Last Days!

Wow. What a year! And what a week! We worked hard up until the very last minute! I could not be more proud of this crew! 🙂 They have grown so much, in confidence, in ability, and even in stature. 🙂 Check out these first day and last day photos:

Genius Hour 

Students finished up presentations this week. They ALL blew me away! It was so fun to see their creativity and ideas and drive.

• Chloe learned more about chicks and created a diagram of what chicks need.
• Lincoln made a Scratch project and shared it with the class.
• Kate learned about different types of baby dolls and made her own doll.
• Nick made a board game with Role Playing Game elements.
• Mindy explored crafts and made a squishy of her own.
• Broede explored cooking and had fridge cake and recipe to share with the class
• Katrina learned about computer games and shared what aspects are important in building video games.
• Ava learned about soft toys and created her own.
• Haven explored purses and created her own version of both a German purse and American purse and talked about the differences.
• Aidan studied water wheel energy and created a water wheel of his own!
• Gabriel studied Role Playing Games and made his own RPG!
• McKenna shared about fashion design and showed shoes that she designed.
• Edyn explored space and designed his own solar system with models of planets. (He’s still taking suggestions for names!)

MAW

Of course our big work for the week was around  MAW. On Monday kids worked in their groups to display their work from this year work, label it, and create interactive portions to go with the displays. They blew me away with their hard work, cooperation, creativity, and understanding of what needed to be done, and the final product was truly amazing!

On Tuesday we toured the entire building and saw every room’s MAW. Afterwards, we debriefed and the kids had wonderful things to say about every single classroom. They especially loved the beehive in Kindergarten, the cohesiveness of 1/2’s displays, the historical artifacts in 3/4, the interactive portions in 5/6, and the videos in 7/8. The students from 3/4/5 served as docents to visitors who came through our room.  Thank you to all our families who came, encouraged, and celebrated our kids’ hard work! It was a great day! 

 

Last Day.

One of the kids said to me this morning that this day was “bittersweet.” The general consensus was that they were excited summer break is beginning but sad that our year was ending. 🙂 Today we shared out moments and events we think we may always remember from this year. We heard all of these and many, many more:

• Meeting someone younger than me who I really have things in common with
• Our Free to Be Me Show
• Our Year of Miss Agnes Day
• The Famous Hoosier Wax Museum
• The first day of school and I was so nervous
• Getting our Hogwarts acceptance letters
• “When I finished my NaNoWriMo, I was so proud”
• Our Art Museum opening
• Harry Potter Day
• Making our timeline
• Our Mentos experiment
• Tripping on my face during Capture the Flag and laughing so hard
• Our StarThrower work
• Our trip to the Children’s Museum
• Our Genius Hour projects
• Building a safe community

I have so many incredibly dear memories from this year. These children are so much fun and so creative and so loving.  THANK YOU for sharing your children with me. Thank you for partnering with me. Thank you for giving me new ideas and direction. I loved my conferences with you; I learned from each of you. Thank you for the encouragement you have given me this year; I can’t tell you how much each kind word or email or card has meant to me. I am thankful to have spent this past school year with your amazing, precious, precocious, hilarious, generous, inspiring, star-throwing children. I’m thankful for each of their personalities. I’m thankful for what they’ve given me. And I am very, very thankful that we will get to be back together again next year in 4/5/6. 🙂

Have a lovely, lovely summer enjoying extra time with these sweeties.

With love,
Ms. Cindy

Prepping for MAW!

What a week! 🙂

Writer’s Workshop

This week writers were hard at work revising, editing, and publishing poetry. They also worked to write personal reflections about their struggles and progress this year. Enjoy this color poem from resident poet Ava Birk.

Pink is the color of peonies.

Pink looks like rosy cheeks.

Pink makes me happy.

Pink  smells like a pretty lady.

For a second  pink makes me  giggle.

It tastes like pink cotton  candy.

Pink  is color you know and it can be anything if you dream it.

We can’t wait for you to read more of their amazing poetry at the MAW!!

Reader’s Workshop

Readers had some time for their independent daily reading and we continued reading Elijah of Buxton. We enjoyed one final time with our Kindergarten book buddies as well.

P3-MAW!

Our last P3 project is our preparation for the MAW. We considered the different units and projects we did this year and brainstormed the problem of how best to share what we’ve learned and experienced with our MAW visitors. Students expressed interest in different topics and committees to work on and began to plan displays. We’re excited to share all of this with you on Tuesday!

