Wow! It's been a while since I've updated. Sorry! We've been super busy. I wanted to clear up some confusion about the red folders that go back and forth from home to school. We do not use the "return to school" and "keep at home" pockets. The students keep their red folders in their mailboxes all day. At the end of the day they take all papers that are inside their mailboxes and slide them into their folders. It is their responsibility to pack and unpack. I don't want to make it even more confusing and time consuming for them to have to use the correct side of the folder. Does that make sense?
On that note, the students came home with an invitation to our presentations next Friday at 10:00 am. Please send them back with an option marked so we can plan accordingly. Thank you!
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Museum Of Wildlife Biology
The students have all begun their animal research now and we all seem very excited about it. I'm learning just as much as the students! Did you know that a giraffe drinks 10 gallons of water a day?! We have a lot to work on, but I was thinking about maybe opening our Museum of Wildlife Biology to parents at the end of next week or the beginning of the week after that. Some students are working in teams and others have decided to research an animal of their own. All of the students will be presenting their animal to the class and I want to parents to come too! We will be working on invitations for parents probably some time this week, so watch out for them!
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Thunder
Thunder the eagle came to visit us today! She is a 20 year old Bald Eagle that has been in captivity for 19 years due to the fact that she was shot when she was a year old. The visit was part of the reward that the students earned for the summer reading challenge, but how great is it that she was here during the beginning of our animal research?!
Book It!
We are going to start our Book It! reading challenge on October 1st. I have gone to bookitprogram.com and registered our class. I will be tracking the number of minutes your child reads each night and while we're in class on our minute tracker. I have set our goal to 2,000 minutes a month per child. That is 20 minutes a night for 5 nights a week. I will be sending home reading logs beginning next week for you to write the name of the book your child has read and how long they read it. It is a great idea for them to read the books more than once and talk about what is happening throughout the story to check for comprehension. Feel free to write any comments on the books you share!
P.S. we need read aloud volunteers! Sign up at http://www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/12329980400104
P.S. we need read aloud volunteers! Sign up at http://www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/12329980400104
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Learning Through Exploration
We are beginning project based learning in my classroom. Project based learning happens when "the students decide what projects they want to tackle, and teachers guide them to resources, on the Internet and in books, that help them create something from what they learn. Whether they're building an airplane or a cruise ship, or conducting a funeral for the class praying mantis, AEEC students are learning more than basic facts and skills.They are acquiring a taste for the process of lifelong learning. " Please check out the rest of that article on http://www.edutopia.org/beginning-journey! It's a great explanation of what PBL is all about.
Sometimes I wish you all could be flies on the wall while your children are really, deeply engaged in what they're learning. It is an amazing thing to see! You'd be surpirsed at how their brains work when they are learning something that they are interested in. Last week I started the animal lesson with one of the groups ("teams") in my class. That group decided that they would like to visit Hovatter's Zoo to learn more about some of the animals we will be researching. We used their want to go to the zoo as a letter writing lesson, and they wrote a letter to Mrs. Hartshorn to ask if we could go. We should have an answer this week!
Encourage your children to find answers to things they want to know about. Children, and adults alike, become more excited about learning and learn more when they want to learn. Whenever they have a question about something try not to just give them the answer. Encourage them to find the answer. Provide books and help them on the internet, but make sure that they are actively involved in the learning process.
Sometimes I wish you all could be flies on the wall while your children are really, deeply engaged in what they're learning. It is an amazing thing to see! You'd be surpirsed at how their brains work when they are learning something that they are interested in. Last week I started the animal lesson with one of the groups ("teams") in my class. That group decided that they would like to visit Hovatter's Zoo to learn more about some of the animals we will be researching. We used their want to go to the zoo as a letter writing lesson, and they wrote a letter to Mrs. Hartshorn to ask if we could go. We should have an answer this week!
