Students had 5 minutes to respond to the prompt, “What do you think about Valentine’s Day?”

Here is what Kate had to say:

I love Valentine’s Day, but not because of the boyfriend/girlfriend thing or kissing or love or those dumb middle school relationships. (As you can tell, I’m not in one, thankfully.) I love it because of what my family does. Every year we have a Valentine’s Day dinner. We eat heart-shaped pizza and have Sprite with heart-shaped cranberry ice cubes in them. We each have a bowl of fondue chocolate and dip strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, and then our parents give us a mini gift. We also each have a Valentine’s Day balloon on the back of our chair floating up. This year we have to do Valentine’s day on Friday, but it is just as special. I get to show my family how much I love them. Oh, and Grandparents send us Russell Stovers heart-shaped candy box filled with chocolate. I also love all the decorations Valentines Day has like the roses.🌹💕

Here is what Joshua had to say:

I think you buy chocolate and then go up to a girl and eat it right in front of her saying, “I’m not sharing.” And you yell out everywhere, “Valentine’s Day stinks! I hate Valentine’s Day! Now stop kissing! Valentines Day stinks!”🍖💋😝

Click here to view February’s lesson plans.

Here is a Digital Guide to Expository Essay Writing for any kiddos that have been out sick and gotten behind. I am updating it daily as we complete each step.

Interesting experiences lead to interesting thoughts that create interesting writing. As we continue to learn about the life of Martin Ganda, an African boy with an American penpal, through his inspiring memoir, the kids are getting a whole new perspective on the luxuries of their own lives. Today they got to try sadza, the cornmeal porridge that Martin and his family ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, if they were lucky. During writing time, they reflected on how this changes the way they think about the food they have available. The theme of gratitude came up in many students’ writing. One student even vowed to “never complain about what their mom cooks again.” Considering that my 5-year-old just recently complained that her macaroni and cheese was too cheesy, I think I’ll take the leftovers home and recreate this lesson tonight at dinner.

It cost about $1 to make this huge pot. It provided enough for each 6th grader to get about 1/4 cup.

Kalyn Hepler reading an excerpt from her novel, “The Day My Dad Died.”

Thanks to all those who were able to watch these young authors showcase their novels!

My selfie with the NaNoWriMo word count champ!

6th grader Abigail Harris wrote over 10,000 words during the month of November and is the NaNoWriMo word count champion! Congratulation, Abby!

You are invited to the NaNoWriMo Showcase!

Who: Parents, guardians, grandparents, etc.

What: Students will showcase a selection of their work from our novel project.

Where: Middle School ThinkLab, Library

When: Use the table below to find your child’s class. They will present during their English class semester exam.

Hope to see you there!

Popcorn party celebrating the end of NaNoWriMo.

Congratulations to Jai’ for being this week’s guest blogger!

We can all think of one thing we would like to change about school; here is what Jai’ had to say:

If I could change one thing about school…

I would make a water slide around the whole middle school so that way nobody is late to class. Because I mean riding through the cafeteria getting lunch and then zooming past the stairs and into the classroom before you are late would be great. And we will not be so late to p.e. Instead of walking, why not slide to p.e.!