Language Arts this year will be focusing on the following areas:  spelling, grammar, and writing.

Our spelling program will continue to be the Sitton series.  I am so excited about this series because it teaches spelling as it is used by kids - in their writing!  The first week of school students brought home the list of core words for sixth grade.  This is always a possible review activity for home.  But remember, it's not enough to just SPELL them correctly, you must know how they are used in language.  (For example:  there, they're, and their.)

Our grammar (and conventions) practice will be on-going throughout the year.  We will, of course, focus on the skills they need (like commas, quotations, compound sentences,etc.), but we will use all these practiced skills in our writing on a daily basis.  Students will be practicing these skills routinely with an editing passage every third class period.  After all, it is not only going to help them to recognize errors on writing samples, but it will, more importantly, assist them in recognizing THEIR OWN errors - and that's the Six-Traits skill of conventions!

More than anything else this year, your child will be writing, writing, writing. Never fear - it will be fun and interesting, and most importantly, MEANINGFUL.  Good writers need to be inspired!  Hopefully, your child will find a love of writing this year, if they don't already.  We will focus on the Six-Traits of writing, while providing the students with a variety of activites:  travel journals, poetry, creative writing, and many more!!

 Proofread and edit the following paragraph.  

From the first day the peanuts comic strip appear in newspapers, the antics of Charlie Brown and his dog, snoopy had readers in stitches. Created by Charles M Schulz, the strip first appeared in October 1950. Other Peanuts characters included Linus Lucy and Sally. In the strip, when ever things went rong, Charlie's response was, Good grief!" When Schulz died in February 2000 many wondered if Charlie would ever kick a football.

Corrected paragraph: 

From the first day the Peanuts comic strip appeared in newspapers, the antics of Charlie Brown and his dog, Snoopy, had readers in stitches. Created by Charles M. Schulz, the strip first appeared in October 1950. Other Peanuts characters included Linus, Lucy and Sally. In the strip, whenever things went wrong, Charlie's response was, "Good grief!" When Schulz died in February 2000, many wondered if Charlie would ever kick a football.

 Proofread and edit the following paragraph.  

From the first day the peanuts comic strip appear in newspapers, the antics of Charlie Brown and his dog, snoopy had readers in stitches. Created by Charles M Schulz, the strip first appeared in October 1950. Other Peanuts characters included Linus Lucy and Sally. In the strip, when ever things went rong, Charlie's response was, Good grief!" When Schulz died in February 2000 many wondered if Charlie would ever kick a football.

Corrected paragraph: 

From the first day the Peanuts comic strip appeared in newspapers, the antics of Charlie Brown and his dog, Snoopy, had readers in stitches. Created by Charles M. Schulz, the strip first appeared in October 1950. Other Peanuts characters included Linus, Lucy and Sally. In the strip, whenever things went wrong, Charlie's response was, "Good grief!" When Schulz died in February 2000, many wondered if Charlie would ever kick a football.