Washington State Standards-Reading 6th Grade, simplified

simplified from: http://www.k12.wa.us/CurriculumInstruct/learningstandards.aspx

Grade 6

In sixth grade, students are aware of the author's craft.  They are able to adjust their purpose, pace and strategies according to difficulty and/or type of text. Students continue to reflect on their skills and adjust their comprehension and vocabulary strategies to become better readers.  Students discuss, reflect, and respond, using evidence from text, to a wide variety of literary genres and informational text. Students read for pleasure and choose books based on personal preference, topic, genre, theme, or author.

Abiotic and Biotic Scavenger Hunt with Anna

“There is a deep interconnectedness of all life on earth, from the tiniest organisms, to the largest ecosystems, and absolutely between each person.” ― Bryant McGill, Voice of Reason

Grade Level:  Elementary

Objective:  Students will learn what makes an organism biotic and be able to identify biotic and abiotic elements in the ecosystem

 Today we...
-got to work with Anna K., an environmental educator from New Mexico
-learned characteristics that make an animal "living" or "biotic"
(cells, using energy, responding to an environment, growing, reproducing)
-went on an abiotic and biotic scavenger hunt
-discussed our findings

Huckleberries and Henry David Thoreau

Grade Level: High School

Objective: Students will continue their discussion of Walden, enriching the conversation through their reading of Rebecca Solnit's essay The Thoreau Problem.  Students will contemplate Thoreau as an American character and ruminate on what his writing means to us today.

We eat bread made from mountain blueberries while we discuss Walden

"Th[e] compartmentalizing of Thoreau is a microcosm of a larger partition in American thought, a fence built in the belief that places in the imagination can be contained. Those who deny that nature and culture, landscape and politics, the city and the country are inextricably interfused have undermined the connections for all of us (so few have been able to find Thoreau’s short, direct route between them since). This makes politics dreary and landscape trivial, a vacation site. It banishes certain thoughts, including the thought that much of what the environmental movement dubbed wilderness was or is indigenous homeland—a very social and political space indeed, then and now—and especially the thought that Thoreau in jail must have contemplated the following day’s huckleberry party, and Thoreau among the huckleberries must have ruminated on his stay in jail."-Rebecca Solnit, The Thoreau Problem

Water water everywhere

“Water is the driving force in nature.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

Students use sponges, filters, and spoons to "clean and treat" water

Grade Level: Elementary

Objective:  Students will built upon their knowledge of water and the water cycle, examining how we use, clean, and impact water.

Materials:  cups (6), food coloring, sponges, filters, spoons, rocks, dirt, oatmeal, soap, Bill Nye Water Cycle DVD, Magic School Bus at the Waterworks, microwave, plastic bag, towel, water glass

Today we....
-read Magic School Bus at the Waterworks
-conducted a water cycle demonstration using a plastic bag, water, and the microwave
-calculated our water use over the course of three school days
-brainstormed ways to reduce use and save water
-discussed the amount of fresh water on earth
-practiced cleaning and treating water
-tested ourselves using a Bill Nye Water Cycle DVD video quiz

Inspired by "Audubon Adventures", we create a "Nature Discovery Center"

Ecosystem Posters

“What is the most important thing one learns in school? Self-esteem, support, and friendship.” ― Terry Tempest Williams, Pieces of White Shell

Streams poster, labeled by M & M

Grade Level: Elementary

Objective: Students will continue to build on the work they've done this semester on ecosystems, displaying their knowledge on a poster (to be hung in the school hallway.)

Materials: Ecosystems and Food Chains by Francene Sabin, stream ecosystem or other nature poster, labels with species names and ecosystem parts (example: living, non-living, primary producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, herbivore, omnivore, carnivore), Bill Nye Video

Today we:
-finished reading Ecosystems and Food Chains by Francene Sabin
-labeled "streams" Washington Fish and Wildlife poster with species names and ecosytem parts
-watched Bill Nye video on "food web" and worked on "thank-you" cards

PE: Qigong

Grade Level:  High School

Objective: Students will learn about qigong while continuing to record their heart rates and reflect on their fitness.

Today we:
-learned about qigong and participated in a number of exercises designed to increase body awareness
-took our resting and active heart rates and recorded the activity we'd done over the weekend
-did some light running up chalet hill
-stretched and did some foot and ankle strengthening exercises
-shot some hoops and practiced our basketball skills