February 19 - JA: Building a Business

Today in Junior Achievement students worked in groups to represent one of the 6 regions of the United States. Each group considered the types of resources readily available in their region to choose a business they would design and run. 

February 18 - Junior Achievement

Today we began our Junior Achievement lessons with Frank Mumford from NDSU, and students began learning about the characteristics of individuals who are entrepreneurs. Each student was able to take this personal inventory to learn which characteristics they already have that would enable them to become a successful entrepreneur, or which characteristics they need to further develop. 

February 14 - Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Party was sweet & simple. Mrs. Johnson brought in her infamous sugar cookies, and each student was able to decorate one to eat and one to give to a Valentine. We also enjoyed root beer floats, exchanged Valentines, visited, and begin using Photo Booth on Mrs. Clarey's computer to take create distorted pictures of ourselves. Can't wait to post those!!!

February 13 - Math Workshop IN ACTION

3 of our 4 rotations:

• Left: Students work with the teacher up front at the Smart Board.
• Top right: Students participate in Everyday Math Games focusing on the same skill or standard as our lesson.
• Bottom right: Students use iXL to further target our skill or standard.

February 12 - Sprouts

Today we learned a new game in Math Workshop called Sprouts. LOVE the strategy involved. It's a game that you can easily play at home or during car trips, and since everyone loved it...here are the directions so you can try it as well!

Tuesday, February 11 - Rules for Discussion

Today we revisited our norms for working collaboratively in a student group. I was able to snap pictures of these 4 groups as they brainstormed, discussed, and agreed upon aspects of collaboration that they value.

Here are the two lists we developed as a class after examining each group's ideas!

Monday, February 10 - Math groups

One week into running our math block as a math workshop and LOVING every minute of it! Here are what a few of the kids have to say about it: 

• "I love that we get to do so many things everyday." 
• "I used to not really enjoy afternoon, and now I can't wait." 
• "I really like that we get to play math games and spend time in iXL." 
• "Since you are working with such a small group everyone really has more of a voice."

What Mrs. Clarey says about it: "Why have I never done this before?" "I'm never teaching math whole group again!" 

How does it work? Students work in 4 teams. Each team rotates through 4 activities everyday following the title MATH. 

M = Mrs. Clarey (lesson at the SmartBoard)

A = At your seat (an assignment or assessment)

T = Tech (iXL)

H = Hands-on (math games)

February 7 - Ice skating

After 3 days of inside recess, too many missed gym classes, and no skating opportunities due to morning wind chill, we had our own gym class this afternoon and hit the ice for the last part of the day. Wow, was it great to be outside!!!

February 6 - FM Symphony

Our Fargo-Moorhead Symphony concert courtesy of Learning Bank. Absolutely fabulous! And the highlight was hearing an 11 year old boy from Kindred play the piano and one of his symphonies performed!!!

True confession - blogging has not been my forte this year. I apologize! If you have ever taken the time to scroll back though my posts from previous school years you've noticed an obvious difference.  With the adjustment to a new district, school, and grade I've found that I'm spending significantly more time on developing curriculum, leaving less time for blogging. For the remainder of the year I'm hoping to use the blog in a new way. Rather than lengthier posts filled with information as in pervious years, I'm going to focus on posting a picture and a quick caption. While not as informative, it will be a more realistic way for me to once again provide that "window into our classroom" that we are both craving.