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Welcome to Sixth Grade!

Welcome to the 6th grade at St. Frances Cabrini School in Lakewood, Washington.  As the year begins, we look forward to a time of growth, learning, discovering and, yes, even a little fun along the way. We will build solar cookers and have a hot dog cookout as we investigate various forms of energy. We will mummify a chicken and make masks as we travel the world past and present. Math will enter our lives as we apply decimals and fractions to finance a car or understand the stock market. We will go shopping and discover just how to figure the savings at 30% off. The year will end with a week at environmental camp, getting in touch with the beauty of God’s creation and discussing ways that we can be the stewards that He expects us to be.

To be successful it is important to know our students. Sixth graders are experiencing an emerging self-identity. They are seriously trying to identify their place in the group to which they belong. They have mood swings, are self-conscious and need a lot of affirmation. They seek approval while testing strategies. Sixth graders are becoming able to think at an abstract level. They will generalize and ask questions to which they expect answers that will satisfy their understanding. They enjoy working together and often respond better to positive peer pressure than to pressure from adults. Sixth graders have a fierce sense of justice and will question that which they feel is not right.

Working together we will have a good year. Education, in order to be good, involves the active participation of the student, the teacher, and the parent. You will be kept informed of your child’s progress and what you can do to help through notes, phone calls and conferences. A weekly homework packet will be sent home so you can review what and how well your child is doing. Monthly newsletters will inform you of what the class is doing in the curriculum for a specific month. Working together we can accomplish miracles.

The sixth grade curriculum begins with Religion. Here the students study the Old Testament from the Creation up through the prophets. In addition, specific seasons such as Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter will be studied and experienced. Our faith is the foundation of our lives and permeates everything we do in every subject area. In math, the students will perfect their understanding of the function of fractions, master the usage of decimals and percents and be introduced to the world of integers and other systems of measurement. Social studies sees the students experiencing the hunters and gatherers of pre-history and traveling the road to modern times and investigating the problems facing the continents of Africa, Asia, and Latin America today. In science the students will study the effect humans have on the environment and the effect that the environment has on us and how we live. They will also learn about the solar system, the earth, weather and the cell theory.

The year ends with a week at an environmental camp full of hands-on work, gaining a knowledge of the environment and reinforcing previous learning. The students will use the writing process to create stories, essays, and reports in all curriculum areas and develop their reading skills so that they can more readily understand and interpret what they are reading. They will make book reports using different forms and share what they are reading with their peers.

What parent does not want their pre-teen child in a safe, positive and supportive place? That’s 6th grade at SFC. Discipline problems are few because our 6th graders are busy with positive things – activities in leadership, outreach, band, sports and, of course, their focus on learning. At this insecure time of their lives, they are in a place where everyone strives for success and self-improvement; everyone works together in a community focused on being good and doing well.

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