Mid March Update

Renaissance

In the Renaissance Project that we have been working on we have completed two outlines of 2 sources about the Renaissance and 2 sources about 2 famous people, drafted our reports, and received lessons on introductions and conclusions. We also revised for Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice and Sentence Fluency. Then we had peer revision for the same traits, edited for conventions and had peer editing sessions. We added revisions and edits over the weekend and completed the final drafts. You may get to hear some of these at Author's Tea!

Reading

We have had several reading sessions with the assignment to find evidence of descriptive words to help us see authors' word choice and its effects on what we see in our minds.

Weather

We began with the atmosphere and its layers. We investigated effects of sun rays on various places of the earth, and wind- prevailing winds and jet streams. We are now focusing on the lows and highs and air movement.

Math. The groups continue to move through their second books of the year. The current topics are percentages, order of operations and area and perimeter.

Spelling

We are working on units in school.

Flying Deer!

It is coming up on 3/23. Please read the weekly reminders for preparing your children.

Spring Fling is coming up! The flyer went home. Parents can build a flying machine if inspired!

End of February/Beginning of March

The Red Fox Clan began Renaissance Project. Here is the brief outline of the project:

1. Make sure your outlines of the two chapters on the Renaissance are complete

2. Choose two famous people to research

3. Find at least two resources using your local library and or the internet

4. Photocopy and then write the topics in the margins, highlight, and outline (if photocopying isn’t available or you aspire to make a high quality outline straight from reading the book, go for it!)

5. Organize your outlines and determine how many paragraphs you will write and what they will consist of

6. Draft the body of your report

7. Get lessons on writing an introduction and a conclusion, and then write!

8. Self revise ideas, organization, voice, sentence fluency and word choice

9. Peer revise the above mentioned traits

10. Self edit conventions

11. Peer edit conventions

12. Final Draft

Students have been working this past week on outlines, which are due tomorrow, March 9. First drafts are due Monday, March 14. Peer revising and editing will take place in school on Thursday, March 17th and final drafts will be due March 22nd. Red Fox Clanners have chosen some fascinating folks to research. I'm quite excited to see them put their research, outlining and writing process skills to use!

Students completed final drafts of their Weather/Wildlife Reports. Using nces.ed.gov, students created line graphs, bar graphs and pie charts. Using OpenOffice students created tables of their data. Stop by the room and look for our reports hanging on the bright red paper!

We have also begun our investigation of weather at one of the most exciting weather times of the year! We began by watching a discovery video on weather and have had lessons focusing on air and the atmosphere. Students have recorded what they've learned in their Flight Logs, complete with pictures and diagrams.

And... more writing. The Red Fox Clan completed the writing process with their five paragraph essays. As mentioned in the last post, students self and peer edited/revised. They also completed a revision/editing checklist and rated their piece using a rubric. The topics which they assessed were Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency and Conventions.

Mid February Report

Thanks to the snow for taking a break. Here's what we've been up to...

Students underwent almost 2 weeks of a trigger project. Each student chose a behavior or feeling to interrupt (going out on the fire escape and singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" was among the most entertaining) and then applied Nonviolent Communication principles in their Trigger notebook. Students made observations about the inner and outer conditions, wrote down feelings present, looked into what needs might not be being met and finally thought of possible actions they could take or request of others. Students will reflect on this first project and will begin another in March.

In our Renaissance and Leonardo da Vinci studies, students have practiced a form of outlining while reading 3 short chapters. While reading each paragraph, students wrote the main topic in the margin. The children then went back and reread the chapter, this time highlighting, in a pithy and succinct manner, the details that support/represent the main topic. Finally, students then wrote outlines in their Flight Logs. This will prepare them for a research project when we return from break.

This past week we turned our attention to drafting 5 paragraph essays in response to The Phantom Tollbooth and Wood Song. After utilizing a graphic organizer to develop a position and three supporting reasons, students determined the order in which to present their ideas so as to make the most persuasive case. After idea development and organization, Red Fox Clanners drafted their essays and moved on to self editing conventions and revising for sentence fluency and word choice. Students also peer edited and revised the same traits. Children either wrote or typed their final drafts before vacation began. Imbedded throughout the process were lessons on introductions (including their position, supporting reasons, and various strategies to hook the reader), the body, conclusions, sentence fluency and word choice.

