12-9-13          6^th Grade Update

-Great to see our first wintery weather!

-We are the first class to have all our ski forms in!!! Mucho Gracias!!!

-One more skating day this coming Friday 13.

                                    -Make sure your student has X-C Ski equipment ready to go!

                                                -Please send warm cloths for sledding.

            On Thursday, December 5, Nelson Mandela died. The following day the class and I spoke briefly about this. Few of the students had much of an idea of his life and ideas. This seems an important moment in time to stop and think about leadership and what Mandela contributed to understanding and fighting for freedom. Beth, my daughter, will be here over the next two weeks introducing Mandela and his place in South Africa and world history. Below are some links for the students to explore. The New York Times film has moments of violence that some may find hard to view.

http://www.mandelahistory.org/index.php

http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/05/world/africa/Mandela-Timeline.html#/#time216_6691

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/05/world/africa/nelson-mandela-obit-coverage.html?_r=1&

Beth and I sent home a Mandela quote for the students to share with their families and start to think about. They will discuss this with Beth on Thursday.

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." (From Long Walk to Freedom, 1995)

Discuss this as a family. In your own words, what does this quote mean? How does it relate to leadership and citizenship? Write down your thoughts for discussion in class

Welcome Back! I hope you all had a great holiday with family and friends.

UPDATES:

6th Homeroom: I have scheduled our trip to Montpelier for late January and will send out an e-mail with particulars by mid-December. We will visit the Vermont Historical Society Museum, the Vermont State House, and the Vermont Supreme Court. We will visit during the time that Susan Flint, a current 8th graders, is also there engaged as a page at the State House.

Reminders for Friday 6: Skating @ Vermont Academy rink

Nacho Day- lunch for $6

Forms for Ski Program due

6th Math: This week we will be working on finishing up work on decimals and getting ready for the chapter test through converting numbers into  scientific notation, extend knowledge of exponential notation and powers of ten and further practice of multiplying and dividing. Our next unit will be jumping into pre-algebra concepts of variables, patterns, formulas and graphs.

7th Math: Some of the students will be finishing up work with rates, ratios and proportions. Others will be working in pre-algebra translating words into algebraic expressions, evaluating expressions, and using formulas in a spreadsheet.

8th Math: The class will come together to work on learning how to use a graphing calculator to graph equations and to expand their understanding of statistics with a new measure of range: mean absolute deviation.

November 8th walk to Black Mountain with the 5th grade. Thank you for the photo, Charlie!

6^th grade NEWS:

At All School Meeting on Wednesday, November 20, TGS buddies will be constructing Thanksgiving Baskets to go to the Putney Food Shelf. The sixth grade families are responsible for providing bags of mixed nuts in shells (1 per student) for this project. Please get these in by Tuesday.

On Friday, November 15, we had our first grades 5-8 skating at the Vermont Academy rink. There will be three more: 11/ 22, 12/6 and 12/13. We had a great time and returned to a warm lunch provided by Tammy, Liz and the 8^th grade.

There will be one more Friday lunch on November 22.

ALL SCHOOL PASTA DAYS EVERY FRIDAY THROUGH NOVEMBER, STARTING THIS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1! Tired of making lunches day in and day out? The 8th graders will be giving you a break! Every Friday for the month of November they will host an all school lunch in our auditorium and will be serving pesto pasta or pasta marinara with bread and a fruit or veggie, to raise money for their trip to Ecuador! Only $5! There will be a gluten free option as well. See you there! Contact Liz Jackson or Tammy Neathawk if you would like to donate food items or your time!

The 6th grade is preparing for a presentation at All School Meeting on hunger. 

Here are some relevant websites.

http://www.vtfoodbank.org/

http://www.hungerfreevt.org/

http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/us_hunger_facts.htm

http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america.aspx

http://www.bread.org/hunger/us/

http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/about

http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/

http://www.fao.org/home/en/

http://www.kidscanmakeadifference.org/

6^th Grade News

We finished our month of food collection with 4 full boxes of food and sent them down to the food shelf on Monday. Thank you for your help with this. The 8^th grade is collecting for the month of November. You may leave donations in the box by Tammy’s office. The 6^th grade students made posters and announced the need for donations at ASM many times during our month. The students will be researching hunger in VT for a brief presentation at ASM before Thanksgiving break.

We continue to work on getting and staying organized. The class spent time getting all their loose papers properly placed in the appropriate binders and folders. The students are better able to locate and use their resources once they have done this organization. We also continue to talk about how to plan, prioritize and get their assignments done on time.

In our free time, the class has prepared cards for Sheryl and begun an extended game of Apples to Apples. I have just finished reading to them the short story: The Lady or the Tiger, which generated a lively discussion and we have started Homer Price, which they all seem to enjoy.

I am in hopes of having 5^th 8^th grade skating planned soon, with a possible first date of Friday, Nov. 15. So… check that the skates fit and are sharpened and please make sure they have guards or a hefty bag to live in. Remember one good pair of socks that reaches above the skate will help to avoid blisters. (Deb and I have also made the first inquiries to Okemo about the 6-week ski program that starts after the first of the year.)

Yesterday I spent an hour with Tara and Benjamin. They are both doing well.

Kathy

October 30, 2013

6th grade:

This week is the last week 6th grade is in charge of collecting for the Putney Food Shelf. The 6th graders have made posters to hang around the school and announced the need at every All School Meeting. The food donations will get delivered on Friday, so get those non-perishable items in.


Math:

The 6th and 7th graders concluded a two-day exploration of the Fibonacci sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89... They were given a Romanesco and asked to do a series of quick sketches.

This close observation allowed them to see and describe a spiral growth pattern. They counted the spirals in each direction and looked at some examples found online.

They calculated the ratios of consecutive numbers in the Fibonacci sequence and expressed them as decimals to the thousandth place. The students noticed that the solutions, when plotted, "bounced" back and forth and seem to be "approaching" a number close to 1.618. They tried to imagine continuing to find more of these Fibonacci ratios and if they would "squeeze" down to a single number. They decided they would not be able to.

They were approaching "phi" Φ, the golden ratio. 

• The golden ratio  1.618033988749894848204586834... in mathematics, art, and architecture. (wikipedia)

We ended the class watching a video created by Vi Hart.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahXIMUkSXX0>

                                                 Welcome to Benjamin Barrett, born today!
                                                                October 20, 2013

October 20, 2013

Study Skills update: Some strategies for problem solving:

• Find the question and rephrase it in your own words.
• What unit should the answer be in?
• Use graphs, charts, diagrams or pictures to represent, organize or visualize information.
• Figure out what information you need to solve the problem and disregard the unnecessary “stuff”.
• Change the numbers to more “friendly numbers.
• Make an estimate. Is your answer reasonable?
• Find a similar problem that you have already done.

Oct 21 Math update:

6^th grade:        The students will expand operations with whole numbers to operations with decimal numbers. They will benefit from practicing reading very large and very small numbers. In our study of the decimal system we will delve deeply into how the powers of ten are related to extended multiplication and division and as preparation for work with exponents.

7^th grade:        Students will be working on rates and ratios and their application to real world situations. The will need to be practicing operaitons with rational numbers for this work as well.

8^th grade:        Students will expand their knowledge of proportional reasoning through rates and ratios. They will practice division of fractions and use division properties to solve simple equations.