P3-Genius Hour Presentations

We enjoyed several more Genius Hour presentations. It is really fun to see the kids’ varied interests and creativity. Here is a peek at a few that were done this week.

• Lydia wowed us with her in-depth knowledge of muscles used in dance.
• Zeke shared his work around photons and neutrons and cuprous oxide in developing solar panels.
• Emma shared her love of crafts and created three paintbrushes, one whose bristles were made from her own hair, one from her dog’s hair, and one made from a scrubber brush!
• There were literally oohs and aahs when Samantha broke out her label maker and discussed how she loved organizing. Seriously. They LOVED it.
• Skylar had everyone guessing what plants might be in his boxed garden and came with quite the presentation prepared!
• Simone’s presentation on plant mold impressed everyone with her knowledge and her ability to answer their questions.
• Cleo discussed changes made with gymnastics bars and had a Polly Pocket help demonstrate moves on the bars she built out of writing implements.
• Braxton and Max each shared their work with Scratch and programs they created. The kids loved the cat’s antics.
• Kira shared what she learned about different herbs and treated the class to an herbal tea party!
• Nathan taught the class how to survive on Mars! 🙂
• Lilah shared about the tiny house movement and built a model of a tiny house
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  Tuesday is the MAW and we REALLY hope you will sign up for a time to visit! (This is different than previous years!!) Your child will be your best Museum Docent, so bring them with you if you come to one of the two later time slots!

  Options for Viewing the MAW:
  2:00-3:00pm — families joining us for this session may take their children with them prior to dismissal!
  4:00-5:00pm — families joining us for this session are asked to pick up their children at 3:30p dismissal, and then not return until 4p!
  5:30-6:30pm
  We are asking families and guests to sign up for a specific visiting time slot this year; click HERE to choose yours!
  We are going to end the year with a bang! 🙂

   

   

May 31-June 3

It was a short, fast, and fun week that sped by!

Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop

This week we combined reading and writing quite a bit as we focused on poetry. Students explored published poetry in books and online and wrote more of their own. We talked about how nature can be a great inspiration for poetry!

We read “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” by Emily Dickinson and then we headed outside to be inspired by nature.

Here is an example of one nature inspired poem by one of our amazing poets (who prefers to stay anonymous) entitled “One Little Clover.” 🙂

One little clover/in a field of many/Could she make a difference?/Maybe, if she tried.

One large dreary storm/She alone takes cover/The others were too proud/One little clover now in a field of none.

• Published online! Inspired by our mentor poem, three students wrote their own poems about snakes and they were published on the website of Shari Wagner, Indiana’s Poet Laureate! Check them out here! In the fall, Ms. Wagner will be visiting our classroom and doing a poetry workshop!

Students also read poetry that included personification, where a nonhuman/inanimate object is given human characteristics, and tried bringing some every day objects to life with personification in their own poems. Here is one by resident poet Max Wolf. 🙂

The clock was

Glaring at me, teasing,

About how much time I had left until

SUMMER!!!

 

Summer with the baseball soaring

Like it just doesn’t care

Summer with the baseball bat swinging

And shouting “that’s not fair!”

 

Summer with just lying on the couch

Just relaxing like in the air

Summer with watching a movie

Sitting up with the TV very bare.

 

And yet the clock put all of those

Very far away

Like

It

Just

Doesn’t

Care

P3 Human Rights

We began watching a documentary entitled The Starfish Throwers  about three individuals, one of whom is a child, who work to make a difference in the fight against hunger. The movie is powerful, and making connections to the work we’ve done this year around human rights and our own starthrower research, our students really “got” it. When discussing the video, their hearts, minds, and voices truly touched and inspired me. We’ll continue watching it next week, and I’d encourage families to watch and discuss together! One student said, “Something that I can take away is never give up and that any idea is a good idea.” Here are some of the kids’ reflections after watching the first part of the documentary.

