Steinkamp's Scoop

Happy Thanksgiving Parents! Barb Coenen stopped by for her monthly Book Club activity. This time she had the kids make "thankful" banners. They turned out super cute and you can see it below. They read Two Thanksgiving Day Gentleman by O. Henry. They kids seemed to like it because it involved a lot of irony. 8th grade has just wrapped up their informative speeches. They were to present on something they know quite well so they could present rather than read off of note cards. Everyone did a fine job!  They will be finishing unit 3 next week, then we will move onto our poetry unit before reading novels as a class. They are really looking forward to both novel and poetry. 7th grade has been learning a lot about theme and symbols this past unit. They read Winter Dreams  by F Scott Fitzgerald. It was a difficult read by themselves but we spent a day discussing the symbols in the story and they said that helped. Next week they will be reviewing recurring theme in stories and ...

Hey Parents!  A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, so let me give you a run down of what has been going on. 6th: This class read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for their Halloween story. Unfortunately it was just bad timing and poor planning on my part because usually this week is so much fun, but there was so many things going on that took away for a spook-tacular week! I just loved their book reports. I saw a lot of creativity and hard work in their little people. (In some cases the people weren't so little, but that is great!) They wrapped up unit 2 last week and took the test. Today they will be correcting the tests and moving on to unit 3. This unit is where we focus on theme and topic. They are currently working on making Thanksgiving cards for their adopt-a-soldier, Darrin. We found out he works in a hospital in the Middle East. Darrin is working on responding to some of their letters and cards from before.  7th: We read The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, ...

My PowerSchool has been down this week, so I haven't been able to put in grades. I hope to do this over the weekend to get caught up. Happy Halloween! I hope to see you at the parade at 2:30 this afternoon. The 8th grade has a surprise in store. :)

Welcome back!  As I mentioned before, on the 20th a group of middle school students and myself went to the Writers in the Middle conference at Graceland University in Lamoni. I think everyone enjoyed themselves and learned a little more about writing stories. Here are a couple of pictures of the kiddos. Sting found us!  Yesterday we participated in Back to the Future day. I snapped some pictures of the 8th grade helping the 2nd grade in the "future room". This room was filled with new technology such as robots. The middle school will be working more with these items in December for Code Day.  A heads up: the 7th grade and 8th grade will be taking their unit 2 test on Monday. Then we will proceed with Halloween week. I LOVE this holiday so we will be doing various activities. It will be learning activities, don't worry, but it will also be FUN!! Also, the 27th of October is when ALL books reports are due. Friday the 30th is wh...

Hi 8th Grade Parents!  I e-mailed you all the link for you to use to sign up for conferences. If you did not receive the e-mail, here is the link for you. Call or e-mail with any questions. Conferences are the 5th of November. See you then! www.SignUpGenius.com/go/20F044DA8AC29A4FE3-miss

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 illustrat...

Hi Parents,  Just a reminder that tomorrow we do not have school due to Professional Development. Also, next Saturday the 10th, will be the Spaghetti Supper. https://stmalachy.bringit.bz/ public/6eaf51