Sailing Through 6th Grade: Last Week :( :(

Well, who would have thought that I would be putting :( by the end of my time in 6th grade! (In the beginning I thought I would be SOOOO relieved to be done!) But alas, those kids changed my opinions! No, 6th grade still isn't my first choice to teach, but I wouldn't flip out if I got hired to teach it (I'm still crossing my fingers that doesn't happen though :) We taught some really fun lessons our last week there, and even threw a little party our last day there! First up, outfits (you are going to be sad when I don't post these anymore, I just know it!)

 On Tuesday and Wednesday we did a combined lesson on persuasive writing! We began with some SUPER fun stories to demonstrate the elements of persuasive writing...

 This book was hilarious and engaging and the kids absolutely loved it! It is written in letter format (which tied into the second half of our lesson) and the main character is writing letters back and forth to his mom convincing her to buy him an iguana! This is a must read, I promise you won't be disappointed!!

This was another cute book about a girl who convinces her parents to get her ears pierced because, "Everyone in the whole universe has their ears pierced!!" 

 A little boy is faced with the dilemma of squishing an ant or not, and the ant does his best to convince the boy not to!!

As we read the books to the kids, they filled out a table that had questions about the elements of persuasion found in each book (Intended audience, word choice, ethos, etc). After we completed this half of the assignment, we told the students they would be writing persuasive letters to their teacher, Mrs. Olberding, convincing her to change something about their 6th grade classroom. The kids got so into this idea and some of their topics they wrote about were just hilarious. Before we got started, we reminded the kids of proper letter format (since many of them had already forgotten!)

  We also told the kids about "Double Stuffed Persuasive Writing," which taught them the format of how to write their letters.

 This was a great resource I found on Pinterest (duh) and the kids loved the visual it provided. As they finished their completed letters, they got a double stuffed Oreo as a reward (Yes, sort of bribery on our part, but it worked well!)

On Thursday we played a Jeopardy game with them to recap our Economics unit and they did so well! There were a few concepts they had forgotten over the course of the month, but they did so well for the most part, we were very proud!

Since it was our last day, of course I needed to bake something for them to thank them for letting us come into their classroom :)

The kids loved them!!

 

We also got this precious letter from one of the little boys in the class. This type of stuff makes it all worth it!!

This week we are back on campus to do some wrap up of our time in the schools and turn in the dreaded...

  At least mine is done and complete and ready to be turned in! One step closer to student teaching so that makes me very happy and excited! I had a wonderful experience in 6th grade and although it was challenging, it was such a growing experience for me and I will never forgot the students I interacted with. But now, onto bigger and better things...3rd grade at Sunset Ridge, here I come!!!!!!

I'm turning this puppy in today, and then I'm onto the next adventure!!

Until then,

Brittany