Sixth Grade Ideas

JOURNAL TOPICS

1. What are your goals for summer school?
2. If you won one million dollars, what would you do?
3. What do you want to be when you grow up?
4. How do you think The Westing Game will end? Why?
5. What did you do this weekend?  Think about what you did each day.
6. Write about the funniest thing that ever happened to you.
7. Write about all the things that make you feel happy and alive.
8. Write a paragraph about an occupation you would want, then write a paragraph about an occupation you wouldn't want. Include reasons why you would and wouldn't want the occupations.
9. Write for five minutes about the type of life you consider to be exciting.
10. Different people relax in different ways. Describe your idea of a relaxing evening.
11. Whick of the following situations do you think would be the most difficult: being blind, being deaf, or being unable to walk? Why?
12. If you were a character in a book, what would the book be about? Write a short description of the book.
13. Your best friend is having a party. Create the best scenario (story) and the worst scenario of what could happen at the party.
14. If you could read one another's minds, how would the world change? Would this ability be a good thing or a bad thing? Why?
15. What privileges would you like to have as a teenager? Prepare a short speech on the subject.
16. Write the recipe for your favorite sandwich. Be sure to include a list of ingredients and directions for making the sandwich.
17. List five qualities you admire in a person. Then write the names of people you know who have those qualities. Do you have any of those qualities yet?
18. Pretend you are a piece of chalk. Write the story of your life.
19. You have won an Oscar for your acting ability. Write your acceptance speech.
20. You suspect that a classmate is very depressed. What signs might you see? What might you do in response to your suspicion?
21. Write about what you think your life will be like when you are old.
22. Close your eyes and imagine you are in your favorite spot. Describe where you are and what it is like there.
23. People create excuses for almost everything that goes wrong. How many excuses can you think of for getting mud on a carpet (not doing homework, etc.)? Write them.

I am hoping that by assigning each student an actual character from the story, it will keep them actively involved.  The boys will be assigned a boy character, the girls will be assigned a girl character.  Depending on the numbers in each class, some students will have to be paired up.

On the last day of summer school, I have asked all of the students to dress as their character from the story. Even I am going to choose a character and they will have to guess who I am. They must have props and a costume to match. If they need make-up, they can wear that, too! I would like to have a costume contest, but haven't decided. I would want each person who dressed up to win some kinda prize!

Story Elements Ball
We are doing a lot of the curriculum focus this summer on story elements: characters, setting, plot, theme, point of view, etc.  After reading each day, at least two chapters a day, we will try playing a game with a "Story Elements" ball.  I am taking a beach ball and writing different story elements (listed above)randomly on the ball.  We will toss the ball around the classroom (ever so gently!) and as the student catches the ball they will look at what their thumb landed on.  Say, for example, they landed on the word "character," the student would then have to name a character from the chapters we just read.