Language Arts

Happy February! Here’s what our 6th‑grade language arts class will be doing this month.

Literature Circles: Reading Checkpoints & Quizzes 

Students are continuing their literature circle novels with weekly reading checkpoints and short comprehension quizzes to confirm progress and understanding. Important dates:

Checkpoint 2 quiz: Monday, February 2

All novels due (finished reading): Monday, February 9

Checkpoint 3 quiz: Monday, February 9

All checkpoint assignments and quiz scores are posted in Schoology — please check your student’s account if you have questions about progress or grades.

Quarter 3 Project: Dystopian Newscast 

This month students will begin their Quarter 3 project: a dystopian fiction newscast. Working in small groups, students will:

Analyze elements of dystopian literature from their novels

Write scripted news segments that reflect genre conventions and themes

Film and edit their newscasts using classroom devices

Apply collaboration, planning, and presentation skills

We’ll provide time in class for planning, rehearsal, and production; students should bring any required props or costumes on production days (schedule to be shared in Schoology).

Writing Focus: Argumentative Essays (Revision & Cross‑Text Evidence) 

In writing this month students will perfect their argumentative essays by:

Taking a clear, focused position on a prompt

Supporting that position with multiple, relevant pieces of textual evidence

Developing in‑depth, convincing explanations that connect evidence to the claim

Referencing and synthesizing evidence from multiple texts when appropriate

Students will revise drafts in response to feedback and practice polishing introductions, transitions, and conclusions.

Reading Skills Continued Throughout February we will continue strengthening:

Using context clues to determine word meaning

Identifying and analyzing themes across texts

Determining author’s purpose and craft

Making careful inferences and citing textual support

How families can help

Ask your student about their literature circle book and what checkpoint they’re working toward.

Check Schoology for checkpoint deadlines, quiz scores, and project schedules.

Remind students to bring headphones or earbuds on filming & editing days if available.

We’re excited to see students apply their reading and writing skills in creative, collaborative ways this month. Thank you for your continued support — please reach out if you have any questions or need help accessing Schoology.

Math

This month, 6th-grade students will be wrapping up their Unit 7 on Rational Numbers by studying absolute value, ordering and comparing rational numbers, and plotting and interpreting points on a coordinate plane. Then we will be beginning Unit 6: Expressions & Equations! In this unit, students will be solving one-step equations and inequalities using all four operations. Students learn the difference between an equation and an expression, as well as how to isolate and solve for variables when given an expression or equation, and combine like terms. In this process, students will review the Order of Operations, using the famous tool PEMDAS (which I’m sure you all remember!) as they solve equations involving parentheses, exponents, and all four operations. We will also begin our next Project Based Learning (PBL) sometime in Unit 6. 

Students are expected to complete 30 minutes per week of at home practice on IXL. This platform has opportunities to learn with an example, watch a video of how to complete a problem, and the program gives feedback when a question is answered incorrectly. Please work with your student to carve out time and create a habit for additional practice at home!

6th Grade Support Students: These students should continue their intervention skills work and track progress on their Unit 5 tracker. Unit 5 skills have a deadline of February 20, 2026.  

Learning 7th Grade Math (for 6th Grade students): In order to stay on track for extended learning, these students must complete Unit 5 by the end of February and Unit 6 by the end of March.

Math Jumpers

We are closing up our unit involving equations and expressions and moving into our angles, triangles, and prisms unit. In this unit, the students will use formulas to find the measurement of 2 and 3D. objects  This will include Area, Surface Area and Volume; along with measuring of complimentary and supplementary angles.  Students will have the opportunity to build their own 3D prisms using legos in order to visualize compound shapes. 

Science

In the past week, we started our new science unit that is based on weather, climate and water cycling. Particularly, students will be focusing on what causes hail to form and fall. To accomplish this learning students will be engaging in the analysis and interpretation of data sets to identify patterns (similarities across data sets) that provide evidence that air temperature changes based on altitude above Earth’s surface independently of location or time of year. We will culminate with a project title, “What happens to a community when severe hail happens?”

Social Studies