Cultivating Minds Without Losing My Own

Join me on my Adventures in Elementary Education

Be an Explorer!

November13

I came across this poster idea on Pinterest last night and fell in love with it immediately.  We need to encourage our students to become explorers.  What better way to learn, then to be aware of our environment, be curious about it, investigate it, and learn from it?  Just think of all of the FREE lessons that are literally under our feet and all around us.  Encourage them to literally smell the roses!

How to Be an Explorer

1.  Always be looking (notice the ground beneath your feet)

2.  Consider everything alive and animate

3.  Everything is interesting- LOOK CLOSER!

4.  Alter your course often

5.  Observe for long durations (and short ones too)

6.  Notice the stories going on around you

7.  Notice the patterns and make connections

8.  Document your findings in a variety of ways (drawings, notes, pictures)

9.  Observe movement

10.  Create a dialogue with your environment- talk to it!  Talk about it!

11.  Trace things back to their origins

12.  Use all of your senses in your investigations (sight, touch, smell, hearing)

 

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Weekly Objectives 11/12-11/16

November11

This week is going to be HUGE!  It is one of only 2 full weeks we have for learning in the month of November, so as you can imagine I’m packing it to the gills!  We will start off our week with World Run Day on Monday.  Remember to wear your sneakers and dress in layers so we can get our fitness on together and raise money for a great cause, the Big Brother/Big Sisters club of Cumberland County.  We will be partaking in our annual Thanksgiving Feast on Thursday.  Fourth graders are responsible for contributing boxes of instant mashed potatoes for our celebration.  I especially look forward to this activity and sharing Thanksgiving with “my kids.”  Finally remember that parent/teacher conferences start on Friday.  Students will have an early dismissal at 1:45 and conferences begin at 2:15.  I look forward to sharing your child’s progress with you during this time.

On our agenda this week:

Reading: This week we will be introducing our Literature Circle Roles.  Once all of the roles are learned, each night your child will read an assigned section and complete their assigned role.  The goal is that since everyone in each group is reading the same section, yet looking at it a slightly different way it will provide a lively and deep discussion about the material.  For the next 2 weeks, all students will be doing the same role sheet each night so that we can learn the responsibilities of each role together.  This week we are focusing on the following roles:

Summarizer- this role includes reading the section, writing a 1 paragraph summary of what happened answering the following questions- who, what, when, where, why, and how.  This person also lists any key pieces of information that are learned in the section.

Illustrator- this role includes reading the section and drawing a picture that best represents what happened in the section.  Illustrations are not judged on artistic ability but relevance to the content read.

Discussion Director- this role includes reading the section and formulating 5 questions about this section only to guide our discussion the next day in class.

Word Worm- this role includes reading the section and listing any new, powerful, or interesting words as well as defining them based on context clues.

Vocabulary: Students will define this weeks words and use them correctly in context.  This week’s words are words with multiple meanings.  Students are responsible for knowing all definitions for each word.

Grammar:We are beginning Unit 2 this week.  We will be focusing our efforts on identifying nouns, classifying them as proper or common, singular or plural, and identifying unique spelling changes for plural nouns.  For your reference see the information below to help your child at home:

Nouns- words that name a person, place, thing, or idea (ex. girl, teacher, house, school, dog, cat, cup, love, hope)

Proper nouns- name specific people, places, or things.  They begin with capital letters.  (ex. Mrs. Sinone, Millvile, White House, Statue of Liberty)

Common nouns- name common people, places, or things.  They are not capitalized unless they are the first word in the sentence.

Plural nouns- name more than one person, place, or thing (ex. bushes, cities, people)

Singular nouns- name one person, place, or thing (ex. student, fish, city)

Writing: This week we will be beginning working on persuasive/argumentative writing.  We will be focusing on choosing a side of an argument and writing to support our opinion with facts. 

Math:  Students will be working with multiplying with multiples (3×5, 3×50, 3×500), breaking apart factors to multiply(3×35= 3×30 +3×5), using mental math to multiply (3×19 is like 3×20 then subtracting 3), and using rounding to estimate multiplication ( 7×28 is estimated to 7×30)

Social Studies: Students will be working with geographical landforms and terms.