What really stood out to me was…

• a 10 year old girl started with 1 single cabbage, then that grew, and grew, and eventually that grew into a business.-Nathan
• how so many people were not being taken care of and were unnoticed, even if they were right in front of you. -Grace
• a man quit his job so he could give food and water to people who needed it and even if his family doubted him he pushed on. -Sean
• a guy stayed up 24 hours a day to give people food and clothes. I could not believe that. -Braxton
• the girl refused to stop even when the soup kitchen shut down. -Emma
• a man that owned a big amount of acres gave Katie, the girl that owns Katie’s Krops, the space to garden.-Lydia
• she chose feeding the homeless instead of doing so many other things kids usually do. -Cleo
• Katie started with one cabbage and made a big difference -Zeke
• it was inspiring that they could start from scratch and completely change their lives to help others.-Lilah
• how much love she put in her food.-Simone
• some people give up all their time and money to make a difference. I would want to but it would be hard for me. -Aidan
• instead of of saying, “I won’t do this. I can’t,” she said, “I can and will do this.”-Nick
•  how all three of their ideas were small and grew into world-wide ideas.-Kira

Two of our students, inspired by their human rights activist starfish thrower Alexandra Scott, ran a lemonade stand and donated 20% of their profits to Middleway House! So proud of these kids making a difference! 

Genius Hour

Students continued to tackle the problem of how to share their own learning with our community and planned and worked on their Genius Hour Projects.

We are giving the kids plenty of time to work at school, but some kiddos may want to work on their creation at home. One of the main points of this project is to allow them to self-direct their learning about something they simply enjoy and WANT to learn about. So the parameters are loose, which for some kids is life-giving and to others can be extra challenging. Pretty much anything goes as long as they do four things:

1)Explore

2)Research

3)Create

4)Present

We had three students already present their final projects to us. To give you an idea of the varied topics and presentations, here are a few that we had this week!

• We had one student explore and research Brazil. He shared that he chose to explore and learn more about Brazil because he loves soccer and Brazilian culture. He created a poster with facts he presented, and made a traditional Brazilian dish which was delicious and was a HUGE hit! 🙂
  

  

  

  
• One presented on Human Instincts. She created a personality test on Google Forms asking how her peers would react in given situations. Check it out here!
  

  

  

  

  

   

• Another student presented on plants. She made a poster with fun facts, details on how long it takes food coloring to ooze into lettuce to change color, and she brought in a strawberry plant she planted!
  

  

  We’re really excited to see what everyone else is doing!

Field Days

We had a great time at Ms. Sara’s Yard Dogs Farm for our field days on Thursday (5th) and Friday (3rd and 4th)!  A huge thanks to Ms. Sara for opening her home and property to us, and to both her and Mr. Chris for their prep work in making it such a great day. Enjoy the photos! 🙂

Snack

Thank you for the healthy snacks! We are running low. Next week’s families are Aung, Bartlett, Birk, Campbell 

Upcoming Dates

• Wednesday 6/8 CURRICULAR SUMMIT 6:30-8:30pm
• Tuesday 6/14 MUSEUM OF AUTHENTIC WORK (MAW)
• Wednesday 6/15 LAST DAY!

Questions to Ask Your Child

• What everyday object did you use personification with in your poetry?
• What do you think will happen in Elijah of Buxton with the money meant to buy slaves’ freedom?
• What was the best part of field day?
• What was inspiring to you in the Starfish Throwers movie?

Have a wonderful weekend!

May 23-26

These last few weeks together are going by in a blur! 

Morning Meeting

Kids continue to plan and lead our Morning Meeting, and it has been such a joy to think back to the beginning of the year and know that so many of them would not have felt confident enough to lead the entire class and now they do! We had a good week together, kicking off some new units and projects and wrapping up others.

 Reader’s Workshop

We started our new reading unit on Poetry. My daughter Shelby is quite a writer, and she won some poetry contests this year, so I asked her to came in and share her love of poetry with the class. She shared three poems with the kids, two of her favorites and one she wrote herself. The kids were a great audience, showing appreciation and enjoyment and asked her questions including “When did you start writing poetry?”  “What usually inspires you?” They especially loved it when she did “Improv Poetry” based on topics they gave her. 🙂

We used our close reading skills to analyze the poems and students noticed powerful similes and metaphors and word choices.

The kids explored poetry books and enjoyed reading those with partners as well. I shared my favorite poem with the class, If, by Rudyard Kipling, and we did a “close reading” of it and analyzed it; they did great! Other staff members will be coming in and sharing their favorite poetry; this week Mr. Robert shared his. Throughout the week we talked about it is important to read poems multiple times and that when reading them aloud, it is really important to consider the tone of the poem. Students practiced reading poetry aloud with partners.

