The day went well.  We played museum for our morning meeting.  We started our formal writing workshop today.  We kicked it off by coming up with topics to write about.  For our personal narratives we focued today on thinking of people we have many memories with.   In addition we focused on small memories instead of big topics.  For math we continued fraction work.  In science we are getting ready to do our culminating invasive species poster project which will display information about the invasive species in our area and what to do about them.  

It's a short week.  Today we worked on evaluating literary elements in Esperanza Rising.  We are going to finish reading it tonight and talk about potential projects tomorrow.  We worked on our multi digit division problems and how to check using multiplication.  In Hatchet, Brian is figuring out how to mentally prepare for his time in the forest.  We took some time and learned about the first thanksgiving through a variety of media including: Podcasts, art, articles, documentaries and a simulation game.

Fiction day 14. Tomorrow is the last day. Of book groups

SS We continued woke on our UDHR posters. We also did a peer review of them.

Math. Still working on masterig multi digit multiplication so we dot make silly mistakes.

RAL. Hansel and Gretel saved the kingdom and we finished the book.

SCi. Worked on our csap blog post 3 where we detailed all the data from our feild study last week.

Math: Working on multipying by 2 or more digits.
SS: UDHR posters
SCI: CSAP blog posts about systems
ELA: Book Groups 14
RAL: Gretel and the town slayed the dragon
​

Matt Sacco from the Cayuga Nature Center to talk about our upcoming field trip.  We talked about challenge by choice and proper attire for the trip.  The attire is a jacket, sneakers, and pants.  We continued our work on our literature circles and you can see the progress on either Edmodo (if you have joined) or through their website.  

Aislyn from Cornell Cooperative Extension came by today to offer a program where we can build forts on Caroline Campus one day a week for the next 6 weeks.  She will be starting next week and permission slips will be on their way tomorrow.  Lunch slips will also be on their way tomorrow if you want your child to buy a sack lunch for our CNC trip in 2 weeks.  We read our own books, did review for math, and defeated the evil Trunchbull in Matilda.  We also did a pre-assessment for ELA by writing an essay to monitor our growth over the year.

We started off the day by going outside for a group game since the weather would not permit us to go outside later in the day.  We read to ourselves and then worked on punctuation.  Our goal is to ALWAYS have ending punctuation and capitals in all of our sentences.  In math we worked on factor trees.  Matilda is making a genius plan to seek revenge on the Trunchbull.  For science we worked on main ideas and details for decomposers and scavengers.

We had a great Monday.  We set up our controlled experiments for determining the best conditions for growing certain crops.  We are testing salinity for one experiment and volume of water for another.  For math we worked on multiples and factors.  We had Bill from the Floating Classroom come in and introduce some elements of our CSAP project.  Unfortunately he had to leave early and our presentation was cut short.  

We had extra recess at the end of the day.  We stayed out after our fire drill where we received Popsicles from Mrs. Grover.  In math we split and reviewed approximation.  We also had library where we learned about what to share and not share on the internet.  

We worked some more on our Genius Hour blogs, and they are coming along.  In math we reviewed and practiced the last few day's materials and I'm feeling confident about our learning.  More capitalization practice to ensure we master this skill.  Played a few cooperative games with a giant ball this morning for Morning Meeting.  We also received 3 compliments about how well behaved we are in the hallways and in specials.

For math we worked on Estimation and its many applications in life.  Reading is still self choice and is going quite well.  During our Science time we looked at various food webs and built our own food chains/webs with organism cards that we sorted and grouped.  Capitalization is also a skill we are working on so that everyone has this basic skill down pat.

My good friend Lee came by today and taught us about DSRP. It's a thinking strategy where you look at systems and their parts, relationships and distinctions. We had a lot of fun with his activity. We leaned approximation in math and worked in outlines in ELA.

We discussed systems theory today.  We discovered and came to the conclusion that everything is a system, and also a part of a larger system.  We took the Pre_assessment for math which will help us see our growth over the year.  Starting tomorrow we will be separating into smaller math groups to have math instruction tailored to our particular needs and pacing.  Website creation started today!  We created the skeleton of our website and will now start populating them with our new learning.  Scholastic Book Club information went home today.

