Water Festival Recap

Session 1 - learning about rivers...how they move, how they affect the areas around them, how things impact the river, etc.

Session 2 - Taste testing water. Did you know that 0.003% of Earth's water is usable fresh water? That's not a lot! :)

Session 3 - discussing city sewers (routed to water treatment plants) and storm sewers (routed to the river) and how pollution affects the storm sewers and the rivers they drain to

Station 4 - The water Olympics. I'll let the photos tell the story. 

Last, but not least, "Mr. History" (Steve Stark)! I could listen to this guy all day!!!

What a good looking group of kids, don't you think?

Inferring

Today we began working with the strategy of inferencing, or making inferences. Rather than explain what that term means, let me share our conversation...

PREDICTING - We compared the process of making predictions and determining if we were right or wrong to putting together a puzzle. Were we to dump out a puzzle (without seeing the picture on the box), we could examine the pieces for details and clues as to what the final puzzle might look like. As we start to put pieces together, we would continue to revise our predictions based on what we see as the puzzle comes together (just like we would evaluate the predictions we make as we read and change them as we progress through a book). In the end, we would be able to see if our predictions were correct as the picture would be "right there" in front of us.

INFERRING - We compared inferring to examining a piece of art. Just like predicting, we can study the details for clues and come to our own conclusions about its meaning, but unlike predictions we won't get a clear picture of whether or not our inferences were what the author intended.

Now let's talk about how we infer as readers...

...and try making inferences with a photo instead of a story.

 Here are the inferences the students made today...

• I observe two otters. I infer that it's a baby and a mother because one is smaller, the mom seems to be carrying the baby, and she is showing affection.
• I infer the baby can't swim because it's laying on the adult's stomach and its fur is dry and fuzzy.
• I infer they are either in the ocean, a large lake, or a zoo because the water is clear.
• I infer its a partly cloudy day because the water is gray (not sparkly) and we see the otters' shadow.

Making inferences is a challenging skill for students since it requires higher level thinking and analysis. Students must carefully examine details in a text and come to their own conclusions. Many times I've found students who are hesitant to do this because they want to have the "right answer" (and inferences are not explicit). Making inferences also requires students, at times, to reread, carefully examine text, and defend or explain their thinking. 

Credit for photos / author of Picture of the Day - Jen Jones of Hello Literacy

http://www.helloliteracy.blogspot.com/2011/04/making-inferences-about-amazon-river.html

http://www.helloliteracy.blogspot.com/2013/08/observing-describing-inferring-with.html

Geography Challenge

This afternoon we began our first Geography Challenge in Social Studies. Students used the four cardinal directions (NSEW) and lines of latitude / longitude to locate places in the United States. Everyone did extremely well, and a few were even able to enjoy extra minutes reading and relaxing after!

Next week will be CRAZY busy for us! Keyboarding begins Tuesday and will be every afternoon through the following Tuesday. We have a field trip on Thursday morning to the Water Festival at the Hjemkomst in Moorhead, and both Mrs. Sieber and Mr. Carlson will be visiting our classroom for lessons as well. WOW!

Text-based Evidence, 5 Themes of Geography, Book Orders

Currently we are reading the novel Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. The first big focus of our discussions in reading workshop is "What can we tell about a character based on their actions, feelings, and dialogue?" Yesterday and today students have been working in groups to discuss what they have already figured out about Opal and her father, who she calls "the Preacher." Getting used to backing up your answer and explaining your thinking is a big step, and I heard GREAT conversations from around the classroom. One group even grabbed their Interactive Reading Notebook (see the photo on the right) to refer to our list of character traits. 

This year in social studies we will focus on two main topics...regions of the US and North Dakota. Everything we study will tie into these five themes of geography (see pic). Before we begin, however, we need a solid understanding of how to read maps, so this week we jumped into Chapter 2 and have studied map scale, lines of latitude and longitude, map keys (also called "legends"), and cardinal / intermediate directions. 

Last, but not least...ordering from the Scholastic book order. The website to order online is on the front cover of the flyer, right below the heading and our class ordering code. To get into our classroom ordering page, you'll need the code GTTYN.

The Grading Scale

Hello everyone! I hope you had a fabulous weekend! One of our topics this morning was to discuss the grading scale of 1-2-3-4-5. This conversation was created as a direct response to last week's conversation that went something like this...

Mrs. Clarey: "Do you know what the grading scale of 5-4-3-2-1 means?"

