6th Grade Math – Ms.

DeYoung
Welcome to 6th grade math! I’m so excited to learn alongside you as we study one of God’s beautiful,
complex, and orderly parts of creation: Math! There is so much detail that God put into math and I can’t
wait to explore it with you this year.

How does this work?

Even though 5th and 6th grade are combined, math is one of those subjects that builds on the concepts
from the previous year. This means that as a 6th grade class you will have your own curriculum separate
from the 5th graders. The way that this works is that you will either have instruction with me in the first
half of the class and then do math workshops the second half, or vice versa. We might switch it up a bit,
but usually 5th grade will be with me first and 6th will be doing workshops first.

Instruction
During the instruction portion of class time we will be diving into our next math concept. We will work
together to explore a new piece of God’s creation by asking questions, discussing, and working in our
books. This is a great time for me to help you with anything you are struggling with, so please ask
questions!

Math Workshops
During the Math workshops portion of class time, you will be working in a designated space on further
exploration of the math concept we are learning about while I am working with the 5th graders. You might
not always be doing the same activity in workshops, but the focus will always be on deepening your
understanding of the math concept we are learning about.

What are we going to learn this year?

1st Half of the Year:

• Numerical Expressions and Factors

• Fractions and Decimals
• Algebraic Expressions and Properties
• Areas of Polygons
• Ratios and Rates

2nd Half of the Year:

• Integers and the coordinate Plane

• Equations and Inequalities
• Surface Area and Volume
• Statistical measures
• Data Displays
What do I need for Class?
 Pencil (No pens! We all make mistakes.)
 Folder for assignments and other papers
 Math book, given to you by your teacher
 Paper - both lined and graphing

How are we going to learn all these things this year?

We have a lot of things to learn about God’s creation in math this year, and in order to do that we need
to be working diligently every day. During instruction time and math workshops it is important to follow
our classroom contract and to be respectful to the class as well as to yourself and your own learning. To
help clarify, the following are some helpful guidelines:

 Respect the teacher, other students, and the classroom (this includes others’ property).
 Listen when others talk, and when you talk we will listen.
 Complete work on time or stay in at lunch to finish.
 Come to class prepared and ready to learn, when the bell rings you are where you are supposed
to be.
 When in doubt please ask questions.

Homework
Homework helps us remember the things that we are learning in class in order to solidify them in our
memory. Because of this you should expect homework almost every day. There will also be quizzes in class
almost every day on the homework from the night before. It may seem like a lot, but they will only be
worth 10% of your grade and are SO helpful for your learning! It is expected that students complete their
homework on time. Students with late or missing work at the end of the week will be informed on
Monday and are required to stay in during lunch on Tuesday to complete the work. A penalty of -10% a
day will be applied to the score of late assignments as well. The idea is that the information in the
homework is important practice and ignoring it only hurts your learning. Staying in allows extra time and
assistance on homework as well as encouraging timeliness: a good skill for middle and high school!

*Note: Homework will be graded either on completeness or correctness, depending on the assignment.

Grading Scale

Grade Percentage Grade Percentage

A 97-100 C+ 78-81

A+ 93-96 C 75-77

B+ 89-92 C- 71-74

B 86-88 D+ 67-70

B- 82-85 D 64-66

D- 60-63
Contact information
Parents, the easiest way to reach me is either with e-mail or a phone call. Feel free to reach out at any
time, for any reason, and I will respond within 24 hours.

School Phone: 616-677-1757 (I will be around before and after school for a while!)

E-mail: rdeyoung@lamontcs.org

Parents, please fill out the form so that I know that you have seen this page and reviewed it with your
student. In order to keep the form on hand for yourself, please cut the bottom off and have your student
return only the lower signed portion and return it to school by Tuesday, 9/3. The syllabus will be available
on my weebly page as well under ‘Daily Work.’ Feel free to leave any comments or questions for me
below, or contact me using the information above.

Thank you!

Rachel DeYoung

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As a parent of ___________________________, (student name) I have seen the form above.

___________________________________________ (parent signature)

Questions or concerns: