Fourth and Fifth Grade:
Wow! There was a lot of activity in class this week. The day began with a challenging logic puzzle where the students had to apply their critical thinking skills through the process of convergent thinking. (Fourth graders completed a puzzle called "Indigestion," which by the time they solved it, had given them indigestion. Fifth graders worked a St. Patrick's Day Logic Puzzle.) The day continued with the students creating their own paper shark, coloring and cutting out the brain, and labeling the parts and functions to place on the paper shark. This paper dissection is an involved activity and will take several weeks to complete all the major shark systems.
Students took the Internal Features quiz. Students who scored below 90% must retake the quiz next week.
We watched a story called The Great White Man Eating Shark. It involved a young man who had shark-like features and pretended to be a shark by strapping a dorsal fin to his back, so he could swim by himself in the cove. The story was a hook for a creative activity. Students brainstormed features of a shark, such as denticles, an acute sense of smell, and a lateral line, and then selected one feature to create a t-chart of the advantages and disadvantages. Students were then given a choice of writing a personal narrative story or creating a minimum of a 6-panel cartoon using this feature as the basis of their story. Most students got their first draft or storyboard completed in class.
Students continued to learn Hands on Equations. New Target students worked with Mrs. Hutto getting acquainted with the program.
Homework: Finish the shark-like human fictional narrative or 6-panel (or more) cartoon. Sign and return the research permission letter.
Second and Third Grade
We began our day with a convergent thinking activity, which was quite challenging. Students had to figure out how to get several different animals across the river without them eating each other. We figured it out by bringing one animal across the river twice. It was a difficult challenge, but it opened up our minds to a different way of thinking and a new strategy to use in the future.
3rd Grade Only--Next, we learned what a simile was and read some baseball similes. We began thinking of similes for a river. For example, a river is like a treasure chest. Then, we used our similes to write a poem. Ask your child to remember a few similes they created or share their poem with you.
Third graders are on lesson four of our Hands on Equations program. The students are learning how to remove equal things from each side of the equation to solve for the value of X. Second graders created their own personalized variables (Vinny and Veronica were just two) from a circle or square,complete with details, and used them in some equations. After learning about conventional variables (a, x, y, etc..), they appreciated their simplicity.
We wrapped up or day with an activity called, “Waste Not, Want Not.” In this activity, students were divided into two groups. One group used a lot of water doing daily activities. The second group conserved water during the same daily activities. Each student was given a card which told them what to do. For instance, brush your teeth with the water running (add 1 cup-group 1) or turn off the water as you brush your teeth (add 1/2 cup-group 2). The students were able to compare the two amounts of water used from each group and discuss that little things can make a huge difference.
Homework: A Little Cup Will Do It - Conserve water as your brush your teeth each day. Make sure you record how much water you are using. Don’t use more than one cup or 240 ml. Mrs. Shaw's classes will also complete one more macroinvertebrate and decorate their Bug Book.
First Grade:
Are you self smart or people smart? This is the question our first graders explored, with the help of Scaredy Squirrel, a character from a book by Melanie Watt. Scaredy Squirrel only feels safe when he's at home in his nut tree, with his defenses, his emergency kit and his backup plans at the ready. So even though the sun is shining and it's time for a vacation, Scaredy does not want to go to the beach. Unfortunately, there’s something amiss, which puts Scaredy on course to a real beach to acquire a seashell. He has such a good day there, amid the crowd of people, that he forgets his fears and realizes that it is exciting to be with people after all. To explore our Interpersal Intelligences, we tried out a game of Human Checkers. Afterward, we discussed who the leader was, what role each student played in the game, and what worked well in the group. The Intrapersonal Activity was left for the end of the day, as students wrote a reflection about their day, commenting on the easiest, hardest, and most fun part. We then discussed how knowing about your interpersonal and intrapersonal abilities can help you to be successful.
Next, we played Twenty Questions to try and guess what was inside a mystery box. The students guessed that it was a pair of special glasses called Brainfocals. We discussed how the Brainfocals help us to think of many different possible solutions. This is quite different from convergent thinking, where there is one correct answer. We made our own pair of Brainfocals as we listened to a story about Isabel the Inventor. We reviewed the “Way to Divergent Thinking,” which involved coming up with lots of ideas (including wild and zany ones), changing categories, not judging others, piggybacking on the ideas of others, and adding lots of details. To model divergent thinking, as a whole group we brainstormed different things found in a kitchen. Independently, the children brainstormed things related to the word “round” followed by a game of SCRATCH. The children absolutely love this game and it reinforces the elements of divergent thinking (fluency, flexibility, elaboration, and originality). Ask your child how to play this game.
The last activity was called Very Fun Variables and tapped our primary algebraic reasoning. After reviewing the definition of a variable (a symbol that stands for a number), we concluded that it can only stand for one number in any one equation. Using our class number balances, we found values of variables in a number of equations. For example in the equation 18 = z + z, we put weighted number cards on the left side of the balance, adding up to 18 (such as 10 and 8) and tried to find the weighted number card that we could place twice on the right side of the balance (9 and 9). Thus we determined that the variable z stands for 9.
ATTENTION: Students will need to bring in a white t-shirt by Friday, March 30th for a culminating activity on Multiple Intelligences. We will be decorating the t-shirt with fabric paints. If you can assist with this project, please email Mrs. Shaw or Mrs. Hutto. In addition, if you can donate fabric paints, please send them in by next Friday.
Homework: The Great Acorn Collection and Storing Machine. Tape together the two pieces of paper. Invent a machine to gather acorns and take them to Isabel’s hollow near the top of the tree, and draw and label the parts of your invention. Mrs. Shaw's class will also assemble the brainfocals they decorated in class and bring them back to add to their PETS book.
