Weather Showcase

Beginning next week we will be showcasing the elementary student's work from our weather unit. They have been learning all about weather and then chose an area they wanted to know more about. Through these topics they inquired, researched and then made visuals. These visuals will be displayed in the sun room and above the cubbies. We invite parents to come in and view what they have learned. This is at anytime during our school day and you're welcome to have your child give you a tour when you come by!

Independent Inquiry

What's due this week?

September 30, 2011

Group 1: Present

Group 2: Notes and Plan

Group 3: Time Management

Group 4: Topic and Questions

The Pi Song SIng Along!

We are wrapping up geometry this week. We have learned about the area and perimeter of squares and rectangles, the area of right triangles, the difference between right, acute, and obtuse triangles and angles, and the circumference and area of circles. Today we learned a song to help us remember how to find circumference and area of circles.

The Pi Song by Katherine Rollins

(Sing to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus”)

The wheels on the bus are measured with pi, Measured with pi, Measured with pi, The circumference of the wheels are measured with pi, Pi times diameter.

The area of the wheels are measured with pi, Measured with pi, Measured with pi, The area of the wheels are measured with pi, Pi times radius squared.

The driver on the bus says “Three-point-one-four”, Three-point-one-four, Three-point-one-four,

The driver on the bus says “Three-point-one-four”, That’s the number of pi.

Reader's Theater

Today in Ms. Flynn's literacy group (Nicole, Reece, Alex, Manny, Alec, Ben, Molly, and Jeannie) we started reader's theater. We did part one of Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief. We discussed how reader's theater is a great way to work together, memorize lines, read aloud, and read with expression. We will be continuing to do reader's theater every week with all different kinds of scripts.

EXPLOSION!

We made volcanoes in Ms. Flynn's science group (Manny, Alex, Alec, Reece, Nicole, Ben, Molly, and guest visitor Isabel). We decided to make smaller volcanoes so that everyone got to contribute more to making one and we had more to explode. We worked in groups of two to build the volcanoes. We also took this time as an opportunity to talk about the scientific method.

Angles-Angles- and more Angles

Mrs. Clifton's Math Group has been working with three different angles found in triangles. Can you identify the three types? Right angle.

Below: Can you see the two angles within this one shape?

Obtuse and acute

obtuse

acute

acute. And isn't she a-cute-y pie!

Students discovered that these angles are found in our natural environment. These photographs were taken by individual students as they were exploring in our classroom. Nice work class!

After exploring angles with protractors and compasses, searching and finding them in our classroom; students practiced their knowledge of angles by playing a computer game. Feel free to check it our here to test your own knowledge and/or play with your child.

Mrs. Clifton's Literacy Group

We celebrated the completion of our Non-Fiction and Punctuation study by sharing and reading our stories to the three preschool classes Friday morning.

Below is a picture of a preschooler who felt inspired to read his own writing piece to us after we read to him. Brandon reading in Ms. Catherin's room.

Katie reading in Ms. Catherine's class.

Lilly reading her story in Ms. Melissa's room.

Rebekah reading in Ms. Melissa's room.

Rachel reading to her younger brother.

Thanks Mystery Readers!

This week we were lucky enough to have TWO mystery readers! On Thursday, Catherine's mom, Lisa, came and read to us. On Friday, Isabel, our former student, came and read to us.

It was great to have guests read to us.

If you are interested in being a mystery reader, contact the elementary teachers.

Do You Know Steve Jenkins?

Our youngest writers have been learning about Steve Jenkins. He is a writer and an illustrator! This in turn, has inspired beautiful illustrations followed by wonderful stories! The students started their study by reading as many books as we could find written by Steve Jenkins. Then they found his website to watch how he creates his illustrations.

He starts by drawing his pictures and then fills in the pictures using fabric, paper with texture, or anything that would look like the real animal.

From these pictures students have spent time writing about them in their draft books. Below are a few example:

There will be more to come!

Enjoying the Beautiful Weather!

