I have been so excited by the learning that has been taking place in my classroom these past few days. We ended our 2nd six weeks this past Friday and I cannot believe that we have already began the 3rd six weeks. The year is absolutely flying by!
On Monday I introduced the week's vocabulary words and also read part of our class read aloud, The Sixth-Grade Nickname Game to my kids. We also went to the computer lab to pick out our books for our first set of book clubs. I set up a Weebly website with a blog for each of my classes where they commented on a post that I made. They loved it and I loved that it was paperless. The kids seem to be really excited about using technology to learn with. Now if only I could get the other 6th grade ELA teachers on board with me.
Yesterday I got to school and was not really sure what I was going to do. I knew that I was going to have my students act out their vocabulary words and review with them about main idea, but I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to review with them. I started to look at my stash of picture books which is quite extensive and found Duck for President. Since it was election day, I thought it would be perfect and a great way to tie in some Social Studies into our LA lesson too. I ended up reading the book to them and we talked about what a main idea is and then worked together to come up with a main idea for the book. It was perfect and the kids loved it! In my 1st and 2nd period class, we even got into supporting details. I have also become an anchor chart junkie. I am going to have to be sure and budget for some of the giant sticky pads for next school year. Here are the ones we made yesterday in my 3 classes.
I also invested in some Sharpie Flip Chart markers and I love them! If you have never used them and you use anchor charts in your classroom, you are so missing out!
I fell bad because I have just been throwing away my anchor charts because I do not have anywhere to store them. What do you all do with yours? I have been taking pictures of them and I am hoping to put them all in a binder that I can reference each year.
Today I assigned my kids to their book clubs and they are all asking me when we are going to start. I am so excited that they are wanting to do them. I am hoping to get a whole unit together and will be posting to my Teacher's Notebook store.
I am in search of a great writing activity for my middle schoolers that has something to do with Thanksgiving. If anyone has a great suggestion for me I would love to hear it!
Don't you love it when an idea really works? I will need to check out the Sharpie flip chart markers. Is that what they are called? I bought some other markers for anchor charts and am not impressed with them. Where did you get the Sharpies? Have a great Friday!
ReplyDeleteQuestion about the flip chart sharpies, do they bleed through?? My current, non flip charting, sharpies always bleed through and I have to use a poster behind the sheet. Also, curious, do you really make a different chart for each period class you teach??? I am SO impressed! I teach each lesson twice and often get lazy the second time and just cover up the information for the second class. I have just started following you and already have more new ideas than I can use ;)
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