 

Writer’s Workshop

It is clear we have talented poets in our midst! This week we tried our hands at writing poetry and the kids were amazing! We started off with “Found Poetry”

Found poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and lines, or by adding or deleting text, giving new meaning.

The students really took off with this and I can’t wait to see the finished products from their homework assignment focusing on human rights. The ones I’ve already seen are amazing!

We discussed how poets can often generate ideas from a framework of another poet’s work, and students tried that with Color poems and by writing poems with ideas from Kipling’s If. Students also explored Blackout Poetry and had a lot of fun doing it! Using pages from books that had fallen apart or been donated but not read, they found words which stood out to them and by blacking out the remaining words, created poems! Check out a couple cool videos here and here.

P3 and Genius Hour

Students wrapped up their Energy projects and began focusing on getting their Genius Hour projects ready to present. Students are required to research something, create something, and share what they have learned.Ms. Heather introduced them to one presentation style online using Screencastify in case any of them wanted to try to use it for their presentation.

Students should try to finish up their creations and presentation plans in the next few days so that we can begin sharing the presentations with the class next week. We don’t have many days left! Many kids might want to try working over the long weekend to be ready.

Our Starthrower Human Rights work and artwork was featured in the HT this week!

Snacks

Thank you for the healthy snacks! Next week’s families are Wild, Wolf, and Aung.

Upcoming Dates- for more details, please see the weekly updates from Ms. Cathy

• Friday 5/27 NO SCHOOL, built-in conference day
• Monday 5/30 NO SCHOOL for Memorial Day
• Wednesday 6/1 SCHOOL PICTURES for 3/4/5 Class 8:30am
• Thursday 6/2 FIELD DAY for 5th-8th grade (rain date 6/6)
• Friday 6/3 FIELD DAY for K-4th grade (rain date 6/7)
• Wednesday 6/8 CURRICULAR SUMMIT 6:30-8:30pm
• Tuesday 6/14 MUSEUM OF AUTHENTIC WORK (MAW)
• Wednesday 6/15 LAST DAY!

May 16-20

Celebration with Book Buddies!

We walked to the IU Art Museum Friday morning with our book buddies and shared our starthrower art work with them. Many students volunteered to share with the large group about their child hero, and each student did such a great job! They shared what human rights issue had been impacted, what the child did, and how the student chose what words to highlight as well as what their stamp was and the inspiration for it. I wish we had done that at the opening last week; it really was quite impressive to hear them share!

 

Morning Meeting

Students have continued to lead our Morning Meetings this week and are doing a great job! After one rough day where the leader was not shown respect, we decided a logical consequence was that we’d have to miss a day of Morning Meeting. The next day, however, was great! 🙂 It is so exciting to see students who in the past have been very timid to speak up in class taking on a leadership role, doing it with confidence, and nailing it! 🙂

Writer’s Workshop

Students shared their Historical Fiction writing with each other and had some sweet time reading their peers’ stories.  Next week we begin our new poetry unit!

Reader’s Workshop

We continued thinking about the human rights issues and historical fiction aspects of Elijah of Buxton. Students had independent reading time after NWEA each day.

NWEA

This week students took Reading, Language, and Math NWEA tests. We will complete make-ups and unfinished tests next week.

P3 

The HT is doing a story about our Human Rights work and the art exhibit. The article should be in the Monday’s paper! Grab extra copies if it is! 🙂

Energy projects are wrapping up! If you walk through the building, you’ll see lots of great posters and flip facts! 🙂

Genius Hour

Students continued to work on their energy projects  independent studies. Students will soon begin to plan their projects and presentations to the class about their Genius Hour projects. Stay tuned for more details!

Conferences 

I still have a couple families who need to sign up for conferences. Please let me know if you don’t see a slot that works for you!

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080a4bafad2ca31-mscindy

Snacks

Thank you for the healthy snacks! Next week’s families are Mullis, Rodriguez, Smith, and Streiff.

Upcoming Dates- for more details, please see the weekly updates from Ms. Cathy

• Friday 5/27 NO SCHOOL, built-in conference day
• Monday 5/30 NO SCHOOL for Memorial Day
• Thursday 6/2 FIELD DAY for 5th-8th grade (rain date 6/6)
• Friday 6/3 FIELD DAY for K-4th grade (rain date 6/7)
• Wednesday 6/8 CURRICULAR SUMMIT 6:30-8:30pm
• Tuesday 6/14 MUSEUM OF AUTHENTIC WORK (MAW)
• Wednesday 6/15 LAST DAY!
  

