Hunter Gatherers, Herder Farmers and early settlements

Over the next two weeks we will be exploring the early migration of man. From the days of following food sources to early farming and villages.

Most of our out of class assignments will be in the form of a worksheet packet and our test will be on Friday September 9th. We will read chapter 2 lessons 1 & 2 the week of 8/29-9/2 and lesson 3 the following week. All students should have their packets of W/S. The first 2 pages will be done along with the first 2 lesson. The time line assignment will be done in class (or as homework if not completed) on Thursday 9/1. The final page, the test prep, will be done Wednesday 9/7. Students are encouraged to understand the review questions within the reading and be able to readily discuss the vocabulary words from all of chapter 2.

Our Civic books are scheduled to arrive on 8/29 and assuming this is correct our first chapter will start on Friday 9/2. All Civic reading will be done in class. Outside of class assignments will be on worksheets.

Week of 8/22-8/26

Our real work starts this week after a long week of practicing how to answer questions in the correct format, with proper headings and the pre-test. Now we will be getting into the meat of SS. Our first lessons will be about geography. This helps students grasp the closeness of different areas, as well as understand the different landscapes. Our lessons this week will be in chapter 1 of our textbooks and will include reading, worksheets, a short quiz and some hands on assignments.

Our first civic lesson will be on 8/26, I am really excited to dive into our governments history with the students. Make sure they are practicing the Preamble, we will recite it in class for Constitution Day.

WELCOME TO THE 2011-2012 SCHOOL YEAR!!

Welcome! I am so excited about this coming year. Below you will find copies of some of the information that went home today in either homeroom or in Social Studies. Please email me with any questions.
~ Mrs. Bettenhausen
kbettenhausen@atmschool.net

Social Studies letter:

Welcome to 6^th grade, and to the 2011-2012 school year. Our journey in Social Studies this year will have us exploring the past. We will go back to the early hunter gatherer societies and up through the early 1500’s. In addition we will spend time in geography, economics and we will study civics and the American Constitution.

We learn a lot as we look back and I hope that students will not only be awakened to the past, but they will see the connections between the past and how we live today. Students will have the opportunity to have some fun too as we have feasts, Olympic style games and we debate different sides of government.

I will do my best to have an overview of our week on my blog, and I welcome your emails if you have questions on an assignment or lesson.  Students are encouraged to ask questions, attend tutoring or emailing me if they are struggling or just need some help. I am on campus every afternoon until 4:00 (except Wednesdays when we have staff meetings) and available to assist students.

I am very excited about this year, and I look forward to exploring the past with my students.

6th Grade grading policy:

The 6^th grade teaching team is very excited about this upcoming year. In an effort to ensure your student’s success, we have some common rules of grading and expectations that we want you to share with you:

·        Students will have homework, projects, in class assignments, along with quizzes and tests. Each part is important to the overall comprehension of material. It is very difficult to replicate the classroom experience, and we want to encourage students to be at school each day, and to be ready to learn. Students that are absent are responsible for asking for materials and assignments from the days they miss.

·        Each quarter there will be major projects and students can expect that a well done project will take a few weeks to prepare. Projects are due at the start (8:15 AM) of the school day on the due date. Projects turned in later on the same day will be accepted, but will lose 25% of their value. Projects not turned in on due date will receive a zero. Students that are absent for any reason are responsible for getting their projects to school by the start of school on the due date.

·        Regarding grading; Homework will receive full credit on date due, half credit next day and none on the third day. Long term assignments and projects will only receive full credit on due date (see note above about when due), late assignments will receive a zero.

·        We are very strict about names on papers. A student that does not put their name on a daily assignments or homework will receive 25% off their grade (proper headings will be reviewed in class during start of the year) if we can identify them and a zero if we cannot. No name on test is a zero if we can’t identify the owner, and we are able to identify whose test it is they will receive 50% of their grade *, and on projects we will take off 25%.

*Many tests are circle the correct answer and can’t be easily identified as to who did the work