PLEASE continue to work on preposition Storybirds and enjoy your holidays!!!

Preposition StoryBook Project - Using Storybird.com OR good old fashioned paper!

Students were given a list of 54 prepositions. We discussed prepositional phrases. Then, students were given a tour of a site called storybird.com where they can create online storybooks. Students were provided with usernames and passwords to open their accounts in our classroom account.  Students will earn two points for each preposition they incorporate in their stories up to a total of 54 prepositions. Prepositions MUST be used in a prepositional phrase (preposition eventually followed by a noun or pronuon). Students may design any type of school-appropriate story they desire.  Students must turn in a list of the prepositions they used and corresponding page numbers. If computer use is not available, students can design these books using good, old-fashioned paper and art supplies. Stories and preposition/page number lists are due on Friday, January 6.

IF STUDENTS FORGET USERNAMES OR PASSWORDS PLEASE EMAIL ME DIRECTLY AT:  jjackson@forsyth.k12.ga.us

--THANKS!

Practice Formative Test

Students all took formative test with questions like those that may appear on Friday's mideterm. This test DOES NOT include EVERYTHING that will be tested on Friday. It only includes some of the standards. The test was also reviewed in class today so that students know what they need to go back and study before Friday. All resources for the exam can be found at tinyrul.com/istudyla

Spelling Bee

Today, all of our language arts classes participated in a spelling be to select candidates for our school spelling bee which will then compete in the county-wide annual spelling bee. It was also iPod day, so as students finished competing in the bee they read novels and listened to their iPods. PLEASE CONTINUE TO STUDY FOR THE MID TERM THIS FRIDAY by visiting www.tinyurl.com/istudyla

Online Mid-Term Study Resources "Digital Binder"

CLICK BELOW FOR A DIGITAL BINDER OF INFORMATION

http://www.livebinders.com/play/present?id=260642

Students took a quiz today on pronouns vs. adjectives. Then we did a timed writing. Lastly, we used Versatiles to review subjects and predicates for our upcoming midterm.

Pronouns vs. Adjectives

Shortened classes today due to it being Advisement Thursday. Each class participated in a scavenger hunt. They were provided with 8 sentences totalling 31 words and were also provided with 31 parts of speech labels to match up with the words in each sentence. This exercise was designed to help students tell the difference between different types of pronouns and adjectives. Then, as a class, we labelled the same sentences on the whiteboard and students corrected theirs. There will be a quiz on this tomorrow.

Graded Work and Writing Folders

Today in class, all students received their graded Adverb Menus back. These grades are available on Parent Portal. As usual, any student scoring below an 80% is encouraged to either make the corrections noted on the returned work or attend a help session. For this help session, students were invited to give their name and the name of their first connection's teacher to Ms. Jackson or Ms. Flowers. On Monday, these students will be excused from their first connection class to attend the help session.

Additionally, students received their graded writing tests back. These were scored on an 8th grade scale and therefore I decided to raise these grades in parent portal (formative) by 10 points. Students reviewed their writing in class today along with the feeback provided by the scorers. Furthermore, students noted their scores in each area of the test on a chart which will be mainited in a writing folder that will follow them from 6th to 7th and 8th grades.

No homework tonight.

Students are to spend 15 minutes tonight working on persuasive writing from class today. It is not a requirement to finish or type the full essay. Just work intently for 15 minutes on it.

Today, we reviewed yesterday's homework. We also did another timed writing and had a classmate check it. Students were reminded to bring a novel on Fri and Mon because there will be a sub. NO HOMEWORK! I will be off Fri and Mon and NOT be updating Angel. There will be no homework, but the sub will give plenty of class work that I left for the students.

Nouns/Pronouns vs. Adjectives

In class today, students created and decorated crowns. Why? Because a crown is a thing: a noun, and the decorations can be described: adjectives. Adjectives cannot live without nouns. This hands-on activity helps students understand the grammatical differences between demonstrative prouNOUNS, and demonstrative ADJECTIVES as well as several other types of pronouns.

REMEMBER“A noun wears a crown and is king of the town. It stands on its own.
Yet an adjective, alone cannot live; it needs a noun around!”

A sheet was assigned for homework. Note: the answers on the second page should be the same as the answers on the front.

Today students received the study guide in the post below. We also spent time practicing writing with PEN. Homework: complete chart based on study guide and write 2 CRCT style questions.

