Snipes Scoop

The students wrote an essay comparing and contrasting Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies. The multi-paragraph essays on average were good. Most of the students wrote an introductory paragraph, a contrast paragraph, a conpare paragraph, and a summary paragraph. Their grammar and punctuation has improved.

To prepare for the CRCT, we are reviewing grammar, punctuation, and reading for information. Working at home with your middle schooler will help them. Have them read a page from one of their books and then have them retell what they read. Also, ask questions about the main idea of the passages.

Please make sure you have paid the $50 for the Medievel Times field trip by Monday.

To help less fortunate children, please send $10 for a t-shirt, GOT HOPE?

Regards,

Ms. Snipes

Language Arts students are reading non-fiction and writing factual essays. We are also looking at the organizational structure of many selections.

Please have your middle schooler read at home and record what they have read. They must have 400 pages done by the end of the 3rd nine weeks.

Regards,

Ms. Gail Snipes

Language Arts students have been writing directions to make something, creating formula poetry and learning about similes and metaphors. The students enjoyed two power point projects about the above subjects.

Happy and Merry,

Ms. Snipes

Language arts students are reading the novel, Going Home. We have used the software Inspiration to make graphic organizers/webs about the plot of the story. Each child had the experience of adding something to the webs using the computer.

Our new focus is technical writing. The students have written a letter to the author of Going Home. Some have even typed the letters using word processing.  In our technical writing unit , we will read and write “How to” selections, formula poems, and friendly letters.

Students are reading  selections from the Language! program. The students are grouped by reading levels. Some are in book A and others are in book C.

Please make sure your student is reading and recording 10-20 pages from a media center book each night.

Regards,

Ms. Snipes

Students are reading the novel Going Home. We have previewed the book, made predictions, and done many fact webs. Each student must answer the 5 Ws(who, what, where, when, and why). We have used the software inspiration to make our fact webs.

We continue to do daily grammar practice. The students have improved identifing the parts of speech and the parts of a sentence. Clauses, sentence type, and sentence purpose are still a work in progress.

Make sure your student reads and records each night. After reading 20 pages, the student must summarize in two to three sentences what they have read. This is a test grade each 9 weeks.

Regards,

Gail Snipes

Olympics Week is always a fun time. We will have field day Tuesday, Wednesday academic bowl, and Thursday a film.

Students should wear their Olympic shirts each day if possible. A colored shirt for their country will be fine if they did not purchase an olympic shirt.

We will have class and language arts learning will continue. We have a daily grammar test Friday October 2. They have grammar notes in their binders. The students will continue to practice the skills all week before the test. They will continue with their narrative essays. We are now revising and editing their rough drafts.

Each night your student should be reading 10-20 pages in a library book. They must write brief summaries every 20 pages on a R & R sheet.

Regards,

Ms. Snipes

Students in LA have been writing a narrative essay. We are still working on their rough drafts.

Today they took a quiz on parts of a sentence. We will continue to review parts of speech and parts of a sentence. Prepositional phrases seems to be a problem for the students to identify.

Only two students completed 200 pages read and recorded. Please have your middle schooler read 10-20 pages a night.  To get credit for pages read,  they must summarize every 20 pages. This must be recorded on a R & R log.

Reading narratives will be an ongoing activity this 9 weeks. Comprehension activites and vocabulary activities will be used from our Language! program.

Regards,

Gail Snipes

We have been working on the following:

1. Parts of Speech (pronouns and adjectives) quiz will be next Thursday on all  8 parts of speech.
2. Writing narratives (personal stories)
3. Reading and recording books read on R & R sheets. Sheets are due next Friday.  Must turn in at least one completed book recorded and summarized on a R & R sheet.
4. Reading and responding to narrative stories.

Please encourage your student to read 10 to 15 pages from a novel each night and to summarize the pages on an R & R sheet.

Regards,

Ms. Snipes

Sixth grade Language Arts students are getting comfortable with their new surrounding and their new classes. The behavior mangement system, ACTS, is still a work in progress. Many students need to bring all supplies to class and must always have their agendas with them. Showing respect to other students by not calling names or teasing needs to be improved. Showing respect to teachers by not talking out unless called upon is another area of needed improvement. Parents will be contacted if behavior does not improve.

We have been reviewing parts of speech in grammar. Grammar will be a intregal part of our class all year.

Your student has reading homework each night. The assignment is read a fiction or nonfiction book, log the pages on their R & R logs, and write a 3-4 sentence summary every 10 to 15 pages. Each student must log 400 pages each 9 weeks. The R & R white logs have been sent home in their LA binder. The readings and logging are a test grade. The student must turn in the finished logs to me to get credit for the work.

We are also reading narrative stories and writing narrative essays.

Our year started off with a fun WOW taking a journey. We even enjoyed somemores.

Ms. Gail Snipes

Crct is ending today. Students have done a good job.

In Language Arts, we will continue with our daily reading practice and review grammar practice. We will also write essays and read many good stories.

Please make sure you child reads and records 700 pages and writes 8 journal pages. These are due May 15.

Regards,

Gail Snipes