Thursday, September 22, 2016

Our 1st meeting with our 2nd grade friends!

We're going to partner with Miss Wilson's 2nd grade classroom, periodically throughout this year for a variety of educational purposes. Today was our first meeting!  Miss Wilson and I compared our curriculum that 2nd and 4th grade have both been studying world geography and landforms at different levels of complexity.  So, we put our heads together and completed a world map today!  4th graders labeled the Prime Meridian, Equator, hemispheres, and NE, NW, SE, SW on the compass rose.  2nd graders made the basic compass rose with the 4 main cardinal directions, and labeled the continents and oceans. By the time we were done, we had made new friends and had a great geography of all we've both learned!  Next week, we're going to go on a hunt for basic landforms on every continent.












New Friends & Learning Buddies!



Making Our Mathematical Thinking Visible

We've been approaching math in a very collaborative, cooperative way this year.  In order to encourage metacognition, and the ability to articulate our mathematical strategies, we've been answering open ended questions. Students discuss their thinking about concepts, label what they know, represent their understanding with notes, and help each other build a deeper understanding of our concepts.  It also shows kids that there are a variety of ways to think about mathematical concepts, and we can be flexible in our approaches to solving open ended problems. The thinking and learning that comes out of these discussions is so rich.  Here are some pictures of our latest mathematical discussions, when students were working together to think about what they could do with a set of numbers.  

"We can put these numbers in numerical order and find the median"

We can add them all together (which we later translated into finding the mean by dividing by the total #s in the set).

Each of these students here used a different strategy to add all their numbers.  It was interesting to see the different strategies at work. 


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We can use the individual digits to make bigger numbers. (That's one of our place value concepts this unit)





After finding all the data landmarks, this student commented that his notes looked like a Cat in the Hat hat.
He later drew a Cat in the Hat for us for homework, so that we can remember all of our landmark data.  I will post a picture of his finished product.


To Plant or Not to Plant

Following our discussion about doing a good deed in remembrance of 9/11, Keith brought in a packet of seeds that are the same variety of wildflowers growing in the field where Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania.  He wrote a letter to Mrs. Beane and Mrs. Sessler asking if our class can plant the flowers at Dryden, as our good deed. Mrs. Beane responded with a variety of questions about the flowers for us to answer, in order to decide if Dryden is the appropriate place to plant these flowers.  So, once again, we began to research.  Keith divided the class into teams of 2, and we quickly  found the answers to all of Mrs. Beane's questions.  We compiled all of our research into a big grid, and used the information to make judgements about how we can move forward with this project.  The kids just broke into new teams, in which they will use the information they learned about the flowers to determine our recommendations for the best place to plant the flowers, a plan for how we will control them from spreading, a long term plan for care, and they will also be studying the impact the flowers will make on the environment around Dryden.  Stay tuned for our decision.







How tall will our flowers grow?(If you look closely, you will see Dawson measuring with a ruler)

Landscape/Landform Book Clubs

We've been studying landscapes and landforms around the world in our Science and Social Studies units.  Why not connect it to reading, as well.  Groups of students read a variety of nonfiction and fiction books and looked for information about landscapes and landforms within them.  In our nonfiction books, students focused on using the index, table of contents, and other text features to find specific information about landforms that might be found in that particular continent, country, or region.  The readers of the fiction books paid attention to the landforms that were involved in the story and how they played a part in the setting and the events of the story.  Each group is currently working on a way to share the information they got from their book.










Tomato Worm vs. Wasp

Upon discovering a tomato worm covered in white sacks on my tomato plant, I brought the live specimen in to class to help us work on our wondering skills.  My in-laws told me the white sacks were wasp eggs (we soon discovered they were  cocoons).

So we wondered many things:  What happens to the tomato worm when the wasps hatch? Should we brush the wasp cocoons off of the tomato worm to save him?  If we do that, how would that impact the environment?  Does the environment need wasps?  Do they contribute positively to the ecosystem, or are they just pests that sting us?  etc.

To find the answers to our burning questions we formed teams:  Team tomato worm and Team wasp.  Our teams did research that answered our questions and fueled debates.  Should we save tomato worms?  Should we protect the wasps?  At the end of our research, we realized that many of us changed our thinking about who the pest was.  We discovered that tomato worms wreak havoc on many different crops, and the only positive contribution they make is to offer a place for wasp larvae to develop.  We discover that wasps help pollinate and get rid of garden pests, so their overall contribution to the environment is more positive than we thought.  We also discovered that one of our questions was irrelevant, because by the time we see the wasp cocoons on the exterior of the tomato worm, the larvae have already developed inside the tomato worm, and it's already been eaten.

This exercise was a great way for us to model the Personalized Learning process that we will be using throughout the year.  It was also a great way to practice note-taking, key word searching, and reading for specific information.

I also want to foster an environment of inquisitiveness and curiosity.  Hopefully we will be wondering about many things in the days, weeks, and months to come!










Friday, September 9, 2016

Curriculum Night Slide Show

As promised, here is the Curriculum Night Slide Show.  It was great seeing so many of you last night!
I'm looking forward to a great year together!

Curriculum Night Presentation

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Class Song-#Best Song Ever!

Announcing our class song....Innovative Beastly Adventure S.Q.U.A.D

Listen to our demo....full version with musical accompaniment coming soon!

Innovative Beastly Adventure Squad theme song