Encourage your children to find answers to things they want to know about. Children, and adults alike, become more excited about learning and learn more when they want to learn. Whenever they have a question about something try not to just give them the answer. Encourage them to find the answer. Provide books and help them on the internet, but make sure that they are actively involved in the learning process.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
The Crayon Box That Talked
Today we continued to talk about what makes us unique. I read The Crayon Box That Talked and we talked about how the crayons in the book were like the members in our class. Each color is unique, but each color is needed. In our classroom, we work as a team-we are a family. Each of us brings something different in to our room. I drew a picture on the smart board of a house, tree, clouds, and the sun, but I only used a blue "marker." I told the class that I am the blue in our class, but showed them that you can't draw an accurate picture with only a blue marker. We decided that green would represent the boys in our room and I colored over my blue grass green and made the leaves on the trees green too. The girls in our class were represented by red and I colored the flowers in our picture red. Each group of people-girls, boys, classroom helpers, leader of the day, and aide- were represented by a color. The students were able to see that each color was very important in the picture, much like each person is very important in our class.
Reminder, please send your child's puzzle piece back to school tomorrow. Decorate the side that has the picture on it.
We have been in school for 15 days and I have already seen a huge difference in your children. Research has shown that it takes, at least, 6 weeks for students just to understand the rules and procedures of each classroom. Yes, we still have some work to do, but we are improving! Most of the students un-packed their backpack and brought notes and homework to my desk this morning completely on their own- that in itself is a huge improvement. Talk to your children about working as a team in the classroom and encouraging their teammates to try their hardest.
I am slowly moving into student directed learning and want my students to have a sense of ownership in their classroom with what they learn and how they and their teammates are acting. I like the idea of having the students deal with small problems (she touched me) with other students on their own. I have been working with them to learn our debug system. In the debug system the students talk out problems between themselves, it takes away the whole he said/ she said issue. We will be discussing peer mediation a little later in the year, as well.
Reminder, please send your child's puzzle piece back to school tomorrow. Decorate the side that has the picture on it.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Popcorn Words
I added some new words to our word wall last week. These words are called popcorn words, because they pop up in things we read and write all the time. The first set of words are:
I
a
see
me
be
can
like
the
yes
no
Practice them with your child as often as possible. We will be adding more soon!
I
a
see
me
be
can
like
the
yes
no
Practice them with your child as often as possible. We will be adding more soon!
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Wow Factory Studio Classes
I promise this won't happen often, but I wanted to take the opportunity to share a link with you that doesn't really have to do with school. I work at the Wow Factory, and one of the girls I work with is an art teacher. She will be teaching studio kids art classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays! https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-WOW-Factory/155842414455550
Friday, September 7, 2012
Exploring Coconuts
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| Today we listened to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom again and talked about not only letters, but coconuts too! |
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| This is Miss Sophia exploring a coconut with a magnifying glass. |
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| Johnny exploring a coconut. |
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| Lydia thinks the coconut tastes "disgusting". |
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| "Who likes coconut in our class?" graph We counted and 8 people do like coconut and 11 people do not. |
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| Coconut Senses. How do coconuts look, taste, feel, smell, and hear? |
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Book Club Ordering Link
Some of you have asked about ordering Scholastic books online. Use this link https://orders.scholastic.com/L97TT if you do!
Family Project!
Next week will be my "We are all alike, we are all different" unit. I want to send each student home with a puzzle piece. It will be you and your child's job to decorate the puzzle piece to represent your child. At the end of the week we will put the puzzle together, showing that, even though we are all different, we all fit together. I will send the piece home next Monday. Try to have it decorated by next Wednesday :) Thanks!!
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Who Let the Letters Out?
We all had too much fun today, which is why I'm posting so late-I fell asleep when I got home. :)
This week I am doing a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom unit and we are talking about the alphabet. We listened to "Who Let the Letters Out" today. Each student got a balloon which had a capital magnet letter inside. On my magnet board was a list of lower case letters that the students matched their upper case magnet letter to, after popping their balloon, of course! They had a blast! It was so funny watching all the different ways they had to pop their balloon. I actually video taped the lesson, and you can watch your child when you come for parent conferences (will schedule soon), if you want.
We also started talking about writing letters. We stared with capital letter F. I shared a link with you a while ago about a wet-dry-try app you can download for your iPad. I reminded the students about this app if you have an iPad. We follow Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum, and wet-dry-try is one of the ways to teach writing letters. I started teaching the letter F by doing wet-dry-try with the class today and sent home a practice sheet. I explained to the students that they will get a sticker and a heart around their best letter F when they turn their paper in tomorrow. There is no right or wrong. I just want them to practice. Help them follow the instructions on how to write the letter at the top of the paper. The lines on the F are numbered with arrows, showing which to draw first and which direction to move the pencil. You will begin to notice that handwriting is different today than it was when we were in school. We all learned to write with a "tail" on most lower-case letters. That style is called d'nealian. Now, the students are learning a more simple, clean, vertical style of printing.
