
6th Grade
The Sixth grade is an important year for Mazapan students. The primary focus of the year is to prepare to enter the departmentalized environment that exists starting in Seventh grade. Students will develop responsibility and maturity as well as the study skills and knowledge base to allow them to succeed in the High School.
As Sixth grade is the last year in a multi-subject environment, every effort will be made to foster independence as students and persons and interdependence as a class and a community. For this reason, the pillars of “Character Counts” will be paid special attention from a social-emotional perspective and will allow a healthy and well-supported transition into adolescence.
Below is a brief overview of the individual subjects covered throughout the year:
Reading:
- Students will achieve reading fluency at grade level and make the transition from comprehension to thinking critically about a text or group of texts;
- The reading textbook will be supplemented by 3 novels during the year.
English and Language:
- Students will achieve a mastery of the fundamentals of grammar including the structure and analysis of sentences and paragraphs;
- Particular attention will be paid to the various forms of writing and students will focus on their own style, voice and organization of thoughts on paper.
- Throughout the year, students will focus on narrative, expository, persuasive, opinion, and cause/effect writing.
- There will also be a big emphasis on public speaking skills.
Mathematics:
- A transition will be made from mastery of basic facts to more involved algorithms;
- Measurement, fractions and decimals and an introduction to the basics of Algebra will be explored.
Social Studies:
- Students will survey civilizations and cultures from prehistory through to the beginning of the Roman Empire;
- Special attention will be paid to finding commonalities between cultures and to thinking critically about the cyclical nature of civilization throughout history.
Science:
- The focus of the year is Earth Science. Students will study theories about how various landforms came to be as well as exploring the properties of water on our planet.
- Students will also examine the scientific process through experimentation and observation in weekly experiments throughout the year.
Sixth grade is also a graduation year, and therefore the students must fulfill various requirements through the Honduran Department of Education in Spanish. This includes a full knowledge of the content and meaning of the Himno Nacional which will be studied in Spanish Class. In Estudios Sociales de Honduras, there will be special attention paid to countries around the world with a unit on different map projections and their uses.
While learning all of this great stuff, students will learn to think critically about their world and acquire a sustained love of learning - and hopefully have an incredible amount of fun!