Here's What's New...

Hi Folks! 

 Here is what we have been working on... 

6th grade had learned about imagery, dialogue, setting, elements of a story, so we mushed them all together and I had them write short stories! The stories were creative and I see their writing skills strengthening as we continue on with the school year.

 They are currently working on writing their biography reports. We are doing this in class so I can monitor how and what they are writing. These things are confusing so it is a slow process. ALL BOOK REPORTS ARE DUE OCTOBER 27th!! I have construction paper if they need it. Also, we will be printing the heads of our person in class, so you don't have to worry about that. Please check your student's book report guidelines if they need assistance! 

7th Grade has been learning about characterization, motivation, and point of view. They, too, were to write a short story. Instead of a one page story, they had to write a children's book full of illustrations. We brought these books to the kindergarten classroom last week and read to the little ones. The 7th grade had so much fun reading their stories, and I know the kindergarteners were loving the older kids being in their classrooms. One group brought a prop for the little kids to hold and another group changed their voices and added dramatic effects while reading. It was great! Check out the pictures below of your kiddos reading! 

Oh Andy...

These two had great dramatic voices while reading!

This group included a prop for the kids to hold. So creative!

This group had an interactive page for the kids!

At our professional development at the high school on Friday we learned about a website called Edpuzzle. This website allows me to edit videos and add questions to the videos for students to answer. I edited Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have A Dream speech and they were to answer motivation questions. They really like this website! I am also using it with the 8th grade. 

8th grade has been learning about a character's traits, point of view, and a character's motivation. One of the activities for 1st person point of view that we did was watch an astronaut free fall from space while having a GoPro strapped to his head. The kids had to discuss what the astronaut was feeling, seeing, and thinking throughout the video. It was pretty cool to watch! 

In our class meeting we used the website Tagul. This is a word cloud site. Each student went around and wrote two positive personality traits of every student in the room. Then they composed their positive traits and created a word cloud. Turns out there were shapes to choose from. Here are the clouds the kids made! I love the Air Jordan one that Ayden made and I think the cow that Payton made is adorable!

Speaking of class meetings. I put in a request to get free books from the organization Pay It Forward. The book is titled Pay It Forward and the students read about how a boy's life was changed by doing random Pay It Forward acts. I hope we can read the book and also do kind acts. ALSO, I signed up to adopt a soldier. We have been assigned one! I will introduce our soldier to the 8th grade tomorrow and start writing letters to her. I think this will be good for the kids to gain this experience and learn more about current events.  

REMINDER: ALL BOOK REPORTS ARE DUE OCTOBER 27th, THIS IS FOR ALL MIDDLE SCHOOL GRADES!! 

On the 20th of October I will be taking three students from each middle school grade to The Writers in the Middle. The students have been chosen so be on the look out for the permission slips. They will do a variety of writing activities. Please pack a sack lunch and have your child dress appropriately. We will leave St. Malachy at 8 AM. Please have your child here at 7:45. 

Thank you to all parents that supervised the haunted house and carnival at the Spaghetti Supper. You guys are the greatest and thank you for all of your support and hard-work!!!