Synthesizing Information and Ancient Greece!

Hello Team Taylor Families!

Here is a quick update of what is happening in ELA and Social Studies.

In ELA, students are learning how to synthesize information from multiple sources when responding to text. Students are learning how reading informational texts enhance their understanding of the world in which they live. They are also looking at how they can defend their ideas in writing. We are learning the ANSWER strategy, which helps them to analyze materials that they read, organize their ideas in a note plan, and select relevant evidence to support their ideas when writing a response. They are looking at various types of articles: argumentative, informational, and narrative. They will learn how to craft an appropriate response to each of these tasks.

We will then move into working with folklore, with a focus on legends and epics. Once we learn about folklore, we will move into our next novel, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor. Much of our focus will be how reading stories and poems show common human experiences.

In Social Studies, we are learning all about ancient Greece. Students learned about the geography and how it impacted the communication and settlement of this amazing civilization. We are currently studying about the various forms of government (Monarchy, Oligarchy, Tyranny, and finally, Democracy). Students are analyzing the difference between an Athenian Direct Democracy and a Representative Democracy, which is a legacy left to us from the ancient Greeks. From there, we will move into a close analysis of the life in the two city-states of Athens and Sparta. We will look closely at the government, economy, and education in both of these different regions of ancient Greece.

Ratios, Rates, Proportions and Lunar Phases!

Dear parents and students,

I would like to update you on where we are heading in both math and science.

In math, our focus will be on ratios, rates, and proportions.  We will be learning how to compare different quantities of things using ratios.  The two types of ratios are part-to-part ratios and part-to-whole ratios.  We will be using both types to solve real world problems.  Our work in creating equivalent fractions will help us when using proportions.  The major skills needed to be successful during this unit are multiplication and division.  The work we do during this unit will be the foundation of our work in percentages.  I am attaching multiple videos which you may find useful as we work through this unit.

Ratios & Rates

Proportions

In science, our focus will be on the eight major phases of the moon.  Students will be working as part of a team to design a model which will help to show and explain the major lunar phases.  As they design their model, they will be working through the engineering design process.  While I will help guide students in creating their model, I will not explain to them how the moon phases are created.  Students will be working to discover this on their own.  Our ultimate goal is to answer the question, why does the moon look different each night during a one month period?  Below are the major steps in the engineering design process students will be working through as they design their model.

Math and Science Update- January

Happy new year!

As we enter the new year, it is important to keep steady the school year's momentum.  This time of year can sometimes be the most challenging given the short days and colder temperatures.  Be sure to check your child's binder and planner every night and to cross-check this with our homework pages.  With that said, let's take a look at where we've been and where we're going in both science and math.

In math, students are finishing up our unit on decimal operations.  Students have been practicing their skills in adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing with decimal numbers.  It is important for students to keep their work very organized and make reasonable estimates to check their answers.  This unit on decimal operations should come to a close at the end of next week, around January 12th.

From there, we will shift our focus to ratios and proportions.  Students will use ratios to compare quantities of different things in part-to-part ratios as well as part-to-whole ratios.  Additionally, students will use these ratios to help them solve real world problems.  They may also need to use pre-algebraic thinking to solve for missing parts in proportions.

In science, we have been working through our unit on plate tectonics and the theory of continental drift.  Students have been studying the evidence presented by Alfred Wegener and the scientists who followed.  The culminating task for this unit has students writing a letter to the science community of the 1950's urging them to accept Wegener's hypothesis and accept it as a theory.

After we complete this unit, we will move on to rock layers and the law of superposition.  Students will learn about relative dating, cross-cutting, and the law of superposition.  After rock layers, we will move to other topics in Earth and Space science, including gravity, the earth, moon, and sun system, and the Milky Way Galaxy.

Team Taylor Newsletter

January 2018

Happy New Year Team Taylor families!

Welcome back after what we hope was a wonderful and joyous time spent with family and friends! We

also want to thank the Team Taylor families for the generous donations for our Team Raffle.

We continue to encourage you at home to take a look at your student's agenda book and compare it to

our Google Classroom pages.  We also encourage you to check your child's grades via the Aspen portal.  If

you have any questions regarding access to this, please send us an email and we can help you to gain access.  

