Good morning!
Well, it's that time of the year again where you get to start hearing from me on a weekly basis :) Woohoo! For those families new to the middle school, this blog will be sent out every week, and it will be an update on what is going on in the classroom and any important events to remember for the month. If you ever have any questions about what is said in the blog, feel free to contact me! With that being said...
Important Dates:
September 19th - Student Council Officer Elections
September 21st - Ned Show (K-6) @ 9 a.m.
September 27-28th - School Pictures
September 29th - Mid-quarter
6th Grade ~ At the beginning of the year, the students and I reviewed the 7 reading strategies and how we use them on a regular basis. I also introduced them to Monday Meditations, and was VERY impressed with their first prompts. This week, we will be doing our second Monday Meditation of the year (September 11th). As a reminder to parents, Monday Meditations will be assigned on Mondays and then due the following Monday. As a class, we have also officially started our first unit, which is using the 6th grade reading curriculum (Good Habits, Great Readers). In this unit, we will practice using reading strategies as we read different short stories. In grammar, we are reviewing nouns, verbs, and adverbs, and on Wednesday the students will be taking their first grammar "test". My goal for the students this year is to begin by reviewing last year concepts. If the students prove to me that they have mastered a concept, we will move onto the next one.
7th Grade ~ At the beginning of the year, the students and I reviewed the 7 reading strategies and how we use them on a regular basis. I also introduced them to Monday Meditations, and was VERY impressed with their first prompts. This week, we will be doing our second Monday Meditation of the year (September 11th). As a reminder to parents, Monday Meditations will be assigned on Mondays and then due the following Monday. After the reading strategy review, the students then reviewed the elements of a short story and took a VERY simple quiz on those elements last week. I was extremely happy to see how well the students did! This week, we will start reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. Based on the students' reactions on Friday, they seem very excited to begin reading as a class; a wonderful thing to see as a teacher :) In grammar, we are reviewing nouns, verbs, and adverbs, and on Wednesday the students will be taking their first grammar "test". My goal for the students this year is to begin by reviewing last year concepts. If the students prove to me that they have mastered a concept, we will move onto the next one.
8th Grade ~ At the beginning of the year, the students and I reviewed the 7 reading strategies and how we use them on a regular basis. I then started introducing the students to Latin/Greek roots. Each week, the students will receive 3 Latin/Greek roots and about 10 vocabulary words that go along with the roots. Throughout the week, the students and I will practice using the roots and vocabulary words, and then on Friday the students will take a simple 10 question quiz on the roots. I have been very impressed with the first 2 quizzes the students have taken, and look forward to learning the roots with the students the rest of the year! We also started our first unit, which is the "What's in a Name?" research paper. As you are all aware, the students had to do some research about their name (including a parent interview), and we are now working with the essays and rough drafts. This week, the students will get a quick review on making citations and title pages, peer edit, and then make revisions to their essays. The final essay will be due next Tuesday (September 19th). In grammar, we are reviewing nouns, verbs, and adverbs, and on Wednesday the students will be taking their first grammar "test". My goal for the students this year is to begin by reviewing last year concepts. If the students prove to me that they have mastered a concept, we will move onto the next one.
All Grades ~ As a reminder to all students and parents, we will begin presenting book talks on October 16th. None of the requirements have changed from last year, so the 7th and 8th graders should be very familiar with the rubric (rubric located in the students' LA folder in Google Drive). For 6th graders, we went over the rubric together as a class, and the students seemed pretty comfortable with the assignment. I will review the rubric and provide the students with another example around the beginning of October. My only ask of you as parents is to keep encouraging your children
to be reading on a daily/weekly basis. The more often the students read, the less stressed and behind they will get with the quarterly project.
I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend!
God's blessings on your day!
Grace
