It was so awesome getting a chance to spend time with all of you at PEC 2! Working together with you to ensure that your kiddos get an awesome education is one of the many things that I love about this job. I hope that those of you that came to the Core 2 Math found it helpful and that you had plenty of time to connect during the Core 2 meet up! We have been doing a lot of insect experiments this week to learn about the ants that we have on campus. Below you will find the simple graphic organizer for leading students through the scientific method while doing an experiment. Feel free to use this at home to conduct simple experiments: Students have also begun writing their insect storybook in writers workshop with Patrick. Creating the insect storybook will take until Exhibition (mid-November) at which point students will have a chance to show it off! Right now they are finishing up the planning stage and moving into writing the first few pages of the book.
In reading, we have begun to read non-fiction books about insects in our book clubs. These are self selected groups of kids that all have a shared interest in reading a particular book together. It is awesome watching students support each other and learn from each other! Both Tuesday and Wednesday will be homeschool days, as Student Led Conferences will be happening in the classroom. Have a great week! Dear Core 2 Parents,
We have had another lovely week in Core 2! We are finishing up our interview project, and diving into our insect project! We are beginning to talk about what questions we have about insects. Students have already generated really interesting questions that will be used to drive our inquiry into the world of insects. We went on an insect walk around campus to see what insects we are sharing our space with. We found quite a few ants, ant eggs, queen ants, flies, beetles, and butterflies. We then took photos and notes on what they looked like, how they moved, and where we found them. We have begun to explore the question “what makes an insect and insect?” and also the naming of the key insect body parts (head, thorax, abdomen, legs, and antennae). Students seem very excited about this project already, and I have a good feeling about the work that we will be doing! In math we have continued to focus on word problems and number talks. This week we have begun to work on the skills needed to listen and build on other people’s mathematical thinking. This can be really challenging for students, and definitely takes some time to build. I will be offering a workshop at PEC 2 on “Core 2 Math.” I will be talking a bit about what math looks like in class, along with how to use Georgia State and ST math at home. We will also chat about how to get kids thinking and talking about math in a way that is engaging and productive. I would love to see all of you there, and would highly recommend this workshop to anyone that is having a hard time getting math off the ground at home. One of our big final products for the insect project is an insect storybook. Each student will create a fictional story with an insect as the main character. This will be created with Patrick in writing and with me during project time. Students have begun the process of choosing the insect that they will be focusing on for their storybook. I will let you know more about how you can support them at home, once they have chosen their main insect. I will have a project overview ready next week that will have a list of home extensions for our new project. We will also have a chance to chat during PEC and we will be brainstorming home extension ideas at that time as well. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend! Robin Happy Wednesday Core 2!
I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend! We are having a great (but hot!) week in Core 2. I wanted to remind everyone to send their kiddo(s) with a water bottle, especially on these super-hot days. We will be finishing up our interview project in the next few days. We are excited to have Dan (DVIA’s junior high humanities teacher) come and record our partner interviews tomorrow and Friday. Depending on how many we can get through, we may continue recording next week as well. I am excited to have students do their final interviews, get a chance to experience the recording process, and hopefully (fingers crossed) hear an actual podcast of their interviews! I will be in touch about what we will be doing with the final recordings. I am excited to say that I have noticed new friendships being created in both classes! The celebrations that we do at the end of the day have been full of new friend celebrations! We are starting Handwriting without Tears this week. Tuesday/ Friday cohort started yesterday, and Mon/ Thurs will start tomorrow. Students will be doing the first month or two with me in class. This will give me a chance to learn about each student’s grip and letter formation. Once I have info about each student, I will be sending some students home with their workbook to do at home during homeschooling. Other students will continue to do their handwriting in class so that I can keep an eye on their grip/ letter formation and make sure that they are progressing. I will reach out to parents as I have more information. I am noticing a lot of reversals in both cohorts (b’s and d’s, p’s and g’s etc). I had a parent recommend an interesting sounding app that addresses these reversals called “Letter Reflex.” It sounded interesting so you may want to check it out if you notice your kiddo making a lot of these reversals. You should have received an email from me regarding ST math: Dear Core 2 Parents, I wanted to send out info on ST Math, which is a great math program that you all have access to at home. I finished logging all Core 2 students into their new grade level today, so students can begin playing at home. If you would like to use this at home you will need to download the ST Math app onto a tablet device (if you don’t have the app already). At that point your kiddo has a password that they can input. If they cannot remember their password, don’t worry! We will practice it more next week and then they will have an easier time remembering it. For those of you who have kids that used ST Math last year, their password is the same. I would recommend that kids play for app. 20 minutes a day during their homeschooling. I know that there were a few hiccups over the weekend, but it should be working at home at this point. Students that are new to the program may take a week or two to learn their password. If they do not remember it at home, don’t worry! I will help them learn it at school and they will be able to log in at home soon! We will be starting up our next project soon! I am beyond excited to share with you what we will be creeping and crawling (hint hint) into! I hope to have a project plan and some home extension ideas for you very soon! Reminder: Our First Pizza Day! Thurs, 9/17 & Fri, 9/18: Please make sure to make a plan with your kiddo. If they are going to buy pizza at lunch they will still need snacks for morning and afternoon body break. If they are not going to get pizza, you may want to have a conversation with them about it, so that they are not disappointed during lunch time. Thanks! Hello Everyone! We have had a wonderful week full of getting to know each other and getting to know our classroom! I have watched as students form new friendships and start to come out of their shells. What an awesome bunch of kids!! We have spent some time each day working on our interview project, which has been a great way to get to know each other. Students were paired up with a classmate that they did not know very well and have done several activities with this new friend to get to know each other. We have also begun to learn about interviews, including an exploration of what makes a “good” interview question. We have begun exploring the difference between a question that elicits a one word answer, and a question that gets the interview subject talking and telling about themselves. It has been interesting, and requires a lot of critical thinking to develop these types of questions. An interesting (and easy!) home extension activity would be to listen to an interview together, and critique the questions that the interviewer is asking. In reading and writing we have been focused on building up two different response to literature routines. My goal is to have students comfortable with several response to literature options so that when they read a book on their own (during just right reading) or with a group (during book clubs) they will be able to complete a response to the book confidently on their own. One response to literature graphic organizer that we have been using is one in which the student has to draw and write what happened at the beginning/middle/end of a book. If you are wanting to try this at home (great work sample idea!) just google “beginning middle end graphic organizer” and you will find tons of different options. The other response to literature routine that we have been building is writing a character in the book a friendly letter. Here is a link to a friendly letter graphic organizer that I like: This is a fun way to learn about the parts of a letter, while also allowing them to demonstrate what they understood about a character in a book. We have been working on these 2 response to literature options in both writing and reading, so most students are starting to feel confident in them. In math we have continued doing number talks and word problems. I wanted to show you an example of word problems that we do in class: Students have learned how to use this type of paper, and are getting used to the idea that I am more interested in seeing “how” they think about the problem, rather than just the answer. I am going to try to get everyone enrolled in ST math this Thursday, Friday, and I will let you know more once that is complete (thank you for your patience!)
Announcements: Cordula and Mr. Mason (the art teachers) are looking for some supplies for their classroom. Here is a message from Cordula: We are looking for any white-ish paper that is larger than 8 1/2 x 11. Heavier weight paper than copy paper is preferred, that way students can paint and use water based media. Paper can be dropped off directly in the Innovation Station on the table near the white board. Have a beautiful long weekend! Robin |
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February 2017
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