Project-based Learning

The last two weeks...wow, have they flown! We have been busy beavers!!!

In writing workshop we have asked some tough questions about our characters. What is the problem they are facing (bummer!), and what do they really want. Our characters need to be believable and real, not too perfect or plastic. We developed story arcs (or plotlines...our plan for how our story will take place) and challenged ourselves to write multiple possible endings. We are now taking those story arcs and beginning to draft scene by scene. Our task will be big as we work to SHOW what our characters are going through using action and diologue, not summarize and relay the "play by play" like a sports announcer. The mentor texts we used this week were A Bad Case of the Stripes and Milo and the Mysterious Island. 

The first three stories we studied in our reading lessons were all focused on scientists and their work with animals. As a culminating projects we read a biography of Jane Goodall and her work with chimpanzees, which we will use to write a spotlight about her life. In order to take notes on only the most important information, I taught the class how to write notes "Tarzan style." We watched the clip from the movie Tarzan and Jane to compare how Tarzan and Jane communicate. Tarzan says very little, only the most important word, while Jane takes what Tarzan says and elaborates...greatly! Each time we determined a "Tarzan word" we wrote it on a post-it note. Next week we'll use these notes to launch our writing.

During math we are continuing to work with concepts of multiplication: finding factors, writing multiples, identifying prime and composite numbers, and applying multiplication strategies to games (like Factor Captor) and problem solving situations. 

The obvious favorite activity of the last few days has been our immigrant collage project in social studies. Unit 3 focused on 5 major waves of immigrants who settled the US: Native Americans, Spanish Americans, European Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans. Students are working in 4 groups to become "experts" on one of these groups, create objects to share with the class, and prepare a presentation to present to their classmates. Early next week we will put the finishing touches on our presentations and present to our classmates. The following week we will invite our first grade buddies for a visit and share our presentation with them as well!

This week's book recommendations (each title is linked if you want to find the book online)! #1 - Frindle. Anything by Andrew Clements is fabulous and usually pretty humorous! If you like this one there are many more by him to choose from! #2 - The Burger and the Hot Dog. Hysterical poetry about food! #3 - Top of the Order. John Coy is from the Twin Cities and has written many great books for boys. My family used to spend our annual summer vacation at a resort with several members of his extended family. A few years I was lucky enough to meet him when he was the visiting author sponsored by Valley Reading! This book is part of a series of books on boys playing sports. 

This week I introduced the class to a website called Wonderopolis. Each day they feature a new "Wonder of the Day." GREAT source of informational reading, and many of the challenging words have definitions that pop up if you hover over them. They have over 1500 Wonders and I believe all the past ones are still on the website!!! Yesterday we read about how fast bullets travel. SUPER interesting!!!

Last, but not least, and certainly not least important...last week Mrs. Fillippi visited with the class during her  lesson about creating a plan for being successful in school and achieving our best. She visited about making a plan for homework. After she left we brainstormed a list of "homework" activities that should be part of our weekly routine. Over the next few days off I would highly recommend visiting with your kiddo about what type of weekly plan you might develop for doing these things. We didn't establish a routine as a class since I know everyone has activities on different nights of the week. The following activities can and should be completed weekly as often as possible: 10-20 minutes of keyboarding, 10-20 minutes of practicing math facts, Weekly Word Writing, and 10-20 minutes (once we get our small groups going) practicing spelling words. You could choose one per night (i.e.: math facts on Monday, typing on Tuesday, etc), but it might be better to plan for 2 shorter sessions of 2 of these activities each night since shorter bursts of practice more frequently will lead to better retention of skills (i.e.: 10 min each of typing & math). 

Sofie's yummy birthday brownies!

Settling In

Wow, this week has really marked a turning point in our group. I finally feel like we've figured out our stride as a community of learners who are beginning to work together as a team. We still have many collaboration skills to work on, but I have been nothing short of impressed this week. Consequently, it was pj day on Friday!!!