Science: Students will be able to determine between food chains and food webs.

Holy Moly! That Sandy Packed A Punch

October30

I hope this post finds most of our readers safe and sound in their homes with electric, heat, and the creature comforts you are used to. For those of you in shelters, we hope your stay isn’t much longer and that when you return home you are pleasantly surprised. Here in our tiny south Jersey town we experienced horrible winds, minor flooding, downed wires and trees but over all most if us feel pretty lucky considering what our friends at the shore got. I am just heartbroken to see my beach washed away. We will definitely be looking into ways we can help as a class community service project. This week (at least what’s left of it) we will be focusing on studying hurricanes (shocker there I’m sure) finishing up our math unit and trying to have some Halloween fun.

Holy Moly! That Sandy Packed A Punch

October30

I hope this post finds most of our readers safe and sound in their homes with electric, heat, and the creature comforts you are used to. For those of you in shelters, we hope your stay isn’t much longer and that when you return home you are pleasantly surprised. Here in our tiny south Jersey town we experienced horrible winds, minor flooding, downed wires and trees but over all most if us feel pretty lucky considering what our friends at the shore got. I am just heartbroken to see my beach washed away. We will definitely be looking into ways we can help as a class community service project. This week (at least what’s left of it) we will be focusing on studying hurricanes (shocker there I’m sure) finishing up our math unit and trying to have some Halloween fun.

A Case for Alternative Assessments

October23

After spending and entire day simultaneously battling sinus issues and a deadline for a graduate school paper, I am left feeling like some of my students feel at the end of a chapter.  Spent.  Utterly exhausted both mentally and physically.  Taking an assessment is not just a mental event!  The stress it creates on your body is no joke!  I feel like I’ve run a 5K today and I promise you I have not left my dining room table in many hours and exercise is no longer on the agenda for the evening. 

I came to the conclusion that maybe “one size fits all assessment” has had its day and needs to bow out of the picture.  Had I been given options for this assignment such as create a prezi, Power Point, or website to cover the same content I did in the paper I wrote, I assure you it would have been done days ago and my stress level would have been much lower!  While I understand that choice is not always feasible in all situations, shouldn’t we provide it when we can?Graphic Representation of The Branches of Government 

 Online quizzes on Edmodo or Pearson Success Net as a Quiz AlternativeI have been trying to incorporate as many different methods of assessment as possible this year to make my students less stressed and more successful.  I have been using Edmodo to offer online quizzes rather than paper and pencil options for grammar and language arts.  Our math series offers online tests for each topic as well.  I try to offer these as an option.  Some students do prefer the traditional pencil and paper approach and that is fine!  Just print them out a copy of the same test!

In addition to the high tech tests, I have been offering more creative ways to express thier understanding of concepts.  In social studies students chose to demonstrate thier knowledge of the branches of government by creating a graphic representation of “The Branches of Government.”  Later this week students will be showing me how well they have understood summarizing and narrative elements by creating Diary of a Bat books. Diary of a Bat

Those students with a flair for the arts have loved creating Xtranormal videos and iMovie trailers to show what they comprehended from novels they have read.  Check out a few examples of their work below. 

I am in no way taking complete credit for these ideas!  I am a teacher which means I am very well skilled at “borrowing” other teachers’ ideas!  The Internet it full of resources as are the buildings we all work in!  I few of my favorite sites are Pinterest and Teacher’s Pay Teachers.  Both offer a variety of ideas at all skill levels.

 

Clementine has a big problem
by: carriesinone

Weekly Learning Objectives for October 22-26

October21

Happy Sunday!  After another not-quite-long-enough weekend it is back to the grindstone.  I hope you all were able to enjoy the weather and get outdoors with your families this weekend.  My family spent Saturday at soccer fields and visiting the new Amish Market in Bridgeton.  If you haven’t been out there, I highly recommend it.  AMAZING food, great prices and just some wonderful people to deal with.  All that out of doors activity has my allergies in an uproar so hopefully I make it through the week with a voice.  Right about now I sound like a cross between Marge Simpson and the mom on the Big Bang Theory :(. 

