Everyday brings new ways of learning and expressing ourselves. Take a look at our week:
4th Graders
As you can see the children are very engaged in their learning. We have begun writing personal narratives. The students feel right at home in choosing where they want to work. They have the bean bags, the learning commons, or even at their tables in the classroom. After a quick mini lesson for the day, they go right to the spot of their choice and let their writing begin.
You can see that some choose to work alone, and others with their writing partners. Wherever they go, there are always great conversations about their pieces, especially during the revising and editing times.
Class Dojo keeps all of the students on task and engaged. They love to watch the video and then discuss the lesson it teaches for that particular video. We have had topics such as not giving up, getting motivated and having the right mindset. After each video, there are discussion questions. This is all student led. It is a time when I can step back and let the children have the conversations based on what the video showed. I choose 1 student a day to lead the conversation. This develops into excellent discussion times.
The intensity of some of these student led discussions is amazing. It is a time of reflecting on how they can change their mindset and do better each and every day. I am so glad that I started using Class Dojo. The 3 children with the highest points at the end of the day get some type of reward.
We have some prospective producers in our 4th grade. The children in Mrs. D'Amico's class just finished recording their book reviews of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and presented the videos to their classmates. Very unique and expressive talent. They did a great job and hope to do more projects like this.
We have begun a new program called Words Their Way. It is a program that will reinforce spelling patterns and word recognition. The children will be placed in groups based on a benchmark assessment they were given. Each week they will have a new set of words and will do various activities with them. They will take their words home, along with their notebooks, if they do not finish the work in school. The children will sort their words, study their words and be tested on them.
5th Graders:
As you can see, the fifth graders are up and running on the Summit Platform. They are engaged in their note taking, reading various articles and watching certain videos that will prepare them for their upcoming project of Comparing and Contrasting Stories. They should have already chosen their 2 short stories and reading them in order to complete this upcoming task. You can see that many of them are independently working or with my guidance. Each student works at their pace and turn in various assignments at different times.
We are also continuing with the book titled Crash. Most of it is being read in small groups, while others decide that they want to read it silently on their own. We also listen to it on You Tube for those that prefer it read to them. Many choices are given to them with the opportunities to be successful.
Halloween Safety
Office Jay held a Halloween Safety assembly on Friday with the entire school. He talked about the many safety precautions they should take before heading out on Halloween night. They each were given a treat bag at the end of the day.
What a week!
I hope everyone enjoys their night on Halloween and a friendly reminder: Please do not send in your child with a costume on Thursday. Many have been asking, but we do not allow them to get into their costume. Also, do not send in candy for snack time. We have many children with allergies and do not want to have anyone have some sort of reaction. Thank you
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