Even with a short week, we were able to accomplish so much! From meeting our buddy class, going on a tour of the Penn Museum, and creating a school wide peace sign there were smiles all day. The students were paired up with the students of Mr. Ferrante's second grade class. The students helped their buddies create pinwheels for peace. The project allowed the students to both discuss what a hero in the school is and practice helping others to follow step-by-step directions to create a pinwheel. When all was completed the students united with the whole school to make a peace sign and then place their pinwheels around the property.

On top of our buddy project, the students also were able to visit the Penn Museum and learn about Mummies and Ancient Egypt. Feel free to ask your child about their Free 1 year membership to the museum!

This week we worked on solving math equations and expressions using adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing to solve for the variables. To continue to practice these skills we played a variety of math games such as memory and connect. 

This week we spent a lot of time discussing Hatchet and the themes, setting, and plot sequence of the story. We also took the time to find evidence in the text to support opinions and answers. The students worked together to find how the setting supports or hurts Brian, the main character. We also went to the Book Fair this week. First to preview what books were available and then to actually make a purchase.

We have finally finished unit 1 of our Math topics. We have covered most of the 6th grade number systems topics; working through decimal operations, fraction division, and rational numbers. As we look ahead we begin to think about expressions and equations; both thinking about how to write them and how to solve them. We will utilize the skills that we have built with fractions, decimals, and rational numbers to deal with these equations. 

In Language Arts, we have been continuing to read Hatchet. Feel free to ask your students the following questions to begin a discussion about Hatchet and Brian's journey in the wilderness for survival:

• Brian thought that the danger in a city park at night was worse than the danger he faced in the woods. Do you agree or disagree? Explain.
• What caused Brian to cry until he was all cried out? Have you ever felt this way? Tell me about it. 
  
• In what way did Brian’s past science lessons come in handy? How did he apply this knowledge to his pursuit of fire?