Monthly Learning Themes in the 6th Grade

I am especially fortunate to work on an awesome interdisciplinary team. While we are each assigned to teach a specific subject area-I work with two teachers that are creative and are ALWAYS thinking of ways to teach our superstar 6th graders. With the integration of Common Core into our instruction-we are working diligently to implement lessons that integrate knowledge and ideas from different mediums to increase student understanding of topics/concepts more effectively. Therefore, we have created our monthly theme focus:

2012-2013

6th Grade Bulldogs

Monthly Team Themes

August/September: Back to School

October: Goal Setting/Teamwork

November/December: Traditions

January/February: In the News

March: Poetry and Prose

April/May: The Future

All learning the students will do will focus upon these themes in each classroom. While we have curriculum calendars in place, I am currently developing book lists to incorporate with my Balanced Literacy instruction in my reading/language arts class. In addition-the students will have 6 different opportunities to work in our school cafeteria in a whole grade-level group setting on projects that are the monthly focus. We tackled three of these whole group activities last year with The Great Pumpkin, Symmetrical Snowflakes, and Toothpick Towers. Our “hamster wheels” are turning and we are in planning mode for the other three learning experiences.

An image of The Great Pumpkin

(estimating, carving, storyteling)