January & February flew by! :) I have not had a spare moment to catch my breath and write about all the skills we've been learning! Now that it's PARCC testing... I finally have some "free" time to update what my rockin' readers have been up too!
Granted, these are just a few of the many of things I was able to document!! :/ my kids are getting better at reminding me! ;) check it out!
"Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros - 6th grade students wrote a diary entry from the perspective of Rachell and created a scrap book page to commemorate her infamous 11th birthday!
7th graders have covered so many literary elements and terminology relating to "author's style" it could make my head spin. In this picture, we reviewed the different types of conflict - students chose one... Created a skit and we had to guess the problem & type of conflict being portrayed! Very fun!! This group pretended they were Steve Irwan on a safari around the classroom!
8th graders have been exploring paired passages & theme --- my co-worker is an art genius! She loves to have art lessons... I'm not that skilled (it's very comical) but, this was my first attempt at breaking out of my shell. The kids enjoyed it! The drawings & responses below are in correlation to a short story we read called "The Third Wish" by Joan Aiken. Students drew a swan, and wrote a theme response using evidence from the text.
Paper Plates? Tried to be creative.... Not an epic fail? ;)
Comma usage... Tried to make this as engaging as possible. 7th graders learned 10 different comma rules and had to create a "hook" in order to remember them. Below are ( in my opinion) the most creative ones!
Getting Active! In January, when we were beginning our novel units... I decided to do an "active survey" and have students answer a series of questions by going to different spots in the room. Sometimes, I would randomly draw a name and students would give me a reason for their decision or I would have them do a "Turn and talk" and discuss with a neighbor.
It's really interesting how fast conformity can happen! Its an important skill for these kiddos to know at this age level to think for themselves.
Again-- those were just SOME of the things we did over January and February! I'll post more once I have more time!
Until next time,
-Ritchie