In Reading class, students continued their exploration of Touching Spirit Bear. Our focus this month has been on Common Core Standards CCSS 6.1, 6.3, and 6.4, which emphasize citing textual evidence, analyzing characters and events, and understanding word meaning and tone in context.

Students are actively engaged in their reading through the use of post-it notes to “Mark Their Reading,” where they record thoughts, questions, and key details. Throughout each chapter, students also turn and talk with partners to share their feelings, make inferences, and predict what might happen next.

To strengthen comprehension, we are also using a plot diagram to track the structure of the story—including the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. This helps students see how the events connect and how the main character changes over time.

In addition, we have been using a variety of Active Reading Strategies, including echo reading, choral reading, paired reading, and repeated reading. These strategies help students develop confidence, build fluency, and bring the story to life!

Reminder- iReady Reading requirements. Students are expected to complete 35-45 minutes and 1 lesson per week for a weekly summative WIN grade. 

In October, students wrote a summative story called “Beyond My Door” where they described the experience of finding something (real or fantasy) using sensory details and emotional actions. Ask your student about the topic of their story and if they would like to share it with you! 

Moving forward, we will be developing our creative writing techniques by learning more about figurative language and dialogue. Students will use these techniques in our end-of-unit narrative summative where they describe a challenge that they overcame and learned from. If possible, discuss this story prompt with your student and how it might relate to their personal experiences. 

In October, students deepened their understanding of the Five Themes of Geography by first creating a map of a familiar location, which allowed them to apply map components in a hands-on way. They then developed a "Five Themes of Geography" booklet, using these themes to a chosen world city. Moving forward, the curriculum will address the question, "How does where you live affect how you live?" by exploring the geography and culture of modern Iraq, Iran, and Egypt, and their ties to ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. This unit will use diverse resources to build knowledge, with a major emphasis on improving students' written responses and evidence citation using the R.A.C.E. writing strategy. Student learning will be assessed through content quizzes and culminating projects for each region.

On Friday, November 7th, 2025, students will observe Veterans Day by learning about and paying tribute to the brave men and women who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces during wartime and in peacetime.

In Social Studies classes, the focus will be on reflecting upon the significance of this national holiday. Key activities will include:

Our science exploration continues as students transition from the Microbiome unit into our second literacy-based Amplify program unit: Metabolism. This unit challenges students to understand the complex chemical processes that sustain life.

Throughout November, students will be building their scientific vocabulary and literacy skills as they investigate this topic. Key terms for the "Metabolism" unit include:

Amino acid: The basic building blocks of proteins.

We will be wrapping up our unit on expressions and equations, where we worked on finding the area of parallelograms, triangles, and polygons, creating nets of 3D shapes and finding their surface area, writing and interpreting algebraic expressions, evaluating exponents, and finding the greatest common multiple and least common factor. We will move on to decimal and fraction operations, where students will add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals and fractions.  

Our advanced class is finishing up their decimal and fractions operations unit and will move on to studying ratios. All work will continue to be posted to Google Classroom. All workbook pages and classwork are posted for review, along with a study guide for any upcoming test or quiz. 

Reminder: Students are to complete 2 iReady lessons each week and 45 minutes for a WIN grade. Quarter 2 officially starts Thursday, October 30th, so make sure your students reflect on their strengths and weaknesses of Quarter 1 and how they can improve.

Students have completed their first quarter of middle school and are learning organizational skills and strategies to help them be successful academically. They will be receiving progress marks on their goals and objectives.

On October 29, 2025, our students enjoyed our first Crafternoon! For a $10 donation, they spent the afternoon decorating pumpkins and showing off their creativity. All proceeds supported the 6th Grade Activity Fund.

Our next Crafternoon will be held on November 19, where students can make friendship bracelets with friends. A late bus will be provided for those who need it!