The past 2 Fridays we have spent our math time in mixed age groups with a focus on problem solving. Students received a problem solving framework which takes them through a detailed process of gathering information from the word problem, organizing it, picking a strategy to solve the problem, recording their thinking, and then extending their thinking. Word problems are a major component of the Singapore math program, thus these collaborative sessions will serve the students well in becoming stronger problem solvers.

January

Oh January, you came and went without a blog post. You must have been full of many things...

Interspersed with the snow days, we had school! Students spent time reflecting on their goals from the fall, taking standardized tests, and responding to writing prompts. Students read, discussed and answered many questions while reading another literature circle book. Red Foxes read and summarized articles from the newspaper, Positive News, finished their investigation of Julius Caesar and Ancient Rome and finished math units on which they were working. We have had multiple lessons on Nonviolent Communication each week and have begun our first Trigger Project of the year. Students chose a behavior or feeling to interrupt, and I will choose their next trigger in some weeks after they gain familiarity with the practice. We tessellated, contemplated, and finished going through the scientific method in our Weather/Wildlife projects to name a few.

And now here is February...

End of December

Book groups met for the final time on Wednesday. Discussions became deeper as students consciously worked on their listening and sharing skills along with bringing high quality thoughts and questions to the meetings. Themes from the Wood Song discussion included the results of giving oneself over fully to something you love, the love and calmness we feel when we spend time with pets and an exploration of how we are like Gary at times when we want to continue an experience in order to learn more. Themes from The Phantom Tollbooth discussion included sharing an impossible task we will do in our lives, the pitfalls of ignorance (as represented by characters) and the tools of wisdom one can use to overcome ignorance, and finally the idea that boredom is something that one imposes on oneself. Both discussions were full of joy, creativity and life!

We are embarking on our investigation of Leonardo da Vinci's contributions to flight by first learning about Ancient Rome. Students have shown advanced knowledge of Roman Gods and Goddesses, and have begun learning about the rise of Rome, Rome's contributions to today (smooth roads, aqueduct, swimming pools etc.) and Julius Caesar. We will make our way toward the Renaissance in January and attempt to make our own ornithopters.

The Red Fox Clan spent time putting the final touches on the songs they learned for the amazing Solstice Celebration on Wednesday evening. Along with the other children, the Red Fox Clan displayed great levels of love, respect, compassion and leadership throughout the night. What an incredible group of children within an incredible community.

Have a joyful and restful holiday vacation!

Second post of December

The Red Fox Clan dove into the December busyness with a lot on their plate. They continued to practice preparing songs to be sung at next week's Solstice Celebration, as well as practice their technical writing skills in the form of writing directions for games to be played at Saturday's Holiday Fair.

We had most productive book group meetings where students shared their great enthusiasm for the books they are reading as well as their answers to higher level thinking questions. Students used both their answers and their own thoughts and questions as diving boards for discussion. The Wood Song group appreciated Paulsen's passion for learning from dogs and nature and made many connections to their own life experiences. The Phantom Tollbooth group was amused by Juster's writing and discussed how the book represents what lies just under the surface of the real world. The children are already displaying quite exceptional active listening skills, showing each other a great deal of respect and enjoying each other's ideas.

We continued to make our way closer to the last lessons of our first Singapore books in math. Students are enjoying topics ranging from constructing and filling in missing pieces of parallelograms to constructing and investigating the volume of cuboids. Tessellations and reviewing fractions are on deck.

The Beginning of December

The Red Fox Clan delved further into their Weather/Wildlife project, creating frequency tables, bar and line graphs to better represent data. Next week some students will complete pie charts before moving on to writing an analysis, discussion and conclusion.

We began book groups, with one group reading Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth and the other reading Gary Paulsen's Wood Song. Along with answering higher level thinking questions, students are continuing to maintain the practice of recording a thought or question for each section read. Now they are using this practice to start discussions with their peers. Students are practicing the skills of sharing, active listening and rhythm and other intricacies of holding a productive and enjoyable discussion.

To cap of our visit to Ancient Greece, we learned about the aeolipile. This hot water rocket engine, steam engine, and jet engine marked the start of engine invention. We will revisit engines in the world of flight in the spring.

We enjoyed our annual Hanukkah celebration on Friday morning. Latkes, dreidel and stories filled our tummies and hearts. This is a busy time of year! Students will continue with book groups, math, writing, science as well as preparing for the Holiday Fair.