Hello Sixth Graders and welcome to your first year of Middle School. Sixth grade is the year when your school experience changes and when you take on more responsibility for your learning and for your school. The sixth grade will be an exciting, challenging fast-paced year for you. Read on to discover some of the activities you will do.
RELIGION: The sixth grade course is a study of the Old Testament. Bible Study is an important element of this course. A list of required prayers recited individually is due by year's end. Students prepare and lead the class in prayer services at the end of each unit. The study of religious vocations occurs during the month of October. Students prepare for a written exam on the vocation unit with results sent to the Archdiocesan Vocation Office. An all-city sixth grade Vocation Fair is then hosted by the Vocations Office. In November, students research and dress the part of a canonized saint for All Saints Day. All sixth graders participate in the Living Stations during Holy Week. It is the sixth grade spiritual gift to the parish during Lent.
SOCIAL STUDIES: The sixth grade studies the Ancient World and the beginnings of Western Civilization. Note taking is an integral part of Middle School learning. Students are required to construct maps throughout the year creating their own personal atlases. Activities include an archaeology lesson, trials under Hammurabi's code, Egyptian fashions, mummies, pyramids and achievements, Greek mythology skits, Roman challenges, and Medieval 3-D castles. Olympic units are coordinated with PE classes. Other units investigated include ancient China, Japan, and African area studies. Students begin the writing of historical research papers.
BOYS TOWN SKILLS: Boys Town skills are taught as part of a religion lesson and then integrated throughout the day. During Catholic Schools Week a mix-it-up day is held at lunch to enrich the unity of the students in the Middle School. Drop-everything-and-Dance is another activity to shake up the day and re-enforce Boys Town socialization skills.
"BOYS TOWN SKILLS" is a school-based intervention strategy that focuses on managing behavior, building relationships, and teaching social skills. It uses a preventive-proactive approach to create and to encourage respectful staff-student relationships by changing the way schools address student behavior."
*Sixteen essential skills are developed throughout the year with Boys Town suggested role-play activities.
* Using this Boys Town Education Model helps us create the positive, learning climate that our students deserve and allows us the full teaching time we need.
*The students at our school will be treated with dignity and respect at all times. As the adult community, we will model respectful behavior for the students by speaking in calm voices, using appropriate proximity, maintaining pleasant facial expressions, and establishing and maintaining eye contact.
*Classroom rules and consequences will be displayed in an obvious place in all classrooms. All procedures are consistent with the Girls and Boys Town Model.
SAFETY PATROL: The sixth grade serve as crossing guards for the school body. All students participate. Duty rotation depends on the class size. A picnic is held at the end of the year for duty served.