Red Fox Clanners culminated their Athens/Sparta project with a performance at Big Circle. We finished filming our final scenes in the days before vacation and each travel show will be posted in short segments on the Red Fox Clan's facebook page soon.
Students continue to enthusiastically share their writing several times a week during Author's Share. Along with recording what they work on each day and sharing their drafting, students are adding weekly editing and collecting of misspelled words to their writing rhythm.
On Friday we were visited by Devin Franklin. Red Fox Clanners shared information from the large amount of Wildlife and Weather data recorded over the 6 weeks of Flying Deer. Devin offered students feedback on their presentations. To better represent their findings, students will formally document hypotheses, procedure, observations in the form of frequency tables, line graphs, bar graphs and pie graphs, and discuss their findings and new questions in a conclusion. We will aim to finish this project by mid December. Students have already voiced their plans to test their hypotheses about the relationship between weather and wildlife behavior next spring.
Empty Bowls was a great success, with students cutting vegetables and creating flags that made up the centerpieces. And that soup was delicious. Thank you all for contributing vegetables and your love to raise money to feed people. Enjoy the holiday!
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Week 10
The main task of the week was the continuation of our Athens/Sparta Travel Show Project. Children split up the scenes they previously created and set to writing scripts. After writing in pairs, students collaborated with the other group members in the revision, editing and practicing of the scripts. Costume and props lists were made and students began memorizing their lines. Filming will start on Monday.
We spent two math sessions looking at the massive amount of data we collected over the 6 weeks of Flying Deer. Students created tables including the number of species seen each day, the number of animals seen each day, the number of animals before rainy days, the number of species seen on rainy days and many other variations. We will graph our data in an effort to learn more about how weather affects animals and specific species. On October 20th we saw 54 animals across 18 species!
The Red Fox Clan hopes to share several scenes from the Athens/Sparta Travel Show Project at next week's Big Circle. We hope you can come!
We spent two math sessions looking at the massive amount of data we collected over the 6 weeks of Flying Deer. Students created tables including the number of species seen each day, the number of animals seen each day, the number of animals before rainy days, the number of species seen on rainy days and many other variations. We will graph our data in an effort to learn more about how weather affects animals and specific species. On October 20th we saw 54 animals across 18 species!
The Red Fox Clan hopes to share several scenes from the Athens/Sparta Travel Show Project at next week's Big Circle. We hope you can come!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Eight and Nine
Many thanks go to Ellen Plageman for visiting us on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 26th. She brought many kites that she built over the years and told us of the inspirations that led her to start a kite making business. She sold many, many kites to the Smithsonian. We then walked down to Darrow School and flew several kites. Check out the pictures and Mountain Road's facebook page for video highlights.
The Red Foxes began their investigation of Greece by finding out our names without the many letters of the Alphabet that came from Ancient Greece. Students like JSS JCK RRSR and L FR SS loved their new names. We went on to read Homer's story of the Cyclops and Odysseus and dream up our own Olympic events. Students have now turned their attention to Athens and Sparta, comparing and contrasting the two city states with the aid of a Venn Diagram. Red Foxes have begun the process or writing the scripts of a travel show in which they will try to convince travelers to visit and live in their city. We will produce these shows and video tape them for your enjoyment.
Children have enjoyed moving their attention to free writing. They are practicing writing their own stories and have been doing short "author shares" to give the group a taste of their creation. We will begin weaving in peer revising and weekly editing of grammar and conventions. Real life DOL!
The Red Fox Clan has, over the past two weeks at Flying Deer, amazed me with their accomplishments. The children broke up into small groups on the 27th and put up tarps and created fires in the rain with no adult support. This is a challenge for naturalists of all ages. On the 3rd of November Red Fox Clanners built a 1 minute fire! They planned, organized, and then gathered and lit a match in under 60 seconds and then spent 10 minutes building it up into a roaring fire. Again, this accomplishment is most challenging. But they weren't finished. In the afternoon the other clans came to our site to find the hiding Red Foxes. The children hid, camouflaged with just a tiny bit of them showing, for 30 minutes without moving! Their concentration and passion is most commendable.
The Red Foxes began their investigation of Greece by finding out our names without the many letters of the Alphabet that came from Ancient Greece. Students like JSS JCK RRSR and L FR SS loved their new names. We went on to read Homer's story of the Cyclops and Odysseus and dream up our own Olympic events. Students have now turned their attention to Athens and Sparta, comparing and contrasting the two city states with the aid of a Venn Diagram. Red Foxes have begun the process or writing the scripts of a travel show in which they will try to convince travelers to visit and live in their city. We will produce these shows and video tape them for your enjoyment.
Children have enjoyed moving their attention to free writing. They are practicing writing their own stories and have been doing short "author shares" to give the group a taste of their creation. We will begin weaving in peer revising and weekly editing of grammar and conventions. Real life DOL!
The Red Fox Clan has, over the past two weeks at Flying Deer, amazed me with their accomplishments. The children broke up into small groups on the 27th and put up tarps and created fires in the rain with no adult support. This is a challenge for naturalists of all ages. On the 3rd of November Red Fox Clanners built a 1 minute fire! They planned, organized, and then gathered and lit a match in under 60 seconds and then spent 10 minutes building it up into a roaring fire. Again, this accomplishment is most challenging. But they weren't finished. In the afternoon the other clans came to our site to find the hiding Red Foxes. The children hid, camouflaged with just a tiny bit of them showing, for 30 minutes without moving! Their concentration and passion is most commendable.
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