Teamwork, Pioneers, and "There, Their, They're"

We've wrapped up our novel study of Dear Mr. Henshaw. Here, Alex and Vivi are sharing what they know about the story and the writing by doing a book review. Alex is writing about the author's message and how she conveyed that message to the reader. Viv is referring to the text for specific examples of the character traits she highlighted about Leigh Botts. She references the exact page where she found her evidence. 

We're now reading Patty Reed's Doll by Rachel K. Laurgaard as a class. It tells the story of the Donner Party's treacherous and fascinating journey west to California from Springfield, Illinois. I like to teach with this book because it offers a narrative example of so many of the elements of Westward Expansion and pioneering that we're studying in Social Studies. As we learn about Lewis and Clark, we're also reading Who Was Sacagawea? by Judith and Dennis Fradin. It offers a look at the Corps of Discovery's incredible expedition through the lens of the Native Americans who already knew and lived on the lands being "discovered" by the American pioneers.

We've been working hard with those tricksters; there, their and they're this week. Here Mila searches the room for a sentence that needs her word, "there".

Teamwork!

Sami shares the proper use of they're:
If six copycats sat on a fence and one jumped off, how many would be left on the fence?
None, they're all copycats!

Here we see local ballet teacher, Charles sharing a little about his work and passion for dance. We learned about what to expect tomorrow at the Nutcracker and talked about the physical and mental strength and agility it takes to be a dancer.

Charles and his accomplished student, Sami demonstrate a dancer's posture.

Math time! Alex and Skyler work with the characteristics of congruent and similar shapes.

On most Wednesdays, we do a multi-step math challenge that requires some serious teamwork to complete.
This Wednesday's problem:
Grandma lives in Media, and her grandchildren all live within 40 miles. Scott lives 20 miles north of Brian. Robin lives 5 miles south of Scott. Grandma lives 10 miles north of Robin. Caitlin lives 15 miles south of Brian. How far does each live from Grandma?
It was great to see the students planning ahead, using logical reasoning, and utilizing some of their cartography skills from Social Studies. 

 Come by the classroom to check out our finished dioramas! These tiny worlds hold some pretty grand ideas. They're up on the bulletin board next to the poetry they inspired. Here's a sneak peek:

Peyton and Syler are sharing their dioramas and poetry with the class. It was cool to see these tiny, delicate scenes that we've been working with so intimately, projected on a large scale!

Karen came back this morning to work on Phase II of our lunchbox alarms! The students decorated the boxes with Julie in art. We found that the intricate engineering work took a lot of thoughtful precision, patience, and adjustment. We'll finish them in two more sessions next week.

Alex devours Wolf Brother.

Way to go, Max! This week's ambassador welcomed a touring visitor to the class and shared the work in progress with her. He also led a class meeting and decided to use an opinion polling technique in which the students stood up and placed themselves somewhere on the spectrum between two locations which represented a desire to name a class symbol for a flag or a class color. This way he could visualize the spectrum of opinions and go from there. Nice work!

Circuits, Microscopes, Essays, and Word Problems

Here's a mini-overview of the goings-on in 3rd and 4th grade math and humanities!

Reading and Writing

We just began our work with literary essays by reading short stories and writing entries responding to the reading. I teach some of the ways a literary essayist might study a text before writing about it. The students are observing the text closely and then pushing themselves to have thoughts about what they notice. A good literary essayist must first be a good reader, dreaming the world of the story, walking in the shoes of the character. After reading the story with empathy and imagination, the essayist shifts to reread the text with an analytical critic's eye, constructing a logical argument about what he or she sees. 

Math

Both third and fourth graders will be working with word problems until the Thanksgiving break. They are de-coding story problems with extra, unnecessary information, searching for the clues they need to find the answer. Third graders are working with addition and subtraction problems featuring a total and two partners (addends and subtrahends). If one of the partners is unknown, it can be found by subtracting the known partner from the total or by counting on from the known partner to the total. They're also working with problems that involve one amount that is more or less than another amount and using comparison tools to find the difference. 

Fourth graders are working on multi-step word problems such as, "Eli is ordering 5 pizzas for a party. Each pizza will be cut into 8 slices. Three pizzas will have multiple toppings and the others will be plain cheese. How many slices of plain cheese pizza is Eli ordering for the party?" These problems require significant analysis and organization. I teach different mental and written organization techniques and processes to divide up the necessary information into steps. 

Can't wait to see you all tonight at the San Rafael Community Center!

Viv and Max welcome their ancestors back during our class Dia de los Muertos celebration. 

Halloween was pretty much the most fun EVER!  :)

We were so inspired when Lisa shared her dioramas, we had to have a go at it ourselves.

Sami keeps us focused and engaged as she leads a discussion about whether or not students should be allowed to draw during read-aloud time. The class decided that it would be too distracting and that we'd re-visit the idea again later. Amazing job, Sami!

Sweetness.

Hugo brought in his microscope to share with his scientific community. I sent him next door to share with the 1st and 2nd graders. Lindsay said that he really inspired her Junior Scientists. Our class was also really excited to see his slides and guess what they were. We thought the slide of a drop of blood was really cool!

A CCS-inspired art project that Lisa and Caroline are coordinating for the auction

Vivienne facilitated a productive class meeting in which a student proposed that we go on a 3rd and 4th grade class overnight field trip. The class voted and came to the consensus that such a trip would be a great way to build our team. A future facilitator will have to continue to work with the group to fill in the details in a way that works for everyone, including your's truly. :)  Awesome job synthesizing some very diverse opinions, Vivi!

Karen joined us this morning to teach us about electricity and circuits! So cool! We'll use our new knowledge of batteries and closed circuits to build lunchbox alarms next week.

dfah