Sixth Grade Voices In Rooms 103 & 104

November 20, 2009

www.SixthGradeVoices.weebly.com DeLaurentis/Marnell
DeLaurentis/Marnell

Hurry!
December Events to
Mark Your Calendars! Add to Your
Dear Families, Calendar
We’re thrilled to announce that we have an exciting month of
December coming up! Stop reading now and mark your
calendars with the dates to the right! 12/2
11 am Dismissal
th
Our first trimester ends on Friday, December 4 . We’d like to For Superintendent’s
Conference Day
invite you in to visit our classrooms. We will hold 2 different
celebrations in both rooms. Ms. Marnell will have student
math stores on display. Ms. DeLaurentis will have Realistic 12/4
Fiction stories on display. Each room will become a museum First Trimester
gallery; available for viewing and commenting on all of our Ends!
hard work throughout the month of November. We really COME VISIT OUR
CLASSROOMS!
hope to see you here! 9:00 AM
Math Store Presentation
Also, as you know, students have been uncovering the crime
&
scene in Ms. Marnell’s science room for the past few weeks. Realistic Fiction Writing
And now, the best is yet to come! Students will become Celebration
judges, jurors, witnesses, and attorneys during their very own
trial. We’re even more excited to announce that we have a
12/10
court date at a REAL court house! This is a must-see event! Crime Scene Court
We hope that you will be able to attend on 12/10. Date!
LIVE at Croton Court
Invitations for both of these exciting events are to follow and 9 AM
more information will be sent home. Please be on the look-out A must-see event!
for it!
DON’T FORGET TO MARK YOUR CALENDARS! 

Questions? Concerns? Updates? Please Email us!

 Sixth Grade Voices Page 2
NEW
Classroom Bloggers, Classroom & School News
By, Saskia
Newscasters,
Historians & Lately in Social Studies we’ve been learning about
Photographers
different time periods and places. The most recent
is Mesopotamia (Mes-oh-po-tame-e-a), meaning
between two rivers. It was the cradle of civilization
itself. We’ve been taking notes on the pros and
cons of where they settled and what their
Newscasters geography and government was like.
*May O.
Also, you might have known that the author, Todd
*Saskia L.
Strasser, visited our school. He talked about the
process of creating a book. He also mentioned a
Bloggers few of his favorite books and authors and J.K.
Rowling is one of them. One of the best things
*Johnny P.
about his visit was that he kept it fun. He made
jokes which made the kids more interested in
Historians being an author. Something inspiring was that he
said that everyone fails sometimes, but you have to
August P.
keep trying.
Shane A. That was the news report for the week.
Tune into next week’s newscast!
Photographers
Alison G. CHECK OUT JOHNNY’S BLOG!
Mike B.
Johnny blogged about our author visit from
Todd Strasser. Comment on his blog post and
tell us what you think. What’s your favorite
author? Have you met him or her?
 Sixth Grade Voices Page 3
Organization
Academic Round-Up
Don’t forget!
Tips…
*As you finish a class, put What are we currently working on? Ask your child about…
the books, papers, and
homework assignments you
need at home in your READING: Finished our read aloud, The Tiger Rising,
backpack. That way at the
end of the day, you are Pushing our thinking about texts and responding in a meaningful way,
already packed to go asking “What is this text REALLY about?”
home.

*Check each morning to be

sure that you have pencils,
WRITING: Revising realistic fiction stories; making our writing
pens, paper, and other even better by re-thinking dialogue, setting and endings in our stories,
class supplies to take to
your classes.
Celebration on Friday, 12/4

*Keep all papers neatly in

folders so they don’t get MATH: Finishing up stores and finding tax, tip, discounts and
crinkled. Use plastic
percents, using percent proportions. Store presentation on Friday,
folders instead of paper
folders because they are 12/4
more durable and last
longer.
. SCIENCE: Working on Crime Scene court cases. We just
*Keep binders and folders
chose court positions and will be working on our individual roles to
organized. Periodically,
such as after a unit of prepare for the case in December
study or a trimester, take
home your folders and
clean them out. So that SOCIAL STUDIES: Just began Mesopotamia; the cradle of
you are not overwhelmed,
civilizations. We are practicing taking notes on graphic organizers.
take home a different
folder every day until you Test on Mesopotamia 12/3
have cleaned them all out.

* Anything you don’t need
at school, take home
immediately.
*Take home anything that
you are not using; such as
papers, jackets, or note
cards.
*Have a box at home to put your papers in when you clean
out your folders, binder, and/or locker.
*If organizing, cleaning, doing a project, etc. seems
overwhelming then break it down into smaller parts.
*At the end of every day, read your agenda before
you leave the locker area or during your last class to
be sure you have what you need to study or complete
homework.

*Pack your backpack in the evening so it is ready to

go the next day.
 Sixth Grade Voices Page 4

HISTORIAN CORNER! By, August & Shane

August Reports…
Over the past few weeks in Social Studies we have been divided into small groups. We have been
studying and becoming experts on Early Humans. We researched different topics and created
presentations on them. Here are the topics we studied: Ice Age, Stone Age, Hunters & Gatherers,
Early Farming.

Shane Reports…
Rooms 103 and 104 had just finished their Early Human Unit last week and have just started their
unit on Ancient Mesopotamia, the "cradle" of ancient civilizations. Mesopotamia was the first
ancient civilization. It influenced many civilizations after it.

BREAKING ODD NEWS

Lost man drives nine hours to get newspaper. An elderly man who went out to fetch a morning
newspaper ended up driving nearly 400 miles after getting lost and taking a wrong turn onto a
major Australian highway, police said on Wednesday. (News from Yahoo.)

Todd Strasser Visits!

By, May
Last week we had an author come visit our school. His name is Todd
Strasser. He talked about what inspires him for ideas when he
writes. He has written more than 130 books. Some of his books are:
*If I Grow Up *How I Changed My Life *Boot Camp
*Mob Princess *CONfidence *Help! I’m trapped… (series)

I know that many people have read his books and they say that they
are very good. I have not read any of them yet. You can get his
books at any bookstore or library.
That was the exciting event of our week!
 Sixth Grade Voices Page 5

Aria & Emily enjoying

Hot Chocolate at the
Tiger Rising Marathon Ms. D’s treats to Saskia & Marissa
celebrate positive working on the math
behavior from the sub store project
report

Justin working on the

Leanne & Emma deciding
computer during X-
what foods to put in their
store period

Above Pictures & Captions

by Alison G.

Photographer
Zone! Pictures & Captions Below
by Mike B.

Mike M. & Dylan’s math store

Math Store by Teamwork Stars for

Brandon, Shane Rooms 103 & 104!
and Mike B. We have a new goal now!

Brandon using Google
sketch-up math