Above shows evidence of students revising their narratives, I hope that the same amount of hard work is going into their home personal narratives that are now due on October 10th. Today, we talked about strong endings in our writing and writing with power.  In Social Studies, we were social scientists and analyzed a site dig trying to figure out what group of people had lived there in the past.

I sent home progress reports to all students that I have for reading. Please sign and return those to me tomorrow.

Hi families! Here is a copy of the rubric that will guide the grading of the 6th grade Early People Project . Click on it to enlarge. Today, we started MAP testing, started peer editing in LA and listened to a Science Friday interview from NPR about hominids.

Today the students had a chance to persuade each other that their studied hominid group was the most capable. They focused on food, tools, community and a topic of choice. The energy in the room was infectious!

BIG projects coming up:
Social Studies Early People Project- due Oct. 6th
Home Personal Narrative- due- Oct. 3rd

Have a lovely weekend!

In Language Arts today, we SLOWED down our writing by creating a story mountain of the external and internal events of our narratives. The SAME work is expected in your home personal narrative tonight. The first picture shows a student's work in revising after we created the story mountain.
In Social Studies the students are creating visuals and persuasive speeches on how their hominid is the most capable hominid. They will present tomorrow- this is all at school work, not homework.

Writing Homework: Day 10: Due: lesson 10

Today we talked about true revision, to envision your story differently. Tonight, make a story mountain, including both the internal (what is my story really about) & external (physical events) story.  

Happy Wednesday! I wanted to share some pictures from the cooperative games we played on the field trip last Friday. So, you will not see pictures of students' faces on the blog, I tend to play it safe with internet.

No LA or SS homework for tonight. The kids reading The Skin I'm In, need to write a couple paragraphs about the theme of the book.

Writing homework: Tonight, take your home personal narrative and create at least four different leads. Use the poster and the following as examples and to help guide your writing:
1. small detail
2. inner dialogue/thinking
3. small action
4. dialogue

Reading- A Long Walk to Water- write about the theme of the book- due tomorrow.
The Skin I'm In- Finish book- write about the theme of the book- due Thursday.

Peak is the read aloud we are working through together. It is a great read! See our I Can statements for today and Wednesday. 

Writing Homework: Due: October 3^rd, 2014

We have chosen our small moment story (personal narrative) to write while in class. You need to choose a DIFFERENT small moment (personal narrative) and write it at home. It is due October 3^rd. Remember that in class, we will learn new strategies to improve our narratives up until October 1^st and I will look for evidence of that learning in your home narrative. That means, please do not complete and turn this in tomorrow, wait until you have all the narrative strategies in your “invisible backpack.”  If students want to complete this assignment on google docs and share it with me, here is my email: msikorskI@madison.k12.wi.us

You should have your Social Studies Early People Project topic decided! If not, see me tomorrow to get some ideas. 

My pictures are NOT uploading to the blog. Boo. More later hopefully! Have a great night.

I have a lovely time meeting you all last night. I hope you share in the same feelings. The planning sheet for the Early People Projects is seen in the first picture, I know some of you asked about this last night. We did not complete the date column as I want your child to be able to monitor this piece- feel free to help them.

In LA today, we studied James Howe's writing. He is now a mentor author for our classroom, meaning that we will try and emulate his style of writing in our own narratives. See chart above for lessons we learned from him.

In SS we studied early Hominds: Australopithecus, Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis, Homo Sapiens Sapiens. 

Tomorrow night is Go-To-School night from 6:30-8:40. You will have the chance to go to school, without your child, and spend 10 minutes in each of their classes. They will bring home a schedule for you to follow tomorrow. During this time, you will be able to sign up for Fall Parent Teacher Conferences which are held on Thursday, November 13th from 2:45-8:00 and Tuesday, November 18th from 1:45-7:00. You will ONLY sign up with your child's homeroom teacher, if you would like addition times with another teacher, please find them and schedule with them. 

Writing Homework: Day 5: Due: 9/17/14

Today in class, we talked about point of view, making sure that we stayed true to the real small moment. Tonight, use your strategies chart and choose a new small moment. Write at least two pages keeping in mind point of view and staying true to that moment. You also need to SHOW NOT TELL in your writing!

The class has some good ideas going for their Early People Social Studies Project. Let me know if you have any questions regarding the project.  We looked at cave art and cave paintings today, see above for an example.

Field trip is THIS FRIDAY. Our class is assigned to wear something ORANGE.

We talked about Point of View from a writer and reader's perspective today in Language Arts. In Social Studies, we outlined the steps to take when completing a big research project. 

Writing Homework Day 4:

 Today in class, we added to our strategies to come up with personal narrative writing topics. Tonight, you need to add to your small moment/topic ideas. Then, write about a page and a half to two pages. Learn to dig deeper into the stories you are writing.

