Shop the Pig

Shopping at Piggly Wiggly - Click for photo gallery

After earning money, clipping coupons, and creating lists, students were ready to hit the aisles of the local Piggly Wiggly grocery store on Monday.  The sixth grade class met with a number of parent-volunteers to purchase nonperishable food items as well as toiletries.  After items were boxed and loaded onto a bus, they were donated to the Hope House, a facility aimed at providing necessities for the homeless of Milwaukee.  This is my second year participating in this service project, and both experiences have been humbling.  The generosity of the students, their parents, and the employees of the store is immeasurable and, undoubtedly, welcome at this time of year.

Composition students switched modes in their Writing Circles today.  For the next few meetings, the small groups will be known as Publishing Circles.  Writers searched through their previously written drafts in order to find a piece that they wanted to consider a little more seriously.  They were able to solicit advice regarding their choice from their peers, who had heard the pieces before. These Writing Circle drafts, also known as "starts" or kernels, will be developed into more significant pieces.  By dedicating a piece for publication, the writer is making a commitment to revisiting, revising, and editing for a larger audience.  Ultimately, students will post their pieces to Kidblog where their readers will have the opportunity to bless, address, or press their work.  Stay tuned to learn more!

After focusing on the background knowledge needed to appreciate Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, students began reading the novel in earnest this week.  Readers were expected to annotate actions or words that revealed a character's personality.  It is my hope that this will lead the students to develop a deeper appreciation for a character's motives and actions.  Like the sharecropping simulation, my goal is for them to empathize with the victims in Taylor's powerful novel.