November 21 - November 23

Grandparents' and Special Friends' Day

Welcome Mural created collaboratively by all sixth grade students.

A warm thank you to all grandparents and special friends who joined us on Wednesday.  It was a privilege to meet so many new people and share the morning.  We learned a little about each other as we created Random Autobiography poems together.  The poems explored deeper understandings of ourselves and provided an opportunity to draft, revise, edit, and publish a piece of writing in only twenty minutes!  Here is the template of the Random Autobiography:

Random Autobiography

Name

Favorite number, color, astrological sign

I am told (memory)…

I love…

I held…

I have seen…

I lost…

I hear…

I used to…

I’ve learned …

Personal symbol

Looks like…

Brad

Seven, green, Cancer

I am told I crawled backwards.

I love Coca-Cola and Candy Raisins

I held my father’s hand.

I have seen childbirth.

I lost my grandparents.

I hear what I want to.

I used to have time.

I’ve learned to follow my heart.

Bass clef on a musical staff.

 

November 8 - November 18

It has been a long week, but ERB's are finished!  Congratulations to all of the dedication and focus demonstrated by the sixth graders this week.  Everyone put forth their best effort.

After completing four days of testing, students started to get back on track with their regular studies today.  We are building background knowledge for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor.  It promises to be an insightful look into the lives of African-American sharecroppers during the Great Depression.  Historical context plays a huge role in fully appreciating and understanding the novel, so we will be spending time exploring the Great Depression as well as Jim Crow laws, the Ku Klux Klan, and sharecropping.  Students will be creating investigative research projects to help enhance their knowledge of these key ideas.  The projects will even contain QR codes as a way to make their work interactive.  We are very excited!

What is a QR code?  Scan this one with your smartphone to find out.