Into the new semester we go! I have a couple class announcements for everyone:
*Report cards should be printed and sent out tomorrow (Wednesday). There was a little glitch that enabled middle school grades to be released. Sorry about that!
*We have Music for specials this quarter and Mrs. Barten has requested that each student brings in a small flashlight as a prop for one of the songs they will be working on. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy and should be able to be left as school.
*Auctions! The class agreed that we would do our class auctions next Wednesday, January 24th. If you could please remind your kiddo to bring something in by then, that would be great!
Projects- We are moving away from Science and will be working on Social Studies for the remainder of the year. The first topic we are covering is the roaring ‘20s. The kids have enjoyed learning about all the new innovations and ways of life during this time period. We broke into groups today and will begin working on their project which includes creating a magazine. Each group member will become an expert in his/her respective topics, then write an article covering what they learned.
7th Grade Reading- Finally, The Outsiders! I have been excited for this book ever since I decided to move up to seventh grade. I love when the 8th graders and freshmen come in and see that we are reading The Outsiders, and recall how much they loved it. This week we are mainly focusing on getting to know the characters, setting, and social aspects of the story. The class is working in partners to create posters, summarizing physical and personality traits of everyone from Sodapop to Two-Bit Matthews.
7th Grade Writing- We are continuing with narratives for our first paper of the second semester. The kids have really been honing in on their expressive and reflective skills. We began our Class Twitter page and this group came up with some really great six-word memoirs. They are hanging on our bulletin board along with their awesome “Day in the Life” narratives. Be sure to check them out as you come in. For the next week or so we will continue with “My Favorite Mistake” were they will use narrative techniques to write about a mistake they made in life and learned from.
8th Grade Reading- This week our 8th grade class is beginning Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. We plan to use narrative elements and background knowledge as we make our way through this classic coming-of-age story. There are some intense topics and conversations that have already made their way into our class discussions.
