Family Digest · Quarter 2 · Week 14
Athenian Democracy & the Golden Age
Pericles, the Parthenon, and the world's first democracy.
6.EE.B.5
6.EE.B.6
RI.6.2
W.6.2
MS-LS1-6
C3 D2.Civ.6.6-8
ELA this week
- Monday: Read Pericles' Funeral Oration excerpts; central idea (RI.6.2).
- Tuesday: Vocabulary: democracy, oration, citizen, demagogue.
- Wednesday: Compare ancient and modern democracy; what changed? (RI.6.2).
- Thursday: Begin reading an Antigone scene; theme work.
- Friday: Informative paragraph: 'Why is Pericles' Athens still studied?' (W.6.2).
Words to know
democracy
oration
citizen
demagogue
Standards
RI.6.2
W.6.2
Math this week
- Monday: Equations as questions: which value makes 3x = 12 true? (6.EE.B.5).
- Tuesday: Use variables to represent unknown numbers (6.EE.B.6).
- Wednesday: Write expressions for word problems with one variable.
- Thursday: Solve one-step equations using inverse operations.
- Friday: Mixed practice: write & solve one-step equations.
Standards
6.EE.B.5
6.EE.B.6
Science this week
- Monday: Photosynthesis as energy capture (MS-LS1-6) — model with arrows.
- Tuesday: Leaf chromatography lab: separate pigments.
- Wednesday: Investigation: leaf surface area and light absorption.
- Thursday: Compare photosynthesis equation with cellular respiration.
- Friday: Photosynthesis quick-quiz; portfolio entry.
Standards
MS-LS1-6
Social Studies this week
- Monday: The Assembly, Council of 500, juries; how citizens governed daily.
- Tuesday: Phidias, ratio in architecture, civic pride in stone.
- Wednesday: Who counted as a citizen? Women, metics, enslaved people excluded.
- Thursday: Tragedy and comedy as civic events; Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes.
- Friday: Build a mini-Parthenon column model; explore Greek orders.
Ask at the dinner table
- 1.Ask: "Who is the main character or speaker in what you read today, and what do they want?" Then have your child read aloud one favorite sentence from "Read Pericles' Funeral Oration excerpts".
- 2.Ask: "Who is the main character or speaker in what you read today, and what do they want?" Then have your child read aloud one favorite sentence from "Vocabulary: democracy, oration, citizen, demagogue".
- 3.Ask: "Who is the main character or speaker in what you read today, and what do they want?" Then have your child read aloud one favorite sentence from "Compare ancient and modern democracy".
- 4.Ask: "Who is the main character or speaker in what you read today, and what do they want?" Then have your child read aloud one favorite sentence from "Begin reading an Antigone scene".
- 5.Ask: "Who is the main character or speaker in what you read today, and what do they want?" Then have your child read aloud one favorite sentence from "Informative paragraph: 'Why is Pericles' Athens still studied?'".
- 6.Ask your child to teach you tonight's idea in 60 seconds: "Show me one example of equations as questions: which value makes 3x = 12 true?." Teaching it back is the fastest way to lock it in.
How to help at home
Read together. Spend 15 minutes on any text — fiction, news, even recipes. Talk about new words.
Show your thinking. When you do math in real life (cooking, shopping, budgeting), narrate it out loud.
Ask "why" and "how." For science and social studies, open-ended questions matter more than right answers.
Celebrate effort. Six hours of school is a long day. Notice the work, not just the grade.