Visit http://www.hwtears.com/hwt to read a little more about it.
Happy Wednesday!
This week I am doing a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom unit and we are talking about the alphabet. We listened to "Who Let the Letters Out" today. Each student got a balloon which had a capital magnet letter inside. On my magnet board was a list of lower case letters that the students matched their upper case magnet letter to, after popping their balloon, of course! They had a blast! It was so funny watching all the different ways they had to pop their balloon. I actually video taped the lesson, and you can watch your child when you come for parent conferences (will schedule soon), if you want.
We also started talking about writing letters. We stared with capital letter F. I shared a link with you a while ago about a wet-dry-try app you can download for your iPad. I reminded the students about this app if you have an iPad. We follow Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum, and wet-dry-try is one of the ways to teach writing letters. I started teaching the letter F by doing wet-dry-try with the class today and sent home a practice sheet. I explained to the students that they will get a sticker and a heart around their best letter F when they turn their paper in tomorrow. There is no right or wrong. I just want them to practice. Help them follow the instructions on how to write the letter at the top of the paper. The lines on the F are numbered with arrows, showing which to draw first and which direction to move the pencil. You will begin to notice that handwriting is different today than it was when we were in school. We all learned to write with a "tail" on most lower-case letters. That style is called d'nealian. Now, the students are learning a more simple, clean, vertical style of printing.
Visit http://www.hwtears.com/hwt to read a little more about it.
Happy Wednesday!
Monday, September 3, 2012
10 Fun Ways to Add Learning to a Day Out
I found this great article while on Pinterest looking up lesson ideas tonight and wanted to share some of it with you all.
This is from http://carrotsareorange.com/10-fun-ways-add-learning-day/
1. Visit your local library and borrow some books related to the place you’ll be visiting A mix of both fiction and non-fiction books will add to the fun and learning potential. If you’re planning a visit to the zoo for example, borrow some factual books about animals, and perhaps some story books about visiting the zoo. Borrow the books before the big day out, read them each day leading up to the outing, then continue reading them after the visit. Before the day, ask your kids questions about what they think they might see. Then,
This is from http://carrotsareorange.com/10-fun-ways-add-learning-day/
1. Visit your local library and borrow some books related to the place you’ll be visiting A mix of both fiction and non-fiction books will add to the fun and learning potential. If you’re planning a visit to the zoo for example, borrow some factual books about animals, and perhaps some story books about visiting the zoo. Borrow the books before the big day out, read them each day leading up to the outing, then continue reading them after the visit. Before the day, ask your kids questions about what they think they might see. Then,
after the trip, relate the books back to what they actually did see and experience.
2. Prepare a scavenger hunt
Draw or print out some pictures of things you expect to see on the day such as animals (for the zoo), sea shells (for a trip to the beach), or a particular painting (for a trip to a gallery). Add the pictures to a single page and bring it along with you. Your kids will have a great time searching for the items and then crossing them off as the discover each one.
Draw or print out some pictures of things you expect to see on the day such as animals (for the zoo), sea shells (for a trip to the beach), or a particular painting (for a trip to a gallery). Add the pictures to a single page and bring it along with you. Your kids will have a great time searching for the items and then crossing them off as the discover each one.
3. Do some online research
Using the zoo trip as an example, google pictures of the types of animals you expect to see, or you could even visit the website of the place that you are visiting to plan your day.
Using the zoo trip as an example, google pictures of the types of animals you expect to see, or you could even visit the website of the place that you are visiting to plan your day.
4. Make a collage
This could be done before or after the trip. Flip through some old magazines and collect pictures of
anything you expect to see/did see and paste them onto a sheet of paper. You could add glitter,
paint or even your own drawings to the collage too. Go wild!
This could be done before or after the trip. Flip through some old magazines and collect pictures of
anything you expect to see/did see and paste them onto a sheet of paper. You could add glitter,
paint or even your own drawings to the collage too. Go wild!
