October 28, 2010 by Shane

Gobble, Gobble! My turkey alarm clock blared into my ear. It was morning, my least favorite part of the day. As usual, I got dressed, brushed my teeth, and hopped on the bus. When I arrived, I went up to the track as cold, crisp air made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
After fifteen minutes of walking, I went to my room. We did the lunch count and flag salute, and then moved to reading. In reading we caught up on our AR reading and talked about our vocabulary pictures.
Next was reasoning and writing. We graded lesson 37s independent practice. Then in spelling, we did an L to J vocabulary test. Next we went to science. There we did an experiment over distance learning. We tried to protect an egg with a paper bag, straws, string, and tape.


When we got done, the scent from the feistadas was making our bellies grumble like the great earthquake that shook San Francisco. After we gobbled down our food, it was time for PE and music.
In PE we played Ants and Grasshoppers tag. Then in music, we played Ode to Joy.
Then instead of math, we learned about the magazine sale and the cool prizes we could win if we sold enough magazines.
Then in band, we reviewed what we learned.


And in study hall, I worked for 15 minutes and then went home.


The bell rang and a bunch of excited kids came running out. It had been a good day in sixth grade.

October 27, 2010 by Morgan

The fantastic day started off with the soft spoken voice my mother screaming at me to get up and out of bed, for I was running 15 minutes late for school. I jumped out of bed with my body awake and my eyes asleep. It was a mistake to move so accurately when first waking up, I practically ran into every wall in the house.
After getting ready, it was time to go to school. While I was locking up, the bitter wind slapped me across my face so sharply, that all the heat had escaped from my body. I began to partially jog down the streets, hoping to make it before the bell range.
Luckily, I got to school just in time to do one lap around the track. People were jumpier than ever. The cold weather must have made everybody frisky. My face began to numb as I walked around, and my fingers began to freeze. By the time this occurred I had already managed to finish my one lap around the track before the bell rang.

I stumbled inside along with everybody else, wanting to be the first one to get out of this weather. I was relieved once the warmth hit my face and began to defrost my fingers. By the time I got to the class room, the heat that had escaped, I could feel seep back into my body.
Time for reading. I sat in my desk and watched people come and go into the classroom. When everybody got in their seats, we all opened up to our new story, Night of the Pomegranates. The story was wonderful. It wasn’t serious or boring, it was funny and relatable.
Next was language arts. Today, we heard Paige’s Roving Reporter. Paige did a pretty good job, I was impressed. After that, we checked lesson 37. I didn’t have it done, but no excuses!

Science was our last class before lunch. We did a baseball drawing between the two teams, The Texas Rangers, and The San Francisco Giants. Most people voted for Texas Rangers to win, but I was a trader and voted for San Francisco Giants. We began to learn about molecules afterwards, and got a worksheet titled Millions of Molecules.
Once science was over, we were off to lunch. The lunch ladies were serving turkey wraps with tomato soup. It doesn’t sound too appetizing, but it was still pretty good. Once the teachers dismissed us for recess, my friends and I headed for the tire swing. We spun round and round, and swung back and forth until our stomachs were churning and our heads were spinning. The tomato soup wasn’t so delicious coming back up.

Recess was over too soon; 30 minutes seemed like 30 seconds. As we took our seats, the teacher began to read us a little bit of a book called The Endless Steppe. The story takes place during the Holocaust in 1941. It’s about a Jewish family that gets arrested by Russians. For five years the family has been farming and working hard to stay alive. The only hope they have is the hope of the future.
Once the clock struck twelve, we were on our way to music and P.E. In music, we practiced on our pianos, and practiced our note names. We played kickball in P.E. Of course, I was pretty bad at it, but it’s just a game.
Math was next on our daily schedule. Our teacher organized us into four groups of four. She gave each group a cup full of M&Ms, all of different colors. I was curious about what the M&Ms were for at first, but then she explained that we were doing graphing with M&Ms. We got to eat our M&Ms after graphing them; they were delicious. Hopefully we can do it again!
Spelling was our last subject for the day. We were handed a cursive handwriting worksheet and the rest of a lesson for homework. I was relieved that I didn’t have much homework for today. If we had any more, I probably wouldn’t have bothered to get any of it done.
The final bell range at last, and it was time to go home. While walking home, I began to think about today’s activities. As I began to walk further, I realized that today was better than most days I have. Today was probably the best school day I have ever had.

