August 31,, 2017

Dear Team Taylor Students and Families,

As we embark on a new school year, we want to take a moment to welcome you to sixth grade and Team Taylor. As your teachers, we are ecstatic about the year ahead. New novels to read, units to study, concepts to grasp!

As a team, we will work together to create a supportive environment where all feel comfortable and safe to take on new challenges and stretch as learners and unique individuals. Think about what talents you bring to our team. What will you be able to share with your peers and teachers? What do you hope to learn from those around you?

Sixth grade is a time to explore and uncover a variety of topics.

In ELA, the essential questions focus on the individual: Who am I? What is my place in the world? How can I make a difference?  

In Math, you will continue to solidify foundation skills from fifth grade while beginning to develop your algebraic thinking.

In Science, you will encounter earth and life science topics through inquiry based learning.

In Social Studies, you will travel back in time. You will begin with early humans and study to the fall of Rome.

Annie Sullivan Middle School provides ample opportunities to discover new interests and passions. Try out a new club. Meet new friends. See what exciting adventures middle school holds for you!

Take some time to think about how you will get involved. How will you make a difference? How can you be a pack leader on our ASMS Husky team?

Best Regards,

Miss Fuller - Special Education Liaison -   Fullerj@franklinps.net

Mr. Kelley - Mathematics, Science -   Kelleyd@franklinps.net

Mrs. Welshoff - English, Social Studies -  welshoff@franklinps.net

Team Taylor Teachers

Miss Waks - Social Studies update

Hello Team Taylor Families!

My social studies class has completed their study of Ancient Greece and has moved onto Ancient Rome. I will post a couple pictures of our end of Greece. One pictures is of our Greek Olympic winners and the other is a compilation of all the words they recognized from their study during a video about Ancient Greece - it was quite an impressive list!

We are working on our study of Ancient Rome and the students have really been enjoying this unit. We started off with geography and they were most impressed with the fact that modern day Rome is in the same place as ancient Rome. We learned all about the cultural influences from the Etruscan people as well as the Greeks. We moved into the politics and how the government was structured. They were able to make a lot of connections between their ancient republic and our modern day three-branch democracy. We discussed how Rome expanded from a city into a massive empire through a variety of periods of expansion. The students learned all about the influences of Caesar and Augustus on the development of the empire. We even did a play based on the murder of Caesar - pictures here! The major assignment they are currently working on is a claim essay arguing that either Caesar or Augustus was the more influential leader. Check in with your children and see how their essays are coming - parental eyes are always helpful.

Enjoy the pictures!

Cells and Waves

Hello Team Taylor Families!

I haven't written a blog post in over a month and we have done so much in science class, I felt like I wanted to share with you all. Last time I wrote, the students were working on a socratic seminar. Since then we have finished an entire unit on cells and the different organelle functions. The students were taught how to use light microscopes and were able to observe specimens and other more daily objects. The students really enjoyed using microscopes and were really blown away by the microscopic things they could see using the different zoom lenses. We wrapped up our study of cells by completing a Cell Analogy project. The students worked in groups and compared either a plant or animal cell to something else. We had comparisons to sports teams, hotels, beaches, amusement parks and more! The students were so creative in their work and were proud to share with their peers in mini presentations. They are currently hanging up on the walls and the students love to walk by and see their peers' hard work.

After we finished our study of cells, we dove into a brand new unit that has never been taught before - waves! The students are excited to be learning something that no other 6th grade has learned and I am just as excited to be teaching something new. This unit is incredibly student driven, which means there is a lot of discovery learning taking place. The students are exploring with creating waves, using online simulators, and doing a lot of the learning more independently. This is a very new, fun way of learning and I think they are getting used to it. They were apprehensive at first, but in only a couple of weeks have already begun to enjoy ownership of their learning.

 I am posting a few pictures for you of the end of the cell unit as well as the beginning of our new waves unit.

