This blog shares ideas for using Wixie to meet standards and learning goals with sixth graders, whether they are learning at school or at home. Select the image for each idea or use the text link to open a template you can assign as a teacher, or use as a student, immediately.
Find more ideas, samples, and lessons for sixth grade at: Ideas for 6th Grade.
1. Design a how-to book or presentation
What can your students teach others? Procedural writing is an excellent way for students to become experts in a topic and feel confident about their ability to share the information with others. So, whether students are sharing content or a process they struggled to understand or something they are passionate about, a how-to assignment is the perfect task to cement learning and inspire others. Use this multi-page blank book (template) or search "procedure" or "presentation" in Wixie to find other templates you can use.
Explore other ideas for Using How-to Writing to Cement learning
2. Set specific learning goals
Take some time to set personal goals you want to accomplish. Search "goal" in Wixie to find a range of templates, including one of creating SMART goal (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely).
3. Create and send a postcard
After learning something new, tell someone else using a postcard! You could write a postcard from:
• a character in a story,
• a biome or habitat,
• a specific time in history,
• a unique geographic or cultural destination.
Wixie includes several templates (1- or 2-page) you can use to get started. Simply log in to Wixie and search "postcard" to find them. (template)
Explore a Postcards from the Past lesson plan
4. Practice with the coordinate plane
Search "coordinate" at the Wixie home page to find a series of templates designed to help students practice how to read and represent data on a coordinate plane. (template)
Wixie also includes a series of templates students can use for graphing. From your Wixie home page, open the Templates folder in the list on the left. Then browse the Math folder, the Data Analysis folder, and then the Graphing folder.
5. Make Wanted posters for vocabulary words
The ability to combine text, images, and voice narration makes Wixie an ideal tool for building vocabulary creatively. Use Frayer diagrams, trading cards, and visual vocabulary to cement new terminology. (template)
More ideas for building vocabulary in Wixie
6. Take a scratch art brain break
When the mind needs a break, a creative activity can help. Remember scratch art? Wixie has a collection of pages with a variety of backgrounds, simply search "scratch" at your Wixie home page. Open a file with a background that sounds interesting and make a design or picture. (template)
You and your students can learn how to create "hidden" scratch art designs others can enjoy too!
7. Conduct an interview with a figure or object from history
Research a historical event and share your newfound knowledge and opinions as you conduct a fictitious interview with a person (or object) who was there. (template).
Explore an Artifact Interviews lesson plan
8. Plan an event
Planning the details for a party, including needed space (geometry) and a budget (decimals) requires students to practice and apply math and argument skills. Search "party" in Wixie to find a template you can use to evaluate if students can apply their math skills to a real-life scenario. (template).
Explore a Plan an Event lesson plan
9. Practice making science analogies
Search "cell" at the Wixie home page to find templates designed to help students share their knowledge of how the different parts of a cell function much like things and people in a farm or a school setting. (template)
10. Write a haiku
Celebrate poetry by having your students write and illustrate a haiku poem – a 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.
Use the New button in Wixie to start a blank page, add text and illustrate! You can also search "haiku" for a series of seasonal template designs, or use this general haiku (template).
Explore a Harmonious Haiku lesson plan
11. Send a virtual compliment
Show your appreciation for a classmate, family member, or friend with a compliment card. Search "compliment" or "stationery" in Wixie find a range of colorful designs you can use. (template)
You can also use the High Five template in Wixie to send a virtual high-five to someone too! So many options to make someone's day extra special with a thoughtful comment.
12. Write a letter to or between characters in a story
Taking the perspective of a character in a story can help students understand their motivations and better comprehend their response to events in a story. Assign a stationery template, use the Stationery backgrounds, or have students design their own. (template)
Give students a prompt that requires them to use evidence from text to justify opinions or make an argument.
13. Work with expressions, equations, and data
Wixie includes a folder of math backgrounds students can use to represent expressions, equations, and data. Combine these with the paint tools and virtual manipulatives like algebra tiles to get students playing with numbers for deeper understanding.
To find these backgrounds, log in to Wixie and open the Templates folder in the list on the left. Open the Math folder and then open the Templates folder inside and browse to find the grid, plot, or mat you want to use.
14. Publish a personification story
Have students personify an object, use Wixie to write and illustrate a story about it, and publish their work as an eBook!
Explore a Personification Stories lesson plan
15. Ancient civilizations projects
When every student completes the same task, like creating a trading card or comic, project work is easier to manage. While this is effective, students also thrive with choice! (Ancient Civilization choice board)
Explore these samples from students studying Ancient Civilizations. Create a choice board or task your students with sharing their learning in the medium they choose.
16. Paint with pointillism
Challenge students to create paintings with pointillism! Use Wixie's paintbrush tool, adjust the size and color, and click the page to make a dot. Change the size of the dots and color to form a larger image.
Explore a Paint with Pointillism lesson plan
17. Create visual versions of poetry
Wixie makes it easy to create visual poems to celebrate National Poetry Month.
