Week 24 (February 16-20)

February 16 – 20 (week 24)

Black History Month

We’ve been discussing “black history” and “Black History Month” in class. Surprisingly most of the students were unsure of what the words truly meant. We discussed what we thought and then watched a small clip from the History channel around the origins of black history. Afterwards we had a discussion on our thoughts now that we had more information on the subject. The students being as caring and concerned as they are, wanted to learn more about all of the black Americans who have helped to shape this country. So now we’re getting to know African Americans who are important to our history and our society through research. We are looking to present our knowledge on Friday of this week.

Our class will also be apart of Windsor’s Black History Month celebration on Friday February 27, 2015 at 8:45 am and 9:30 am in the cafeteria!! We hope that you will be able to join in on our celebration.

The kids' first thoughts on black history and Black History Month!!!

Learning Through Math Games

We all know the kids and I love to play math games and they are quite affective in helping them practice and master the different mathematical skills. Most of the games that we play in class require little materials and hardly any preparation. Typically we use dice, playing cards, and scratch paper. Some of the games that we play are dice jump, addition dice, subtraction cards, and trashcan. They can be extremely beneficial, especially for those who may be struggling a little. I encourage you to play these games with your kids at home for practice and also for quality time. The kids really adore their parents and I’m sure they would love to share their learning experiences with you.

Singing With Reason

We play music and sing along throughout the day. I’ve let the students choose songs to add to our class playlist that I have downloaded on my phone. We’ve talked about how we want to listen to music that will inspire us mentally, academically, and emotionally. We listen to songs that build confidence in the kids and that will inspire them to think critically about society and the social injustices of the world. Some songs that we’ve been listening to include Happy by Pharrell Williams, Lean On Me by Bill Withers, Don’t Worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin, Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson, Redemption Song Bob Marley, and Tennessee by Arrested Development!!! We have a playlist of 29 songs and it is still growing!

On Friday we enjoyed singing Man in the Mirror and Lean on Me with Ms. Layman’s class. The kids are happy to know that they have someone in the building to share their love of music and singing with!

We are looking forward to another great week in 604 and remember we would love to have you all come in and share our learning experiences with us!!

Week 23 (February 9-13)

February 9 – 13 (Week 23)

“Hold fast to your dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly”

-Langston Hughes

     Everyone has a dream that they hold dearly to their hearts. Our children are no different. They have dreams of being doctors, reading more books, having more friends, reaching higher grades, and the list goes on and on. Although some dreams are in closer reach than others, I want to encourage all 21 of my children to reach for their dreams and instill in them the confidence that their dreams are attainable. 

This past week was such a short week but we managed to still get so much done! Now that we seem to have a hang of addition we’ve switched up our thinking to work with word problems. Word problems can be challenging in that the students have a hard time understanding what exactly the question is asking. We’ve been working on dissecting these problems to first see what the problem is asking of us and secondly to understand how we can find the answer to the problem. The kids have been collaborating within groups to solve these word problems. This coming week we will be working more with addition word problems and also working with subtraction.

Math Workshop: 

  

The kids worked so hard on their friendship day letters and they came out so amazing! They wrote such thoughtful words and every student really appreciated the kind words about themselves. Thank you all for contributing to our friendship day celebration!

We are looking forward to another great week in 604!!! See you all on Tuesday!! =) ***We are still low on hand sanitizer and markers!  If you can please send some in! Our class would greatly appreciate it!

Week 22 (February 2-6)

February 2 – 6 (Week 22)

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the treads of that tapestry are equal in value no matter their color.

~Maya Angelou

As you all know we celebrated our 100^th day of school on Monday! We used the day to reflect on all the things that we’ve learned. With an oversized 1 and 2 zeros we wrote recorded 100 things that we have learned in regards to math, science, social studies, and ELA.

100 ways to make 100!!

Tallying our Marks to 100... 

100 things we've learned in science and social studies!! 

100 books that we've read!! 

Math

We’ve still been working hard on mastering addition with regrouping. This week we will be working on addition word problems! The students love the games race to 100 and dice jump!! These are both great games for practicing fluency with addition.

Dice jump!!

ELA

We’ve been working on understanding adjectives and adverbs and noticing how they can add to our writing! Lately, we’ve been revisiting sentence structures. The kids were doing so well with writing complete sentences, but lately they have been struggling. We will continue to work on it.

Social Studies

Fairytales and Folktales galore!!! We began by looking at the multiples cultural version of Cinderella. Well this week we’ve been looking at multiple folktales from multiple cultures and what the moral or setting may tell us about the different cultures. This week the students will be creating their own fairy tales. They have been asking about presenting them so we may need an audience very soon (stay posted)!!!

Week 21 (January 26 - 30)

January 26 – 30 (Week 21)

Math

We’ve been working so hard on addition and we’ve been playing many games to help us master the concept. The students have enjoyed playing games such as race to 100, math fight, and math race to increase fluency with addition, especially with regrouping.

ELA

We are continuing to turn our ordinary stories into “wow stories”! The kids have been reading their stories from their writer’s notebooks with a partner in order to receive and give feedback and advice on how to enhance their already wonderful stories! I’m not surprised at how helpful they have been to one another, but I am surprised at their honesty in giving pointers for improvement.

Social Studies

As we look at fairy tales, we are also examining these fairy tales to see how they are similar and how they differ across cultures. This week we looked at the fairy tale Cinderella. We also looked at the Asian, African, and Native American version of the story. The titles were Yeh-Shen, Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, and Little Burnt Face. The students compared the cultures by examining the characters and setting of the stories. They also used this to predict what they thought was important to each of the cultures. We had beautiful conversations around the cultures and why certain aspects are more important to some cultures than they are to others. This week we will be looking at many more fairy tales and also folk tales to see what these stories can reveal to us about certain cultures and how these cultures have helped to shape our country.

On Friday we there was a school wide Arts Day! We were able to participate in so many different activities and the students absolutely loved it!

Latin dancing with the Spring Valley High School!!

 Music Concert!!

A few fairy's stopped by the school as well!

Porkchop Productions present: Little Red Riding Hood!!

Zumba with Mr. Abney!!