6th Grade September Newsletter

Language Arts

We are excited to welcome you to a fantastic year at Merrill in our Language Arts class!

This month, we will dive into our first unit on mythology. Students will explore myths from the novel "Heroes, Gods, and Monsters of the Greek Myths" by Bernard Evslin, focusing on themes, plot development, literary devices, and various authorial techniques. Additionally, we'll work on crafting strong narratives.

We're also thrilled to introduce our first Literature Circles, where students will read a fiction novel inspired by mythology from different cultures around the world.

Students have recently completed the iReady diagnostic for reading comprehension. Please be on the lookout for their scores, which will come home this month, along with further information about your student’s reading progression this school year. They will need to be signed and returned.

To support your child’s reading skills at home, encourage them to read daily, discuss the stories they encounter, and ask open-ended questions about the characters and plot. Creating a cozy reading space and setting aside time for family reading can also enhance their experience.

Thank you for your continued support as we embark on this learning journey together!

Math

It has been so wonderful getting to know our new sixth graders these past few weeks! We know it’s an adjustment, and they are doing wonderfully at learning the systems and routines of class and Merrill generally. Our first unit in Math is Unit 2: Introducing Ratios. In this unit, students learn that a ratio is an association between two quantities. For example, 1 teaspoon of drink mix to 2 cups of water. Students will analyze contexts that are often expressed in terms of ratios, such as recipes, mixtures of different paint colors, constant speed, and uniform pricing. We will be using picture diagrams and double number lines as strategies to show our work with equivalent ratios. 

We will also be introducing IXL as a resource for homework and additional at-home practice. Please be on the lookout for your student’s assessment scores and information regarding next steps.

Math Jumpers

It has been a delight getting to know the students and start strong with our new year.  I am excited to get to teach your students as they start their journey through pre-algebra. We will start the year off with scale factors and scale copies.  We have an Engineer that is struggling with his Kite designs and needs our 6th grade Jumpers to help use appropriate scale models/drawings to design a kite that the students will be able to fly.    

At home we encourage you to discuss how scale factors can be used in the real world.  A few examples can be: using maps, looking at building/floor designs, model cars, etc..  We look forward to a great start with our first unit.  

We will be taking the IXL Benchmark the week of Sept 1st.

Science

Welcome to the 2025-2026 academic year. During August to the first week of September, students will initiate their learning about the metric system through the lens of science and engineering practices. Students will then answer the driving question (DQ): How can we effectively use our knowledge of living things to stop the growth of harmful microbes at our school? We will strive to understand Biotic/ abiotic factors, scale (1cm-1nm), characteristics of living things, and how environmental factors influence the growth of organisms, changes to physical or biological components in an ecosystem affect the population.

Social Studies

For our first unit, we will be examining the historical understanding of pandemics and epidemics. Too soon perhaps, but certainly relevant!  Students will develop skills to distinguish between primary and secondary sources,  analyze and contextualize these sources and craft argumentative paragraphs to respond to a compelling question regarding the history of pandemics and epidemics. This is a great first unit to start the students thinking critically in the Social Studies classroom. I have so enjoyed meeting your new Middle Schoolers this month and I look forward to watching them grow this year!