Open a new blank project, type a poem from your favorite poet or one you have written, adding stanzas to each page. Add illustrations and record yourself reading it.
Explore a Visual Poetry lesson plan
18. Inform with infographics
Research information or collect data on a science topic. Create charts and graphs, analyze the information, and create an infographic to display your findings. Wixie's Template library includes an Infographic folder of templates students can choose from to share their findings in a visual format!
Explore a Creating Infographics lesson plan
19. Design a new book cover
Have students create a new cover design for a book they are reading to demonstrate comprehension and explore character, plot, setting, symbolism, and conflict. (template)
Explore the Design a Book Cover lesson plan
20. Express your gratitude
Research has shown that people who practice gratitude tend to be happier and less depressed. Throughout the school year, have your 6th graders practice expressing their gratitude for the things they have been given and the people in their lives.
Explore Wixie's Social Emotional Learning folder of activities or search "gratitude" for additional activities. (template)
You can find a full lesson plan on gratitude in the Creative Educator.
21. Create an Arcimboldo-inspired self-portrait
Giuseppe Arcimboldo is an Italian Renaissance painter known for his portraits of people that use objects like fruit and books. Challenge students to create Arcimboldo-style self-portraits by combining clip art images in Wixie. Browse the Curriculum library and Art to find a template to support student work. (template)
Explore an Arcimboldo-Inspired Self-Portraits lesson plan
22. Create a character scrapbook
Ask students to demonstrate knowledge about a character's physical traits, feelings, experiences, and actions by creating a digital scrapbook for them. Students can include images of important events, diary entries, objects important to the character, letters from a friend, and more. (template)
Explore a Character Scrapbook lesson plan
23. Create a historical newspaper
Have students create a newsletter or newspaper to show what they have learned about the events, politics, and culture of a different time in history. (template)
Explore a Day in the Life lesson plan
24. Raise awareness with a public service announcement
Students in sixth grade are starting to have the capabilities and passions to change the world, and Earth Day usually gets them interested and fired up about environmental issues. Students can use Wixie to combine images with voice narration to raise awareness, inform, and change behavior.
When developing a public service announcement (PSA), students have a chance to practice and apply persuasive writing skills in a real-world, authentic context. A short PSA targeted at a particular audience also encourages students to focus on writing organization, as well as voice and word choice.
Explore a Conservation PSA lesson plan
25. Create a community or school field guide
Ask students to go outside, or even look out a window, and simply observe the plants and animals there. Have them find a plant they find beautiful or an animal that interests them. Use the paint tools in Wixie to carefully record their observations along with text labels and insights to share what they notice. (template)
Students can then use their observations and sketches along with a field guide to help them identify the species if they don't know what it is. They can add additional information or notes to create a field guide for the species that live nearby. (template)
Explore a Fantastic Field Guides lesson plan
26. Draw your own Tree for Arbor Day
Gustav Klimt's "Tree of Life" is one of his most recognizable paintings. Search "Klimt" in Wixie and use the Eraser tool to create your own Klimt-style tree using a scratch art-style template. (template)
Scratch art drawing in Wixie is done with the Eraser tool, not the paint brush!
27. Write a blackout poem
To write a blackout poem, you cover up words on a page of text until the leftover words form a poem. Search "blackout" in Wixie to find templates containing a page of text from Tom Sawyer (template), Shakespeare (template), Lewis Carroll (template), and more.
Read the text and circle words you find interesting, then read them in order to listen to your poem. Circle additional words to fill out the idea and blackout (or pink-out, as the case may be) the rest of the words and add additional painted decoration.
28. Craft a concrete poem
Concrete poems are poems where the words are arranged in a shape that reflects the topic of the poem. Write your poem in small phrases or stanzas and use the rotate handle above a text box in Wixie to adjust the direction.
29. Create your own Egyptian cartouche
Hieroglyphics are a fun activity for students to do when they are studying Egyptian life and culture. Have students use this template and the built in hieroglyphic stickers in Wixie to create their own Egyptian cartouche. (template)
30. Create your digital footprint
Have students fill in the digital footprint template with examples of social media posts and headlines they would like others to see when they search for their name in the future. (template)
Wixie includes an entire Digital Citizenship folder of templates you can also use to help foster and support healthy digital habits, like being cyber safe, determining if online news is real or fake, and balancing time online with other activities.
Explore other ideas for supporting digital citizenship with your students.
31. Create a mandala
Mandalas have been around for thousands of years and are highly structured forms of art that use repetitive patterns. Have students create their own mandala using a range of shapes and/or stickers in Wixie. (template)
Explore a Make a Mandala lesson plan
32. Create a thank you card for your teacher
Share your appreciation for your teacher on Teacher Appreciation day! Open the Templates at your Wixie home page and open the Stationery folder to find a thank you note starter you can use to type a letter to your teacher. Better yet, start a blank Wixie page and use the paint tools to create an original drawing. You can also use the image button and camera option to capture your picture! (template)
Use the microphone tool to record your voice and let your teacher know how much you appreciate them.
