Dreams, Words, Raisins, and Ambassadors

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend as much as I did!

Here are some more shots of life on Team 3/4.

It's Bananagrams! Quick! Make as many words as you can with your letter tiles!

On the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington, we watched a video of Dr. MLK, Jr.’s incredible “I Have a Dream” speech and discussed the context of life in the segregated South that made his words so important and meaningful.

As writers, we noticed how Dr. King used repetition for emphasis.

We identified some of his powerful sentence starters such as, “Let us not…” and “I have a dream that…”

We brainstormed the dreams that we have for our own lives, for our community, and for the world.

And finally, we wrote beautiful speeches that we're excited to share with you! Check them out on the hallway bulletin board tomorrow!

Strong spellers rely on symbol images (their visual memory of a word's spelling) and use their phonemic awareness (understanding of spelling rules and sound patterns) as back-up if a visual pattern is lost. Below, you will see students utilizing one of our methods for acquiring a visual memory of a word. The students in the next pictures are "air writing" their spelling words with their eyes closed. They visualize the words in their minds, "write"them in the air with a finger, and whisper the words aloud as they write.

These mathematicians are working with skills for estimation. If they know how many raisins are in their individual boxes, how can they use that information to estimate the number of raisins at their table? In the whole classroom? At the grocery store?

Playing Evens and Odds in partners...

Welcome to Day #1 of the Ambassador Workshop! Throughout the year, the students rotate through the weeklong position of Team 3/4 Ambassador. In that post, they are responsible for really stepping up as leaders. The Ambassador facilitates the class meeting, reports back their observations of whether or not the class successfully upheld their social contract during the afternoon specialist classes, and greets visitors to the classroom. We’ve been working on greeting visitors with a welcoming smile, eye contact, and a firm handshake. 

Welcome to Team 3/4!!!!!

Hi everyone! Welcome to an awesome new year in 3rd and 4th grade! I hope you can feel how excited and honored I am to be teaching this remarkable group of kids. This blog will be an important way for us to stay connected this year. I’ll post photos and explanations of what we’re working on at school. The students will also share work that they’re proud of and ideas they’d like to communicate. 

We’ve been working hard to build our team this week. It means getting to know one another, trying on new communication styles and collaboration skills, becoming familiar with the routines of the classroom, and getting excited about the year we're going to spend together. 

Check out the kids in action as they work through a series of team-building challenges. Here, they've been challenged to cover every inch of their table using only the supplied materials. They came up with a plan that included input from every teammate, divided up the work, and went to town...

 Success!!!!!

Here we are getting our reading journals organized. The students will keep track of the books they've read and the books that they'd like to read in the future. They will also write reading letters back and forth with me about the books that they're reading during independent reading time.

I introduced the kids to our process for the small-group problem-solving challenges that we work on together in math. The problem they tackled together was inspired by the Common Core math standards that I spent a lot time working with over the summer.  I asked them to figure out a reasonable estimate for how many kindergartners could fit on our purple rug. Of course, there is no right answer to this problem. Rather, the groups are successful if they come up with a reasonable estimate and can explain their reasoning using math language. Groups used measuring, multiplication, area models, repeated addition, life-sized physical models on the rug itself, scaled models on paper, and more. On Monday, the groups will trade their presentation posters and present their understanding of a different group's process and findings.

Ask your child how to play The Tile Game!

Here we are, getting cozy for read-aloud. We're starting the year with Frindle by Andrew Clements. 

Tomorrow, we'll be challenging ourselves to design an inspiring and reasonable social contract for our class. I'll let you know what we come up with!

Middle School Girls Backpacking Trip 2013!

Thanks again for the opportunity to head out into the woods with your girls. We had a blast feeling strong, gentle, independent, and connected- all at the same time! 

Buenos días :)

Our first campsite at Heiser Lake

First morning waking up in the woods

Our most exhausted moment (mid-climb to Bull Run Lake)

The first view of the lake. We made it!

Post-swim, Zoe realized that she successfully scratch every single toe

Lookin good, mermaids

Friends 

So much fun getting to know Sam!

Tough as nails and ready to take off for the big hike out

Oh yeah! Nothing like fresh bell pepper for for everyone!

Checkin out the topo map