We've Moved!

In order to comply with my school district, our classroom blog has moved to a new location - http://www.room241.blog.greenville.k12.sc.us/.  If you subscribe to this rss feed, nothing will change.  You will continue to receive my updates without any interruption.  If you came to this site via another link, please visit us at our new location.  We'd love for you to see what's going on in Room 241.  If you have any questions, feel free to email me at ghbrown@greenville.k12.sc.us. 

Wordplay Reflections

When we finished our writers' workshop study on wordplay, I asked the kids to reflect on the experience.  I always enjoy hearing about what they learned and enjoyed.  Here are a few of their comments...

Wordplay taught me that it can be fun to write.  It's not hard to do, but it's not easy, either.
-  Josh

You don't have to be afraid of writing.
-  KP

At first, I wasn't sure if the wordplay unit would be as fun as the others.  But at the end of the unit, I was sad it ended.
-  Annika

If you're writing something, it doesn't have to be great the first time because you can go back and change it.  My attitudes changed because now I'm not afraid of playing with words.  By afraid, I mean I'm not afraid to say or try what comes to my mind.
-  Hannah

I learned that I can make something, and my friend can build off that idea and make it better.
-  Ricky

Wordplay taught me that writing doesn't always have to be serious.  It can also be funny.
-  Millie Hallman

I enjoyed share time the most because you get to hear people's creations.  Then you can learn from other people, laugh, and make others laugh! 
-  CJ

Studycast - Light Energy

Before you listen, be warned.  This is a studycast I made for last year's class.  The material is all the same, but the questions on the study guide may be in slightly different order.  Click here if you'd like to listen.   If you have any questions, just leave a comment below or send me an email.  Good luck!

New Reading Partners

As we began our new unit of study focused on nonfiction reading, we decided to change up reading partners.  Some of our partnerships from the beginning of the year had been outgrown, and so it was time to interview each other again.  I am so impressed with the seriousness our kids bring to this exercise.  They know themselves well as readers, and they really want to find a friend who shares similar interests and books.  Here is a short clip of our kids in action...

Camp Thunderbird Memories

When we came back from Camp Thunderbird, I asked each child to tell me about his or her favorite memory from camp.  Don't worry - it's a short video.  Each child gives a 1-2 sentence summary about what they loved most.  I'm always fascinated about what our kids bring back from camp.  There are lots of fun memories! 

Camp Thunderbird

Once again, I want to apologize for not posting these videos sooner.  Here are some highlights from our trip to Camp Thunderbird.  I created 3 different videos - Zipline/Tower, Wacky Olympics, and Classes.  The Zipline and Tower are always two of my favorites - I love to see the kids face their fears and overcome obstacles.  You will laugh out loud when you see our kids dancing away at the Wacky Olympics.  There's one particular clip of Ricky that makes me smile every time - he dances with pure joy.  And I love to see our kids canoe.  Many of them have never been out on the water like this before, and I love to watch them experience this for the first time.  I hope these videos give all of our parents an idea of the incredible fun we had at camp. 

Narrative Writing Celebration

As you can see, I am WAY behind on my posting.  Here is some video from our narrative writing celebration that happened early in November.  Instead of having each child share his or her piece aloud, we had more of a "museum walk."  Parents and other students were able to roam around the room and hear different authors share their work.  Post-it notes were available on every table so we could respond to the author's writing.  Our parents were an incredible audience - each child felt celebrated. 

And please don't worry - that's not blood, cuts, or bruises that you see on our kids.  Since we are an arts magnet school, students participate in drama study once a week.  This week's lesson dealt with theater paint.  So everyone was able to paint their own "wounds" (which the kids loved!). 

Jokes and Hink Pinks

On another day of our wordplay study, we learned how to write jokes.  We actually came up with 6 different strategies for joke writing!  We simply studied a variety of jokes, and then we hypothesized how the writer would have gone about writing the joke.  We did some shared writing, and then I sent the kids off to write their own.  On yet another day of wordplay, we learned to write hink pinks.  Hink Pinks are riddles in which the answer contains 2 rhyming words (hink pinks have one syllable and hinky pinkies have two syllables).  I had a minute to capture some of their jokes and hink pinks at the end of the day.  Hope you enjoy!

Wordplay with Songs

We spent a week and a half playing with words during our writer's workshop.  Our goal was to have fun with words - to experiment and be creative.  One day we focused on writing songs.  Many kids took a familiar tune and then wrote their own words to the songs.  I was very impressed our kids' creativity - they were true risk takers! 

Studycast - Social Studies Chapter 5

Click here to listen to our studycast for our upcoming Chapter 5 Social Studies test.  You can download the studycast to your computer by right-clicking the link and choosing "Save As."  You can also find this studycast on iTunes - see the sidebar to the right for the link.  The study guide came home on Monday, November 15 and the test is this Friday, November 19.  If you have any questions about the material, leave a comment below this post or send me an email.  Good luck!