Valley Preparatory School Redlands California

Language Arts

In the sixth grade, language arts continue to include composition, grammar, spelling, speech, drama, study skills, and reading.  The composition applied grammar curriculum moves from mastery of the simple sentence to the development of writing style guided by audience and purpose.  The students participate in writing and editing essays, poetry, and short stories.  Their focus is on perfecting paragraphs using main idea and supporting details, while concentrating on mechanics, punctuation, spelling, usage, and sentence structure.

Spelling is taught through the use of a text, personal writing, and reading.  Students become more proficient in identifying roots, prefixes, synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms.  They prepare and participate in oral presentations, practice note taking, and develop outlines.

In reading, the sixth grade students study the genres of short story, poetry, myths, fables, folktales, novels, and drama.  They become more competent in recognizing theme, conflict, plot development, character development, and setting.  The students progress from simple reading comprehension to a growing awareness and appreciation of literary tradition.

Novels Include: The Pearl by John Steinbeck
The Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
The Miracle Worker by W. Gibson
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
A Wrinkle in Time by Engle

In mythology, the students read and discuss assorted myths, including parts of The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid.  The students prepare and perform a play based on their studies of Greek Mythology.

Mathematics

The math curriculum is built on innovative ideas to help assess understanding, diagnose and remedy common errors, enrich and extend learning, accommodate individual needs, and motivate students.  The students must show mastery of all computational skills using whole numbers, fractions, and decimals.  The students learn number theory which is introduced by divisibility rules, factors, primes and composites, prime factorization, order of operations, greatest common factor, and least common multiple.

Students also study both systems of measurement, time, ratio, proportion, percent, geometry, perimeter, area, volume, statistics, and probability.  If time permits, we end the school year with a unit on integers.

Students are provided and American-European model of education.  Emphasis is placed on the advantages, such as the efficiency and general applicability, of various methods.

Text: Progress in Mathematics - Grade 6, Sadlier-Oxford, 2001

Science

At the sixth grade level, students begin to specialize in one main area of science; in this case, Earth science.

In addition to reviewing basic science concepts covered in previous years, students are also introduced to a myriad of topics in the Earth science umbrella.  Each subject area is reinforced with practical experience gained from experiments.  Among the topics covered are exploring the universe, Earth's composition and structure, and surface and subsurface activity as well as natural resources.

Text: Earth Science - Prentice Hall, 1991

Social Studies

The sixth grade studies Ancient Civilizations.  It encompasses, but is not restricted to the following units: development of man, archeological science, the civilization of the near east (Mesopotamia and Egypt), the early civilizations of the Indian subcontinent and China, Ancient Greece, Republican Rome, and the Roman Empire.  Class progress and time permitting, the civilizations of Meso-America are also studied.

The course emphasizes the development of human societies and the geographic, environmental, and social causes for the rich diversity of cultures that took root throughout the world.  Students will use the textbook and teacher provided sources to investigate different civilizations.  The histories of these cultures will be given a more human touch by introducing primary sources to allow students to make personal connections with the past.  In addition, students will engage in a variety of research papers and projects to broaden their knowledge.  Many of these activities will be cooperative in nature allowing all students to share idease and learn from each other.

The course emphasizes various skills to facilitate this learning.  Skills include but are not limited to note taking and listening skills, reading for research, recognizing main idea, drawing conclusions, map reading and use, outlining and prewriting strategies, and critical thinking.  The writing process is particularly emphasized.  Students will be able to synthesize and express their research in multi-paragraph essays.

Text: A Message of Ancient Days - Houghton Mifflin, 1994