WELCOME TO SIXTH GRADE

GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER Students will visit, tour, see classes and have lunch with us on April 6th and 7th We will visit students at their elementary schools to discuss middle school and answer questions Summer conferences with sixth grade families PALS Day, August 31, 2017 Williamsburg Website

PREPARING FOR THE TRANSITION Having a middle schooler may change your schedule: the school day begins at 7:50. Lunch is earlier, 10:36. There are only a few early release days. The middle school version of Extended Day is Check-in; pm only. There are many after school activities.

Your child will be making new friends from other schools (we have about 13 feeder schools). Your child will have seven classes and teachers a day; there may be some new organizational demands. Think about how your child has made other transitions. Let us know of any concerns.

HOW WE PREPARE FOR THE NEW SIXTH GRADE We gather information from fifth grade teachers, combined with 5th grade SOL and math placement test scores to help us place students in Math. We create teams based on that information so that each team is balanced academically, as well as by gender. Summer transition conferences. Plan PALS Day with sixth grade teachers.

Send out team assignments and team supply lists in August Send out team assignments and team supply lists in August. The supply lists will also be on the website. Schedule students into their classes so they can receive their schedule on PALS Day.

SCHOOL STARTS WHAT THE DAY LOOKS LIKE Students should plan to arrive at school by 7:35. They begin their day in TA at 7:50. TA groups are between 12-15 students. The focus of TA is team building, organizational support and social emotional learning. Sixth graders have five core periods: US History: Civics and Economics to 1865, English, Math, Science, Reading or Reading/Transitional Spanish.

Sixth graders have three core periods, lunch and then the remaining two core periods. There are three minutes between classes and students may visit their lockers before TA, before and after lunch, at the end of core and the end of the day. Homework averages 17-20 minutes per day per class plus 30 minutes of reading. Not all classes have homework every night. In the remaining two periods of the day, students will take one period of Health/PE and one period of an elective/exploratory course.

Students selecting the exploratory will spend 5-6 weeks in a rotation that could include Visual Arts, Theater Arts, Technical Education, Family and Consumer Science, Keyboarding, Journalism, World Language and Chorus. Students who play a musical instrument or would like to start one, select band or orchestra for the elective/exploratory period.

The school day ends at 2:24, but there are after school activities on M, T, and Th in ASP (After School Period) 1 and ASP 2. Clubs and after school academic help take place during ASP 1 and/or ASP 2 from 2:30-4:15.

There are two levels of sports activities, intramural and interscholastic. To participate in interscholastic sports, students must have a current physical on file with the Activities Coordinator. The physical must take place after May 1 to cover all sports for the next year (this aligns with the high school schedule). Intramural sports do not require a physical.

THOUGHTS AND ADVICE Adolescence is inevitable. The early adolescents we see in middle school can be exciting, frustrating, effortless or a battle, all in one day. Middle school is designed to work with these variables, at the same time maintaining rigorous academic standards.

LOOKING TOWARD HIGH SCHOOL As sixth graders your students will begin the academic planning process in the spring as we plan for seventh grade. Seventh grades students can take high school courses for credit. Next year when we meet we will talk about diploma options and how the foreign language choice that can be made in seventh grade aligns with diploma requirements. Some students will also take Algebra I Intensified for high school credit in the 7th grade. High school diploma options are described in the Middle School Program of Studies.

Counselors: Director: Ms. Rittenhouse 6th Grade: Ms. Flynn and Ms. Schaeffer 7th Grade: Ms. Boyers and Mr. Caldwell 8th Grade: Mr. Tuttle Director: Ms. Rittenhouse