A busy day in sixth grade

We were quite busy today, especially with pictures. That took part of our time in the afternoon. So if your child didn’t finish his/her assignment he/she needs to do the evens on workbook pages 41-42.

We took a test in spelling.

In language we finished up our books. If your child didn’t finish then he/she needs to finish the book this weekend.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!



Tomorrow is school picture day



Let me tell you: Your child’s Thursday folder is full tonight! There are many notes about upcoming events, so please go through them carefully.

In math we broke into small groups and ordered decimals. I made this activity so that the children could work together and help one another. But it ended up being so much more helpful. As I walked around and checked the groups’ finished product, I saw that many were making the same mistake. That helps me in making plans for other decimal lessons. The most confusion I saw was children thinking that 1.49 was larger than 1.5. We discussed how a tray of brownies could be divided into 100 pieces and 10 pieces. Which is more? Less? We will continue to work on this! If your child didn’t finish his assignment then he/she needs to do finish WB pages 39-40….EVENS only.

Tomorrow is popcorn day!

In spelling we worked with antonyms and synonyms. There were several different lessons in our book. I made three mandatory, and your child got to choose a fourth.

In Writer’s Workshop we continued working on our “Things I’m Not Allowed to Do Anymore” books. They are coming along nicely!

Tomorrow is picture day, as well as popcorn day.

picture day.

Book orders are due by October 20.  You may order online, and the activation code is J34XP.

Have a great Thursday!

Young authors study book to see how writers come up with ideas

It was nice being back with the class today.  We started chapter 3 with decimals.  We took a number and wrote it in several different ways.  For example 2.17 written in words is two and seventeen hundredths.  In money it is drawn with two one dollar bills, 1 dime, and seven pennies.  We also wrote it on a place value chart, drew it using base ten blocks, and drew it using a decimal model.  The assignment was practice wb 37-38, doing only the even ones.

In spelling we read a story with our words then chose the correct word for each question.

In language we did a shared writing lesson.  I read a book, 17 Things I’m not Allowed to Do Anymore.  We discussed how authors came up with ideas and how this particular author may have come up with this unique idea.  An example from the book is, “I had an idea to staple my brother’s hair to his pillow…….I’m not allowed to use the stapler anymore.”  The children enjoyed it and loved brainstorming about other things that could be said.  They have practice booklets to jot their own stories in.  When we are done, we will publish these.

Have a great Wednesday!

Teacher becomes a student in math workshop

The teacher became a student today -- I was out of class to attend a math workshop.  It was a really good workshop that gave me valuable information and activities that I can use to help students with their math, so the day was time well spend for me.

Meanwhile, back in the classroom, my substitute gave the students a chapter 2 test in math.  In spelling, they worked with new words and definitions, and in writing, they worked in their writer's notebooks and examined words that have multiple meanings.

I'll be back in the classroom tomorrow.

Students begin work on their lexicons

In math today we reviewed our chapter 2 vocabulary with an open book quiz.  Your child was given it back until he/she corrected it, until class was out.  We also did a review page of choosing and making the best displays for 3 sets of data.

In spelling today we did our first page for our lexicon.  It took longer than it will later on.  The first one always takes the longest.  We take a word and do several things with it, as well as some math practice with the page number the word was found on.  We will do these throughout the year and add them alphabetically.  This took our writing and language time today.  Tomorrow we will make up by writing for almost the entire time.

Students are grasping graphing concepts

Today we worked more with integers, line graphs, and line plots.  We discussed the difference between line graphs and line plots.  Since we have worked with them for a few days, they answered the questions easily and participated in the discussion well.

In spelling we took our tests.

In language we took a quiz over compound subjects, compound predicates, simple subjects, and simple predicates.

Have a great weekend!

Introducing integers, analyzing sentences -- a day of active learning

In math today we introduced integers.  Integers are positive whole numbers, their opposites, and zero.    Most remembered working with them, but some had to be reminded.  We will work with them again tomorrow.

In spelling we did the remaining pages in the word skills booklet. 

In language we took sentences that the children had written and put them on the Smartboard.  These were done on a voluntary basis.  We took each sentence and found the complete subject and predicate.  Then we found the simple subject and predicate.  We also discussed the sentence to see if we could visualize it.  We also worked with the editing process and edited them. 

I hope everyone has a great Thursday!