Strategies for generating personal narrative topics

• Think of a person who matters to you, list small moments, choose one, and write the whole story
• Think about a place that matters, use pictures and quick notes to jot about the small moments that occurred there, choose one, and write a whole story
• Think of first times or last times you did something, list small moments stories you could tell about each, choose one, and write a whole story
• Think of moments that really mattered because you realized or learned something, list those moments, choose one, and write the whole story

S.S. Project Update

                              

Your child has been assigned a social studies project for our first unit.  All projects are to be about a prehistoric topic (5,000 years or older).  It is my hope that each student chooses a topic in which they are keenly interested and present it in a way in which they are comfortable. The idea is to learn more about the topic and to share that knowledge with the class. 

            At this point, your child has been given general directions about the project along with a grading criteria and point sheet used for evaluation. A sheet with topic ideas and ways to present was also handed out. Time has been set aside in class to both discuss project ideas and to do some research.  Most of the work, however, will be completed at home.

How Can You Help?

This entire project should be considered a learning process. Students are learning time management skills, research skills, organizational skills, etc. I hope that you will help guide your child without feeling any pressure of personal responsibility. I want each child’s “lesson” to be valuable, which may mean that some students will have to “learn the hard way.”  I want each student to take ownership for his or her success or failure.

We will be learning how to do more formal research later in the year.  At that point students will learn to take down information systematically on note cards, how to organize information by subtopics, how to write a bibliography, and other report writing skills. For this project, students are asked to make, build, create, demonstrate, video tape, etc. to teach the rest of us about their topic.  Each project should be informative, interesting and seriously presented.  A bibliography is optional. Presentations are usually accompanied by a short written report or outline unless the information is conveyed in another way.  A formal report is not necessary, unless that is the mode of presentation. 

         Museum Day  

October 10 from 11:30-12:30 has been set aside as a museum day.  Parents will be invited to view projects along with students from all sixth grade classes.  More details will come later. 

Our students will make a presentation tentatively starting during the week of October 6^th and also display their information at the museum on the 10^th.

         Contacting Me

            Please call or email me if you have any questions. I’m looking forward to your child’s presentation.

 Classroom (direct): 204-4704

Email: msikorski@madison.k12.wi.us

GREAT to meet some of you last night at the school picnic. Some students are reading A Long Walk to Water as a reading assignment. Today we spoke about three types of history detectives: Archaeologists, Historians and Geographers. For homework, students need to decide which is the most important type of history detective and write about it while justifying their choice. Also, I sent home permission slips for the park for NEXT Friday. Our class (and Mr. K's) are supposed to wear orange that day. Let me know what questions you have about anything!

This is how our Social Contract looks now that we all signed it. All of us have committed to following the agreements. We had a chance to get to the LMC today to learn the ropes from Ms. Phelps, our LMC director. Check the calendar on the blog to view upcoming events at Hamilton. Hope to see you at the picnic tonight, if the rain holds off!

We have I Can statements that students will be able to visually access in the classroom- they contain a focus for that subject.

Writing Homework Day 1: Due:

Today in class, we studied personal narrative mentor texts to learn from their expertise. Tonight for homework, begin a draft of a small moment, keeping in mind the strategies you learned from our mentor texts. I expect that you will write about a page and a half, in total. You will also need to finish declaring your writing goals.

Today we talked about powerful personal narratives and used some middle school mentor texts to look at what good writing looks like. They already know so much about writing, so we are going to fine tune those skills. In Social Studies we looked at a timeline of Early People from 2,500,000 years ago to 2,000 years ago and their inventions.

Happy Friday! In our classroom and Mr. Kruger's classroom, we developed three statements for our Social Contract. They are: Be Engaged, Be Respectful, and Be Responsible. Our social contract was created by all 60 students and both teachers from scratch- the guidelines were that the statements were written with three words or less and that ALL of us needed to agree on the statements. There are many behaviors that fall under each statement and we talked about those as well. This weekend I will have our Social Contract made into a large poster and we will all sign it on Monday. This way, we have ALL agreed to follow the contract and when problems arise, we can refer to them and deal accordingly. This poster shows our work with the Be Engaged statement and what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like in the classroom.

We survived a warm day at Hamilton. It is not that easy to see (you can click on it to enlarge), but above is the "marking system" that we use across grade levels for Close Reading. Close Reading is "reading with a pencil," and deeply reading a text. The students will be introduced to all marks in the near future. Have a good night! Mrs. D

We worked today on putting together our AVID binders. Students are required to bring them to all classes but do NOT need to take the whole binder home at night. The Homework Folder (containing any homework for the night) and their Planner will go home every night and NEEDS to come back every day. This organizational technique will be used throughout middle school and will prepare them for high school. Tomorrow, Thursday, starts the first day of a "normal" school day where they will go to all of their different classrooms (we have been spending a lot of time in our homerooms). Have a lovely evening! Mrs. D

Today was a great yet hectic first day! We did a lot of housekeeping, and will do so for the next day or so. The students will almost every daily come into our classroom and the start by reading the Daily News, and complete the To do. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns! Thanks! Mrs. D