Megan

=WOW! That's the only word that can describe how sixth grade has been. For me, it was amazing from day one. The first day felt like I was sleep walking because of the long summer break. It took me at least a week to get back into the groove of school. We had the best teachers that teach the best. Mrs.Yurconic and Mrs.Fuini-Hetten made everything so interesting! Here are some topics on what we did this year:=

= =

//__Bake Oven Knob__//
===Bake Oven Knob was a great experience. I loved the fact that we learned about the birds of prey in class then got a got a chance to identify them at BOK. The only downside to that field trip is that it was really really cold!===

= =

__Math__
===Math this year was very interesting. We learned so many things like integers, fractions, decimals, exponents, and reviewing simple things like multiplication and addition when we needed it. What I especially enjoyed about math class is that when Mrs.Yurconic wasn't teaching a new lesson, a lot of times it seemed like math was basically like a group discussion. For our end of the year project we had to make a book on math concepts relating to real world things. For my project I related math to skiing. Here are the concepts I used.===

= =
 * 1) Decimals
 * 2) Mean, Median, and Mode.
 * 3) Angles
 * 4) Geometry
 * 5) Temperature
 * 6) Measuring Length

__Rome__
===Our new Social Studies unit is on the Romans. This was probably my favorite civilization. We had a little booklet where we record the different aspects of the ancient Romans life. We read the book about the Romans called __Da Wild, Da Crazy, Da Vinci__. It was a good book that taught a lot of things. It seemed like I learned more with the little booklet than I would if I read straight from the textbook. Because we were actually writing the information ourselves it was a little easier to remember.===

===The Outdoor program was lots of fun. My favorite parts were going down to the fish hatchery and feeding the fishes, and doing science activities with Mr. Biel. The science activity I liked most was making the slime. It was fun to mix up and make. Even though ours didn't turn out perfectly it was still cool to take home and play with.===

===Greek week was really fun. I liked watching everyone present their projects rather than just reading out of a textbook. Making the project was kind of fun and you got to learn more in depth about one topic rather than just learning a little bit about a lot of things. //Presenting// the project wasn't as fun because you had to actually TALK about your project rather than just learning about it. I liked doing the different activites because actual students made them, and they weren't just everyday worksheets. It was really cool to taste the foods that they ate too. I would love to eat what the greeks did. (not counting the goat cheese) Here is my slideshow for the Greek Week slideshow: Here is my Greek Week report: ===

===Making Egyptian mummies this year was lots of fun. I liked learning about the entire process of burying a mummy. Doing something hands on instead of reading out of a textbook was a great change from the other grades. I know that in other grades I'm never going to get to do something like this again and I'm glad I did!===

//__Philadelphia__//
= = = = ===The Philadelphia trip ended up to be really fun. I liked the aquarium better than the king tut exhibit only because I thought that we would actually get to see king tut, so I was very disappointed. Otherwise,the exibit was cool to see. I loved seeing all the fish at the aquarium, and I even got to see the fish that I did my coral reef report on. It was lots of fun.===

__//Vocab says goodbye!//__
===In english/reading class vocab is done for this year. I am kind of glad, but after the book is finished I realized I actually learned a lot when I thought it was useless before. All of the words keep popping up everywhere I go. For instance, my family was playing 21 questions on our way to New york a couple of weeks ago. My brother said the word he was thinking of was a 9 letter word that started with an A and ended with a T. Then he gave us a clue. Everyone in the family was stumped and we were about to give up when I suddenly got the idea of the vocab word assailent. I said the word and I was right! I finally get that the vocab book can actually be helpful. You can go to our vocab book website where you can see the words we had in vocab book A. Here is the link: [|Vocab book website]=== = =

