Final Memory Bridge Trip

Just a reminder that our last visit for Memory Bridge is this Tuesday, June 2. We will be having an ice cream social and hopefully the weather will be nice so we can take the residents outside!!

Bridge to Terabithia

On the Thursday, June 4, the 6th grade team will be showing the 2007 Walt Disney movie, Bridge to Terabithia. Below you will find a brief overview of the movie and a link to the Disney website where information about the movie is provided. If you do not want your child to participate in this activity, please contact any member of the 6th grade team.Movie

Overview:Animation master Gabor Csupo directs his first live-action film in this adaptation of the novel The Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson, whose son David co-wrote the screenplay and serves as a producer. Jess (Josh Hutcherson) is misunderstood. Despite Jess' talents as an artist, the school bullies pick on him, his father (Robert Patrick) belittles his dreams, and his four sisters invade his space in the family's cramped house. Jess' bleak world changes when Leslie (Annasophia Robb) moves into the house next door. Bright, creative and outspoken, Leslie also finds herself an outsider in their school. Soon the two are thick as thieves, spending their after school hours exploring the woods beyond their backyards and on the others side of a creek, which Leslie deems the kingdom of Terabithia. Here, they create their own magical world, complete with a Dark Master and his minions, dragonfly soldiers, giant trolls and a tree house fortress. In Terabithia, the two friends let their imaginations run wild and control their destiny, far away from school bullies and the pressures of adolescence.http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/liveaction/bridgetoterabithia/

Body Biographies

During RtI Reading this past week, students have been working on body biographies. The purpose of these bodies is to help students think critically about a character. For these specific bodies, students analyzed characters from the novel, Number the Stars. Included on these bodies are: quotes the character said, symbols to represent the character's personality and decisions throughout the novel, and two poems about the character. Some of the students even shared them in Miss Coppoletta's class to help the students review for their end of the book test. I am so proud of the work they created!!

Literature Circles

A few weeks ago, Miss Coppoletta & Mrs. Mixon started literature circles while reading Number the Stars. Each student was put into a group and given a variety of jobs to choose from for their group discussions. For example, one option is the “Literary Luminary.” This job requires the student to pay close attention while reading in order to highlight specific parts of the text. They are responsible for creating a discussion around these particular parts at the next meeting.

Each student is responsible for a different role each group discussion day. When the groups meet to discuss the chapters, the jobs students completed are there to guide their discussion. As we've seen recently, students are starting to have true, deep discussions about the text, rather than superficial responses to questions.

We've asked the students to reflect on themselves as well as the group after each meeting. Overall, we've had very positive feedback on this process. We hope to implement literature circles in the beginning of next year with the new 6th graders.

Life-changing moment

In language arts last week, students were introduced to a new project. There are three steps to the final piece. The first is students wrote 100 adjectives that described themselves. Then, they wrote a short narrative about a life-changing experience. On Monday, students will be creating an image that represents that moment using their 100 adjectives for the design. Miss Coppoletta & I both look forward to the sharing of these stories and images on Tuesday.

Successful Biography Projects

Miss Coppoletta and I are so proud of our 4th period reading students and their delivery of the biography project. Students were required selected a peer-partner and person to study. Each pair read a different biography about the same person and took Cornell Notes to record important information. The different perspectives provided an abundance of information from which students turned into creative interviews – one student taking the role of the person discussed in their biography, while the other student became an interviewer. Overall, students demonstrated an ENORMOUS amount of knowledge and creativity in their interviews.

Thank you to all parents who joined the class and observed the presentations!

We will put the pictures up as soon as possible.

Snuggy

For the past few weeks, I've mentioned how great I thought snuggies were. One of my students, Christina Simirica, actually made me a beautiful green snuggy with zebra print on the sleeve. I am so impressed with her sewing abilities. I wore it proudly all day today!!