Although
this has been a short week, it has been a busy one. We have completed a project in technology
class using Canva. Canva is a visual
presentation tool accessed via a web application. Students began with a planner, recording
various information about themselves.
Topics included many of our favorites: song, food, animal, book, color,
etc. They then practiced responsible
online behavior, by using something other than our name on the poster. Students chose a superhero name or a name
that combined a color and an animal. After completing the posters, students
practiced giving thoughtful feedback to each other. The completed posters will be on display in
our classroom next week for Open House.
Although
we had previously worked on writing individual “Hopes and Dreams” for this
year, we had not edited these pieces to produce a final draft. These pieces are a component of the
Responsive Classroom. Students wrote
about what they are looking forward to in school this year. In writing block this week, we worked to
finish these pieces for display next week.
We also participated in a mini lesson about the use of dialogue in
narratives. We discussed elaboration as
we read, Thundercake by Patricia
Polacco. The young girl in this book
describes how her grandmother helped her overcome her fear of
thunderstorms. Students have all started
a personal narrative about a time that they were scared about something.
Students
will be bringing home information in their Friday folders about a fundraiser
that the 4/5 classes will be participating in to help raise money for our
anticipated fieldtrip to Ft. Ticonderoga next spring. This fieldtrip will
connect to our Global Studies unit on the Revolutionary War.
The
fundraiser is Solmate socks. If you don’t
know the company you can check out their story at this link: Http://www.socklady.com/sockstory.php
The money for the socks should be
collected when you take the orders. The
socks make great presents. They also
ship well and are light, if you need to mail any presents. More details will be included in the packet
sent home.
On
Thursday, thirteen members of our class traveled to U-32 for a day of music.
Everyone was quite excited when they returned to school around 3:00. The ten students that remained at EMES joined
Mrs. Gannon’s students in the afternoon for some collaborative work. First, we broke into small groups for an
activity that covered two of our Science Performance Indicators (3c which
covers supporting an argument that gravitational force exerted on objects on
Earth is directed down and PI 5 which covers Engineering). The challenge involved teams designing a
roller coaster for a new theme park in town.
The models were made with foam tubes, masking tape, a cup, and a
marble. This activity also addressed the
transferable Performance Indicator that covers working collaboratively. For approximately an hour, students were
engaged in designing, building, and then testing their team’s ideas.
The
second activity involved our class teaching Mrs. Gannon’s students watercolor
techniques they have learned in our Monday poetry sessions. It was great to see my students eagerly
sharing what they have learned.
Please
remember that our classroom will be open from 5:30 – 6:30 on next Monday and
Wednesday for those families that are able to come see some of what we have
been learning this year. The room will
also be open on next Thursday, during the school Open House.
Have
a wonderful weekend!
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