Schools and Creativity

Today is our last day in the library to workshop and craft our ideal school projects. Remember that they are due on Wednesday, January 20. We will each have the chance to share two of our slides with the rest of the class (or more!0 beginning Wednesday.

Here is the overview of the Ideal School mission--be sure to check your slides against the list of required slides--and then creatively craft your other slides!

And here is the model we explored in class of a powerful Ideal School presentation from last year.

For tomorrow, be sure to review our last five words for our creative vocab quiz: IMBUE, PERFIDIOUS, MOROSE, EMPATHY, and APOPLECTIC.

Have an awesome evening, and good luck working on your IDEAL SCHOOL projects!

Creativity & Exaggeration!

Today, we had our sixth creative vocab quiz, in which you wrote a letter to one of the characters (or objects!) from The Absolute Value of Mike. Thus far, I have seen fabulous letters to Doug, Mike, Moo, and even Tyrone (the car) and Junior (Moo's purse)!

Our word of the day today is HYPERBOLE, which means extreme exaggeration. An example of the word in a line is: when my 7-year old son asks how much I love him, it is time to use as much hyperbole as possible to make sure he understands!

Homework for this weekend is to read Chapters 11 and 12 (pp. 86 -106) in The Absolute Value of Mike.

Have an awesome weekend!

Peace,

Mr. R

Our Denouement! (With a Little Help from Vocabulary, Alphonsis Demorkfeed, and a Sandcastle)

This has been an incredible year! I have loved reading with you, writing with you, making music with you, acting out scenes with you, laughing with you, learning with you, growing with you.

It has truly been sublime.

And now...our DENOUEMENT!

This week, we'll dive into a highly creative (and somewhat crazy) endeavor with words: to write the narrative of Alphonsis Demorkfeed using every single one of our words-of-the-day. Want to see just how crazy this project is? Take a look at the link for a copy of the mission. (You'll get a green one is class, too!).

Our Crazy Mission about Alphonsis Demorkfeed and VOCABULARY!

And before I sign off, here is the photo of our gargantuan SANDCASTLE from our field trip to Crane Beach this past Friday. The central tower was almost six feet tall!

Get Ready to Move!

Today, we explored Chapter 17 in The Absolute Value of Mike. We talked about the weight of grief (as in Poppy's case) and how humans are all connected in that we each struggled to carry different kinds of burdens.

But Mike shows us that friendship and community can make those burdens easier to carry.

In light of today's chapter, our vocabulary quiz tomorrow will be highly interractive, and you will need to depend on each other to complete the mission. Come ready to get out of your seats and MOVE!

Our five words for the week are: Redemption, Attribute, Segue, Hyperbole, and Unanimous. Scroll down through the previous blogs for definitions and examples of the words. Also, look through our class activities and discussions to help prepare.

Have a wonderful evening, and get outside and be active today!

Peace, Mr. R.