Wednesday, November 30, 2011

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.



Tuesday, November 29, 2011

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.

Monday, November 28, 2011

MID TERM STUDY GUIDE

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

Friday, November 18, 2011

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.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

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.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

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.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

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.

Monday, November 14, 2011

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

Friday, November 11, 2011

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.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

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.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

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!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

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!

Monday, November 7, 2011

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