Gratitude, Maps, the 1st Californians, and Compasses

Happy Thanksgiving! Here's wishing you safe travels, loving connection with family and friends, and many moments to reflect on the goodness in your life. 

Emmy's Class Meeting
Emmy continued a discussion from a previous Class Meeting about getting a pet for Room 7.5

Students partner- read an article about the first Californians and how they likely arrived in the area 12,000 years ago.
Then we problem-solved a math challenge designed to contextualize just how long 12,000 years really is. For example, we looked at how many thousands, how many hundreds, and how many tens are inside of 12,000. Then we thought about activities that we do twice a year. How many times would you do that in 12,000 years? What about something you do 3, 4, or 5 times a year?

More partner-reading. 

We're working on our road trip projects, using string, rulers, and a map scale to estimate the distances between destinations. 

We needed a meditative moment after Luca's Class Meeting. We discussed the in-class use of Twiddles, necklaces made of interchangeable pieces that can be shaped, molded, torn-apart or snapped together.  Many students find them to be the perfect tool for fidgeting and supporting focus during class. Many students find them to be distracting. It was a long, involved process to reach a consensus around rules for appropriate Twiddle-use and we were equal parts exhausted and extremely proud of the compromising and thoughtful listening that went into our group decision. 

Decorating covers for our CA Road Trip Projects!

Cooper brought in a cool home-made game for math-fact practice. 

CA Road Trip Project peer-review

We went on a pre-Thanksgiving gratitude hike with Peggy's class.  We shared our feelings of gratitude for our beautiful lives and specifically, for one another. We also discussed why it's important to share gratitude with the world and the different ways we can do that. I also introduced some basic compass orienteering skills.

Coordinate grid Tic-Tac-Toe. 

Los Antepasados, Power Verbs, and What it's Really About

I sent home the first piece of the California Road Trip Project 2013!!!!!! We went over the directions extensively in class and I hope that they directions on the outline are clear. The map and BASIC itinerary are due on Friday (11/15). 

Thanks for visiting the amazing haunted house and helping to make it a great day for the kiddos (and me!).

Here we are celebrating Dia de los Muertos in a sweet class ceremony.

Power Verbs! We're strengthening our writing by focusing on the words that really drive the narrative. We selected verbs that frequently show up in our stories and wrote verbs of increasing power on these paint sample cards. 

What an awesome Reading Workshop today! My students wrote their most profound and thought-provoking Response to Reading entries to date. They are analyzing the main conflict in The Whipping Boy and describing what the story is really about. We realized that it isn't enough to say, “The story is about boys running away from home.” We know a number of stories about running away and they all have very different messages. We needed to ask, “What is this story really about? What is the significance the author wanted to highlight?” Then, we noticed the craft choices the author made and thought, “How does the author’s decision to title the story like this, to start at this point or elaborate this section, convey a meaning that resonates? How can we find evidence of the author’s purpose in the choices he or she made as a writer?”

Here are some samples. I've highlighted the students' use of the sentence starters I've taught them to help push their thinking. 

The story is really about friendship and trust. I think this because Horace wouldn't survive without Jemmy. For example, Jemmy helped Horace find food and water, escape from the highwaymen, and find the way in the underground passages. 

I think the story is really about teamwork. One way that the author shows this is that in the beginning Jemmy had a plan and Prince Brat did not stick to the plan. Later, Prince Brat decided to trust Jemmy and help him with his ideas. Jemmy's ideas didn't work until Prince Brat helped. They needed each other.

The story is really about survival and being lucky to have the things that you need to survive. Jemmy and Horace have hard lives in different ways. They have to work hard to survive. The author is trying to share the message that you are lucky if you have the things that you need like food and water. 

The Whipping Boy is really about how much you need trust and cooperation. I think this because Jemmy and the prince needed to work together to makes things happen. For example, when Jemmy hid in the hay, Horace made it so that Cutwater didn't know that they ran away.

The story is really about how friendships matter, even when they're hard. I think this because the boys have a friendship that goes away and comes back because they disagree a lot. Even though they are friends and then they split up, they are happiest when they are together and it's worth it. 

I think the story is really about the secret friendship between Jemmy and Horace. In the beginning, Horace told Hold-Your-Nose-Billy where Jemmy was hiding. Later, their friendship grew stronger and stronger until the moment when they were both in the sewer and Horace told Jemmy the exact words, "I wish I could be like you." This was a secret friendship because Horace didn't want anyone to know that he liked Jemmy and wanted to be like him.

Sara was a fantastic ambassador for the team. She greeted a HUGE tour and led a class meeting about having a movie day. The class was not able to come to a consensus about the academic validity of this plan, but we'll revisit it if watching a video seems genuinely connected to our learning in the future.

We're playing Greatest Area/Least Area. It's a multiplication game requiring some serious strategizing and planning ahead.