Our First Week in Community/School Skills and Math
Hi, families of sixth graders,
I hope your children are enjoying our time together in 6th grade community and math! So far, we have had two days together since staring on Wednesday because all classes traveled to a fountain on Thursday, and had class again on Friday. This coming week we will be together all days but Thursday. Don't forget, we have NO school this Monday.
I showed your children a growth mindset math video this week, which I'm linking here. Be sure to watch this video at least once, even if they say, "I already watched this" and bookmark it for those times when you feel your child may need a reminder of their capabilities.
We spent much of our first community and math blocks getting to know each other by having a greeting, a game and some time to talk about how middle school has been going. I asked, "What has been hard about middle school so far?" I had intended to talk about what has been good, too, but they had so much to say about what has been hard, that I decided we just needed a little time to play together outside afterward. Teacher Carrie bought and delivered all of the sixth graders a box of Saint Cupcake "dots!!" It was a great time for your children to relax and just be with other 6th graders.
On Friday we made a list of what we like people to say and do in math class, and what we don't like people to say and do in math class. Ultimately, this will become our math agreements. After making that list, the kids were given an activity called "Four Fours," where they were tasked with creating all whole numbers, 1-20, using only four fours and any operation with which they were familiar. For example, (4x4) + 4 - 4 = 16. Students came up with using the square root of four and 4/4 as a fraction as well as 4/4 to the 4th power as a way of manipulating these numbers. Ask them what they liked about that challenge.
I look forward to a year of building community with your children, as well as engaging them in non-worksheet-based math problem solving and challenges!
Email me with questions at hchaney [at] pps.net
Best,
Heather :)
I hope your children are enjoying our time together in 6th grade community and math! So far, we have had two days together since staring on Wednesday because all classes traveled to a fountain on Thursday, and had class again on Friday. This coming week we will be together all days but Thursday. Don't forget, we have NO school this Monday.
I showed your children a growth mindset math video this week, which I'm linking here. Be sure to watch this video at least once, even if they say, "I already watched this" and bookmark it for those times when you feel your child may need a reminder of their capabilities.
We spent much of our first community and math blocks getting to know each other by having a greeting, a game and some time to talk about how middle school has been going. I asked, "What has been hard about middle school so far?" I had intended to talk about what has been good, too, but they had so much to say about what has been hard, that I decided we just needed a little time to play together outside afterward. Teacher Carrie bought and delivered all of the sixth graders a box of Saint Cupcake "dots!!" It was a great time for your children to relax and just be with other 6th graders.
On Friday we made a list of what we like people to say and do in math class, and what we don't like people to say and do in math class. Ultimately, this will become our math agreements. After making that list, the kids were given an activity called "Four Fours," where they were tasked with creating all whole numbers, 1-20, using only four fours and any operation with which they were familiar. For example, (4x4) + 4 - 4 = 16. Students came up with using the square root of four and 4/4 as a fraction as well as 4/4 to the 4th power as a way of manipulating these numbers. Ask them what they liked about that challenge.
I look forward to a year of building community with your children, as well as engaging them in non-worksheet-based math problem solving and challenges!
Email me with questions at hchaney [at] pps.net
Best,
Heather :)
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