Writer's Notebooks and the start of a Novel Study
by Mrs. Nilsen on September 30th, 2012
Weekly ELA News - 9/24 - 9/28
Writing
We started using our Writer's Notebooks this past week! Yay!! This tool is a wonderful way for our student to explore the world of writing through strategies. We've also begun to explore the different traits (ideas, sentence fluency, organization, word choice, voice, conventions, and presentation) of writing and how they can aid us in the writing process. We're focusing on Ideas here in the beginning of the year and are learning lots of strategies for coming up with what to write.
Students will begin bringing home their writer's notebooks this coming week. We will write in school every day and students are required to write additionally three times a week at home. I will be collecting their notebooks on occasion to make sure students are completing their writing. It takes a lot of practice, reading and writing, and we'll be working on building our stamina, strengthening our traits, and becoming writers all year long.
Students will begin bringing home their writer's notebooks this coming week. We will write in school every day and students are required to write additionally three times a week at home. I will be collecting their notebooks on occasion to make sure students are completing their writing. It takes a lot of practice, reading and writing, and we'll be working on building our stamina, strengthening our traits, and becoming writers all year long.
Reading
As you may or may not know, we are just starting our first novel study!! Thanks to DonorsChoose and two special donors, Carla Nilsen and Starbucks Oregon, a full class set of the Newbery Award Winner, A Wrinkle In Time, were just delivered to our school. (If you have a moment to go to their DonorsChoose profile and thank them, I'm sure it would be appreciated. As I've said before, I love when people come together and help other people. That's what being a community is all about.) Studying good literature is a wonderful opportunity that I believe all students should have. I'm so excited to start this novel with our students and help them explore literary elements, ideas, imagination, and courage. We'll start reading Chapter 1 on Monday together!!
I'll leave you with the line I read to the 6th graders on their way out the door on Friday:
"It was a dark and stormy night..."
I'll leave you with the line I read to the 6th graders on their way out the door on Friday:
"It was a dark and stormy night..."
Type Your Heading Here
Monday, October 1st
Tuesday, October 2nd
- Subway Lunch orders due no later than 3:30 p.m. (later orders will not be accepted) – Please pay separate from your pizza order.
- Homework Club 3-4pm
- 3:15 p.m.: MRA Booster Meeting at MRA
Wednesday, October 3rd
- Subway Lunch and Early Release – 1:00 pm
- Pizza orders and money due no later than 1:30 p.m. (late orders will not be accepted)
- Homeroom will be beginning our work on Harvest Fest preparations this afternoon.
Thursday, October 4th
- Math Night for all parents of students K-6. This is not for the 7th and 8th graders. Two sessions of the same information will run in half hour increments - 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. To attend please sure you sign up with your child's math teacher.
Friday, October 5th
- Jog-a-thon and Hoop-a-thon (School-wide fundraiser!)
o K/1: 9-9:30am 6th grade
o 2/3: 9:35-10:05am 7th grade
o 4/5: 10:10-10:40am 8th grade
- Pizza Lunch
- Homework Club 3-4pm
Looking Ahead
· October 2nd , 3:15 p.m.: MRA Booster Meeting at MRA
· October 4th: Parent Math Night
· October 5th: Jogathon and HoopAThon
· October 9th, 6:30 p.m.: MRA Board Meeting
· October 15th through October 20th: Book Fair
· October 15th: Picture Retakes
· October 18th, 3:15 p.m.: Auction Meeting at MRA
· October 19th: No School State Wide Inservice
· October 20th : Harvest Festival
· October 24th, 3:00 p.m.: First Aid, CPR Class $35
· October 31th: Teacher Planning Day - No School
· November 1st and 2nd: Parent Teacher Conferences - No School
· T-Shirt Sale: MRA t-shirts are uniform approved. We will be selling shirts with the MRA Logo and the new mascot in October
Tuesday, October 2nd
- Subway Lunch orders due no later than 3:30 p.m. (later orders will not be accepted) – Please pay separate from your pizza order.
- Homework Club 3-4pm
- 3:15 p.m.: MRA Booster Meeting at MRA
Wednesday, October 3rd
- Subway Lunch and Early Release – 1:00 pm
- Pizza orders and money due no later than 1:30 p.m. (late orders will not be accepted)
- Homeroom will be beginning our work on Harvest Fest preparations this afternoon.
Thursday, October 4th
- Math Night for all parents of students K-6. This is not for the 7th and 8th graders. Two sessions of the same information will run in half hour increments - 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. To attend please sure you sign up with your child's math teacher.
Friday, October 5th
- Jog-a-thon and Hoop-a-thon (School-wide fundraiser!)
o K/1: 9-9:30am 6th grade
o 2/3: 9:35-10:05am 7th grade
o 4/5: 10:10-10:40am 8th grade
- Pizza Lunch
- Homework Club 3-4pm
Looking Ahead
· October 2nd , 3:15 p.m.: MRA Booster Meeting at MRA
· October 4th: Parent Math Night
· October 5th: Jogathon and HoopAThon
· October 9th, 6:30 p.m.: MRA Board Meeting
· October 15th through October 20th: Book Fair
· October 15th: Picture Retakes
· October 18th, 3:15 p.m.: Auction Meeting at MRA
· October 19th: No School State Wide Inservice
· October 20th : Harvest Festival
· October 24th, 3:00 p.m.: First Aid, CPR Class $35
· October 31th: Teacher Planning Day - No School
· November 1st and 2nd: Parent Teacher Conferences - No School
· T-Shirt Sale: MRA t-shirts are uniform approved. We will be selling shirts with the MRA Logo and the new mascot in October
Posted in 6th Grade ELA Updates Tagged with Writer's notebooks, Novel study, DonorsChoose
0 Comments
Leave a Comment
Search
Categories
Community Happenings (46)
Electives (6)
Engrade (4)
Group Posts (2)
Homeroom Updates (51)
Poetry (10)
Science Updates (101)
Student Posts (21)
Tags
8th grade project Accommodations Art Auction Bump-up day CCSS Campfire Celebration Community Compost Conferences Contests Core Values Dance Demostrations Differentiation Discipline Donations DonorsChoose Electives Engrade Events/Activities Experiments Field day Field trip Final projects First day of school Fundraising Garden Goals Goodbye posts Goodreads Graduation Green Group work Hands-on Harvest fest Homework club Homework Individual Learning Contracts Inspiration KAA Leadership Lit Circles Memories/Good times Music New school year Newsletters No school Novel study OAKS testing OBOB Outdoor school Planners Poetry Portfolios Post card Presentations Read-a-thon Reading list Reports Resources Science fair Science notebooks Snapfish Spelling Stop motion video Sub Supplies Technology Thank you! Theme Trimesters Uniform Videos Volunteers Waiver WiT Writer's notebooks pictures
Recent Posts
Archives