  

  

  

  

  Have a great weekend!

May 9-13

What a special week we had together!

IU Art Museum Exhibit

Thursday night was so special, seeing the kids’ artwork in such a beautiful, professional display, and hearing their sweet voices singing! Thank you all for coming out and supporting and celebrating them! The exhibit truly is incredible, and every single piece is powerful. It was such a joy to see the work they’ve done all year around human rights be so beautifully expressed through the arts. The IU Art Museum and Mr. Ed Maxedon in particular really went all out. Mr. Maxedon covered the cost of the matting through a gift he had received for art programming, and he worked closely with Ms. Sara to make this possible. Please share this incredible exhibit with your friends and families! The IU Art Museum events calendar also highlights our exhibit. I think the overwhelming message the children got out of this work is that one person truly can make a difference.

Morning Meeting

This week, students began to get the chance to lead our Morning Meeting. Each day, a different student chose what the class would do for our Greeting, Share, and Activity. They gave instructions, called on people to participate, and ran the meeting. It was a great experience for everyone, and after each meeting, we debriefed the process. Students leading shared what went well and what was difficult. At times, the leader shared things like, “I felt disrespected when everyone kept talking when I was trying to give directions,” and their peers reflected on their own part in that. More often than not, though, we heard things like, “It was really fun because everyone participated.” 🙂 The group also gave feedback on what the leader did well, or what we might consider doing in the future.  We discussed the value and importance of Morning Meeting at TPS, and that it is purposeful for building community, being sure everyone feels valued and included, and for having fun together.  Here’s a peek at what the students chose; ask your child about their favorite Greetings, Shares, and Activities!

• Greetings: Dance greeting, “Yes!” greeting, Partner Dance Greeting, Butterfly Greeting
• Shares: Whip share what we’re looking forward to this summer, Open share, whip share: time period and characters of their Historical Fiction stories
• Activities: Honey I Love You, Mafia, Bibbity Bibbity Bop, Alibi

Writer’s Workshop

This week writers finished up their Historical Fiction pieces. We brainstormed ways to make our work deeper and more powerful like many of the Historical Fiction picture books we read, by doing things such as using a recurring symbol. Some symbols in their books which point to a deeper meaning include eggs, necklaces, and green beans. 🙂  They gave and received specific feedback with a peer who writes in a manner similar to their own writing and received feedback from me as well. They edited and revised and then published, creating covers and titles as well. It was fun to hear them consider titles that would be meaningful and reflective of their stories. I thoroughly loved reading the feedback you gave your own children in this week’s homework. You guys should be teachers! 🙂 Here are a few of the stories:

• “Suffering” (early 1900s suffragette movement)
• “Liberation” (Holocaust)
• “Dan’s Story” (Civil War era escaping slave)
• “The Night of Tears” (The Titanic tragedy)
• “Trapped” (The Great Chicago Fire)
• “The Necklace of Friendship” (The War of 1812)

Reader’s Workshop

Students continued to enjoy Elijah of Buxton and discuss it in their book club groups. This week we noted how readers often have understandings that characters don’t. We made predictions and considered character motivation. The class has demonstrated a whole range of emotions reading this book; they’ve laughed out loud and literally rolled on the floor laughing, and they have been absolutely silent and near tears with empathy for the characters. During one particularly powerful scene in the book, you could have heard a pin drop in the room. We discussed afterwards what the author did to bring us to that point as readers, and the kids had such insightful things to say. They also looked at some deeper meaning in some of the lines of the book and were able to apply those to later scenes as well as to a larger world picture; your kids’ thinking really is impressive! 🙂

P3 Energy

Students continued their projects with Energy Saving. This week the class watched the performance from the Skit Committee and gave feedback before the group takes it on the road to other classrooms, the Flip Fact Family hung up interesting facts around the building, the Posters Committee finalized their artwork, and the Research and Interview team continued to gather information about energy usage and began to share their knowledge. I am doing a much better job of unplugging the coffee pot, thanks to their diligence. 🙂

Spring Conferences

Thanks to so many who have already signed up for spring conferences! Your child will help lead these conferences and I think you’ll love hearing their reflections on their year! Please use this link to sign up!