MID TERM STUDY GUIDE

All students handed in their menu projects today. No homework.

Happy Thanksgiving. Please have your parent's check email regarding technology. Adverb menus due at end of class Monday after break. BYOT on Monday. Enjoy the week off.

Today in class, all students learned about a menu project. This project is to be worked on in class tomorrow and students are asked to bring all of their arts and crafts supplies including colored papers stickers printouts from the Internet colored markers and colored pencils to create a menu that correctly uses adverbs that relate to cooking verbs. These cooking verbs were presented to students in class today. For homework tonight students were to research sample menus on the Internet for ideas. PS grammatical errors in this post are due to using speech to text software thanks.

No homework to tonight. Very impressed with all student's efforts on today's writing test!!! Students took a survey today in class in the computer lab about the writing test and the skills and techniques they used during the test.

Writing Test Walkthrough

After a quick formative quiz in which students were required to write down 5 transition words, and 2 words that mean good, 2 words that mean bad, and 2 words that mean average, students watched a video of Ms. Jackson actually taking the writing test using the exact same forms. This video prepared students to use the materials, and demonstrated ways to successfully tackle writing in the "writing test situation." Most writers do not write from beginning to end in one seating and this task can be quite challenging for some. However, today's video should have served to help students feel much more confident with the entire process. Many students requested that I upload this video to YouTube. However, the file size is too large to do so. No homework tonight---However, if students know that they were not able to write down the 5 transition words, and 2 words that mean good, 2 words that mean bad, and 2 words that mean average for today's quiz they should definitely memorize these tonight to be successful on tomorrow's writing test.

Students tonight for homework please memorize five transition words from the list you saw in class today +2 words that mean good two words that mean bad and two words that mean average. In class tomorrow there will be a formative quiz where you will have to list all 11 of these words from memory

Expository Prompts

In class today, we discussed the Expository Writing practice test that all 6th Grade students at SFMS will be taking next week. We reviewed several different sample expository prompts and students were challenged to tranform the statement prompts (ending in periods) into questions (ending in a question mark). They also were required to develop a controlling idea (topic sentence, thesis) from this question. This skill is vital for success on the test next week. No homework tonight!  Have a great weekend.

Expository Writing Test

In class today, we discussed the Expository Writing practice test that all 6th Grade students at SFMS will be taking next week. We reviewed the forms that will need to be completed during this test and we discussed the details of how to tackle the challenge of writing an entire essay in 100 minutes. No homework.

Adverbs Adverbs Adverbs

In class today, we did activities related to adverbs. These are words that modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs and include words that answer the questions:  Why?, How?, Where?, and To What Extent? No homework was assigned for tonight.

P.S. Not one single student reported to me that he or she saw the picture of the flying dog on my Angel homework page. If YOU are reading this, student or parent, please email me and tell me that you are looking online at jjackson@forsyth.k12.ga.us  -- OR have your child report the a secret password to me.  Today's secret password is "Apple Pie." Thanks!

Tell Me If You Saw This!

I'm curious just how many people LOOK at the Angel assignments online. I will be out of school on Tuesday when all classes go to the author presentation.  However, if you see the picture below, be sure to tell me in class on Wednesday what you saw here!

IT'S A BIRD. IT'S A PLANE. IT'S SUPER SIMBA!

Everything from class today is listed in the post below. However, the watermelon class does need to finish writing the correct answers from their test.

Today, students received graded work back. Please check Parent Portal to see your child's current grades.

Upcoming opportunities include:
Weds., Nov. 9 - 8:15 a.m. Relearn for Expository paragraphs.
Thursday, November 10 at 8:15 AM adjective relearn.
Monday, November 14 at 8:15 AM adjective retest.
Monday, November 14 at 8:15 AM Noun Blast from the Past Retake.

NO Homework tonight.

PLEASE REMEMBER:  We have a special author visiting tomorrow--Janice Hardy of the Healing Wars. Books will be on sale (signed copies) at the prices of $7.99 for paperbacks and 16.99 for hardcover copies. There are three books in the series, and only one of the books is  not available in paperback (the third book:  Darkfall). Please note that sales tax MAY be additional (we're not sure), so bring a little extra to cover the tax just in case. CLICK HERE FOR HANDOUT AND DETAILS!

Thanks!  Ms. Jackson