WELCOME TO SIXTH GRADE

GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER This meeting is the first of several opportunities for us to become acquainted before the first day of sixth grade, September 7, Students will visit, tour, see classes and have lunch with us We will visit students at their elementary schools to discuss middle school and answer questions. Summer conferences with sixth grade families PALS Day, September 2, 2010 Williamsburg Website and Blackboard as sources of information.

PREPARING FOR THE TRANSITION Having a middle schooler may change your schedule: the school day begins at 7:50. Lunch is earlier, 10:33. There are only two scheduled 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 10 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 that is combined with 5 th grade SOL and math placement test scores to help us make group students for English, Reading and Math. We create teams based on that information so that each team is balanced and offers all paces of English and Reading and Math courses. Summer transition conferences. Plan PALS Day with sixth grade teachers.

Send out team assignments and team supply lists in August. A generic supply list will be posted on Blackboard in June. 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 students. The focus of TA is team building, organizational support and social emotional learning. Sixth graders have five core periods: American Studies, English, Math, Science, Reading or Reading/Transitional Spanish.

Sixth graders have three core periods, lunch and the remaining two core periods. There are three minutes between classes and students follow the routine of using their lockers before TA, before and after lunch, at the end of core and the end of the day. Homework averages minutes per day per class plus 30 minutes of reading. Not all classes have homework every night. Each team has one homework free weekend a month. 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 6-7 weeks in a rotation that includes Art, Theater Arts, Technical Education, Family and Consumer Science, Keyboarding 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 varied and exciting after school activities on most days in ASP 1 and ASP 2. Clubs, sports activities and after school academic help take place during ASP 1 from 2:30- 3:30. Students who take the late bus at 4:15 go to the Media Center or the gym where they are supervised until the bus is announced.

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. We suggest one completed after May 1 to cover all sports for the year. 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. What is within normal limits is vast and the nature of the changes is often discontinuous. Middle school is designed to work with these variables at the same time maintaining rigorous academic standards.

Successful accomplishment of the developmental tasks of early adolescence prepares our students to acquire age- appropriate competencies, both academic and social; develop resiliency; practice positive and healthy behaviors and decision making as the foundation for the transition to high school.

SPEAKING OF 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 7 th grade. High school diploma options are described in the Middle School Program of Studies on pages Information on the math sequence is on pages