Team Taylor May Newsletter

   May Newsletter

Hello  Parents and Guardians,

     It is hard to believe we are already in May! With that being said, students will be taking the math portion of the MCAS. It will be on Wednesday, 5/10  and Thursday, 5/11 for sixth grade. We want to make sure your student gets enough sleep, eats a healthy breakfast, and brings a healthy snack to school. Remember, it's okay to chew mint gum or eat mints, but only during MCAS.

    

       Now that the warmer weather is here, some students tend to get a strong case of Spring Fever. Parents, please remind your student that school is in session until June 21st  and we will indeed be teaching until then. This is not the time to let things slide or to fool around in school. We expect that students continue coming to school ready to learn up until the last days of school.

          

   

     As always, we want to extend our thanks for your continued support, as we value the home/school team approach to educating your child! 

                                                                                            Warm Regards,

                                                                                            Team Taylor Teachers

Science Update:

Hello families-

The past few weeks the students have been working very hard on preparing for a Socratic seminar. We studied bacteria, viruses, and the use of antibiotics through a variety of videos as well as articles. Some of these articles were high level and the students really rose to the challenge. The question that was posed for them was: Should antibiotics be prescribed to treat illness if doctors are not 100% positive their patients have a bacterial infection?? The students were assigned either yes they should or no they should not and were given time to perfect their arguments. Last week we held the Socratic seminar in which half the class discussed in a center circle and the other half observed. This was entirely student run discussion without direction from me at all. They were incredibly polite and well spoken. I am very proud of the work they have done and the arguments they were making to support their point. We are now taking all of this work and writing a claim essay both in class and at home.

Enjoy these pictures and videos!
Miss Waks

Science Update 

Hello!

The students began an entirely new unit of study a few weeks ago. We spent most of the year until recently studying Earth Science; we shifted our focus and we are now learning about Life Science. We began our unit of study by thinking about how we know if something is living or non-living or dead. The students did some exploration and thinking about this both in the classroom and at home. We then dove right into the needs and characteristics of living things. All living things have the same six characteristics and the same four needs. The students used their knowledge of those needs and characteristics to create their own living organism. They were so creative and really thought outside the box when creating their creatures. They are hanging up on a bulletin board in my room and the students love walking over and taking a look at what their peers created. 

We then moved on and the students started learning about binomial nomenclature and the idea of classification. We discussed what things in our every day lives we classify - silver wear, clothes in closets, school supplies etc. We started out by classifying shapes in as many ways as possible so that the students can see that there is usually more than one way to classify objects. The students became taxonomists and had to classify "creepy critters" based on observable features. They realized how difficult it is to classify and come up with a system that makes sense. We discussed how scientists today classify based on a common ancestor and similar structures. The students learned about Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution and how that helps scientists classify organisms today. The students have a quiz on either Wednesday or  Thursday (depending on their class period) on sections one and two of their book. Study with your child and have them teach you what they're learning in class. 

Miss Waks's Social Studies Class Update

Hello Parents-

I wanted to write you an update for my social studies class to keep you in the loop. My students have been working very hard on a variety of topics and projects lately. The last chapter we read focused on the differences between two ancient Greek city-states: Athens and Sparta. The students were asked each lesson, which city-state they would rather live in and WHY. This discussion is now culminating with a claim essay in which the students need to provide evidence to back up their claim. They have been working very hard on writing their essay and I'm sure they would love to share their drafts with you. Their final copies will be due this coming Friday, so make sure to check in with your children before that. We will have one more in-class day to edit/revise using my comments and a check-list, but other than that they will be finding time at home to perfect their essays. 

While they are writing, we moved on to Chapter 28 in our textbooks. This chapter is all about the battles between ancient Greeks and the Persians. We have been reading and analyzing videos about several battles between the two peoples. The students have been enjoying this chapter and really getting into being on the side of the ancient Greek people. As a wrap up the other day, the students created a phalanx of their own. A phalanx is the formation that the ancient Greek soldiers used to protect themselves. The students had Popsicle stick spears and were quite fierce.