First things first - planners. In the Back to School Night folder I shared that these will be completed daily, and students will be "checked out" prior to leaving. Planners are a tool for students to use to keep track of homework and take responsibility for their learning. I consider it my job to check them out and hold them accountable for getting accurate information home. I consider it their job and your job to read through the planner together at night, which typically takes 10 seconds or less. When you do read it, please sign the bottom. While I don't check for signatures in the morning, I do occasionally glance through while checking students out. I appreciate knowing that at-home accountability is in place. Thanks!

Next topic - homework. ALWAYS be spending time reading (average goal of 30 minutes or more per day) and running around. I am a firm believer in fresh air, being active every day, and putting down devices to interact with our friends. Other things to watch for...I generally send 1-2 math Home Links per week, and beginning this week you can expect to work on quick fact practice. If possible students should practice keyboarding for 15 minutes twice each week. If you don't have a computer at home please let me know as I'll send a photocopied keyboard home for practice. The bulk of our work IN class is out of a variety of journals, which means it's bound in a book and stays in our desks. While that is super convenient for me since I can look at all their work whenever I need to, I realize it's not as informative for my families. This is one of the reasons I love our blog; you can see what we are working on.

Writing Workshop - This week we dove headfirst into developing elements of our realistic fiction stories. The first collage shows our warm-up activity, when we practiced the art of storytelling using familiar fairy tales. We then spent the next few days developing our main character inside and out. What personality traits do they have, what do they love to do, what things drive them crazy, how do they feel about themselves and how do others see them, what do they wear, how do they treat others, etc. I've seen some fabulous characters sketches and can't wait to read the stories that will grow up around them. 

Social Studies...continuing to hone our map reading skills as we completed two more geography challenges. Learning about geography is so much fun and always makes me want to travel. 

Math...I have our Unit 1 assessments all graded and ready to return and...oops!...forgot to send them home on Friday. So sorry!!! They will come home Monday, I guess. If you haven't seen the Unit 2 Family Letter you better go backpack diving. Our next unit will focus on multiplication and geometry. Already we've identified the formula for finding the area of rectangles (area = length x width), investigated square numbers, and created arrays. 

And before you can say, "Boo!" it's October!

This week our reading adventures introduced us to a woman who lived many years ago by the name of Mary Anning. Mary was a fossil hunter who learned to find, excavate, and preserve from her father. Her life story is quite amazing, as she grew from being an uneducated woman who found notable fossils, to someone who devoted their life to studying animals both living and ancient (she cut dead fish open on her kitchen table to study them), to being considered an expert in her field and making groundbreaking discoveries. In these photos students are discussing Mary, her life, and what words would best describe her. Many students chose curious, studious, intelligent, hard working, etc.

Our focus in math this week shifted to geometry, and we spent a few days working with lines, line segments, rays...parallel, intersecting, and perpendicular...right triangles...and a whole slew of quadrilaterals. After a day of triangle construction with slipper straws and twist ties I pulled the geoboards out of the cupboard. Before getting down to business the students took a few minutes to design and explore this tool. A unanimous favorite!!!

Today's reading recommendation comes from a fellow teacher / blogger / literacy coach and friend from North Carolina. If you or your kiddos are on Instagram, the accounts she shares here have fabulous, engaging photos paired with a manageable amount of informational reading. HIGHLY engaging, current, and relevant reading. Click here for the link to her post from last spring where she writes about resources for keeping students reading over the summer...many are still applicable year round!

Coming this week:

• Spelling / Word Work: Our first word study (there won't be a spelling quiz on these this week, but watch for more information next week on how we break down words for meaning and spelling purposes)
• Math: Unit 1 math assessment on the plethora of topics we've covered (addition, subtraction, place value, geometry). Don't worry...we'll take Monday to review!!! Begin Unit 2 - Multiplication and Geometry
• Social Studies: wrap up our study of maps and complete our final geography challenges 
• Writing Workshop: Begin developing believable characters for our realistic fiction stories
• Reading: Begin introducing several literacy-based activities to be used during small group instruction, and read an information text called, "Fragile Frogs."