Snacks

Thank you for the healthy snacks! The individually wrapped and easily handed out snacks have been WONDERFUL! Next week’s families are: Droeger, Grieb, Jones, Young. 

Questions to ask your child:

• How did you decide on your stamp design for your human rights artwork?
• How do you think the words of the song you sang at the museum connect to Human Rights?
• What struggle and progress did you include in your Historical Fiction piece?
• Tell me what it meant in Elijah of Buxton that “the second hardest step in making yourself free is the first one you take . . . . [and] that the most hardest step is the very last one”

Enjoy more pictures from the Art Museum:

 

Have a great weekend!! 🙂 Hope to see many of you at Project Celebration!

May 2-6

A wild and wonderful week wrapped up!

Art Museum Reception
We are so excited that the 3/4/5 class’s artwork celebrating children who have made a difference in Human Rights will be on display on the second floor of the IU Art Museum May 9th-29th! The reception is Thursday from 5:30-6:30! Thank you for pitching in on the goodies to make it extra celebratory for the kids! The sign up sheet is here. You can bring your donations directly to the museum that evening. Hope to see you all there!

Writer’s Workshop

Students finalized rough drafts of their Historical Fiction stories. During our writing conferences, we talked about things like how we can make things a little more clear for our readers or about how to make sure the time and setting is recognizable. Many students began creating illustrations or typing up their drafts. Next week we will revise and edit!

Reader’s Workshop

This week we continued reading Elijah of Buxton, our historical fiction read aloud. In book clubs, students examined the interactions between characters and did some research about some of the real historical figures mentioned in the book, Frederick Douglass and John Brown.

P3

Committees continued their work to help our school save energy. Below are reports from each committee 🙂

• Energy-Flip Facts: As the flip facts group we have been working on the design for the flip facts and actually facts to put into the flip facts and other fun facts. Something that we need to work on is actually the people that have the job to research actually research. We are also helping some other groups giving signs and posters one of our posters and giving presentations group some pamphlets. So far we are doing really good on our design we just need to research facts and put them in the flip facts. I hope that this project works out and that we can finish and help people have a better understanding of how to save more energy. From: The Flip Facts Family

• Reasearch-interveiw:  Right now we are doing really well in our group. On Thursday, may sixth Ms. Pam gave us a meter for measuring. On Wedsday, May fourth, we intervweiwed Ms. laura, and Mr. Scott and we also found out that we don’t really need the air on all the time (the air condishiner!!) We found out we can be a great group if we work together. 

• Posters and Signs: In this committee we first brainstormed our ideas of what we would do. Next we started making drafts of posters, then we finalized the ideas on blank pieces of printer paper. Finally we are planning to put  the posters around the school.

• Skits and Announcements:  What We Have Done        
  • We have finished our slideshow       
  • We have a good idea on what the “Three House” skit should include.
  • We have two choices of lyrics to choose from

  Currently we are working on: A “Three House” skit (One house uses too much energy, one house uses a good amount of energy, and one house uses no energy at all! I can’t say why, but it makes me think of igloos)

  Where Are going: We might or might not make a stop-motion animation. The “Three house” skit is a work in progress; we are getting closer, are not close but are not far, we are approaching close.

  

Genius Hour

Students had time on Friday to continue their exploration and planning for their Genius Hour independent projects. Everything from solar panels to robotics to crafts and organizing is filling the room!

Testing

ISTEP is completely wrapped up! The kids were amazing. Our next round of standardized testing is just around the corner with NWEA, but is not as time intensive as ISTEP, thankfully!

Spring Conferences

Thanks to so many who have already signed up for spring conferences! Your child will help lead these conferences and I think you’ll love hearing their reflections on their year! Please use this link to sign up!

Snacks

Thank you for the healthy snacks! The individually wrapped and easily handed out snacks have been WONDERFUL! Next week’s families are: Simmons, Wild, Brackee, Davis

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms and mother figures! Based on today’s morning meeting share, it sounds like there is a lot of breakfast in bed happening in Bloomington this weekend! 🙂 Thank you for raising such amazing human beings and for sharing them with me! ❤

 

 

 

 

 

April 25-29

Hard to believe that April is over and we only have a month and a half left of school! We are continuing to work hard, start new projects, and learn more about how to live in our community. Writer’s Workshop

Students continued to work on their historical fiction pieces, this week adding in sensory details and figurative language to make their writing come alive for their readers. We considered when to make new paragraphs, and focused on starting a new paragraph when time has passed or when the setting changes.  They had a chance to share some of their writing with a peer for some feedback, too. They are still on fire about their writing! I can’t wait to see the finished products!