It was hard to resist the wonderful weather today. Recess was enjoyable for everyone. All different ages integrated and played together on the playground. A majority of the class worked on building a sand mountain, but not everyone. Other games involved playing tag, cats, or doctor.

Independet Inquiry this Week

Week 3

Friday, September 23

What's Due?

Group 1: Notes and Plan

Group 2: Time Management

Group 3: Topic and Questions

Group 4: None

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at sccselementary@gmail.com

Non-fiction Wrap Up

Ms. Flynn's group is coming to an end with non-fiction. The kids are working on editing and publishing their non-fiction pieces. We have many different topics that range from dolphins and manatees to pizza and salsa. Everyone is choosing different ways to publish that are as different as the topics chosen: newspaper articles, diaries, through a mask, and more! I cannot wait to read the finished pieces.

What else is going on in literacy?
Spelling: Each student in Ms. Flynn's literacy group received a list of 1200 High Frequency Writing Words. As I go through the list with each child, I highlight the words they spell correctly and circle the words they misspell. After 4 misspelled words have occurred, we create their list with those 4 words. They find the definition of the word, write the word in a sentence and have a peer-given pretest before I retest them. This process is repeated every week

Book Club: We currently have three different book clubs: Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen, Dogsong by Gary Paulsen, and Regarding the Fountain by Kate Klise. Each group is responsible for one reading per week and a discussion. The discussions are currently happening on Wednesdays. Right now, we have decided to keep book club books at school so they are not forgotten at home. If a student is falling behind, we will reconsider.

Editing Checklist: The students are still required to be working on their editing checklist for their writing. In just the first few weeks of school, there has already been tremendous growth! Even though this is a new expectation, it is exciting to watch the kids grow in their writing through their editing.

Natural Disasters Have Hit Ms. Flynn's Science Group!

Ms. Flynn's science group has moved onto Natural Disasters. Each child has chosen a natural disaster to research. They began by choosing a natural disaster and developing questions to research. Questions are expected to change as more knowledge is gained through research. Manny is researching cyclones and within the first five minutes of being on the computer he was excited to share, "Cyclones happen by the ocean in the area around the equator, we learned about the equator during our climate study!" Later this week, we are planning to create a group volcano!

Area is Taking Over!

Geometry with Ms. Flynn has been all about area. We have been looking at area of squares, regular and irregular rectangles, and triangles. We have been doing interactive smart board lessons that the kids have enjoyed. We have done work with Geo-boards. The Geo-boards have given the kids a chance to visually see where area is coming from. Later this week we are moving into area of a circles and volume of 3-D shapes.
You can help your child at home by working on basic multiplication and division facts.

Computers, Area and Perimeter, and Mrs. Clifton's Math Group

Today, students went to this website here to practice their area and perimeter skills. Here at two videos that show students working through the lesson.

Helllooo Punctuation Study!

Mrs. Clifton's literacy group began a new study into Punctuation! We read a book titled, There Are Cats In This Book. We read the book during first focus lesson. During second focus lesson we gathered together to chart our noticings. Students found the author had used question marks, periods, exclamation points, and ellipsis. (Thanks Chase for telling us the name! We were all impressed you knew the name of these infamous ... (dot, dot,dot). We also noticed the author used talk bubbles, had a cover over the cover to hide the cats, and that the story started before the title page. Last, we wondered what P.S. means.

When reading with your child at home...

Have discussions using "noticings" as a way to have conversations about puntuation. Make a list of you want in the book. Feel free to bring it into school to share with the others students.

Enjoy reading while on the hunt for punctuation!

Goodbye Non-Fiction...

Mrs. Clifton's literacy group(Lilly, Rachel G, Rachel E, Chase, Brandon, Eden, Kaylee, Katie, Nadia, Lindy, Rebekah) has concluded our non-fiction genre study. Students are continuing to publish their stories for our sharing to preschool at the end of the week. During our study we focused on two authors. Steve Jenkins and Frank Serafini.

We read many books and charted "noticings" (text structure, language, craft of writing, illustrations, repetitive lines) after we read each book. Here is a list of what they came up with.