child complete the entire week of literature circle work in one evening. It is far too much. Instead, break up the reading into 2 or 3 nights, and the sheet can be completed another night. It should not take very long to complete the worksheets. 
2. Encourage your child to provide evidence from the text for each assignment, and to complete his/her work using complete sentences. 
3. If the reading is overwhelming, have your child read to you, and if you are noticing it will take a long time, then take turns reading chapters, or even pages.