Reader’s Workshop

This week we began a new historical fiction read-aloud, Elijah of Buxton. Students laughed so much hearing the huge exaggerations in this book. Breaking up into book clubs, students discussed the first two chapters of the book, considering the setting, identifying characteristics of characters, working on vocabulary words, and discussing their impressions of characters.

P3 Energy

Using the ideas they came up with last week of ways we can help save energy, students formed four different committees (Presentations, Posters, FlipFacts, and Research/Interviews) and began working together to make a plan. The work this week was two-fold… learning to function productively as student-led groups, and making a difference in energy usage. Students struggled at first to make things work smoothly, but soon began to come up with strategies that worked for them and shared those ideas with other committees. It was really fun to watch them push through and feel good about their progress! You’ll notice many of our photos seem dark; the kids want to work with the lights off as much as possible to save energy. 🙂

 

Genius Hour

Students continued their independent studies, researching for their chosen topics. They are fully engaged and really enjoying their exploration. Some are gathering data from surveys they have created, some are beginning to create slideshows, some are making plans to build things to share. I can’t wait to see what all they come up with! Their topics are as varied as their personalities; I love it. 🙂

ISTEP

This week most students finished the Math portion of ISTEP. They have been incredibly flexible and amazing through all of this! Next week fourth graders will take Science and fifth graders will take Social Studies tests.

Snacks

It will be especially helpful during these crazy testing schedules to have healthy snacks that, if at all possible, are individually packaged. Cheese sticks, fruit, granola bars, yogurt tubes, and individual packages of crackers are all great options. Next week’s families are Johnson, Roussos, Schaffer, Scheiber, Sequoy. THANK YOU!

Super sweetness

The kids were so sweet to me this week; my birthday was Thursday and they spoiled me with cards and letters and rocks and origami flowers and even offers of money they found in their pockets. 🙂 They wrote on a poster what they would give me if they had an endless supply of money. It is clear they know me; many were around chocolate, coffee, travel, and books. You have such amazingly sweet children and they blessed me greatly this week! As your kiddos have games and performances and events these next couple months, I’d love to know schedules so I can try to catch them doing their thing!

Have a lovely weekend!

April 18-22

We had a great week together!

Writer’s Workshop

This week writers organized their thinking about their historical fiction story and began to “write long” on loose leaf paper so that they can later “perform surgery” when needed. Students decided in which part of the story they wanted to start writing; some chose the climax, some chose the rising action, others chose to start at the beginning. They are eager to write and are doing such a great job!

Reader’s Workshop

With ISTEP this week, Reader’s Workshop was shorter, but we still got in plenty of independent reading time and Book Buddies! 

P3 Energy

Students brainstormed ways we can save energy at home. With the agreement that during the brainstorming process, EVERY idea goes on the board and we don’t debate them, we filled our board and later will narrow things down. Students then decided which things they have power over themselves and ways in which they can make a difference without any help from adults, money or permission. Identifying ideas which would need more support, we planned to attack a couple of those in the coming week. Students also watched a Magic Schoolbus episode and answered questions about specific details addressed in the show about energy. They then considered what they might do at home as well as at school! Hopefully you will see your child taking more care to turn off lights, tvs, etc., when not needed! Next week we will begin committee projects in our quest to make a difference!

Genius Hour

Students continued to research answers to their green light questions and we took a trip to the library to check out books which would help them. They are taking charge of their own learning and are excited!

ISTEP

This week most children finished all of the English Language Arts ISTEP testing. The general consensus was that it seemed to feel pretty good, and that it was reasonable in questions and in the time allotted to answer those questions. The kids were amazing, as usual. Next week we will be taking a Math practice test to learn the computer tools, and then taking the Math portions of ISTEP. Because make-up tests are a bit of a nightmare to schedule, PLEASE make every effort to have your student here and on time in the morning. If your child has an appointment any morning next week, it would be helpful if you could email me to let me know. Thanks!

