In Social Studies next week we will take part in a Socratic seminar.  Have a great weekend.

Social Studies assessment is tomorrow and the LA & Reading homework is listed below.

Writing homework: Today we talked about collecting ideas/themes when planning our memoir writing. Tonight, continue to collect short stories and themes with small moments connecting to that theme. You should write at least 2 pages. See below for example:

Short stories:

-          First time I was on rollers

-          Piano music

-          Mom’s wedding

-          Phone call with my mom

-          Devil’s Lake alone

-          College professor & dream

-          9/11 and school

-          Church- laughing attack

Themes:

Loss

-          Dad

-          Friendship with Amy

-          Grandma

Hard work pays off

-          College/masters

-          IM

-          Kids and follow through

Disappointment

-          ½ marathon and illness

-          House offer fell through

-          Mean 4^th grade teacher

READING HOMEWORK:

1.    What is the gist of the article?

2.    Please infer why companies would care about their employees’ health habits.

3.     Using context clues, what does encroaching mean in paragraph 2. Write a different sentence using encroach/ed/ing.

4.     Find two examples of figurative language usage- be ready to share out.

5.    Rewrite the first sentence in the 5^th paragraph.

6.    What is author intent of the article?

7.    What is your personal opinion about the information in paragraph 3?

We had a chance to share out 1 paragraph of some of our writing thus far with memoirs. The emotions are clear. The thoughtfulness is evident. We will have a Social Studies Ancient Rome quiz on Friday. There is a "16 minute" Language Arts assignment due tomorrow.

Our classroom is alive with stories! We are all looking back and digging for moments that have meant a lot to us- or made us who we are today. Can you name 10 ways that ancient Rome has contributed to current western civilization?

Language Arts homework tonight- continue to work on the "Who am I?" worksheet.

Memoir conversations start on Monday! Looking forward to seeing what wonderful writing will come from all the amazing writers! We will also look at Rome and how it has contributed to modern life.

Memoir writing is coming soon. These are some that I will read short excerpts from in the next couple of weeks. We will finish watching videos tomorrow- they are amazing!

Tomorrow we will view the videos! In Social Studies tomorrow, we will preview the quiz that you will take on Friday. If your Cornell Notes are thorough, you should be able to do well on the quiz.

Commercials/Videos are due tomorrow! A good idea would be to email me your video (msikorski@madison.k12.wi.us) and/or save it on a flash drive and bring it to school. Better to have both covered so we have your video without any glitches. The videos we have seen so far have been excellent.

The PEOPLE PROGRAM will be here to present to parents and students on Thursday, Feb 19th at 6:00 pm in our LMC. Applications will be in the week of Feb. 16 and the application is due to Hamilton counselors on March 23rd. The PEOPLE PROGRAM is for second semester 6th graders and is a recruitment program for UW-Madison. 

There were some questions about being able to view comments from teachers on 2nd quarter- you can view them! You need to go to the Reports tab and then choose Report Card to see the actual report card with comments on it. Please do this if you have not- there are some detailed comments on report cards. 

Videos are due THIS WEDNESDAY!!!!

Here is the other letter from our practicum student:

Hi! I’m Kat and I will be one of the practicum students in your classroom for the remainder of this semester. I am a junior at UW Madison studying education with a focus on ESL (English as a Second Language). When I graduate I will be certified to teach anywhere from 1^st to 8^th grade. I grew up in Madison and went to school in Stoughton, which is only about 20 minutes outside of the city, but it feels like a different world. Think farms, a lot of farms. In my free time, I love to read (I’m trying to read 50 books this year) and watch movies. I am fairly certain I’ve seen almost every movie EVER so if you want to discuss your favorites with me feel free. I live with three of my best friends and love to have fun in the city with them when I’m not busy with school! We also have a beagle named Duke who lives with us. His pastimes include eating peanut butter and causing trouble. I have never worked with 6^th grade before, so all I have to go on are my memories of MY 6^th grade year (which was in 2005). English and Language Arts were my favorite subjects in school, so I’m excited that I was placed in your classroom. I’ve heard great things about your teacher AND you guys, and I can’t wait to start working with you all and find out more about you!

Tonight, please make sure you are completely organized for your LA video. Also, we share out our Venn Diagram's in Social Studies. Below is one of the letters from our new practicum students.  

Dear Ms. Duffield’s 6^th grade class,

My name is Ms. Meagan Abbott and I couldn’t be more excited to be joining your class at Hamilton Middle School this semester! I am studying to become a teacher just like Ms. Duffield and I hope to learn as much from her and from all of you as I can throughout the next few months. I’ve always loved Language Arts class because it gives us the opportunity to be creative and explore the infinite world of books. 

It will be so fun to get to know all of you and to hear about all of your favorite stories! First, here’s a little about me:

I grew up in Madison and attended Edgewood until I graduated high school in 2012. I studied at UW for two years before spending a semester at La Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, a study abroad program in Lima, Peru. It was very cool to learn about another country’s culture, but I’m happy to be home so that I can learn about all of your cultures and communities right here in Madison.

I have one older sister and I love spending time with my family and friends. I also love working with and teaching kids, as well as traveling and discovering new things!

I can’t wait to meet each and every one of you!

Sincerely,

Ms. Abbott

We have started to look at Greece and Rome. During this unit, we will do a lot of comparing and contrasting of information. The above Venn Diagram shows climate for both places.

 If you would like to send me your commercial/video to my email, the address is: msikorski@madison.k12.wi.us
You can also bring in a flash drive with your video saved on it or bring in your phone with a plug in for my computer or you can upload it to your Google Drive and then share it with me. You may need to base this choice on how big the file from your video ends up being. They are due on Wednesday the 18th. I have I-Pads here at lunch for those who need to use them.

The first picture explains what should be brought on the caving trip this Thursday. We are moving further along in our commercials/informational videos. The other pictures show some ways that students are organizing their videos.
Sorry- blurry picture...... these are questions that will asked of students on Monday for their quiz in Social Studies.

In Language Arts, we looked at how to organize our notes on out teen activist. We have to start thinking about what you want to include in your informational video. Remember, by the end of the video, you need to change our minds about a cause. Leave us feeling like we HAVE to help out in some way.