On to our objectives!

Reading: This week we will be working on summarizing.  A good summary answers the following questions:

Who was the story/article about?

What happened?

Where did it take place?

When did it take place?  (past, present, or future time)

Why did it turn out the way it dis?

How were the characters involved?

Grammar:  Students will be working to make sentences say more by adding descriptive words.

Vocabulary: Students will be working with more adjectives this week to make our writing more interesting and descriptive.

Writing: Students will be working to edit, revise, and publish their first portfolio piece about citizenship.

Math: Students will be using estimation and mental math to find sums and differences of 3 and 4 digit numbers. (addition and subtraction)

Social Studies:   Students will continue to learn about citizenship and the steps it takes to become an American citizen.

Science:   Students will wrap up their mock rock experiment.

Weekly Objectives Week of October 15-19

October14

Happy Sunday!  As I am typing this I am enjoying the fresh air and the sounds of Sunday afternoon football.  I LOVE this time of year!  We will be jumping right back into things this week after our relaxing, rewarding Friday.  Dr. Cook rewarded our class with Philly Pretzels and we watched a movie in celebration for completing our first read aloud as well as our first major project.  If you haven’t had a chance to check them out yet, please take a look at the post titled, “Introducing RM Bacon’s Newest Directors, Producers, Actors, and Animators” from last week.  Your kids did amazing work!

We will be starting our new read aloud book this week, Island of the Blue Dolphins.   This was my favorite book when I was in fourth grade.  I love sharing it with my classes!  It is also very different from our last novel, Clementine.  Our last book was realistic fiction (a made up story that could happen in real life).  This book is historical fiction (a made up story based around some historically accurate facts).  My goal is to introduce a new genre (type of writing) with each new read aloud.

This weeks objectives:

Reading: Students will be working with identifying main ideas and supporting details.  This is by far one of the hardest skills we work with each year.  You can help support your child at home by asking them to tell you what the book/movie/tv show/song the are listening/watching/reading is mainly about.

Grammar: Students will be identifying prepositional phrases, determining if sentences are complete or not, and making sentence fragments into complete sentences.  There are some examples below to help you help your child.

Prepositional Phrases:  phrases that tell how, when , what, how much, or where about something in the sentence.  They begin with a preposition (in, of, on, under, to)  EX:  Sir Issac Newton was famous throughout the world. In this sentence throughout the world in the prepositional phrase and the preposition is throughout.

Sentence Fragment:  Sentences that are missing either a subject or predicate are called fragments. 

EX.  The creepy house.  Made groaning noises. 

Alone, these sentences are incomplete.  If you combine them, however, they make a complete thought. 

EX:  The creepy house made groaning noises.

Vocabulary: Students will define and use adjectives.

Writing:   Students will begin their first portfolios piece, a non-fiction essay about what makes a good citizen.

Social Studies: Students will learn about what it takes to become an American citizen.  Students will also learn about current events as they relate to the election.

Science:   Students will continue to work with their mock rocks by isolating some of the sediment/water solution so that it can evaporate and reveal the crystallized minerals that their rock contained.  Once the solution dries out and the crystals appear they will be able to classify the minerals based on shape.

“Mocking” Hypotheses with Mock Rocks

September25

Good afternoon from my 4th grade scientists!  Today we began our first science investigation.  We have been discussing the Earth’s layers and different types of rocks.  Our experiment will lead us on a quest to answer the question, what makes up rocks?   Our task today was to make our initial observations about our mock rocks (rocks made by our own Mrs. Gandy).  This included drawing them, measuring their diameter, depth, and circumference, examining them under a magnifying glass, and recording general descriptive terms about our rocks (rough, porous, smooth, heavy, light, etc.)

 

 

In addition to making these observations, other groups of students were busy around our class learning more background information to aid in our investigation.  Some worked on a Smart Board presentation to record key terms in their work station notebooks while others read books in our library about Earth Materials.  We will be continuing with this investigation throughout the week deconstructing the rocks until all that remains are minerals and dust!

 

 

 

 

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