Hello Everyone!
I wanted to fill you in on our new big writing project. We are creating storybooks where the main character is an insect. I have heard from a lot of parents that writing is something that they struggle with at home, so I thought it might be helpful for me to walk you through the pre-writing that we did for this project. I have noticed that having a lot of their ideas prepared, has made for a very smooth Writer's Workshop! 1. We read an insect storybook and talked about point of view. We made a list of ways that the author conveyed the insect's POV (the grass is described as a forest etc). Then each student had to picture themselves as an insect and write a description of what the world looks like to them. 2. We read another insect storybook and made a list of the main character's inner characteristics and outer characteristics. They then had time to draw their main character and label its outer characteristics (long antennae, six skinny legs) and then list its inner characteristics (shy, loves to read books, clumsy). 3. We read an insect storybook and made a list of problems that the main character is faced with. They then made a list of problems that their main character could have (he gets lost when out looking for food). 4. They then created a "story mountain" which is basically a map for their storybook. At the base of the mountain is a character and setting description, followed by rising action, the problem, the solution to the problem, and an ending. 5. We started on the first page of our storybook on Tuesday, and every student seemed confident in their ability to write for 25 minutes. I hope that doing some pre-writing at home leads to more happy and productive writing sessions :) Announcements: Pizza and Pajama day this Thursday and Friday (January 30th and 31st) Have a great week! Robin Hi everyone! I wanted to take this chance to give you some specific ways that you can extend the Entomology Project at home. Here is a list of ways to build on what we are doing at school, and ways to follow your child's particular interests: 1. Make a foldable (or book) based on an insects life cycle. Butterflies are always a good choice, but wasps, flies, ladybugs, and moths also go through a very interesting metamorphosis. Here is a description of how to make a foldable that could be modified to meet your particular needs: 2. Try being an Entomologist in your own backyard. Head out to your garden or a park and start collecting data. You could have the goal be that you are going to create a graph that shows the amount of different insects you find. First you would decide what your categories are going to be. You could tie this in with classification (how many beetles, how many bees, how many flies). Then you would collect the data. You might watch your child and see how they decide to record the data (are they making a line for each insect that they see, are they writing a number) and then have a discussion about how that method either worked or did not work. After that you could create a graph that visually displays the data. 3. Watch a nature documentary and choose two insects to compare and contrast. We have been learning all of the different insect parts (head, thorax, abdomen, antennae) and the students should be able to use this language when describing the similarities and differences between insects. 4. We are going to begin learning about the scientific method by going through experiments both as a class and in small groups. You could choose to use the scientific method in a completely different area of science (geology, physics etc). By going over the important vocabulary (hypothesis, analyze, observations etc) you will be reinforcing the work the child is doing at school. Here is a link to a short description of how to use the scientific method: 5. Another way to extend what we are doing in class is to dive further into classification. This week we are working on classifying insects based on the same criteria that scientists use (whether the insect has a hard shell or not, stinger vs. no stinger.) I chose to have them classify into boxes that I created on the desk in order for them to be able to move them around and reclassify. It might be an interesting extension, to continue this practice at home focusing on what your student's interests are. If your child is very interested in ants, then have them cut out different types of ants, and sort them based on various characteristics. This could lead really nicely into doing research as well, because some of the time the information needed is not apparent in the picture.
I hope you find these ideas helpful! Reminders/ Announcements -This Saturday is a Family Work Day from 9am-3pm. We are going to be building "Little Libraries" around campus! Books are also needed, and can be dropped off at the front office :) -Tuesday January 28th is the Pot Luck Jubilee from 6pm-8pm. Please let me know if you have any questions about anything :) Robin I am so happy to have your kids back in our classroom! We spent Monday and Tuesday reconnecting and diving into our new project, which was wonderful. We began by documenting what we already know about insects (and they know a lot!) and beginning to generate questions about insects. These questions will serve as the driving force behind the experiments that we end up doing in class. My hope is to have them go through the scientific process and really experience what it means to ask a question, form a hypothesis, test the hypothesis, analyze the data, draw conclusions from that data, and communicate the results to others. The Monday class had a chance to go on an "insect hunt" and explore the campus to find insects, and document them both through writing and drawing, but also through photography using the IPads. It was inspiring to see how focused they were, and how truly observant and thoughtful they were being about their findings. Below is a picture of one group's station where they presented their findings: The Tues/ Fri cohort will be doing this activity on Friday, and I am looking forward to it! We are beginning to study measurement/ data in math. I began on Mon/ Tues by giving a pre-assessment to find out where the students were at with their understanding of measurement and data. There was a range of skills, but one commonality that I found was that the vast majority of students are not yet able to measure the length of something. We will be working towards this goal, along with the other measurement and data standards, as a class. I am going to give you the graphic organizer that we will be using in class this week, as I feel that the activity could be repeated for practice at home. This Thurs/ Fri we will be comparing the length of objects. We will start by picking an object ( ex. the desk). We will then try to find objects in the room that are longer, shorter and about the same length. We will be using yarn as our measuring tool (cut the yarn to match the length of the first object). Here is the graphic organizer: In reading we will be focusing on sight words for the next few weeks. The students will be solving sight word puzzles, and playing sight word dominoes.
A quick reminder that each student needs to bring in a composition book by Friday for math. Thank you to all of you that brought in jars! I have already filled some of them with crickets, and I am sure we will be putting the rest to good use :) Let me know if you have any questions about anything! Robin Hello Everyone!
I hope that you all had a great break full of rest and good food! I wanted to welcome everyone back to our second semester at DVIA! I am so excited about this upcoming semester and can’t wait to see all of my wonderful students! I want to start with some thoughts on the upcoming project. Starting Monday we will be crawling, inching, jumping, and flying into our Entomology Project! We will be studying these magnificent tiny creatures from all different angles: community, anatomy, habitat, food, categorization, literature, data collection, measuring, lab reports… We are going to have a blast! You can find the Project Overview in the Projects section of this website. We will have a chance to go over both the new Work Journal #5 and the new Project Overview next week at the Work Journal Meetings. These will be held on Tuesday and Thursday at 2:00 pm in Patrick’s classroom. I would like to really encourage everyone to come this month, as there is both a new Work Journal form and a new project to cover. Work Journal #5 can be found under the Learning Goals. I am going to be experimenting with new forms of feedback this semester. You will be receiving periodic emails from me giving you specific feedback on how your student is doing approximately once a month. I hope that this becomes a helpful practice for everyone involved. I have decided to have students start working out of a math journal this semester. If you could please send your child with a composition book by next Friday that would be great. We are also going to need some jars (for our insect observation) so if you have any empty jars (any size), please send them to class with your child. In case you see any good sales at Staples/ Office Depot, class supplies sign up: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D48A8A729ABFE3-classroom Thank you again for all of your support- you are great! Let me know if you have any questions about the Work Journal, Project, or Work Journal meeting! Robin |
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February 2017
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