6th Grade: Building College Bound Habits Early
The Habits
StoryTime becomes a key habit to build as your child will be reflecting more deeply on their reading and the author’s craft.
You will be able to use CarTalk to practice mental math and build vocabulary.
In the long run, modeling word problems will give confidence to your child as they face many more to come in their educational career!
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This pivotal year bridges the primary grades and upper elementary, shifting the focus from learning how to read to reading to learn.
Reading: Students move from phonics and decoding to analyzing complex texts including science articles, history lessons, and classic literature. They will learn to extract meaning to support their own written analysis.
Math: The curriculum reinforces foundational math skills, with a heavy focus on multi-digit addition and regrouping (carrying). By year's end, students begin skip-counting to prepare for multiplication
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Help them develop a little more grit and persistence.
You will see your student asked to write multiple paragraphs in a story or essay and organize them.
They will encounter more complex, multi-step math word problems.
Your student most likely will have their first report or project where you are not doing most of the work.
By now, you should be engaged with your student in reading chapter books. Click here. There are so many great ones to choose from!
Here you will find parent resources for all the habits, lessons, projects, and social emotional learning cards in your set.
This includes:
prompts for you to say
examples of what your modeling
links to generate texts, problems and other resources you might need.
If you are looking for more support, please try our online courses or our personal learning audit.
Mixed Sampler
A custom sampler pulling one card or skill from each subject — Math, Language, Projects, and SEL — each keeping its own subject color.
M6Math
Negative Numbers & Absolute Value — Ordering Numbers
I can order rational numbers, including negatives, and use absolute value as distance from zero.
6.NS.C.5 · 6.NS.C.6a · 6.NS.C.7
Prompt 3 — Ordering Numbers
Put these in order from least to greatest: -3, 5, -8, 0, 2 -> -8, -3, 0, 2, 5
Is -10 greater or less than -3? -> Less, since -10 sits further left on the number line
M7Math
The Coordinate Plane — Finding Distance Between Points
I can graph points in all four quadrants and find horizontal or vertical distances between them.
6.NS.C.6b · 6.NS.C.6c · 6.NS.C.8
Skill 2 — Finding Distance Between Points
Points (2,3) and (2,-4) share the same x-coordinate, so find the vertical distance: |3 - (-4)| = 7
Points (-3,5) and (6,5) share the same y-coordinate. Find the horizontal distance: |6 - (-3)| = 9
Math GeneratorClick to generate more problems like this.
L5Language
Citing Evidence & Drawing Inferences — Precision Text Quotation
I can cite specific textual evidence to support answers about a text.
RL.6.1 · RI.6.1
Skill 1 — Precision Text Quotation
• When reading your next chapter book, practice answering questions only with the direct quotations from the story or text.
When (plot point) happened, what did (main character) do? Find your answer in the book and read it back to me.
• The Information Text Generator is a great place to practice this together or as they answer the questions independently.
It's good to use sentences starters like "According to the text" and "In chapter 7"
Informational Text GeneratorUse our Informational Text Generator to create a grade-level nonfiction passage on a topic they like.
L10Language
Exploring Sentence Variety — Recognizing Fragments
I can recognize and revise sentence fragments to write complete thoughts.
L.6.1 · L.6.3a
Skill 1 — Recognizing Fragments
A fragment is missing a subject, a verb, or a complete thought.
Running down the street. -> "She was running down the street."
• Use Listen and Write Generator to have them identify correct and incorrect sentences.
• After they write something for school or for this notebook, always have them look for fragments.
Use our Listen & Write Generator for grade-level dictation words, sentences, and paragraphs read aloud.
P3Projects
Weather Station
Track daily temperature and precipitation data, plot readings on a negative-number coordinate grid, calculate measures of center and variability, and apply fraction division to precipitation totals.
6.NS.C.5 · 6.NS.C.6 · 6.NS.C.8 · 6.NS.A.1 · 6.SP.A.2 · 6.SP.A.3 · 6.SP.B.5
Card A — Tracking Negative Numbers on a Coordinate Grid
Look up a real record low temperature for your region (or a cold-climate city) and model recording it as a negative number (e.g., -8°F). Plot the day number (x-axis) against the temperature (y-axis, including negative values) on a 4-quadrant coordinate grid.
