BAND: The Sixth Grade Band rehearses three times per week for forty-two minutes. All students receive one 30 minute small group lesson each week, in addition to the full band rehearsals. The Sixth Grade Band is made up primarily of second year players. Focus is placed on tone development, range expression, improving rhythm and counting skills, and learning how to play in an ensemble. The Sixth Grade Band gives three concerts each year.

CHORUS: Chorus 6 meets every day. The goals of this group include becoming better singers, to develop an appreciation for the art of singing, to develop music reading skills, and to perform successful concerts.

COMPUTER 6: The sixth grade students have a computer class every other day, for a third of each semester. Throughout the year, students will be drilled and tested on keyboarding skills. They will learn the basics of Hyperstudio, a multimedia writing tool. They will use Microsoft Word for many of their assignments this year.  Students will use a program called Morph to create a movie clip.  They will be exposed to Kahootz - a 3D animation program.  They will also work on Internet searching techniques.

ENGLISH: In English 6 the focus is many different skills. In the area of literature, students read and study the Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet, as well as some short stories and a novel. They focus on grammar, usage, and mechanics with a Daily Oral Language (D.O.L.) activity. In addition we also learn the comma rules, study the parts of speech and learn basic editing rules. Vocabulary and spelling are also areas we spend time on. The writing component of the course focuses on sentence expansion, sentence variety, word choice, ideas and content, and organization as well as the conventions. Short written assignments such as paragraphs and journal writing will be included in the curriculum as well as four major projects. The major written assignments will be a career report, a comparison and contrast essay, newspaper writing, and a research project. Students are evaluated in part with the 6^th grade New York State English Language Arts Assessment in January of each year.

FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCE (FACS): Previously called Home and Career Skills, this course is designed to help adolescents live in a society of constant change and to improve their quality of life by preparing to meet their present and future responsibilities as family members. In sixth grade we look at planning, shopping, preparing, and serving meals for the family., concentrating on breakfast. We also learn hand sewing stitches, make tooth-firy pillows for the kindergarteners, Decision making is part of all three grade level curriculums.

FRENCH: This is a half-year course, which is an introduction to French and the French speaking world. We practice listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, with the greatest emphasis on listening and speaking. Some of the units include basic pronunciation, cognates, the alphabet, and numbers.

GENERAL MUSIC: General Music 6 is taught to every sixth grader. Students have this class every other day, for a third of each semester. Topics covered include families of instruments, harmony, intervals, form, meter, careers in music, and music notation. Students will also sing, work on music listening skills and learn to play the recorder. A number grade is given for Music 6.

MATH: Throughout the year, previously taught concepts will be reviewed. However, more time will be devoted to measurement – both metric and customary measures, estimation, number patterns, divisibility and factorization, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions. We will also spend some time working on adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals. The students will learn how to work with ratios, proportions, and percentages. Other areas that we will focus on in sixth grade math include finding areas, perimeters, and volumes, graphs and statistics, as well as intergers and graphing coordinates. Students are evaluated in part with the 6^th grade New York State Math Assessment in March of each year.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION: Physical Education at Allegany-Limestone Middle School offers a wide variety of activities under the direction of two Physical Education teachers. Throughout the year the offerings may consist of the following: flag football, tennis, weight room, line dancing, pyramid building, tae-bo, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, large games such as crab soccer or burn ball, small games such as kwik cricket or croquet, soccer, cross-country skiing, track and field, wrestling, kickboxing, badminton, softball/wiffleball, cooperative activities, Presidential physical fitness testing, etc.  Physical Education grades are based on participation, skill tests, and written tests. Grades are given out quarterly with the other subject areas. There is an established dress/non-dress policy.

READING: The books that we use in this course are included in the Houghton-Mifflin Reading Series. This series is a continuation of the series and the skills from elementary school. The Theme Tests are used because they coordinate with the format used in English Language Arts Assessment given at the end of eighth grade. Some of the skills that we cover include reading skill lessons, spelling, vocabulary, and decoding of Latin and Greek roots. Students will be working on supplemental readings, which reinforce skills or reinforce concepts from another subject area. .

SCIENCE: This is a hands-on approach to the introduction of the three major sciences: Life Science, Chemical Science, and Physical Science. Students are introduced to the various types of equipment used in a science laboratory. Preparations for the 8th Grade Science test begins in 6th Grade and continues through until 8th grade.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Sixth Grade Social Studies covers the history of the Eastern Hemisphere. We study about the Ancient Cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, India, and China, as well as the geography and history of Western Europe. We explore the history and geography of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

SPANISH: This program is designed to help students learn to communicate through topic-based lessons dealing with functional situations designed to develop proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students are also exposed to cultural components of Spanish. Some of the topics covered include pronunciation, cognates, names and numbers.

TECHNOLOGY: Sixth graders will have technology every other day for a third of second semester. The curriculum begins with a hands-on introduction to technology, including safety precautions. A hands-on approach will also be used for covering the production and manufacturing units. Problem solving techniques will be presented and the students will be required to complete various activities utilizing these techniques.