Strong leads, communication, and HAUNTED HOUSE FUN!

Come one, come all! We'll be transforming our classroom into a creepy/hilarious haunted house! 

Come by the room before the parade for a terrifying tour! 

2:00 Haunted House Tours in Room 7 1/2 

2:45 Parade at the Theater in the Woods

3:00 Dismissal

Working in small groups to find the main idea of the article. 

What is it mostly about? What is it really trying to show?

Working with those tricksters- then and than.

Friends all around

Here we're getting feedback different strong leads that we've written for our personal narratives. To hook our readers, we've tried starting with action, describing the setting, using important and engaging dialogue, or a combination which creates a mood. 

Boogying down to the Dance Move of the Day!

Japanese soroban math skills: a great place-value reinforcement and interesting problem-solving challenge. Skilled abacus users know a series of formulas for borrowing and carrying. My class has been developing their own strategies. 

We invited Peggy's class to make Sorobans with us.

Cooper, Max, and Lily were all clear and encouraging Class Meeting facilitators. They led discussions ranging from haunted house planning to what it looks like to wait respectfully in line. 

 

Earthquake preparedness with Donna!

Max and Ezra are sharing their weekly Response to Reading assignment. I believe that in this one, they compared and contrasted the character traits they saw in Matilda's Miss Honey and Miss Trunchboll and between two characters form their independent reading book. 

To gain new strategies for communication and conflict mediation, we have been discussing how we all share the same, basic human needs, and that each of our actions are a strategy to meet one or more of these needs. We've also been writing about and role-playing common, challenging social scenarios, and developing a language around expressing our needs that is easy to hear. It is always an honor to support the students as they learn to communicate, advocate for themselves, and share space with one another more gracefully. 

Wednesday Poetry Club has been filled with figurative language. We read and listen to the work of important mentor poets and carry that inspiration into our own work. Here students are writing similes about some of the characters in our read-aloud text. 

Happy birthday Isabella!

Names, Geography, Book Talks, and Graphs

Happy Friday Team! I hope everyone has an awesome weekend. Here are some highlights from this past week on Team 3/4.

Max's grandparents visited our Morning Meeting to share some photos, maps, and stories about their adventure by train across Canada.

What a group of readers! Here we're digging into our "Friday" literature. Everything in the library is available- our usual "Just Right" books, plus magazines, comics, and more.

 
Here Lily and Cole take center stage (or center chair) to give a Book Talk. They present a basic plot outline of a great book they've just finished, making sure to not give too much away. Then they recommend the book to a specific audience that they think would enjoy it. "If you like _________, you'll love this book!"

Congratulations to Cole! He facilitated a class meeting in which the class discussed selecting a class mascot for the year. After a spirited debate they came to the consensus that we should design and sew our own stuffed animals and make extras to donate to children in need. The spirit of service is strong on our team this year and I LOVE IT!

Thanks to Genevieve for mixing up salt dough for our California relief maps. The students built the basic landforms, color-coded different regions, and labeled important landmarks. They defined the scale of the map and oriented the cardinal directions for the reader. 

 

Snack time fun zone!

Here's wishing safe and happy travels for Ezra and family. He's headed to Brazil to visit family for 10 days. We'll miss him and we can't wait for pictures and stories!

 After defining a research question, selecting a population sample to survey, conducting a survey, building a tally chart, graphing results by hand, analyzing the data, and coming to clear results, students input their data on a graphing website and watched as it generated some cool charts and graphs.

In addition to data analysis, each student is also working with some of the following concepts: 

• rounding and estimation
• story problems with misleading language or extra information
• beginning algebraic notation
• function tables
• multi-step word problems
• memorizing multiplication facts

Today, I finished reading aloud Morning Girl by Michael Dorris. Like Morning Girl and Star Boy's family does in their 1490's Taino culture, we came up with new names for ourselves in class. We started with a relaxing, guided meditation and we began to reflect on the parts of who we are that we value most. We let those thoughts inspire new Taino-inspired names for ourselves. After we came up with our new names, we shared them with partners and as a whole class. We shared anecdotes from our lives that illustrate those beautiful qualities. The students reflected to one another the ways that they see the qualities behind the new names in one another. It was a sweet morning of self-awareness and loving support. 

Here are some of our new names:

Nature Girl

Rainbow Spirit

Cat

Deep Thought

Son of Victory

Explores the New

Bird Bat Girl

Swimming Boy

Wave Boy

Thanks for another great week of learning with your wonderful kiddos!