Reading Torch

         

Our Flat Friends

    Students are loving the flat people projects that have been rolling in.  Oh the places we have traveled already...

Paper Goods STEM projects

Make something from paper goods was the challenge for March.  Students got creative and made, planes, boats, Barbie dressers, and many other cool items.  What fun it is to think outside the box.      

Meeting Larkin

The students loved meeting Larkin, Mrs. Bank's leader dog in training.  Larkin will be in our classroom the remainder of the year learning the norms of the classroom.  I am sure that you will hear all about Larkin. 

    

Constellation replication

What can you spot in the night sky?  Students worked independently to make their representation of Canis Major, Orion or the Big Dipper using toothpicks and mini marshmallows.  Students loved wrapping up the unit with this activity and asking their peers to guess their constellations.  

Sky Guide is an amazing app to extend the learning beyond the classroom.  There is a free version and a pay version.    



        

Phases of the Moon

4 Oreo cookies, tooth picks and a visual is what these students used to help model the phases of the moon.  A few groups noticed that the phases each have an opposite phase and divided and conquered the task that way.  Those groups were able to complete the task rather quickly and accurately.    Some groups had several duplicates of phases and the students realized the value of communication and listening to their peers.   



         

Revising our thinking about the Earth, Sun and Moon

After our unit in CKLA on Astronomy, we explored with Science to help us better make sense of this new learning.  Students used the same materials as they did earlier in the unit and they were asked to use the models to demonstrate their understanding, revise their initial thinking of the relationship of the Earth, Sun, Moon, or form questions about their thinking.  They were shocked at how much knowledge they gained and how using actual models helped them see exactly what is happening when our naked eye cannot.  

      

Data collection and representation

Students are learning to make sense of problems in math and persevering in solving them by organizing, representing and interpreting data from their peers.  Students are exploring raw data in the classroom, thinking about what they think they know from the data, how to organize it in a way that makes sense to them and others and ask and answer questions about it.  Over the next two weeks students will come up with a survey question, make a plan for collecting the data, organize it, represent it and interpret the data.  Students will share their findings with their peers, write equations to match their findings and answer questions their peers have about the findings.


   

Hallway Read In

Here are a few photos from Tuesday's kick off event, the hallway read in.  Thank you to all the parents that joined us.  The students loved this and keep talking about how amazing it was that more than 500 people in one place were all doing the same thing, reading!