6th Grade

On this page, you will find low and high tech resources for 6th Grade students.

• Students will read aloud or independently every day. Make this a consistent routine every day--choose a time and a special place in your home.

• Students will answer the following:

• What is this book mostly about? (Think main idea.) What did you learn in this book? (If fiction, think about the text’s lesson; if nonfiction, think about the topic.) Jot your ideas on paper.

• Students will answer the following:

• Think about what you already know related to the book or what the book reminds you of. Share your thinking with someone or write your thoughts down on paper.

• Students will answer the following:

  • For stories: Think about the characters, setting, problem, solution and events in the text. Who was in the story? When and where did it happen? What was the problem and how was it solved? What happened in the story? Jot your ideas down on paper.

  • Ask yourself, “What were the author’s feelings about this character or topic? How do you know?” Share your thinking with someone or write your thoughts down on paper.

  • Write a response to the book read or heard. What was the text about? What did you learn?

• To refine your phonics or reading comprehension skills, watch a BrainPOP Jr. video daily and complete the associated video tasks.

  • CLICK | BrainPOP Jr. - Offers free access during school closures. Click on the banner at the top of the page and set up a family account to access many Reading and Writing videos and activities.

• In order to learn about a grade level appropriate topic through reading, choose an activity from Scholastic Learn at Home or ReadWorks.com and complete the tasks associated with the texts.

  • CLICK | Scholastic Learn at Home - 20 days of cross-curricular learning experiences based on stories, videos, and learning challenges.

  • CLICK | ReadWorks.com - Create a free account and choose texts according to grade level and topic to refine your phonics, grammar, or reading comprehension skills, watch a BrainPOP video daily and complete the associated video tasks.

• Have students track current events using Newsela and keep a journal to record their opinions about what is happening in the world. Some questions students can respond to are:

  • What was the main idea or argument?

  • What details were shared to support this?

  • What’s really sticking with you?

  • What new questions do you have after reading this? (Then encourage students to research answers to their questions.)

  • CLICK | NewsELA - Sign up for a free account. Use this site to find articles about current events that your child is interested in for them to read and answer questions. Adjust texts to match your student’s grade level.

• Write a paragraph for or against the existence of percentages. After all, any percent is equivalent to another rational number. Do we really need them? Write your opinion on this issue.

• Based on your favorite college or NBA team determine the mean, median, and mode of basketball free-throws in the game.

• Pick 3 liquid items from your refrigerator (milk, orange juice, mayonnaise, etc.). Find and record the volume of the container. For each container, convert the volume to a new measurement. For example, I have 2 cups of barbecue sauce, which is equivalent to 16 oz of barbecue sauce.

• Locate the temperatures from the last two months and put them in ascending order. Create a line graph to show how temperatures have been fluctuating. Create a word problem using the data gathered about temperatures. Solve the word problem.

• Help your family become better online shoppers. Compare the prices of two different brands and/or different sized containers. Determine which item is the better buy and explain why.

• With your guardian, complete a coderZ challenge.

  • CLICK | Stechchallenges - All challenges are due by 3/30 midnight

• With your guardian, create a concept map that showcases the different types of rocks Texas has with 2-3 sentences explaining what each rock is .

  • CLICK | Texas State rocks - Presents rocks of our Lone Star State.

• With your guardian, read about metals and nonmetals, and search for 10 items in your home that would be categorized as metals, and another 10 items that would be categorized as nonmetals. In a table, write down the list of items with a 1-2 sentence next to each item explaining your category decision. For example: stainless steel pot - metal because it is shiny, conducts thermal energy, is malleable and ductile.

  • CLICK | Metals and Nonmetals reading passage - A comprehension passage about metals and nonmetals.

• With your guardian, create a sun diary drawing the position of the sun at 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 5pm, and 7pm. Predict the position of the sun at 7:15am and 7:30pm.

  • CLICK | Sundial simulation - Move the cursor to Texas and use the simulation to model the times of day.

• With your guardian, design a skating board course, determine how potential energy changes as the skater slides from one slide of the course to the other. Explain why the magnitude of potential energy is complementary to kinetic energy.

• Watch a short news segment together (ex. CNN 10 - we recommend parents preview beforehand) or current events article and discuss using any of the following prompts:

  • What is the issue or problem discussed in the news segment or current events article?

  • What details are important about the issue/problem?

  • How does this issue/problem impact people at each level - local, regional, national, and global?

  • Is this source trustworthy? Why or why not?

  • What challenges and opportunities will those attempting to solve this issue/problem face?

  • How can individual people, small groups, or help solve this issue/problem? What should be done?

  • What are the multiple potential outcomes of the issue/problem?

  • CLICK | CNN 10 - 10-minute daily news show that covers stories of international significance & clearly describes why they're making news, who is affected, and how they fit into a complex, international society.

• Process and synthesize learning from any text (this includes primary documents, articles, videos, etc.) by creating a one-pager. For additional guidance on one-pagers, see these resources:

  • CLICK | Overview & Tips for One-Pagers

  • CLICK | Printable Templates for One-Pagers (free)

  • CLICK | Crash Course: World History - Short (10-15 min) videos that feature a host discussing the subject, mixed in with animations and some humor. Geared toward HS but can be used in MS.

• Students create their own primary sources through daily (or weekly) journaling in a notebook (½ to 1 page). Journal entries should include name, date, and location (Oak Cliff, Dallas, TX)

• Here are questions to get students started:

• First journal entry

  • When do you remember first hearing about coronavirus? When did you realize it was serious news and you could not ignore it?

  • When did you realize that daily life was going to be significantly different?

  • What preparation did you and your family members make and what was the experience like?

• Following journal journal entries

  • What have I seen today?

  • How do I feel?

  • How are people I care about doing?

  • What is changing in the world compared to how I experienced the world before?

• After watching a video, reading an article, or taking a virtual field trip, have students process/synthesize their learning using any of the following strategies:

  • Sensory figure for one or more of the characters/people involved

  • Letter (ex. to a family member or friend) from the perspective of one of the characters/people involved

  • Illustrated timeline and/or summary (illustrations are an excellent way to process & show understanding in social studies!)

  • CLICK | BrainPOP - Offers free access during school closures. Click on the banner at the top of the page and set up a family account to access many Reading and Writing videos and activities.

• Select two people to interview - a relative, family friend, or neighbor (virtually!) to write a 2-page historical narrative explaining different challenges people have faced and opportunities they have created at different times in history.

• Students can come up with their own interview questions or use these as a starting point:

  • When and where were you born?

  • Where did you grow up? How did you come to live here?

  • What was life like for you growing up?

  • What cultural traditions did your family have?

  • How is the world different from what it was like when you were a child?

  • What world events had the most impact on you growing up? How did they impact you?

• Students can also select oral histories from the Smithsonian and answer these questions:

  • What kinds of words or phrases does the person use? Are any of these unusual? If so, write them down and find definitions for them using a dictionary. Do they tell you anything about the informant’s character or history?

  • What was the person’s role in the events they describe?

  • How were they affected by the events described?

  • What challenges did they face and what opportunities were created?

  • How does their story fit into the broader history you have studied in class?

  • Does the information provided include any further aspects to explore?