5. Create a small world play scene
Small world play enhances imagination and fosters language skills. The idea is to create a mini playscape that relates to the place you visited. These invitations to play can be put together easily with recycled materials and items found in your home. For a trip to the beach or aquarium, you could use blue felt or cardboard for the water, add some sand or pebbles and add some sea-creatures found at the dollar store. For the zoo, add some leaves from your garden, a few animal toys, and again some blue felt for a watering hole. Then watch as your kids become lost in their imaginations, making up all sort sorts of funny adventures and stories.
Small world play enhances imagination and fosters language skills. The idea is to create a mini playscape that relates to the place you visited. These invitations to play can be put together easily with recycled materials and items found in your home. For a trip to the beach or aquarium, you could use blue felt or cardboard for the water, add some sand or pebbles and add some sea-creatures found at the dollar store. For the zoo, add some leaves from your garden, a few animal toys, and again some blue felt for a watering hole. Then watch as your kids become lost in their imaginations, making up all sort sorts of funny adventures and stories.
6. Letter reinforcement
Particularly for younger kids, you could create some letter games and crafts, concentrating on a letter such as Z for zoo, B for beach, or M for museum. “We’re going to the Zoo next week! What else begins with Z? Zebra! Do you think we’ll see a Zebra when we go to the Zoo?” You’ll find lots of letter reinforcement games on my Literacy and Numeracy Pinterest board.
Particularly for younger kids, you could create some letter games and crafts, concentrating on a letter such as Z for zoo, B for beach, or M for museum. “We’re going to the Zoo next week! What else begins with Z? Zebra! Do you think we’ll see a Zebra when we go to the Zoo?” You’ll find lots of letter reinforcement games on my Literacy and Numeracy Pinterest board.
7. Hand your child the camera
Let your child have use of a camera for the entire day. If your child is young and you’re concerned about your camera being damaged, why not try a disposable camera? Kids LOVE taking photos. Afterwards, print out the pics, make a collage and hang it on the wall, or create your own mini album by stapling together some sheets of paper and pasting the pics onto each page. You can then use the pics to talk about all the things you did/learnt on the day.
Let your child have use of a camera for the entire day. If your child is young and you’re concerned about your camera being damaged, why not try a disposable camera? Kids LOVE taking photos. Afterwards, print out the pics, make a collage and hang it on the wall, or create your own mini album by stapling together some sheets of paper and pasting the pics onto each page. You can then use the pics to talk about all the things you did/learnt on the day.
8. Collect items to bring back home
If you’re visiting somewhere natural such as the beach or a nature hike, collect some pebbles, shells or leaves. Bring them home and start a nature table or a treasure box filled with natural items and add to it each time you do something outdoors. For a zoo trip, you could buy just one little toy animal and add to the collection, one animal at a time, each time you return to the zoo.
If you’re visiting somewhere natural such as the beach or a nature hike, collect some pebbles, shells or leaves. Bring them home and start a nature table or a treasure box filled with natural items and add to it each time you do something outdoors. For a zoo trip, you could buy just one little toy animal and add to the collection, one animal at a time, each time you return to the zoo.
9. Make up stories based on your day out
After the visit, make up stories with your kids about everything you saw and did. Ask questions like “I wonder what those monkeys get up to at night when all the visitors and zoo keepers have gone home?” and see what imaginative ideas your kids come up with. There’s so much potential for imagination and language development when you make up fun stories relating back to somewhere you’ve been.
After the visit, make up stories with your kids about everything you saw and did. Ask questions like “I wonder what those monkeys get up to at night when all the visitors and zoo keepers have gone home?” and see what imaginative ideas your kids come up with. There’s so much potential for imagination and language development when you make up fun stories relating back to somewhere you’ve been.
10. Cook a dish which reflects the place you visited
Cooking with kids is so beneficial. It boosts their confidence, enhances maths and language skills and is just plain fun! If you went somewhere cultural, such as to an exhibition of Italian painters, then cook some pasta, if you visited the beach, perhaps make a tropical food such as grilled pineapple, or for a zoo trip, how about cookies made with animal shaped cookie cutters?
Cooking with kids is so beneficial. It boosts their confidence, enhances maths and language skills and is just plain fun! If you went somewhere cultural, such as to an exhibition of Italian painters, then cook some pasta, if you visited the beach, perhaps make a tropical food such as grilled pineapple, or for a zoo trip, how about cookies made with animal shaped cookie cutters?
I hope these ideas have given you some inspiration to add to the fun and learning potential of your next family outing. What are your favourite places to take your family to have fun and learn?
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