Class: "Uh..." (or just a blank stare)

Mrs. Clarey: "Well, we should probably talk about that so that when I start to write numbers on your papers you know what they mean. Don't you think?"

Class: "Yep, that'd probably be good."

So...here is a recap of our conversation today, just in case you are also in the "Uh..." boat. :)

Cue photo:

On this scale students typically begin the school year performing at what is considered a "2." Think of that star above the line as a "slider," which moves on pace with student learning. As we move through the year the goal is to finish at a "4," which means a student has mastered that standard. As I shared with my students, sometimes a student will master certain standards almost right away, while at the same time needing a full year to master others. We all learn at our own pace, and we all need to be challenged at our own level. A "1" would be considered performing below the grade level standard, and a "5" is producing evidence of learning beyond the fourth grade level. Both of these are rare!

Today I used the analogy of riding a bike to help explain...

1. knowing that you can ride a bike to get places faster, but not sure how to use the pedals, steer, or get on properly
2. riding the bike with the help of a parent who is holding onto the bike to keep it steady while you learn to pedal and steer (doing it, but only with instruction, guidance, and support)
3. knowing how to pedal and steer but still wobbly, so a parent is running along side with a hand out or nearby as the biker slowly teeters their way down the sidewalk almost independently (doing it with less support, but still needing reassurance, pointers, and guidance)
4. getting on, riding down the street, stopping, and dismounting all on your own! (doing it all on your own!)
5. becoming a skilled rider capable of rugged mountain terrain, long distances, etc (able to use the skill in ways most people can't)

This grading scale is not new, but as it was introduced only last year I wanted to make sure we are all on the same page. Over the next few weeks you will slowly begin to see these numbers on assignments. Please keep in mind that the number on any given assignment is specific TO that assignment, not necessarily the overall mastery of the standard it's linked to. For example...on Friday I asked students to solve 3 addition problems with multiple digits and regrouping. Several students got all 3 problems correct, which would be considered a "4." However, the standard asks students to "Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm." These 3 problems do not address subtraction, and they were not to the 1,000,000 place value. So the "4" was specific to the assignment and showed mastery there, but would not be enough to move the slider on the progress report immediately to a "4." 

Whew! How'd I do? I hope that this clears and confusion or misconceptions. Please feel free to contact me for further clarification if needed!

TGIF!

Each day we have been working to increase our stamina during our "Read to Self" time. I have just been amazed by this group's desire to read, read longer, and read more often. Love it!

Our focus today in math was on solidifying our grasp of adding large numbers. To create these numbers we passed around two decks of cards. As students dealt between 4-6 cards to create addends (the numbers added together to get the sum, or total), we were also able to practice reading these numbers fluently...something that can become quite challenging as the word "hundred" tends to pop in often!

Happy Friday!

Adding Large Numbers

Today in math we worked on adding large numbers. Adding millions didn't pose a problem, so the students asked for a real challenge...the trillions (dun, dun, dun). They didn't think you'd believe them when they told you, so we decided to pose for a picture. Happy Thursday!

First home "Book Study," I CAN Statements, Rules for Discussion

Happy second week of back to school season! Today I sent home our first at-home assignment (dun, dun, dun...). No worries, though, it should be a snap! These book studies are something that I'm designing and creating as we go, so if there are any that you love or are difficult to complete at home please send me a quick email! I'd love your feedback! 

If you already saw the pamphlet today after school, I only asked students to begin Task 4, which is logging their daily reading minutes. We will chat about the other tasks tomorrow or later this week as time allows. There are two purposes for this first book study. 1 - to better allow me to get to understand each student's reading interests and habits, and 2 - to set the tone for the year and establish a healthy habit of regular reading at home. The project will be due two weeks from Friday (Sept. 19). You will notice toward the end that there aren't enough blanks for every single day between now and the 19th. That's ok! If you want to log below the last line feel free, or just stopping at the bottom line is fine too. If you miss a few days and don't fill every single last one, that's ok! Life happens!!! Just encourage your child to read a little extra another day. I would much prefer honesty here than "padding the numbers." 

Next photo...a few of the learning targets we will focus on first. White are for math, and the first was our focus today. The pink is what we will begin with in reading. 

Last, but not least! Now that we are jumping into our first novel study (Because of Winn-Dixie) and Writer's Workshop we will work with other students in groups or partners DAILY. As part of our CARES rules we created our Rules for Discussion to make sure this time is always positive and productive!