Grandparents, Native Americans, Birds, and Sharing Our Writing

I hope everyone is looking forward to a joyful, peaceful holiday break! 
Tomorrow I'll be emailing the students' non-fiction digital books. If you'd like to see them on the iPads, I'll have them in the classroom after the Winter Celebration. Otherwise, I'd be happy to pull your kiddo's work out some other time after the break. 

So sweet to have the grandparents and special friends visiting last week. We practiced Anapana meditation together, reviewed the poet's tools that we've worked with so far this year, and created "found poetry" together. The students and their grandparents looked at a page from an old book and read through to get a sense of the mood. Then they circled words and strung them together to create short poems.

In Social Studies, we began our Native Californians unit by looking at world maps from 12,000 years ago when the Bering Strait was covered by a land/ice bridge and many scientists believe that hunters migrated to America from Asia. We also read Native American creation myths about how people arrived on the continent.

In the pictures below, students are making observations and asking questions about Native Californian artifacts and images.

Sharing our non-fiction extinct animal digital books with the 5th graders!

Working together to solve a super tricky math challenge based on the 12 Days of Christmas:

Looks like you're now the proud owner of A LOT of birds. How many birds did you receive from your true love by the end of the 12 days?

12 partridges in a pear tree, 22 turtle doves, 30 french hens, 36 calling birds, 42 geese a-laying, and 42 swans a-swimming!


Today we shared our books with the first and second graders and wrote poetry with them about our animals. 

Here are two awesome students in novel study, reading a chapter from Island of the Blue Dolphins.

 HAPPY HOLIDAYS! SEE YOU TOMORROW AT 11:00 FOR THE WINTER CELEBRATION!!!!

Qi Gong, Needs and Wants, Math at the Aquarium, and Scripts

Some highlights from life on Team 3-4:

Morning qi gong exercises
(Plus, check out our new bulletin board in the background! That's where we're recording our thoughts about our current novel- Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell.)

A few days ago we split up into groups and the students looked at a stack of cards featuring items such as "housing, blanket, bicycle, dental care, camera, bathing suit..." I instructed them to discuss and then categorize those things as "needs or wants". I enjoyed seeing the additional categories that the groups came up with. Some used a tiered hierarchy like the one in the photo- needs/closer to needs/closer to wants/wants. One group added a category of "if" needs. For example, you might need transportation if you need to get to a doctor. The activity inspired a rich dialogue. Here are some interesting quotes form the kiddos that pushed our discussion:

 "Some of the needs are expensive and some are free."

"The needs are things that everyone needs everywhere."

"I think most people have all the needs."

"The needs are the most important, but I think the wants matter too."

"I don't think you need education, but I want one."

"What is insurance?"

"I need exercise so I need sports equipment... or I guess maybe I don't need it... but I really, really want it."

"I have all the wants. I'm lucky."

"Some of the things matter where you are. Like, you only need it in certain places."

"Most of the things in our classroom are wants." 

We just wrapped up our work on an exciting math challenge. The students were asked to design an aquarium exhibit. They were given then dimensions of the tank and a list of pelagic (open ocean) species that they could choose from. They also received information about the different animals' size, diet, migrations, speed, schooling, and more. In selecting animals for the exhibit, they had to consider space limitations, think about which animals could successfully share a habitat, and take ethical considerations to heart. They then used their multi-digit multiplication skills to figure out how much and which types of food they would need to feed the animals for a week. Students who were ready for a push could figure out how much space they would need to store that food and then how much of the different types of food they'd need for a year!

Exploring non-fiction text features:

Geometry on the iPads:

 Here students are rehearsing and performing skits for the class. I gave the groups prompts that asked them to write their own scripts about different challenging social situations that third and fourth graders are frequently confronted by. They performed them for the class and the students wrote and discussed the situation using the Non-Violent Communication tools they we've been practicing. They made observations (not evaluations), identified the feeling that may have come up for the characters, and identified the unmet needs in the situation. There are a couple of examples from student journals posted below:

 

O= Observation

F= Feeling

N=Need

Thank you Hannah! It was so sweet to learn about Hanukkah and celebrate with you!

Spotlight on Our Social-Emotional Learning

In our work with Non-Violent Communication strategies, the students practice identifying and expressing their feelings. As I mentioned in a previous post, we also practice identifying the needs behind the action, remembering that every choice that everyone makes is to fulfill a need. We think about how two people who totally disagree about a certain situation are both attempting to fulfill a valid and important need that the other can relate to.

Our next steps involve specific language that is useful in so many ways, but especially in conflict resolution. Today we defined and discussed the differences between observations and evaluations. As we defined them, an observation is a specific thing that a person does. An evaluation is your idea about what happened. It's an opinion or judgement.

In the pictures below, students are working in groups to categorize different statements as being observations or evaluations.
For example:
This is an evaluation- You are a bad sport.
This is an observation- In P.E. you said, "Ugh. Why am I always on the bad team?!"

Students explained the thinking behind their categorizations and came up with their own examples.

Later in the lesson, students worked in pairs to come up with a possible observation that could have fueled a given evaluation. Moving forward, we will discuss and experience how observations and evaluations inspire different qualities to conversations.

"Observing without evaluating is the highest form of human intelligence." -Krishnamurti

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I also wanted to share some pictures of the students during our daily morning meditation. We work with a number of strategies and always have time to share our experiences and learning. Here are some of my favorite quotes from our mindful mornings recently:

"When we're doing radio listening, I can hear all the way to Sir Francis Drake!"

"I feel like I'm floating in warm water when I meditate."

"My puppy thoughts are out of control today!" (We describe our wandering thoughts as little puppies. Sometimes they're zooming around all over the place, bouncing off one another. When we notice them, we don't get mad at the little puppy. We love the puppy! We simply say, "Come on back, Pup. Let's try this again.")

"I don't know if I can stop thinking. Then I'm just thinking about not thinking."

"The 'ball of light' meditation makes me feel warm in my belly."

"Sometimes I can feel my breathing more in Anapana, but today it was hard. I wonder why..."

"I like to visualize that I'm in my bed."

"My favorite mindfulness activity is watching the flame dance."

 
Students usually choose their own posture for meditation and many like to cover their eyes or ears.