33. Deepen understanding of volume
Recognizing volume and understanding it as a measurement of a space involving cubic units is an important skill for understanding how to measure three-dimensional space. Search "pool" in Wixie for a multi-page assignment where students identify the formula for volume, calculate the area of a given rectangular prism pool, and then create their own pool designs for a specific volume - identifying the length, width, and height. (template)
Read more about this real world of math lesson
34. Create a book bento
Create a book bento to retell important details about a text or to visually celebrate your favorite title. Search "bento" in Wixie for a fun background, then arrange images about the book and add hyperlinks for an interactive collage. (template)
35. Craft an If/But Comparative
Comparing and contrasting is a powerful learning tool, as shown by educational research. Crafting an If/But comparative report is not only a fun way to share knowledge, it promotes both analytical, and creative, thinking. Have students craft an If/But comparative report to showcase how two topics they are studying, such as animals, book characters, or geographic regions, are similar and different. (blank template)
36. Paint your own pop art
Explore the ideas of pop art and mass appeal (think Andy Warhol). Search "pop art" in Wixie for a template you can use to design a pop art montage. Add stickers and use the invert colors option or glue stickers down and use paint bucket to fill with different colors. (template)
37. Create an ABC's of...
After researching and learning about a topic such as geography, matter, ancient civilizations, or even the unique history and geography of your state, have students use Wixie to create an alphabet book to share knowledge they have learned, organizing their writing using the ABC’s. (template)
Have them each complete a book, or assign each student a single page and combine into a class book using Wixie's Project Wizard feature.
Explore an ABC Book lesson plan
38. Create a memory book
Have students reflect and compile memories of the school year using the Memory Book Template.
39. Survey the class
Have students take a survey of all the slang words they have heard in the school year. Then, have them use the graph template to plot and showcase their findings. (template)
40. Compose a melody
Wixie includes a library of music notation students can use to compose their own music. Search compose to find a simple template with notes and rests already included and this notation library attached to the Image button. Have students record themselves singing their melody or playing their compositions on a recorder or keyboard. (template)
Explore additional ideas for incorporating Wixie into your music program
41. Create surrealist art
Inform students about surrealism. You might inspire them with by reading a book like Pish, Posh, Hieronymus Bosch. Have students use Wixie's symmetry paint options to create bizarre creatures juxtaposed around a normal self-portrait. Write a poem about the way the surrealism feels.
Explore a Surreal Symmetry lesson plan
42. Create comics, cartoons, and even graphic novels
Comics and cartoons are a great way to engage students in the stories they are reading, the information they are researching, and the ideas they are exploring in your curriculum. Use them for narrative writing, retelling, sharing understanding, teaching others, raising awareness, and more. (template)
Explore additional ideas and lesson plans for creating comics
43. Complete an About Me Grid
Have students share about themselves (dreams, strengths, thoughts) by completing an All About Me Grid. (template)
44. Work with number patterns
Patterns are all around us. Use your detective skills to figure out what number will solve the pattern in the template. Add a page in Wixie and use the number stickers to create a growing pattern for someone else to solve. (template)
45. Celebrate a person of significance
Combine research, empathy, and writing by asking students to choose one person they feel should be the person of the year. Make sure students explain why they choose this person and what qualities and traits make this person such an outstanding contributor to our society. (template)
46. Build your creativity
Creativity is an essential skill for success in the digital age! Wixie makes it easy to build your creativity as you play. Browse the Templates folder and then the General folder to find and open the "creativity practice" template. Use the paint tools to turn circles into recognizable objects (à la Edward de Bono!) (template)
47. Create a playlist
Have students tap into their musical side by creating their own playlist. Use the drawing and authoring tools in Wixie to describe the mood of each song and create visual representations of each song. (template)
48. Write your own tall tale
Legends and tall tales are stories filled with unbelievable events or exaggerations that explain a person’s character or how something came to be. In this project, students write, illustrate, and record their own tall tale about a historical figure or location.
Explore a Legends and Tall Tales lesson plan
49. Create a Wanted poster for a story's antagonist
It is often the antagonist that makes a story interesting or gives a plot direction. Have students create wanted posters for villains in the stories they are reading to evaluate comprehension and help them consider how they might craft a villain to add impact to their own writing. (template)
50. Create Silhouette Art
A silhouette is a sharp outline or shadow of an object. While students can always draw silhouette outlines, they can also create them using stickers from the Image library.
Start a new blank page. Use the Image button to find and add a sticker to the page. Simple stickers are best. This may also be a great time to talk about horizon line.
Have students select each sticker, go to the Edit menu and choose Glue to Paint layer. Use the paint bucket to fill each sticker with black. Clean up spaces with the paint brush and add ground if necessary. Finally, select the Arrow tool and use the Background Picture button to find a colorful background!
