Team Berlin Update 14
November 22, 2024
Term 1 Team Celebration: Snack Sign Up!
Team Berlin will have its first End of Term Celebration on Tuesday, November 26th during Advisory. Thank you to those who have already volunteered to send in a treat. We still have many spots open! If you are able to our celebration, please visit this Sign Up Genius. Thanks again!
Earth Science with Ms. Ballantine
Hello Scientists! Great job with all of the labs over the past week. We learned about weathering using skittles, and about erosion and deposition with sand and water. We ended the week with our field trip to the NMAAHC on Friday. Roots Quiz 2.3 has been POSTPONED until Monday 11/25 because of the field trip.
Next week is a short week, we have no school Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday for Thanksgiving Break & Indigenous People’s Day!
Students will complete a Gizmo lesson about weathering and erosion, and will also do a lesson about the importance of procedures in science involving playdough.
No new Roots next week since it is a two-day week!
Math with Mr. Brown & Mr. Gawthrop
Math 6
This week students worked on division of fractions and related real-world application. In the coming week, students will continue working on dividing complex fractions and real-world application of the concept in taking a Formative Assessment. Included in our virtual classroom is a link to a portion of Illustrative Mathematics website curriculum dedicated to allowing parents to give support of current topics from home. Students should take advantage of their time off from school and complete and/or redo any outstanding non passing assignments.
Math 7
This week students continued with calculating mathematical relationships connected to circles. In the coming week, students will continue working on calculating circle relationships and finish the RCT/End of Unit assessments on the current concepts. Included in our virtual classroom will be a link to a portion of Illustrative Mathematics dedicated to allowing parents to give support of current topics from home. Students should take advantage of their time off from school and complete and/or redo any outstanding non passing assignments
Language Arts with Ms. Byrns & Mr. Gawthrop
This week students wrapped up Roll of Thunder with a narrative summative in which they crafted a short scene that takes place shortly after the close of the book. Many students have expressed interest in what actually happens next to T.J. and the Logan family. Taylor wrote 9 books about the Logans and they vary in length and difficulty. Several are significantly shorter and easier to get through. But given that students now know the characters and the context, any of the books should be a bit easier to read than Roll. Book series are a great way to get kids reading more. As an FYI, the book with T.J.’s trial is Let the Circle Be Unbroken.
Next week students will create a short PowerPoint or Canva presentation focusing on artifacts from the African American History Museum. Students who are out due to illness or travel can find the directions on Canvas. This is a Summative grade. Term 2 Book Report slides are due on Tuesday. You can find our gallery of book recs. here.
Finally, a reminder that we will begin reading Tuck Everlasting when we return from Thanksgiving Break. This is a shorter book, and students will do most (if not all) of the reading in class. We are focusing on finding text evidence so it would be fantastic if students could bring in their own copies to highlight and annotate. It’s currently $5 on Amazon. I’ve put a bunch on our Amazon wishlist so if you are able to donate a few copies, that would be wonderful.
Katy Byrns
Geography with Ms. Trenkle
This week in Geography we worked on our MENA map skills and vocabulary. After our study of political, physical, and thematic maps, and reviewing them, students took their quiz in class on Thursday.
We also started to dive into our Three Religions in preparation for our trip on Monday, December 2. Students completed their vocabulary in class.
There will be no CEA next week due to the short schedule.
Students will return to school on 12/2 to a field trip. We will be prepping for this field trip next week in class, but I also want to share a little bit now so that families are ready and prepared.
Any student who is absent next week and complete our assignment in class by going to Canvas, reading the texts provided on each of the three religions and completing the graphic organizer. This is so that each student has a little background knowledge before visiting our sites on our 12/2 field trip.
About our field trip on Monday, 12/2:
As a part of the sixth grade Geography curriculum, students participate in a field trip to Adas Israel Synagogue, The American Faizl Mosque, and Our Lady Queen of the Americas Church, here in DC. These three local places of worship help our sixth grade geography students learn the history of the world’s three major monotheist religions as part of “Unit 3: The Middle East & North Africa.” We will specifically be learning about the the history, beliefs, & symbols of each religion. It is not a trip to “do” a religion, but rather to understand the basic foundations of each religion. On Monday, December 2, Team Berlin students will hear from leaders in each of the institutions and have a chance to ask questions while in the space these leaders represent.
Materials to bring
• Kids Ride Free Card
• A lunch that we will eat at the park
• Wear walking shoes
• Water bottle
• Pencil and clipboard
• String backpack or tote to carry
• Wear layers
We want to thank our partners in advance for helping to make this experience possible and for taking time to make this field trip possible for each of our five Deal 6th grade teams.
Shout out to students who had jobs in Geography Class Term 1. :) Thank you for all of your help! :)
Period 1: Abigail, Attics, Idris
Period 2: Naja, Elliot Sue, Aria, Ariane
Period 4: Adam J., Alma, Roza, McKenzie, Alice, Pasha
Period 5: Evelyn, Sophia S., Alex V., Zane D., Harriet
Period 6: Xavier, Flynn, Ava, Elyse
Students started Term 2 jobs this week.
We also have a ton of photos to share! Please find Team Berlin photos of our students in action here: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B1g5IRuBxGAvG9 It will be updated as we go along!
Thank you for continuing to send in postcards! We had a small break from reading them in class due to the busy schedule but will commence next week! Really awesome and thank you for spreading the word to friends and family! 😊
I’ve been meaning to share, and have told the kids I would—on Orientation Day students chose a song or songs to include on our Team Playlist. We listen to this playlist sometimes while we work in small groups. The Playlist can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6XGJMmooyuna2fwFQ9pj9A?si=416e41ad228f4c11
Library Corner
Welcome to the month of November! Check out these great resources that the library is offering for the month. Links are available in this month's Library Newsletter below:
DEAL MS LIBRARY NEWS! | Smore Newsletters
Stephen Reichlen
Library Media Specialist
Deal MS – DC Public Schools
