Twas the Week Before Break ...

In ELA this week, we switched things up with some winter activities! In writing, we spent part of our week discussing jobs and persuasive letter writing. We wrote letters to Santa as elves trying to convince him to hire us. For the second half of the week, we wrote "snoetry" ... haikus and cinquain poems! The poems encouraged us to use higher-level thinking to find syllables that matched the line and it was great to express our creativity. Check out our Twitter feed (@KendraStrickler) for more pictures of our final letters and snoetry poems.

Instead of Workshop, we broke into groups and practiced a reader's theater script. It was great to see teams working together to put their own spins (like fun accents!) on the play. It was also a great week to enjoy some independent reading. We put on our "fireplace" and just immersed ourselves in good books!

 (Did I mention that it was PJ Day?!)

Speaking of reading ... our "Shelf"ie wall is filling up fast! We have officially filled the right side of our wall and have moved onto the left side of the wall. Keep up the spectacular reading!

I hope you all enjoy a relaxing break with family and friends. I will see you in 2019!

This Week's Question: Write a haiku or cinquain poem about something you did over break. Email me by Jan. 2nd to pick from the candy closet!

PAWS Meeting and More!

Our week started with a PAWS Meeting on Monday. At our meeting, we learned about Camp Read S'More and our school-wide reading goal. As a school, we are hoping to read 19,905 books! As we get closer and closer to our goal, more and more teachers will be sent to camp in May. Who will be next?!

Speaking of reading, our "Shelf"ie wall is filling up fast! I do not have a picture to share today, but I will be posting one soon, so be on the lookout!

In ELA, we spent some time finishing up our How-To writing. We also practiced some creative writing with our Christmas Roll-a-Stories. It was so fun to write fun stories and then share our writing with each other.

On Friday, we spent some extra time reading. It was the perfect activity for such a foggy day! After we read, we shared some of what we read on Whooo's Reading and in small groups.

This week in ELA, come ready for some interactive reading, creative writing, and more holiday fun!

This Week's Question: As a preview to one of our activities ... what is a haiku? Email me by Monday to pick from the candy closet!

Writing Fun and More!

Our week started with a day of making/updating personal and class reading goals. We continue to do a great job with our class goal of filling the "shelf"ie wall. By checking in on our personal reading goals, we were able to evaluate how we are reaching our goals and how we plan to continue reaching for those goals. After we set our goals, we spent some time reading independently and then shared our reading with others.

This week in writing, we focused on writing our how-to papers. We paid close attention to our use of specific details and different transition words and phrases. Next week, we will be putting the finishing touches on our final drafts and presenting our skills to each other!

Workshop continues to be a success. We are progressing through our Story Elements unit each day and I am looking forward to applying a combination of these skills to larger readings. Come to Workshop on Monday ready for a bit of a change to our system...!

Friday was Fun Write Friday! We worked together to write stories in both classes. One class wrote story swaps, which is when we swap papers to the person next to us every few minutes. This encourages us to apply creative writing strategies to many different storylines. The other class rolled a winter-themed story. Then we all spent time sharing our writing. It truly was a fun day of writing!

Question of the Week: Come up with a simile, metaphor, or personification that has to do with Winter. Email me by Monday morning to pick from the candy stash!

New Writing!

We started a new kind of writing in ELA this week ... informational! Our first piece will be a how-to writing. At the beginning of the week, we looked at some examples and then came up with our expert lists. From these lists, we picked our favorite idea to use as our topic for the how-to essay. There are a lot of great ideas from baking, to building snow forts, to fishing!

In Workshop, we are continuing to work through story elements (plot and/or character). It continues to be a wonderful experience to participate in this reading community. One group has started a book club and I am looking forward to starting more book clubs soon.

There is a lot of great reading happening in our class ... stay tuned for another "Shelf"ie update soon! I am excited for our next Day 6 (Monday) when we will have time to relax and enjoy good books before sharing our reading on Whooo's Reading.

Question of the Week: What is one important thing to consider/include when writing a how-to essay?

A Thanksgiving "Shelf"ie Update!

This week in ELA we spent a lot of time writing our final narrative of the year. I am excited to read through them over this long weekend! When you come into school on Tuesday, be sure to check out all the new narratives hanging in the hallway.

Throughout our two-day week, we wrote what we were thankful for on our front board. Check out some of our answers below!

Finally, I have a long overdue "Shelf"ie update! We have officially filled our third shelf! Keep up the great reading sixth grade!

Biztown, Figurative Language Turkeys, and ... A Snow Day?

This week was a busy one in ELA! On Wednesday, we took a trip to JA Biztown. While we were there, we practiced being excellent citizens as we worked together to complete our jobs and make the town run smoothly. Camille was our mayor and she did great!

We also created figurative language turkeys that describe Thanksgiving. Students spent time brainstorming different senses of Thanksgiving to then use these details to create different examples of figurative language. We are hoping this helps us use powerful figurative language (and other writer's craft strategies we've discussed) in our final narrative of the year! (We will be starting informational writing after Thanksgiving!)

Finally ... we had our first snow day ... already! On Thursday, the first storm of the season brought a lot of snow (and some ice). This storm gave us our first snow day of the year!

Question of the Week: Write a short poem of what you did on your snow day. Send this to me by Monday morning for a prize!

This Week in ELA!

Our week started off with two days of rain and cold. So, how do we make that better? We decided to list our favorite rainy day activities! We also projected a fireplace to our screen to make it feel a little cozier.

In ELA, we practiced some more grammar skills to prepare for our final narrative. We will be writing our last narrative of the year from now until Thanksgiving Break. When we get back, come prepared to write informational pieces!

On Friday, we had our November PAWS Meeting. At this meeting, we learned about the North Hills Little Free Library, congratulated our Academic Excellence winners for October, and played Limbo! Congratulations to Nash, Cole, and Lexi for winning the October Academic Excellence award!

