Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Happy fall!

This is kind of a lengthy blog, but I am so proud of my middle schoolers!

My 6th graders are learning grammar, which can be a hard job, especially if you've never learned it before. Today I played a modified game of four corners with them. I had them write a list of verbs, then I called out some action verbs and sent them to various landmarks in my classroom if they wrote down the same verb. Whenever I'd call out a verb that no one had written down, several people would say, "That was a great idea! I never would've thought of that!". I was so surprised. Instead of responding negatively because they didn't write it down, they saw it as a learning experience. And it was a great excuse to run around the room during English!

My 7th graders are learning about figurative language - it's what makes poetry pretty,  and it's why you want to keep reading your favorite book. When we get the hang of it, we'll play a game in which students have little cards with snippets from various works of  literature,and they'll match the example to a card with the literary element written on it. I predict more running around my English classroom.



My 8th graders are learning "The Raven". We have listened to recordings of Robert Frost reading his own poetry, but poor Edgar Allan Poe never had the opportunity to do that. So, I found something else for us to listen to this morning: an audio recording of James Earl Jones, Mr. Darth Vader himself, reading "The Raven". Nevermore never sounded so......creepy. 

Some shout outs.....

6th grade: To Khaleb, for learning French so we can converse; to Sidney and Addyson, for keeping my room nice and neat,to Grayson and Jorden, for conquering vocabulary lists;  to my students who are always willing to help a fellow 6th grader get from place to place, and to my new students for working so hard. 

7th grade: To my brand new student, Meredith, for sharing her salvation story; to Jared, who brought a coffee cup for the 8th grade Fall Festival basket; to Tyler, for juggling school and a three-weekend run at Temple Theatre; to AJ for his excellent manners; to Nathan, for being punny - yes, punny;  and to Levi, for his interesting and creative writing. Which he sometimes illustrates!

8th grade: To Grace, who has already recited about half of "The Raven", to Connor, Todd, and Tucker, for being valuable additions to our varsity soccer team; to my faithful prayer group girls, and to Grayson, for steadfastly defending her NC State Wolfpack.

8th Grade: Here's the current state of our fall festival basket. It smells amazing! Please send an item or two if you can, so that we will have a beautiful basket to auction at the festival! I will be emailing a game schedule soon.
 

All middle school: Please get started on your projects! Parents, ask your child for his or her project sheet.

Word of the day: erudite
er-ə-dīt
Possessing knowledge as a result of study. 

As in, my wonderful students are erudite.



That's all for now. May God richly bless you.

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