Month: September 2019

Hello Everyone!

Hopefully you are following my quick updates on Twitter and receiving email reminders that help you to have a daily sense of what is going on on Division 5! I am enjoying working with our new MACC 4/5 group, and it was a pleasure to speak to parents during the parent-teacher conferences this past week. Thank you to everyone for making the time to come in!

 

Ms. Boroumand, our student teacher, visited us for two days this past week, and she will begin full time on Monday, September 23rd. During the first two weeks, she will be taking over up to 40% of lessons, and then on October 7th, 80%. She and I have been planning together since July, and she has some great activities and learning prepared for everyone! We look forward to collaborating together to complete our unit on SYSTEMS.

Here is a quick update in each subject area of what we are doing!

Socials/Science/Health/Core Competencies:

• We had great discussions about the Universal Systems Model, identifying the goal, input, process, output, and feedback of systems we know of such as school.
• As part of creating our classroom system, we talked about what good group work looks like, and we brainstormed essential agreements we want to have while learning together in Division 5. These will be posted in our room and everyone will sign them to show they agree.
• We began discussing some of the things that are inputs into our SYSTEM of our own body, which lead to good learning and health, such as how much sleep we need, how to use fidgets, taking breaks, and having balance after school.
• We talked about one of the core competency focuses for this unit, personal awareness, and we completed activities on analyzing your personality, talking about differences, and measuring personal space to help us be aware of ourselves and others in our learning community.
• We did body drawings to see what we already know about the internal workings of the human body. Then, we began doing a series of 11 body systems stations such as reading, completing diagrams, taking our heart rate, finding lung capacity, and measuring the digestion system. Packet from these stations is due on Monday, Sept. 23rd unless you talk to Ms. D.
• We watched two science videos to have a better sense of the respiratory, circulatory, digestive, and excretory systems. During the videos, we talked about how to take notes when listening, such as writing down key vocabulary or questions, rather than everything we hear.
• We talked about the core competency critical thinking, as Ms. D often follows up a fun activity with a deeper question designed to create discussion. Everyone was invited to post questions on the Wonderings Board as they come up, so we can discuss!

Math and Systems:

• Everyone took Math Assessments as part of Ms. D’s system to see what everyone knows already and how to best approach curriculum. 
• We discussed systems of measurement, imperial and metric, and talked about decimals and fractions a bit as we converted between different measurements. To apply this knowledge, we measured different parts of the body for all of our classmates to find the average length of shoulder to arm, or hip to foot. Then we had a critical thinking discussion about how we would use this information in real life.
• We did several data gathering activities in the classroom to practice tallying findings, and we discussed how we might display findings in visual ways that help others to better understand the data. During our first week, we made table maps to learn more data about one another, which are displayed in the hallway across from the music room.
• We played probability games such as PIG and SKUNK and discussed the chances of winning, whether there were any strategies to help you win, and how games of chance could be related to being a risk-taker, trying new activities for the first time in real life.
• We played Rock, Paper, Scissors, made tree diagrams of the possible outcomes when playing with a partner, and then compared our experimental and theoretical probability results. We discussed that the larger your sample set, the closer experimental probability gets to theoretical probability.
• Everyone is at different levels in the class with regard to fractions, reducing fractions, division, decimals, and percentages. It is important to know that this is okay, and that as we continue, if some of this is new to you, it will become more clear with practice. Sometimes we will discuss things that provide depth and complexity, and may go above grade level, because sometimes people are ready, need the extra challenge, or even just ask questions about something new and interesting! Some people do know how to do these challenges, but it is okay if you are learning how, too. Be a risk-taker and try something new, and also practice asking questions when you don’t understand, as I am happy to explain! Remember that Ms. D is always assessing according to grade level expectations, and I am often checking in to see if everyone is able to successfully understand and complete math in those areas.
• We used the NY TIMES Learning NetWork Graph of the Week and practiced being critical thinkers through the questions, “What do you notice? What do you wonder?” I invite everyone to look at graphs in the newspaper or online news sources and do this at home, too. We want to understand the different types of graphs, how data can be presented visually, and how to be critical thinkers!