October 26, 2010 by Paige

.This morning I just couldn’t get myself out of bed. Today was a school day. When I finally got out of bed, I did my normal routine then boarded the bus.
Once I got off the bus, I headed up to the track to walk. The weather had a fall nip to it, just enough to make you shiver.
Afterwards, we did the usual: lunch count, and the Pledge of Allegiance. Then off to reading we went. In reading, we had a chance to read an A.R. book while Mrs. Dux did something on her computer.Once she was finished, we checked some papers, and then did vocabulary on clickers. Then it was time for language arts. We talked about Roving Reporter, and that’s when I found was going to be the first student to do it.
Science was next in the schedule; Mrs. Hudson had us work on mass and volume. She had us use a scale with kilograms, and we found our mass. We had the 4th grade program to go to so we had spelling next, instead of social studies.In spelling we did a retake of the spelling test and checked a lesson in our book. After spelling we had lunch and recess.
We had a sloppy Joe today for lunch. During recess, I played an exciting game of kickball. Afterword we went to our homerooms for 15 minutes. Mrs. Dux usually reads to us during this time, but we had finished the book yesterday. While she decided on a new book to read, we read A.R. books.Next we had music and P.E. In music we played some keyboarding games on the computer and then had some free time to play on the key boards. In P.E we played Snake Tag.
Then we had social studies. We checked a few work sheets, and then the fun began! We played a vocabulary game where you have flash cards and read the definition, and then someone else gives the answer. Our best time was 1:18, not bad! We didn’t have math (ha-ha!) Then we were off to see the fourth grade program.

The program was about saving the Earth. I thought the program was really well performed, and they sang really well. Then I had band practice and study hall. I play in the band, so I only had about 15 minutes to work on homework.
Finally it was time to go home! I had had a busy day at school, and even though I had gotten homework, I had a wonderful day in 6th grade.

Roving Reporter Debut by Mrs. Dux

When the alarm sounded its blast this morning, I didn’t know if I would be able to make it through a day as a sixth grade teacher. I had a night of chills, churning stomach, and aches that would not go away. With tired eyes and muscles that yelled, “Go Back to Bed,” I downed a few Tylenol and hit the shower.

What a difference a little water can make! It pounded against my skin revitalizing my sore body and helping me feel I could possibly proceed. After doing all of the morning rituals, all I needed yet was a cup of coffee, and I could head out the door.

As I entered the vacant parking lot, I felt as if I had missed an important meeting. Usually there are many more cars by the time I arrive, and today I was later than usual. I think everyone had the “After Fall Break Blues.”

Walking out on the track for 15 minutes helped further my revitalization. The crisp, cool air and the smell of fall were what I needed to get in the mood for another fantastic day at Jefferson School. When the bell sounded, we entered the building with the buzz of students sharing stories of their long weekend.

After the usual lunch count and flag salute, I reminded my students to smile and make someone else’s day special. If we just smiled at one other person who may have woken up on the wrong side of the bed, maybe we could change the mood all around the school. That would be 19 students each smiling at another student = 38, and if they smile at another = 76! With a big smile on my face, it was time for reading class.

We started class with a poem titled Casey at Bat. Since reading fluency is so important to comprehension, we read it chorally and discussed this famous poem Click on the following link to learn more about the poem. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_at_the_Bat)

.
Reader’s Theater is a favorite of all the students. I could sure tell that as we read the story of Jackie Robinson in this format. Everyone had a part and performed with their voice working on reading fluency once again. Time sure flies when you’re having fun because reading was over in a flash.

When a few more students entered the room, we started language arts. Our Patriots Pen essays are due on Monday, so we handed them in. After that, we discussed Roving Reporter.

Our language arts class is going to start a blog called The Roving Reporter. Each day a student from our classroom will be the "Roving Reporter." He or she will compose an article and take photos using a digital camera. They will write what takes place during the school day as a 6th grader at Jefferson School. Since I am the teacher, I decided to model this process for the students. This is the first article of the year. All too soon, the clock told us it was time to move on to our next class. For me, it was having Mrs. McAllister’s class for social studies.


Chapter 2 in 6th grade social studies is about ancient Mesopotamia and many of the civilizations that arose in the Middle East. We also studied the history of Judaism. One of our objectives is to learn about the major religions of the world. Since we are at the end of the chapter, I handed out a review sheet. The chapter review will be on Wednesday. Tomorrow we will be reviewing the chapter 2 vocabulary. Social studies with my homeroom class was next, and I followed the same lesson plan.

Smells of breaded pork and tator tots drifted down the hall and into our room. Our stomachs began to growl uncontrollably. With mouths watering, we walked to the cafeteria for lunch. After gobbling down our lunch and a little time for visiting and recess, we headed to our room to see what was going to happen to Emily, the main character in our book Peppermints in the Parlor.

We found out that Emily was really a rich heiress and that her uncle Twice was the true owner of Sugar Hill Hall. All of the main characters, including the old people, threw peppermints at Mrs. Meeching and Mrs. Plumly in order for the police to capture them. It has been so much fun to read this book to my class because they were always sitting on the edge of their seat, waiting for the next bit of action. All too soon it was time for music and library.

When everyone returned to the classroom, we started math class. What is .810 divided by .9? That was the type of question on our math test that we were finishing up today. The answer, by the way, is .9. I was so proud of my class. They did a great job on their test.

After switching one more time for class, we settled down for band and study hall. Everyone had a lot of homework, so it was relatively quiet, except for the chirping of Mrs. Hudson’s birds across the hall. When all and the assignments were written in the planners and the bags were packed, we headed out the door to enjoy what was left of the beautiful fall day.