Students realize how important it is to complete their assignments with great effort, including homework, as

this has a direct impact on their grades.  

As a part of our Admirable Attribute program, Team Taylor recognizes two students from our team who

exemplify the attribute from the authors we read in 6th grade.  December's attribute was Perseverance.

Students will be nominating for this in the next few days.   The attribute that we will highlight for January

is Generous.

Keep an eye out for both Mr. Kelley and Mrs. Welshoff to update the blog with curriculum updates.

We value the home/school relationships, please feel free to contact us if you have any concerns or

questions about your child's progress.  We have times built into our schedule for parent/teacher conferences.  

We meet as a team and discuss your child's progress.  Email is the best method to reach us.

Warm regards,

Team Taylor Teachers

Important Dates This Month:

Monday, Jan. 1 - New Years Day - No school

Monday, Jan. 13th Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, no school

Team Taylor Admirable Attribute Recipients:

September - Optimistic - Ben P. & Hannah M.

October - Curious - Ryan P. & Sabrina T.

November - Respectful - Nicolas A. & Sammy B.

December - Perseverance - To be nominated

Team Taylor News

December 2017

It is hard to believe that we have wrapped up Term One!  The students have accomplished so much in this first term and we are extremely proud of them. They have learned to navigate their schedules, classroom routines, and have made some new friends in the process.  They are learning how to manage their time when preparing for long term assignments and tests along with learning a new curriculum.

We continue to encourage you at home to take a look at your student's agenda book and compare it to our website homework.   We also encourage you to check your child's grades via the Aspen portal.  Students are realizing how important it is to complete their homework assignments with great effort. This has a direct impact on their grades.  

As a part of our Admirable Attribute program, Team Taylor recognizes two students from our team who exemplify the attribute from the authors we read in 6th grade.  December's attribute is Perseverance.

We value the home/school relationships, please feel free to contact us if you have any concerns or questions about your child's progress.  We have times built into our schedule for parent/teacher conferences.  We meet as a team and discuss your child's progress.  Email is the best method to reach us.  Our email addresses are listed below.

Warm regards,

Team Taylor Teachers

Important Dates This Month:

Friday, Dec. 1st - Term One Grades Close

Wednesday, Dec. 13th Report Cards Distributed

December 23rd  - Jan.1 No School Holiday Break

Team Taylor Admirable Attribute Recipients:

September - Optimistic - Ben P. & Hannah M.

October - Curious - Ryan P. & Sabrina T.

November - Respectful - to be nominated

English and Social Studies Update

In ELA we are about to embark on narrative writing with our Stargirl novel. Students have been focusing on various techniques authors use to hook a reader's attention. We have been focusing on the elements of plot and how conflict drives the key events in a plot. Students have been paying close attention to how the characters' thoughts, actions and words create conflict in a plot line of a story. They will now have an opportunity to write their own version of Chapter 24 in the novel. Most exciting of all, we send these writing narratives to the author of the novel, Jerry Spinelli himself!

In social studies we are about to begin our study of ancient Egypt. We will look at the geographical location of Egypt and Kush. The guiding essential question we will think about is how does location or place have an impact on the growth of a civilization?  We will also study a variety of pharaohs and their achievements, along with daily life in ancient Egypt and the kingdom of Kush. Students will be able to identify the achievements of the three major periods of ancient Egyptian history: Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom. Through their studies, students will also be able to explain the social pyramid of Egyptian society.

Math & Science Update

In math, we recently finished our first unit which was a lengthy unit.  This unit helped to solidify students' understanding of fractions and decimals and to give them the necessary skills for the work we will be doing in our upcoming unit on fractions.  Students can expect to work with all four operations with fractions and mixed numbers.  They will need to rely on their skills with Least Common Multiple and Greatest Common Factor in order to work efficiently with fractions.  If math facts are an issue, it is recommended that your child spend some time practicing their facts as they will allow students to work more effectively with fractions.

In Science, we recently completed our first two units.  We completed our unit on the nature of science and our unit on mixtures, mass, density, volume, and weight.  This week we started our unit on energy in chemical reactions.  Students will be attempting to answer our essential question; how does energy transfer to and from the environment?  We will be focusing on exothermic and endothermic reactions in order to answer this question.

Below are pictures from our mixtures unit and from our current unit on energy in chemical reactions.