Physical Education:

• We have gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for 30 minutes. Sometimes we will be doing other activities outside, and this may change our gym times.
• We are focusing first on activities about strength, reaction time, and endurance.
• We talked about how to be prepared for gym, wearing the right shoes for running, bringing a water bottle to class every day, and eating breakfast every morning so you have energy!
• We ran sprints and did quick-reaction games involving listening to instructions and passing objects quickly between teammates, all designed to practice reaction time and personal awareness.
• We have been doing planks, stair walks, sit ups, crab walks, bridge poses, and other exercises designed to develop strength.
• We have been doing running designed to practice endurance, and I saw many students doing a great job with this during Terry Fox on Friday! Good work!
• Finally, we have been connecting our activities to our SYSTEMS unit by taking our heart rate, talking about nutrition and sleep, and relating our reaction time games to the parts of the brain and how it functions.

Language Arts and Research:

• Students wrote me a personal letter at the beginning of the year, which provided me with beginning information about writing skills, as well as information about themselves! Thank you for taking the time to write!
• We began working on e-portfolios, and we went over the criteria for a quality reflection, talked about e-portfolio procedures and how we use them for assessment, and learned to post a picture using the iPads. We published our first post by Friday of this last week. For new students, I know this will be a learning experience for our first few posts!
• We set up our journals, which we use instead of lined paper in the classroom to record our notes, thoughts, diagrams, research, and math work. We set up a Table of Contents in the beginning so we can keep track of topics and can use the journal as a reference when we need it!
• Ms. D introduced our first project of The Human Body Corporation! Any time there is a project, an explanation will be provided. On Monday, I also have a rubric to pass out, and we will go over it together. The Corporation is firing body parts, and each student will need to do some research and write a business letter to the Corporation proving why their chosen organ is the most essential to the body!
• When researching online we discussed how to start with websites you know are safe and useful, like www.kidshealth.org, which we have been using for the body stations. Use the search bar at the top (where the magnifying glass is) to search the website for more information. Then, you can use Google to look for more, but avoid websites labeled “Ad”, as well as Wikipedia and ones with .com. We want to have less ads and more information! And we want quality websites. Look for ones ending in .gov, .edu, .net, or .org. Ms. D helped some students to get started. Also, see the Articles of Interest on Ms. D’s blog for some websites, too.
• When recording notes you can use bullet points, not full sentences. Try to put things in your own words, rather than copying. You will better remember what you read, and putting things in your own words means you have to think about what you are reading. Record where you found the information, such as the website name.
• Research and note taking, as well as the whole inquiry process, takes time to learn. Right now we are doing structured inquiry, with specific questions students need to answer from the handout. Our goal is to build skills during each unit that will lead to independent inquiry during the independent project, our last unit of the year.

Art:

• We have talked about mindfulness and how art such as zentangle doodling can help! Ms. D provided everyone with bookmarks to design with zentangles from the series Yoga for the Mind.
• Our next step will be to create a larger zentangle mural together, with focus on mindfulness, personal awareness, collaboration, and different kinds of line. Stay tuned for our mural in the hallway!
• With Ms. Boroumand, we will continue our mindfulness through a personal awareness hexagon hive project and more.
• We are also using our building, design, skit making, writing, and drawing skills to create something that will help explain the path of blood through the heart. This will be a mini project we can work on over the next few weeks when there is time.

Other and Important Dates:

• Students are working away on the xylophones with Ms. Fletcher in music! We meet for music on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
• Bring all your books in on Wednesday mornings, as we have Library every Wednesday after recess.
• No School on Sept. 27th, Pro-D Day.
• Orange Shirt Day Sept. 30th
• Science World Field Trip Notices went out Friday — trip on Oct. 11th!
• No School Oct. 14th Thanksgiving
• We are doing the Student Vote on October 17th! Ms. Boroumand is leading us in some lessons all about government to help us understand the SYSTEM of government before we go to vote.
• Central Park Walking Field Trip on Friday, October 18th
• Book Fair Week of Oct. 21
• Photo Day Oct. 22
• No School Oct. 25th Pro-D Day
• Pumpkin Patch Oct. 28th at school
• Pumpkin Carving, Costume Parade Oct. 31st

More to Come in the Next Update! Stay tuned!