Today officially marks the end of social studies for Team A for marking period 2.Time is certainly flying by! We have completed our study of Europe which has included a “daily snapshot” of a unique or famous landmark, listening to music that originated from the area of study as well as research, curricular work and activities to help students gain insight into the culture, governments and economies of Europe.

Monday , December 12th, will be the start of the marking period for Team B and I look forward to having these students in class once again!

Students are working on their European country reports which are due on Decmber 6th. They have had the opportunity to use the laptops for an entire class period for their research and also books from our school library. Please encourage your child to keep working on this project so that it is complete by 12/6/11.

We continue our study of the governments, economies, geopgraphy and cultures of Europe and the classes are doing a great job connecting what we learned in our geography unit to this new unit.

Please remember that our four and a half weeks goes by quickly, and this class will end for marking period two on December 9th.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

We have started our “travel” through Europe! Each day the students are welcomed with music from a European nation and we “visit” a specific city or landmark via video clips.This week our travels took us to the Colosseum in Rome and also to the ruins of the ancient Italian city of  Pompeii.

We discussed Europe’s ancient history and compared it to the United States. We will also begin work on a banner which will represent a famous European and their contribution to society.

It is hard to believe that we are wrapping up our Geography unit in Social Studies tomorrow! The students have done a great job on both teams, and now have an understanding of the 5 themes of geography, geographers tools, culture, landforms and various maps. These skills will benefit them as we begin our study of Europe for the 2nd marking period.

If you or your family can share an artifact or pictures from a European country, we would love to share them in class! Please talk to your child about their ancestory as well, so they can have a special connection to the areas we study!

This has been a very busy week in 6th grade! All students are excited about their hero projects and the Wax Museum on October 28th! We hope that you can join us for this special event at 8:15am.

As the marking period draws to an end, please makes sure to check in with your child about 2 major projects due soon: the vocabulary notebook on 11/2 and the continent project on 11/3. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Conference letters will be sent home soon asking that you call to make an appointment to visit your childs’ teachers.Please remember that due to departmentalization in 6th grade this year, you may want to make several appointments since each teacher will be able to speak only about their subject area.

Our week in Social Studies focused on weather and climate, population and the effect it has on certain areas and we began a discussion of culture. We had many discussions with partners reagrding these areas and the students were able to make great connections to our studies.

We began our social studies stations and continued work on our World News using newspapers. Please be aware that the student vocabulary notebooks will be collected and graded on November 2nd. This is an ongoing project and should be completed over the next few weeks.

We have discussed the 5 themes of geography and started appying them to our studies. This week we focused on the tools geographers use to learn more about the world. We shared what should be in our own “toolboxes” so that we can do our jobs well and related these thoughts to how geographers study the world.

We created landforms with clay and also made personal connections to each landform so that we could understand them better. On Friday, we will begin to search newspapers for “world news” , share articles, summarize and find the main idea. We will also start to work on geography stations which will review and reinforce the topics studied thus far.

Please note that several grades have been posted and that student vocabulary notebooks are due on November 2. These notebooks are an ongoing project and should be worked on weekly.

Please be aware that there will be a social studies test on Wednesday, October 5th. Students will be allowed to use their graphic organizers for the test. This is a good way for the students to focus on how to take good notes and utilize the information discussed in class.

All 3 new classes are off to a great start and are a pleasure to teach! Please remind your child to keep up with their vocabulary notebook. These will be collected and graded during the last week of October. It is much easier and more beneficial to work on it a little bit at a time!

We have had a great time “exploring the world ” over the past four and a half weeks! Tomorrow, 9/30, marks the end of our first Social Studies class. Starting Monday, 10/3, I will welcome Team B to class!

We will be focusing on the same curricular areas as we did during the first half of the marking period: geography, geographer’s tools, culture and natural resources. I look forward to meeting a new group of students!

As we head to the end of our first unit for Social Studies, please be aware of two projects that will be due soon. The first, is a vocabulary notebook that the students have worked on throughout the course. This is to be completed and handed in on 9/27. The other project is a Continent Mapping Project which will be presented to the class on 9/29. Both projects should be able to be completed in class, and only taken home if they need extra time.

You should have all received a mid term progress report, but please continue to check the Parent Portal to keep updated on your child’s progress.