Case Study #3 - Write It Down

We are now in our third case study, Write it Down, of our learning expedition, Everybody Has a Story.  We have worked hard to orally tell stories about ourselves, read lots of great fiction stories in which we identified the story elements and now we are applying that knowledge to writing our own story.  
We kicked off this case study by eating watermelon.  This helped the students understand that an entire watermelon is your life, a slice of watermelon is about a special part of your life and a seed of a watermelon is a small moment.

 














We have spent the last 2 weeks writing all kinds of small moment stories.  The kids have planned their writing using a web.  This week, each student picked one small moment to take through the entire writing process.  They have self assessed and gotten specific feedback from a peer to help them edit and revise their small moment.  We will be going through one last edit/revision with parent volunteers and then publishing the story by typing the small moment with our 4th grade buddies.  We look forward to sharing all this with you at our Celebration of Learning.  

Our Learning Targets for this case study:
~I can plan my personal narrative small moment ideas using a web.
~I can create a personal narrative about one small moment in my life.
~I can persevere to write multiple drafts and improve my writing based on feedback.
Things to do/ask at home:
~Tell lots of stories from when you were a story using lots of details
~What is a small moment?  
~How does your small moment make you special?
 

Fall Break

It is Fall Break!  I hope you enjoy your week with your child.  Here are the top 10 things to do on Fall Break!
1.  Get outside - We live in a great state so this is a great week to hike, go for a bike ride, explore the local park or walk around the block.  
2.  Bake - Fall is a great time to get in the kitchen with your child.  This teaches great math concepts like fractions, temperature and measurement.  Fall is a great time to include pumpkin in your recipes.
3.  Read - TO your child.  Go to the library and check out Charlotte's Web, Pippy Longstocking, Trumpet of the Swans.  Find a cuddle corner in your couch or relax in bed while you read a classic chapter book to your child!
4.  Listen - to audio books.  While you are in the car, pop in an audio book for you and your family to enjoy.  Ramona books or Mr. Popper's Penguins are favorites.
5.  Play!  It is what I hear most when I ask my students what they wish they did more with their family.  You can kick the ball, jump rope, go down the slide or swing high into the sky on a swing.
6.  Games - First grade is a great time to play Sorry!, card games such as UNO or Skip-Bo
7.  Explore - dig in the dirt, mix things together, poke things, smell things, try new foods
8.  Crafts - paint, color, glue, cut, repeat!
9.  Laugh - put on a family talent show, do a stand up joke night, sing songs, dance!  
10.  LOVE - hug lots, tell your kids specific things of what you notice about them ("I notice that you made your bed without me asking.  I notice you played nicely with your sister."), encourage them ("Wow, you tried something hard!  I like the way you stuck with that.")  Time goes fast, don't forget to hug and kiss on your kids.

I will miss my CREW while we are off, but so excited to do these 10 things with my kids and husband!  Enjoy your time and see you Tuesday, October 20

Mathematicians at Work

 Our classroom has been filled with many discussions on shapes and their attributes during our geometry math unit.  
We started unit 2 with decomposing shapes.  We discussed all the different ways to fill a hexagon.  We were introduced to the vocabulary:
~fewer
~least
~most
~more

Students used this math language as they explored the pattern blocks.  Shapes we learned were:

square, rhombus, triangle, trapezoid, rectangle, circle, hexagon

Students create triangles and quadrilaterals on Geo-boards.

Students build with Power Polygons.

Our Learning Targets for this Unit 2 - Geometry were:
I can decompose shapes using many different ways.
I can describe triangles and quadrilaterals by their attributes.
I can compare and contrast the attributes of triangles and quadrilaterals.


Another routine during math is our Number Talk.  This is where we practice Common Core Math Practices such as accuracy and precision as well as becoming efficient counters and problem solvers.