But I'm back in the saddle today, and eager to tell you about all the incredible work we've been doing!
We've combined forces and used our ELA time to do some Social Studies research on Greek gods - this project ties into both our novel study of The Lightning Thief and our current chapter in social studies: Ancient Greece. It's been fun letting the kids work independently on research (a relatively new task for them) and then setting them loose on an informational writing task: compiling all of their research into a 4-5 paragraph essay! We worked on how to write essays in ELA class this past week and students will finish them today/over the weekend.
The project itself - which includes a visual aide that they should have been working on at home - is due on Monday, October 30. Yes.....this coming Monday. Kids had the choice between making a poster, a collage, a children's book, a diorama, a 3-D statue/art representation.....and as I'm typing this, I realize how COOL it would have been if the kids had made a commercial...or a news broadcast....or a video of some sort! I'll add that to the list for next year.....!!!
Our novel study of The Lightning Thief is going strong; we have started our nightly reading skills worksheets (you may have seen them? they're on colored paper...), and our twice-weekly reading discussions about the skills and the content of the novel. This has to be one of my favorite things we do in 6th grade: reading discussions. I love hearing everyone's ideas about the text, and it's so neat to see the light bulbs go off as they start making connections about why the author does certain things (like word choice, short sentences compared to longer ones, characterization and setting choices....). Talking about what we are reading is what makes reading so fun, and I'm happy to share that with the kids this year.
Next week we will get ready for Greek god project presentations in social studies class. We will continue reading The Lightning Thief and do a few fun creative writing projects with it. Math class will continue work on fractions - ordering them, turning them into decimals, doing basic operations with them - and science is working on physical and chemical changes as well as the idea of the conservation of energy.
But before that....the weekend!!! Enjoy the brisk fall weather.....and get those Greek projects done!!