//__Using Technology__//
= = ===Using computers for things like these pages we're on now and oceanography, was cool. We used Microsoft publisher, word documents, and Microsoft powerpoint. I didn't really use much of these things (other than microsoft Word) before this year. I learned more in detail about how to use them. They made schoolwork a lot easier and made everything look more presentable. I really like using them and I'm glad we did. We also used technology in 6th grade with things other that just word, powerpoint, and publisher. We even made these wiki pages! The wiki pages are cool because you get to type out everything that you like and don't like about school. I think it is an awesome idea.===

//__Thinking On Think.com__//
===This year we used an online website called think.com. (go to [|www.think.com]) I really liked it. It is basically like your own mini webpage where you can add polls, debates, pictures, stories, music, and more. Its cool how you can get everyone's opinions on topics from school to sports. I hope we get to keep using it in the future.===

//__Learning Science__//
===I learned so much this year in science class. We learned about Oceanography, forces and motion, Populations and ecosystems, and coral reefs. I liked that during the Oceanography that we did a regular report, but then put it on a website. It makes more fun and exciting to do. Now I know that if my parents ask what I've been doing in school lately, I can just pull up the webpage instead of having to go through the piles of papers in my binder. This is the website for all of the ocean webpages: http://www.stsd.org/sms/staff/lfuinihetten/ocean/index.html.Here is the webpage we did-. We also did projects for living things in the coral reefs. I had the four-eyed butterfly fish and it was really interesting to learn about. I always hear about different fishes, but I never had the chance to learn about one in full detail. I went on vacation over Spring break in an area with lots of coral reefs and clear blue waters. While I was there I kept wondering whether or not I would see one of the coral reefs and whether or not my fish would be there. Another science topic we learned about was Forces and motion. We learned about Newton's laws, gravity, and inertia. It seems like I have always known first law of motion, whatever in motion stays in motion, but I have never been able to remember the others. It was only until this science class that I have been able to remember and fully learn the rest. Another topic in science I have learned about is populations and ecosystems. The entire class was divided into six groups based on the table we sat at. Each table was given a different ecosystem to research and do a presentation on. Our group had the ecosystem of the Taiga. The only ecosystem I knew about before this project was the tundra, and I had only briefly heard about that. Now whenever someone mentions a foreign place in my mind I think "oooh ooh! thats in the _ __ecosystem!"__===

//__WRITING!__//
===Writing stories/essays this year in english/reading was kind of difficult. If I write, I like it to be about what I want to write about, and not what I'm told to write. The persuasive writing wasn't horribly difficult but it got easeir the more we wrote about it. I think that if every year in english class we studied and wrote only one type of writing each year, the essays would be a cinch. This year was great because we wrote a lot of persuasives but we also wrote the other types sometimes too. I thought the writing in sixth grade was very productive. Here is my most recent persuasive essay: ===

__//Reading!//__
===Reading this year was kind of fun. We did Literature circles, book projects, and we studied parts of speech. In literature circles the class is divided into groups based on a book we all want to read. We are assigned to read pages every couple of days and then the group meets together to discuss it. I like literature circles because you get to read a book that YOU want to read, and you get to hear other peoples thoughts on it. I like doing that because somtimes you hear an idea that gets you to think of the book in a whole new way. We also have book projects. Book projects are where we read a book every month each with a different assigned genre. After we read the book we have to do some sort of project to go along with it. Sometimes its writing summarys, and sometimes its creating a model of the character in the book. I don't LOVE book projects, but i don't hate them either. Its nice how you can read a book in a genre you never ever in a million years thought you would read, and then end up liking it. It gets you to enjoy different genres and then think about it, a lot. The downside is it is a lot more work than it would be to just read the book. In reading we studied parts of speech. We learned adjetives, adverbs, nouns, and verbs. I didn't really like learning about these because it was boring and it never really got interesting. Even if I didn't like it I still learned a lot. Reading was fun this year but it still had its down sides. Here is a summary of one of the books we read in reading:===

=Here is a Gliffy web on what makes a civilization:=



=Sixth grade has been more than awesome and everyone Mrs.Fuinihetten and Mrs.Yurconic's class is fortunate to have the experience!=