Today we created folders and organized our Google Drive accounts.  We also added bookmarks we will use throughout the year.  Since we have been so well behaved this week, we got an additional 20 minutes of recess.  We worked on a lengthy real world word problem about whether the all you can eat pasta bowl at Olive Garden is a worthwhile deal.  For ELA, we read out chapter books, and read a Scholastic News. We debated over the length of the school day.  What a fabulous first week of school!.

Another awesome day. We went to the library and picked out chapter books to read at ELA time. We ended up reading in there for 45 minutes. After that we had a very honest an open discussion about how everyone has strengths and weaknesses. We witnessed a lot bravery from many students who admitted to struggles. We discussed growth mindset and how we always need to be improving and never give up in academics or life. For math we made "dollar words". Continued Matilda and our genius hour projects. Lastly, we discussed a few daily procedures of the classroom.

We talked A LOT.  We discussed chromebooks and internet saftey.  WE looked at Edmodo and other web tools like DIY.  We figured out how much is spent on our education each day.  it;s 100 dollars a day per kid! We had PE and learned about personal space.  The students were absolutely fabulous and I am super excited about this year.  

Sorry it's been a short time since we blogged. I've been out a bit with interviews and testing corrections. Today we presented our dream bedroom projects for math class. In ELA we finished up Wrinkle in Time. We started cleaning up the room and packing it up. Eva hosted a cooking class where we made chocolate covered marshmallows. For science, Inner taught us about the galaxies beyond our own.

Quite a different day today. We started our Health unit in puberty today. We led it off with a discovery channel video about the changes that come about with puberty. During the movie I provided a digital way for students to ask questions anonymously. Along with these questions and talkin points we successfully learned a lot about puberty without much awkwardness. After the video we made pizza as part of Sofia's baking class. After lunch we made hummingbird food. The students then had the option of learning more about puberty with some videos I provided or work on their math projects.

Tomorrow's my birthday so we celebrated today. I had a sub the first half of the day so the students worked in their math projects and read Wrinkle in Time. The last half of the day we did a science experiment with mentos an coke. Then we played a game of mafia and celebrated my birthday with donuts and cookies from Mollie, Cody, and Casey. To end the day we took our robots we made a few weeks ago to the kindergarteners. They loved the robots. I'm so grateful for all the gifts and live from the students. You guys rock.

It was Nikolai's birthday and we made sure it was a good one. In art we worked on our street art projects and added some graphics to the outside of the school. We did day 2 of the district ELA test. Luckily it was a shorter segment. Tomorrow they will be writing the essay. We finished up the "shopping" section of our math project. Tomorrow the math will really start to roll. Perrin didn't get to teach coding today because of the test. We read chapter 6 of wrinkle in time. We had an extra long recess to celebrate Nikolai's birthday. After we ate his phenomenal homemade cupcakes. At the end of the day we ended our zombie project and they will present tomorrow.

What a great start to the week. Perrin had quite a day. He started teaching his python computer coding class and the orchestra performed a piece he composed himself. We started our new culminating math project. It is to design our own dream bedrooms. This 2 week project will encompass all of the math curriculum we learned this year. We did a survey to help me be a better teacher for next year. After lunch we helped set up for the concert and played with our k-buddies. We got to listen to the band and orchestra perform. Don't forget district ELA tests are for the next 3 days.

Happy Trails

Cayuga Nature Center = Awesome

Today we reviewed dividing fractions for next weeks district math test. We excitedly started our new book club book A Wrinkle in Time. I started some new features to go along with the book. There are definitions along with pictures that display different objects students aren't likely to be familiar with such as tesseracts. In science we started a new unit about landforms. I wanted to make it more phone so I threw in the element f zombies. The problem to solve is this; if there were a zombie apocalypse what landform would be best and why. They then will explain the landform it's advantages and disadvantages. They also get to include a list of what they would pack in this event.