The week ahead will be a busy one. On Monday, you all have off! On Tuesday, I will not be here, so you will have a substitute. When the substitute is here, you will be practicing using figurative language and imagery in your writing. I can't wait to see what you come up with! On Wednesday, we finally go to Biztown!! This was one of my favorite field trips when I was in school and I cannot wait to go with you all on Wednesday.

This Week's Question: What part of Biztown are you most excited about?

Grammar Practice, Elections, and Cultural Heritage Day

This week in Writing, we practiced several different grammar skills so that we can apply them to our final Narrative writing piece. As a fun way to practice these skills, we played some games including Scoot and Who Dun It. We also had a race to see which team could properly punctuate all the dialogue in sentences first. On Friday, we completed some story swaps. To do this, we each wrote a few sentences before it was time to pass the writing off to the next person. It was great to see where different people took the same storyline. This is definitely a Fun-Write Friday activity we will be doing again soon!

We held our Biztown Elections for Mayor and District Attorney on Wednesday. All of our candidates did an excellent job. Congratulations to Camille for winning the role of Mayor!

Our Cultural Heritage Party was Friday afternoon and it was a blast! Thanks so much to our parent volunteers for making it such a wonderful afternoon. We were able to learn about Egypt, India, and China through different activities, while enjoying some good food from our countries.

This Week's Question: What is one thing you learned at our Cultural Heritage Day party?

ELA Updates, Biztown Interviews, and More!

In ELA this week, we wrote spooky stories to get in the Halloween mood. Everyone had such creative ideas, I cannot wait to display them in the hallway! Come prepared next week for more Halloween ELA activities and projects! In reading groups, we have been discussing several topics including theme, plot, and character development throughout stories.

Check out our "Shelf"ie progress ... we almost have shelf 3 filled!

On Tuesday, students came prepared to answer tough interview questions to apply for their dream job at Biztown. They all looked spectacular in their interview clothes and it was great to see them practicing this life skill together! Biztown is quickly approaching (Nov. 14th!!) and it will be great to see everyone working together to run the town for a day.

A group of students have been working on a special project with one of our parent volunteers, Mrs. Hartman. They are researching gardening and planning ways to utilize a greenhouse our vertical team has. This week, the fourth and fifth grade students joined in on the fun. Check out our pictures below!

On Friday, we had a magician come to our school! He performed some super cool tricks and although I did not become the magicians assistant (darn . . . :)), Miss Kahl did ... she was magnificent!

Finally, when Mother Nature gives us a chilly recess day, we warm up with a fun game of four square!

This Week's Question: One of our Halloween activities will require you to identify different examples of figurative language. What is one type of figurative language? Can you give an example? Email me by Monday morning to pick from the candy stash (which, by the way, has just been restocked with chocolate!!)

Pronoun Practice, A "Shelf"ie Update, and More!

This week in ELA we focused a lot on practicing our grammar skills. We studied pronouns, homophones, and subject/verb agreement. To practice pronouns, we split into two groups: pronouns and antecedents. Once we were split, we had to find our match. To practice homophones, we broke into teams to complete a homophone challenge. (Psst ... check out this week's question: it's another homophone challenge!) It was such a nice week, we decided to go out to the courtyard to practice some of these skills!

This week in ELA come prepared with creative ideas to write some spooky Halloween stories! We will also be having our WTW quizzes on Monday.

Our "Shelf"ie is doing spectacular! We have now filled our second shelf and are on our way to filling up our third one - more books are already waiting to be added! It will be so fun to read all your book reviews on Whooo's Reading later this week. Keep up the great work everyone!

Did I mention we WON the Box Tops Race?! We had our donut party on Friday and it was delightful!

This Week's Question: Complete the homophone challenge and send me an email by Monday morning to win a treat! Spelling counts!

The baker thought the dough _____ to be _____ more.

Narrative Writing, a "Shelf"ie Update, and More!

In ELA this week we worked on writing our personal narratives. Students were not only authors of their own papers, but they offered suggestions to their peers as they revised and edited together. We are focusing on including strategies we found in Saturdays and Teacakes into our own writing and there have been some pretty creative uses of the techniques! Before finalizing the narratives, we are also going to talk about what a good hook and good conclusion sentence look like so that we can make sure ours will be strong parts of our stories.

Our Class "Shelf"ie continues to grow - we have almost filled shelf #2! Keep up the great reading everyone!

We had our second school-wide PAWS Meeting today where we talked about goal setting. After the meeting, we all headed outside for human foosball!

* New to the Blog! Every so often, I will put a question in the post that, if answered correctly by Monday morning, could get you a small treat. So keep reading the blog to get updates on our classroom and maybe even win something!

This Week's Question: We have been working on writing Narratives. What are the two other types of writing we will do this year? Send me an email with your answer by Monday morning! :)

Workshop and Other Fun Stuff!

Our first full week of Reading Workshop is complete! It went well and we enjoyed working in small groups to grow as readers (and writers!). This week in Workshop we all learned about close reading and how that helps us understand a text better. Some groups also read a poem and then chose their favorite line of that poem to be in their own mini-poem. Everyone enjoyed this activity and we had some pretty creative poems!

Also in ELA this week, we continued learning about narrative writing and the good strategies authors use in their writing. We will be writing our own personal narratives soon and we are going to try to incorporate many of the strategies we read in other stories, like Saturdays and Teacakes.

Our Class "Shelf"ie continues to be filled! Keep up the great reading everyone! Check out our progress below.

In other news ... We have a new room setup and some other new elements, too.

Test your observation skills! If you can find at least 3 new things in our room, send me an email to win a small prize! Hint: Some changes are small ... you have to look closely!