Steinkamp's Scoop

I am a little late on Homecoming pictures, so I am sorry for that. Here is what I took on Friday and then on Monday for our retreat. Monday was such a fun day! The kids played a lot of fun activities and had a great conversation with Alex, the coordinator, on what a true leader is. The 8th grade really worked together and strengthened their leadership skills. They did well on all of the activities, except one. The first one they struggled with so we had to pull the plug. That was a bit of a mess, but other than that they rocked it! : ) This was the first activity that did not end well. Do you like Beau, Ayden, and Spencer's technique?  The girls helping each other on the planks. Sydney getting help from her classmates to climb the wall.  Beau getting help.  Ellie getting a lot of help. :) She really relied on classmates, because she was not moving. Ha!!! The 8th grade.  Here they are praying the rosary while on a walk. It was a pretty neat idea.

Hello again!  The 8th grade just wrapped up their Great Debate! Their topic was if junk food should be banned in schools. Both sides presented great information, facts, examples, and presented wonderfully! I am a very proud teacher. The 6th grade, Mrs. Cline, and Mrs. Simmons were the judges. The kids said they had a lot of fun debating. The opposition team. The proposition team. Beau giving the proposition team's introduction. Hannah giving the opposition team's introduction.  While the 8th grade debated, the other grades wrote opinion papers, hooray! Those little guys are due today for the 7th grade and tomorrow for the 6th grade. This is a little more challenging for the 6th grade. I really want to push them to become strong writers. I am excited to see the end product tomorrow.  Note to 8th grade parents! We have a field trip on Monday to the St. Thomas Moore Center in Panora. The kids will be participating in a leadership retreat. It is a lot o

8th grade parents, For our class meeting yesterday we did a little arts and crafts in the form of bracelet making. When I was younger, I would make friendship bracelets for my friends. These are a symbol of a lasting friendship. I thought it would be fun for the 8th grade to make "classmate bracelets" as a symbol of a lasting bond these kids seem to share. I want them to realize that they are a special class that should stick together and create a lasting relationship. The girls picked a color, the boys picked a color, and I picked a color. We knotted the three colors together to make our bracelets. We are now sporting them on our ankles as a symbol of our class. Our goal is to have them on the whole year. The girls who are in dance competition thought ahead and made theirs a little bigger to slide off and on. I think they turned out pretty cool, and it seemed like the 8th grade enjoyed making them! Spencer and Hannah making their bracelets. Spence was less than impre

Hi Parents!  I will be grading and putting in scores tonight/tomorrow. If you see that your child has a lower grade, do not panic! We only have a couple of grades in there. We have been working on expectations, and I have been assessing reading, speaking, and writing. There will be more grades coming in that will bump those up. E-mail me with any questions.

Hello once again!  I am going to be catching everyone up on what has been going on the last week and a half. If you have been on Power School and are wondering where are my kid's grades, don't panic. Last week I wanted to assess writing, reading, and speaking so I was just assess their work and not actually grading it. I do this because the kids don't know or have forgotten my expectations of writing. For an example, a lot of the kids are forgetting to write in complete sentences, write their name on the paper, and forgot what I expect out of a paragraph. This week is when I will start grading things. I am going to wait until I have a few assignments before I put anything in. 6th grade: We have been working on plot diagrams for stories. They did one as a group, by themselves, and we did one together over a story we read called "To Build a Fire" by Jack London. The kids didn't really like how it ended, so today they are writing alternative endings. They a