October
October is finally here! This is my favorite time of the year. I love the changing leaves, perfect weather, and of course HALLOWEEN. Some of your kids may have informed you about my room. It is everything Halloween. It smells like pumpkins, I have a Jack-O-Lantern light, hanging pumpkin lights, spider webs, and more. The week of Halloween each of my classes will be taking a break from our textbook to do various Halloween activities. Don't worry, we will still be learning only with spooky stories. I am so excited! If the kids think I am a freak with Halloween they should wait until Christmas! Ahh, I am so excited for Christmas!!! One season at a time, Miss Steinkamp, I know it.
Anyways, here is what we have been doing:
6th Grade: They have been learning about an author's purpose for writing, symbols, dialect in a story, and descriptive language in a text. They researched a little bit about the Star Spangled Banner and completed a worksheet about it. With this worksheet we discussed what a symbol is and how this anthem represents our nation. We came up with a lot of symbols so I am confident 6th grasped that concept quite well.
On Wednesdays we cover grammar. This could be common grammatical mistakes that are made throughout their assignments or standards we have to meet. Last week we covered common mistakes such as when to uppercase mom and dad, when to use too, to, and two, and the difference between "know" and "no". This was just a reminder to them. Often I think the kids write without thinking so this was a nice little refresher. This week we hit up conjunctions and transitional phrases. I noticed that a lot of the students like to use "then" as a transitional phrase which is fine but we learned about different choices to make their writing stronger. Again, they caught on quickly so I hope to see this improve!
6th grade was given their biography report guidelines. They are due November the 12th. They are to have me approve their book. So far I have 11 students that have had their books approved. Mrs. Roghair, the librarian, knows of the assignment and helped the kids find a biography book in the library. The students will be writing a paper and creating a mini version of their person out of construction paper. I gave them a sheet with all the details so be sure to look at it. If you have any questions just let me know! I am excited for them to present their reports.
7th Grade:
These kids have been working hard with characterization. They just complete a collage poem about a character from our unit. They were pretty great! The students had to include forms of figurative language and sound devices, if they wanted to.I know the collage was pretty tedious but the kids really liked doing it, and I thought it was a creative way to write a poem.
Here is a poem written by Kara Kinsella. Her character was from a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe titled "The Tell-Tale Heart". I just think it is an awesome poem and very accurate of her character!! Way to go, Kara!
For the last two days we have been getting caught up with grammar. Today we focused on dangling modifiers, verb tenses, and fragment sentences. I was a little worried about the dangling modifiers. We took our time and really discussed it before they started on their worksheet. As I was going around the room, I noticed that the kids were getting it! They knocked it out of the park. I am very proud of them!
8th Grade:
These girls had fun on their retreat at Panora. It was a beautiful day with a lot of fun activities. Thank you again to Danna Dunphy and Chris Walter for driving us. We appreciate it!
These girls have been learning about characterization, sound devices, and narrative poetry. I assigned a hero poem. The girls had to write a poem about their hero using characterization, sound device, and two forms of figurative language. The girls did a great job. Many of them surprised me by writing about their siblings. If you haven't read their poems, I encourage that you ask them about it. They were very sweet!
Today I did the unthinkable, I assigned a debate! After discussing the topics, rules, and procedures, I feel that they are on board with this. In fact, they want an audience to judge who wins. These will be happening on Tuesday. The topic is school uniforms, should be get them or not? They will be doing a little more research on Monday then putting everything together for Tuesday. I am anxious to see how this goes. The girls need to remember to be respectful and professional.
Reminder: tomorrow we do not have school.
Have a lovely weekend!
Anyways, here is what we have been doing:
6th Grade: They have been learning about an author's purpose for writing, symbols, dialect in a story, and descriptive language in a text. They researched a little bit about the Star Spangled Banner and completed a worksheet about it. With this worksheet we discussed what a symbol is and how this anthem represents our nation. We came up with a lot of symbols so I am confident 6th grasped that concept quite well.
On Wednesdays we cover grammar. This could be common grammatical mistakes that are made throughout their assignments or standards we have to meet. Last week we covered common mistakes such as when to uppercase mom and dad, when to use too, to, and two, and the difference between "know" and "no". This was just a reminder to them. Often I think the kids write without thinking so this was a nice little refresher. This week we hit up conjunctions and transitional phrases. I noticed that a lot of the students like to use "then" as a transitional phrase which is fine but we learned about different choices to make their writing stronger. Again, they caught on quickly so I hope to see this improve!
6th grade was given their biography report guidelines. They are due November the 12th. They are to have me approve their book. So far I have 11 students that have had their books approved. Mrs. Roghair, the librarian, knows of the assignment and helped the kids find a biography book in the library. The students will be writing a paper and creating a mini version of their person out of construction paper. I gave them a sheet with all the details so be sure to look at it. If you have any questions just let me know! I am excited for them to present their reports.
7th Grade:
These kids have been working hard with characterization. They just complete a collage poem about a character from our unit. They were pretty great! The students had to include forms of figurative language and sound devices, if they wanted to.I know the collage was pretty tedious but the kids really liked doing it, and I thought it was a creative way to write a poem.
Here is a poem written by Kara Kinsella. Her character was from a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe titled "The Tell-Tale Heart". I just think it is an awesome poem and very accurate of her character!! Way to go, Kara!
Here And There
Vulture to the eyes
my story was to die,
I was rich not poor so
why am I to die.
How was your life
because it is no more.
Under boards that's
where I’ll be
There is no more
so why am I here.
Here is and there is
here but why am I not with
my riches they are not here.
$ching $ching
I am like riches scadder
all over the place.
Now I am dead so my
story is to die.
die die die.
under the boards.
For the last two days we have been getting caught up with grammar. Today we focused on dangling modifiers, verb tenses, and fragment sentences. I was a little worried about the dangling modifiers. We took our time and really discussed it before they started on their worksheet. As I was going around the room, I noticed that the kids were getting it! They knocked it out of the park. I am very proud of them!
8th Grade:
These girls had fun on their retreat at Panora. It was a beautiful day with a lot of fun activities. Thank you again to Danna Dunphy and Chris Walter for driving us. We appreciate it!
These girls have been learning about characterization, sound devices, and narrative poetry. I assigned a hero poem. The girls had to write a poem about their hero using characterization, sound device, and two forms of figurative language. The girls did a great job. Many of them surprised me by writing about their siblings. If you haven't read their poems, I encourage that you ask them about it. They were very sweet!
Today I did the unthinkable, I assigned a debate! After discussing the topics, rules, and procedures, I feel that they are on board with this. In fact, they want an audience to judge who wins. These will be happening on Tuesday. The topic is school uniforms, should be get them or not? They will be doing a little more research on Monday then putting everything together for Tuesday. I am anxious to see how this goes. The girls need to remember to be respectful and professional.
Reminder: tomorrow we do not have school.
Have a lovely weekend!
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment