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!

We've been busy!!!

We have been busy beavers this week!!! Not only have we been continuing to work hard on our learning, but we also squeezed in 5 keyboarding lessons, a guidance lesson, and a lesson on school beliefs with Mr. Carlson. Whew! Each week our learning, of course, will continue to build and challenge us. To be successful on a daily basis we will not only need to focus on the topics of our lessons, but also on behaviors that will help us to focus, discuss, and internalize our learning goals. One topic that we will be emphasizing is self-monitoring. Am I paying attention and focusing in class? If not, what are some strategies that I can use to get my brain and/or my body back on track?

SNAPSHOTS OF THE WEEK...

Unit 1 in math seems to be kind of all over the place, but the underlying emphasis is on understanding numbers with multiple digits, the value of each digit, and then applying our understanding of those numbers in situations like rounding, estimating, adding, subtracting, and measuring, etc. In the picture below you see students working on adding large numbers. In this activity I had place 8 different problems around the classroom. Students were asked to circulate and choose at least 4 to answer. 

Over the past week we've been working our way way through a book called Porpoises in Peril. Below the students are searching for evidence to explain how the Science Squad discovered the identify of Drake Darkly...a villain who is illegally mining for opals on the ocean floor and disrupting the fish and porpoise populations. As students found evidence in the book they recorded it on their post-it notes.

Keyboarding class...a super duper critically important life skill that we need to learn NOW with proper technique. :)

MRS. CLAREY RECOMMENDS...

New to our class blog this year will be a weekly book feature...books we are reading in class, books I've read and would recommend to my students and their families, etc. Without further ado, here they are!!!

• Book #1: James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl --- One of my all time favorites and one I used to read aloud as a third grade teacher. Ronald Dahl has many fabulous books, such as The BFG, Matilda, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory... Here is his website http://www.roalddahl.com/home/kids
• Book #2...ANYTHING by Seymour Simon. Oh my word I can't tell you how fabulous he is, especially if you like animals. He also has a fabulous website for kids... http://www.seymoursimon.com
• Book #3: The Land of Stories. I read this over the summer and am now reading it to my son, who is a first grader. It was recommended to me by several of my students last year. GREAT read and totally fine to have younger siblings listen in if you read as a family. Best part...it's a series!!! 4 books as of now!!! http://thelandofstories.com