So what happens when a 6th grade teacher ends up in a 2/3 combo?

Hmmm, I've got a class of 7,8,9, & 10 year olds. What the crap do you teach when it comes to writing? And no, this isn't little house on the prairie, just a very poorly articulated combination class!!! So again, what to do? Especially, when your only real writing experience has been sentence writing in kindergarten, and intense persuasive and expository text in 6th grade. Well, you try to find the middle, but I think it ended up looking way more like 6th grade. However, you push kids, and it is amazing what they can give you.

Our first real essay was on the Polar Habitats. After learning about the Inuit tribe of the Arctic, we went right into a habitat study. And lets just say, they did amazing. Our final product was a 5 paragraph essay on three elements of what makes the polar habitats unique. We set up the first three paragraphs up together as a class, with lots of modeling, and then I set them free. Now, when setting them free I was almost expecting disaster. Like monumental failure. However, with an exception of just a few, they totally got what they were doing, referencing their graphic organizer and everything. I mean, you have got to be kidding me???  We finished off our final drafts with some beautiful northern lights projects that took a several days to get all of the steps just right. And wow, I will be keeping these kinds of projects in mind for Open House next year because they were super impressive!