Mystery Rocks

How do scientists observe?  We had used our eyes to carefully describe rocks that we found at school last week.  This time we used touch to describe mystery rocks that we couldn't see. We used words to describe the texture and shape of the rocks.  Then we drew what we thought the rocks looked like.  Finally we got to take them out of the bag.  The rocks were both pieces of shale found near Lake Champlain.  One of the rocks felt smooth and the other rock felt rough.  Why were they different if they were the same type of rock? Now we made hypotheses like scientists do.  Perhaps one rock got pushed by water.  Maybe one rock got scratched by sand.  

"Let's Talk Math"

We post a "core math idea" for the students to know our focus in math.  Explaining a core math idea is part of our "best practices" for math instruction that all teachers are using in our school district.

In addition, as part of the best practices methods, the children are learning how to use "habits of mind" and "habits of interaction" in math and other subjects too.  We will highlight a few of these here.

Two habits of mind the children worked on in this math lesson were:
to "make sense" of a problem
to "justify" or prove their thinking.

And, the habits of interaction they used were:
private reasoning time
explain my thinking
listen to understand

The children practiced all of these skills playing a domino game.  Each child chose a domino and had private think time to figure out how many dots were on the domino.  Then one child asked his/her partner, "What is your number and how do you know?"  The first child listened to understand his/her partner's thinking and then had the chance to explain his/her thinking.  They worked together to figure out which domino had more dots.  Then the player with the higher number won the 2 dominoes (a game you can also play at home).  All of this talk was to help the children verbalize and thus internalize addition strategies.

Wooly Bear Caterpillar

We had some fuzzy, little guests in class this week. We did a little research together and learned some interesting facts about this commonly seen caterpillar.

The Wooly Bear Caterpillar emerges from an egg in the fall. (That is why we seem to find them everywhere right now.) Then, it literally freezes solid through the winter. It thaws out in spring and emerges to pupate. It then transforms into an Isabella Tiger Moth and has only days to find a mate!

Writing, writing, writing!!

We have been writing up a storm this week!  The focus of our writing has been all about feelings. After a read aloud such as The Very Cranky Bear or Wemberly Worried, we thought about times when we feel worried, cranky, happy or mad. The our writers got busy putting their thoughts on paper.

We also had fun creating an imaginary scene using our favorite crayon color....inspired by Harold and the Purple Crayon!

Dominoes are an excellent way to practice math facts! in class this week we learned how to play the classic game. In the coming days, we will be using dominoes to learn some simple addition strategies.

Math and more!

Each Tuesday we are fortunate to have two 5th grade helpers work with us during math. It is a great leadership opportunity for the 5th grader, and our young mathematicians gain a strong role model to emulate.

During math this week we focused on estimating lengths and then measuring with Popsicle sticks. Students learned to "change their thinking" ( adjust their estimate) based upon previous measurements and benchmarks.

During writer's workshop we read books about autumn and then wrote about our own observations as the season changes.

Rocks!

We are beginning a study about rocks and soil.  We went outside to find our own rocks.  After some careful decision making, everyone had 1 special rock.  We examined our rocks, and then shared our observations with a partner.  Then we sketched our rocks and wrote words to describe the texture, shape and color of our rocks.  Finally, we each took a picture of our rocks and made a post about our rocks.

Citizens

One of our themes this year is learning what is means to be a citizen.  We have discussed what groups we are a part of: family, classroom, team, school, town, state, country, world.  Throughout the year we will learn about our roles and responsibilities in these communities.  We began this theme by brainstorming ideas about how to feel safe and happy in our classroom community so that we can learn. We combined our many ideas to a list of 4 class rules that we all agreed upon and signed.  Then we talked about how we all may make mistakes and what the consequences for those decisions will be.  Our work is posted in the room and shown for you below.

We had a unique opportunity to meet a citizen from another community far, far away: New Zealand!  Jason is a professor of education in Auckland and was visiting UVM.  He stopped by Shelburne to see one of his former students, Haley Blair, our new 1st grade teacher.  We were invited to join Miss Blair's class to learn about New Zealand.  Jason showed us a video of 2 of his sons singing a popular Maori song.  The Maori are the native people of New Zealand.  Jason taught us this song with movements. We had so much fun and couldn't stop singing and moving as we headed out to recess.