Seed Notebooks

Each day your child is given a prompt to write about in their journal.   Student's are given about 5 minutes to complete their journal entry.  That should be all the time they need, but students are welcome to take their journals home if they do not complete their entry before time is up.  We call our journals Seed Notebooks and look to them throughout the year to give us ideas to write about during Writer's Workshop.  We will  occasionally pick an idea from our seed notebook and grow it into a full blown writing piece that we take through the entire writing process: prewrite, draft, revise/edit and publish.  

I grade seed notebooks every Friday.  They are worth 15 points each week – 3 points for each entry.  (Last week's was 20 because I included extra points for format and next week's will be 12 because of the short week – but 15 points is what students can usually expect).  When it's all said and done seed notebook grades will probably make up about 1/3 of each student's writing grade each quarter.

Book Log... Book Review.... and Reading Minute Calendar ALL DUE FRIDAY, AUGUST 31!

6th graders are required to record everything they read (books, newspapers, magazines, comic books, etc.)  at school or home, on their book log in their reading notebook. 

*I will grade book logs the last school day of each month. 
*Students are required to have a minimum of 3 books completed at the end of each month. 2 fiction and 1 non-fiction.  
*This month - and this month only - students will only be required to have 1 book completed.

6th graders are required to complete 2 book reviews a month.

*I will collect book reviews the last school day of each month.   
*Book reviews will be graded, then stored in our classroom library for our classmates to look through for suggestions of books they may enjoy.
*This month - and this month only - students will only be required to submit 1 book review.

6th graders are required to record the amount of minutes they read at home on their Reading Minute Calendar. 

*Reading Minute Calendars are stapled inside assignment notebooks.
*I will collect/grade reading minute calendars the last school day of each month.
*Students must read a minimum of 300 minutes at home each month.  That's an average of about 15 minutes of reading each school night.  
*Reading Minute Calendars must be signed by a parent.
*Students who read 300 minutes a month at home will receive a Pizza Hut Book-It coupon. 
*This month - and this month only - students will only be required to read 120 minutes.

I'm Lovin It!

I'm lovin it... and I'm not talking about McDonald's food.  We've got our first week of school under our belt and I'm loving teaching your children!!!  Thank you for sharing them with me.  I'm enjoying getting to know each kiddo in my class and I'm happy to see the effort everyone is putting into making sure we keep our class "The Way We Want to Be".

The first day of school we had a class meeting discussing the way we want our class to be.  Your kids came up with the way they want to be and I love what they came up with!  We now have our pictures and "ways we want to be" posted on a bulletin board in our class.  They'll stay up all year as a reminder to each of us!

Here's what your kids came up with:

We want to set a good example

   +Walk quietly in the halls

   +Sit quietly during

      assemblies

    

We want to Treat others the way

    we want to be treated

We want to be RESPONSIBLE

    *Turn assignments in on time

    *Have supplies ready

    *Follow directions

    *Be honest about mistakes

We want to be CLEAN

   *Pick up after ourselves

   *Throw trash away

   *Wash hands

   *Wear deodorant

  

     We want to be RESPECTFUL

  **Use manners

  **Look at the speaker

  **Listen quietly

  **Address adults as Mr. or Mrs.

We want to be HELPFUL

 *Stand up for what is right

*Help others carry heavy thing

*Open doors for others

               *Help others up if they fall

               *Pick-up things that drop

         We want to be Smart

            *Pay attention

             *Try our best            

             *Do our homework

             *Study

              *Ask questions when we don’t understand

  

We want to HAVE FUN

  *Smile

  *Laugh

  *Be friendly