Have your child record the daily high temperature for 10 consecutive days (real data from a weather app, or historical data for a chosen city), plotting each day’s temperature as a coordinate point. Ask them to identify the two days farthest apart in temperature using absolute value.
Card B — Measures of Center & Variability
Using the 10-day temperature data set, model calculating the mean, median, and range. Explain what the range tells us about how much the temperature varied across the ten days.
Have your child calculate the mean and median of their own data set, then write one sentence comparing the two grades of the week that were “most typical” and one that was an outlier, using their statistics as evidence.
SEL 1SEL
Social Dynamics & Rumor Spreading
I know how to navigate gossip and rumors responsibly.
Look at the image. Marcus overhears two classmates sharing a rumor about a friend in the hallway between periods. They turn to Marcus and ask, "Did you hear about that?"
What are the social risks Marcus faces whether he agrees, stays quiet, or counters the rumor?
Why do rumors spread so quickly in middle school, and what damage do they cause to individuals and school culture?
How can Marcus redirect the conversation or walk away without creating unnecessary conflict?
How do you decide when to step in vs. when to distance yourself from gossip?
Math Habits
- Prompt 1 — What Is a Ratio?
- Prompt 2 — Let's find Ratios in the World
- Skill 1 — Finding Unit Rates
- Skill 2 — Ratio Tables
- Skill 1 — Calculating a Percent
- Prompt 2 — CarTalk Percent Tennis
- Skill 3 — Percent Word Problems
- Skill 1 — How Dividing Fractions Works
- Skill 2 — Flip and Multiply
- Skill 1 — Dividing Decimals
- Skill 2 — Decimal Word Problems
- Prompt 1 — What Do Negative Numbers Represent?
- Prompt 2 — Absolute Value Is Distance from Zero
- Prompt 3 — Ordering Numbers
- Skill 1 — Identifying Quadrants
- Skill 2 — Finding Distance Between Points
- Skill 1 — Translating Words into Expressions
- Skill 2 — Evaluating Expressions
- Skill 3 — Simplifying Expressions
- Skill 1 — Solving One-Step Equations
- Skill 2 — Writing & Graphing Inequalities
- Skill 3 — Real-World Equation Problems
- Skill 1 — Area of Parallelograms & Triangles
- Skill 2 — Area of Trapezoids
- Skill 1 — Surface Area Using Nets
- Skill 2 — Volume with Fractional Edge Lengths
- Prompt 1 — Measures of Center
- Prompt 2 — CarTalk Quick Mean Practice
- Prompt 3 — Range and Variability
Language Habits
- Skill 1 — Greek and Latin Roots
- Skill 2 — Using Context Clues
- Skill 3 — Academic Vocabulary
- Skill — Listening for Information
- Skill — Fluency Routine & Progress Tracking
- Skill 1 — Metaphors and Similes in Literature
- Skill 2 — Connotation vs. Denotation (CarTalk)
- Skill 3 — Hyperbole and Personification
- Skill 1 — Precision Text Quotation
- Skill 2 — Making Inferences
- Skill 1 — Theme vs. Topic
- Skill 2 — Summarizing Informational Texts
- Skill 1 — Identifying Structure Types
- Skill 2 — Why this structure?
- Skill 1 — Recognizing Fragments
- Skill 2 — Recognizing Run-Ons
- Skill 3 — Varying Sentence Length and Structure
- Prompt 1 — Formal vs. Informal Register
- Prompt 2 — Word Nuance & Shades of Meaning
- Prompt 3 — Antonym & Synonym Speed Tennis
Projects
- Card A — Thesis Construction & Issue Selection
- Card B — Evidence Gathering
- Card C — Draft with a Logical Flow
- Card A — Tracking Negative Numbers on a Coordinate Grid
- Card B — Measures of Center & Variability
- Card A — Brainstorming which story and character lens
- Card B — Outlining
- Card C — Drafting and Revision
SEL
Simplified Coherence Map
Math: How Skills Connect
See what your child learned before this skill, and where it's headed next — inspired by the teacher-facing Coherence Map, translated into plain language.
Before
This Grade
Next
How the Learning Targets Connect Long Term
Simplified Coherence Map
ELA / Language: How Skills Connect
See what your child learned before this skill, and where it's headed next — inspired by the teacher-facing Coherence Map, translated into plain language.
Before
This Grade
Next