Opera

We had the privilege of seeing the ROK (Reimagining Opera for Kids) performance of “The Magic Flute.” It was really fun and accessible to the kids and they loved it! Big thanks to Mr. Chris for setting up that opportunity!

Snacks

It will be especially helpful over the next two weeks of crazy testing schedules to have healthy snacks that, if at all possible, are individually packaged. Cheese sticks, fruit, granola bars, yogurt tubes, and individual packages of crackers are all great options. Next week’s families are Waters, Abdoo, Fleissner-Kates, Hayashi. THANK YOU!

April 11-15

Another great week of playing and learning and exploring!Reader’s Workshop

This week we continued to read historical nonfiction picture books that were rich in content and meaning including a Civil War story The Last Brother, a WWII refugee story Rebekkah’s Journey, and a Depression era story The Lucky Star. As we read these books, we had great discussions about the conflicts that faced individual characters as well as larger societal problems. In addition to noting details specific to the setting and time period, students identified the struggle and progress characters experienced in these stories, and in our independent reading time, tried to read with special attention paid to the craft of the author in creating the struggle and progress for our characters.

Students have been deeply engrossed in their own independent reading, often choosing reading over other options they have!

We also enjoyed time with our book buddies.

Writer’s Workshop

Using the picture books we read in Reader’s Workshop, we broke down our stories to notice how the writers designed the beginning, middle, and end of each story. We began planning for our own historical fiction stories by describing our narrator, identifying the zoomed in problem our narrator/main character, other fictional and historical characters we could include, and planning out some beginning/middle/end parts of our own stories. Students also researched popular names from their time period and country and had fun choosing some appropriate character names.

P3 Energy

Students went mining for coal! This week students learned about renewable and nonrenewable resources.  They learned that nonrenewable resources are resources such as oil and coal that cannot be renew quickly and easily.  Renewable resources such as wind, solar, and water are resources that give renewed easily.  We also learned that about 85% of the energy we use comes from non-renewable resources.  Students were able to see what using these resources does to our earth by mining for chocolate chips in a cookie.  Students noticed that no matter how hard they worked, they had to damage the cookie to get the chip out.  They also noticed that after mining the shape of the earth was changed.

P3 Genius Hour

Students finalized their “green light” questions for their chosen Genius Hour Project and began researching. We considered good research techniques and talked about how not all research is done on the computer, but some may be done by surveying other people or by using books!

For their homework, students wrote persuasive pieces about WHY they should be allowed to choose their Genius Hour topic. Here are a few of their thoughts…

• I should be able to study about plants because I love love love plants and if I don’t do the thing I like and not learn about them properly, then my plant that I have at home will die
• I should be able to study human instinct because human instinct is educational, students would enjoy hearing about instincts, and there are hundreds of green light questions to go with this topic
• I should be able to study computer games because almost every time I play Animal Jam I wonder how it works
• I was given a project and left with a prompt. I stuck an idea in my head and I want to get it out by creating it, not forgetting it
• I have been fasnated in herbs for a looooooong time.
• You should let me do my topic of arts and crafts because it encourages kids immaganson
  

  

   

ISTEP

We begin our next round of ISTEP next week. Large groups will be testing on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings next week. PLEASE make sure your child is here if at all possible… make up tests become a bit of a scheduling nightmare. 🙂  Students with accommodations will be testing at various times and days. If you know your child is going to be out for an appointment, please let me know as soon as you can.

This week we began the required practice tests for ISTEP; this round is done completely on computers, so students learned the tools they can use in the English Language Arts tests and had some practiced questions. They rocked it. 🙂 Next week we will test English Language Arts, the following week will be Mathematics, followed by Science and Social Studies for 4th and 5th graders.

7/8 Show

We were able to go watch the dress rehearsal of 7/8’s performance of Our Town. The 7/8 class kids were AMAZING, and our class thoroughly enjoyed it and they were a great audience, appreciating the original musical score, the great pantomiming, acting, set design, and costumes. They also thought deeply about the meaning of the play including a favorite line, “Oh earth, you’re too wonderful for anyone to realize you.”

Snacks

It will be especially helpful over the next three weeks to have healthy snacks that, if at all possible, are individually packaged. Cheese sticks, fruit, granola bars, yogurt tubes, and individual packages of crackers are all great options. Next week’s families are DeFelice, Duvall, James, McGranahan, and Kloss. THANK YOU!