If you're blessed to be the parent of a middle school student, you may have asked the question, "What did you do at school today?" You may have been met with a detailed and informative response, but we're guessing you're more likely to have been met with a shrug, a vague answer, or the dreaded "nothing." We thought it would be interesting to go behind the curtain and show you an ordinary day in the life of our sixth grade class.
A few months ago, we documented each period of a regular Friday at school, including photos. Follow along with "A Day in the Life" of a sixth grader below!
After visiting their lockers, students file into Mrs. Heyworth's homeroom class and take their seats at the tables. Like every morning, there's a flurry of conversations among our small class of sixth graders. Once settled, they start their day with the Pledges of Allegiance, including the typical American pledge, the pledge to the Christian flag, and the pledge to the Bible. Next, Mrs. Heyworth collects prayer requests from the class. Students share many requests, mostly for family members’ health, but also for personal things like sports and pets. This sharing of prayer requests lasts several minutes and involves most of the class. The prayer leader of the day reads through the list and leads the class in prayer.
Next, Mrs. Heyworth launches into the first class of the day: language arts. They start with an activity called "Bell Ringers," a worksheet that reviews the concepts they’re working on and warms them up. It's a good way for Mrs. Heyworth to see how they’re doing on their concepts. Today they are focusing on their vocabulary words. While these worksheets aren't graded, they do get credit for completion.
Next on the agenda is a locker check! Students whose lockers are in disarray are given a chance to go out and get them in order before they're inspected. Everyone else has silent reading time.
After that, it's time for a vocabulary test. As students complete their test, they're able to work on a Grandparents' Day craft project. Mrs. Heyworth uses this as a teaching moment, asking the students to use their thesaurus to find the best possible words to describe their grandparents.
Next, the students head down the hall to Mrs. Atkins' room for History class.
At the beginning of class, students use Quizlet on the SmartBoard to study their Middle East capitals using a timed competition game. After the review session, they take a quiz on Middle East capitals.
After the quiz, they talk about Angora goats in Turkey, as well as the woven wool and carpets and Sultana grapes. Discussion ensues about current events in the Middle East, and how they relate to us.
Finally, students split up into groups of two or three to complete the chapter review. The groups are able to spread out into comfortable corners, on bean bag chairs, or even go out in the atrium for their group work.
The next period, students head to science class in Mr. Kister's room. Students are allowed to sit wherever they want throughout the room, and some choose very non-conventional learning spots.
The kids are learning about specialized cells today, and Mr. K starts describing the difference between somatic cells and gametic cells. Throughout the lecture, students take notes using their Chromebooks or paper and pencil if they prefer. Mr. K incorporates the concept God’s design as they are learning about the intricacies of their bodies. They talk in depth about chromosomes, genes, and cell development,
Next up is math with Mrs. Schmidle. Students come into class and launch into checking their Simple Solutions homework. Next, the class solves some story problems together, which focus on the concept of dividing decimals. “You may think a different way, solve it a different way, and still get the right answer,” Mrs. Schmidle tells them as they work on the problems.
After this, the class works on more problems individually. A correct paper results in a candy prize. Students who finish faster can work on their homework. While working with a student on solving a particularly difficult problem, Mrs. Schmidle tells him, "Never give up. Never."
The bell rings, and students are dismissed to go to lunch. Some students elect to eat in Mrs. Schmidle's room so they can work on their math homework. “It’s easier to ask Mrs. Schmidle for help than my parents,” one student says. Other days, students might eat lunch in the atrium with Mrs. Kirby, work on projects over lunch, or spend one on one time with a teacher to get caught up on a concept. The majority of students, however, head down to the lunchroom. Some kids are buying hot lunch today, while many are packing. Some take advantage of our new salad bar option.
Out at recess, students in grades five through eight play together on the equipment, socialize, or play football out on the lawn. The fresh air and movement time is an important part of their day, as it prepares them for a strong finish to the school day.
Students head back to Mrs. Heyworth's class for Bible. First on the agenda is a test over their current Bible verse, Matthew 5:15-16. Next week’s test is over the entire passage of Matthew 5:10-16. Students can memorize their verses in NIV or KJV.
In the Bible workbook students are currently studying God’s purpose for their lives. Last week, they had made digital collages of things God has provided for them. Earlier in the week, they watched a video about Gideon, who one student described as “fearfully courageous.”
“Sometimes we look at the things in our life and we think ‘God can’t use this'. But God looks at the big picture,” Mrs. Heyworth explains.
For the rest of the class, students work in their workbooks on a lesson about how God created each of them individually for a purpose.
The next period is band, for those who participate, and study hall for those who don't. Students are required to take at least on music course each year. The sixth graders have band with the seventh and eighth graders in the sanctuary. They are preparing for the upcoming Grandparents’ Day celebration. It's very noisy as they get their instruments ready and warmed up, but the honks and toots are assembled beautifully into musical pieces with the direction of Mrs. Schuerr.
Every Friday, the entire middle school gathers for Chapel toward the end of the day. Chapel speakers vary, and include pastors, ministry leaders, and missionaries. Today's speaker is Kathy Wigal, the Director of Children's Ministry at Church of the Saviour. Before she speaks, the students sing several praise songs together.
The last period of the day is electives. Students split off into different classes, which rotate every nine weeks. The electives at the time include Economics, STEAM, History Club, Strategy Games, and Practicing Gratitude. Electives are a great way to dig into subjects and activities which may not have been part of the curriculum, but are of interest to students. These classes are not graded, but do enrich the learning environment at our school.
After electives, the final bell rings. Some students take the shuttle bus to the Grace campus, and others hop on the Wooster bus to be taken home. Most students are picked up by their parents. Regardless how they go home, we are confident they're excited for the weekend after such a busy day at school.