6th grade Science: how to help at home
What your child learns in 6th grade science in the California Content Standards, and simple things to try at home.
Focus areas this year
- Thermal energy, weather and climate
- Cells and body systems
- Growth, development and engineering design
Easy ways to practice science at home
- Turn everyday questions into investigations: “Which paper towel holds the most water?”
- Read a science news story together and ask what evidence it gives.
- Look up how a household machine works, such as a bike gear, a lamp or a fridge.
- Have your child draw and label a diagram of something they just learned.
What each unit covers
Body Systems
How the nervous and endocrine (hormone) systems send messages, how the excretory system removes waste, and the basic organs of the reproductive system, all at a simple organ-and-job level.
Our Senses
Practices natural sensory systems: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. It follows the Grade 6 science skill descriptors on natural and technical sensory systems in the New Brunswick curriculum.
Cells: Life's Building Blocks
Practices evidence that living things are made of cells, the parts of plant and animal cells and their jobs, and how the cell works as a system.
Thermal Energy & Insulation
Practices how thermal energy moves from warmer to cooler objects, how mass and material affect temperature change, and how to design a device that slows heat transfer.
Engineering Design
Practices the engineering design process: defining a problem with criteria and constraints, comparing solutions, testing to find the best features, and improving a design step by step.
Work, Energy & Efficiency
Using the scientific terms force, displacement, work, energy and efficiency, calculating work as force times displacement, finding efficiency, and how friction and design affect the energy lost from machines.
Weather Systems
Practices how air masses and fronts change the weather, and how the sun and gravity drive the water cycle, including the Sierra Nevada's rain shadow and the atmospheric rivers that bring California's winter storms.
Climate & Climate Change
Practices how latitude, oceans, mountains and winds shape regional climate, such as California's mild coast and dry deserts, and the evidence for and causes of rising global temperatures.
Growing & Reproducing
Practices how animal behaviors and plant structures help reproduction, how environment and genes affect growth, and how asexual and sexual reproduction differ. California places these middle school standards in 6th grade.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Beginning
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practicing the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Exceeding
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the California report card guide.
Common questions
Turn everyday questions into investigations: “Which paper towel holds the most water?” Read a science news story together and ask what evidence it gives. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The California Content Standards 6th grade science units include Body Systems, Our Senses, Cells: Life's Building Blocks, Thermal Energy & Insulation, Engineering Design, Work, Energy & Efficiency.
Free printable 6th grade science practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.