Living Together Differently

During the first week of school, I asked the kids - What does it mean to "live together differently?"  Some kids thought it referred to the fact that we're all different, yet we all have to get along.  Others thought it referred to the idea that our classroom would be a different place - a place where we would learn and live together in different ways.  They're both right.  In order to explore this idea more fully, we read picture books each day that spoke to this idea of "living together differently."  After sharing each book, we held a discussion and came up with several big ideas we learned.  We came up with nearly a hundred ideas, but the following video shares our top 24 ideas we learned about how we live together differently in Room 241...

Our First Week

Our first week was filled with fun activities.  Here are our kids talking about their favorite parts of our first week together...

Hopes and Dreams

I used to start off the school year explaining my rules to the class.  But for the past two years, I've tried something different.  Instead of charging ahead with rules, I ask students to think about their hopes and dreams for the school year.  What do they want to accomplish this year?  It has to be a goal that is realistic, achievable, and school related.  Our kids brainstormed LOTS of dreams, and then each one selected one important goal.  We then studied these goals and asked ourselves, "What rules do we need to have in order to help us reach our dreams?"  This brought about a great discussion about the rules we want for our room - not rules for rules' sake - but rules that help us achieve our goals.  I think there's a big difference there.  Below you'll find each student's hope or dream.  We have big goals for this year!

Picture of Hollis Woods - The Dance

After reading Pictures of Hollis Woods, the Dark Eclipse (a book club comprised of Sam, Christopher, Caitlin, Kaitlyn, and Sarah) decided to create a dance to show what they learned from the story.  They chose the song "Lean on Me" because it fit so well with the theme of the story.    After the kids shared their dance with the class, they took questions and comments from the audience.  I was amazed at how each movement and motion was carefully selected to convey a very specific meaning.  These students put a ton of effort and thought into this project.  I used an HD video camera to capture their dance, and I'm also trying out a new video server in hopes of a clearer picture.  I love School Tube (which I've been using all year), but their video quality is not great.  I'm hoping this video will turn out well.  We'd love to hear your comments.  The kids loving hearing what others think.

Book Clubs in Action

What happens when kids meet in a book club?  What does that really look like?  I captured some video clips of the kids in their discussion groups.  The audio is not great, but you can see how each group is thoughtfully discussing and exploring their books.  These books are all independently run - no teacher involved.  We've learned how to stay on topic, focus, make room for everyone's voice, disagree politely, ask "thick" questions, keep the conversation going, and explore ideas deeply.  I just sit back and make observations (but the kids will tell you that I sometimes jump into the conversation...it's hard to resist a good discussion).  I hope this gives you a better idea of what's going on in our readers' workshop right now. 

I See The Good In You

Our class loved Maniac Magee.  It moved to us to laughter and tears.  Jeffery (Maniac Magee) is an incredibly unique character.  Even in the face of difficult circumstances, he's able to see the good in other people.  It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from - Jeffery can find the good in you.  We decided to write a song based on this idea.  Hopefully we'll have it recorded soon so we can share it with you.  This video will share the song lyrics, as well as the responses we had from the book.

Scenes from the American Revolution

To better understand the major events of the American Revolution, teams of students created a series of scenes that showcase the big ideas of each event.  Watching this video would be a great way to review for our upcoming test!

Author Circles

Writing is all about taking risks. This definitely comes into play when writers conference with each other to make improvements on their work. You make yourself vulnerable when you solicit feedback - it may not always be easy to hear another writer's perspective. But in Room 241, we've created a culture where feedback is a natural part of the writing process. In the video below, you'll see kids conferencing with each other about their poetry. You'll hear them talk about the things they love about each other's work, but you'll also hear them share suggestions that will make the writing stronger. Our students are extremely serious about their craft, and I couldn't be prouder.

Writer's Workshop

My blogging was sub-par during the month of January. I really do apologize. I'm going to try and get back in the habit of sitting down and blogging at least once a week. So if you've tuned out during the last month, try to tune back in! During January, we finished up our poetry unit. Here are a few pictures of the kids having conferences with each other.

Video Clips from our Writing Celebration

I was able to capture a few video clips from our Narrative and Word Play Writing Celebration. I especially enjoyed watching the songs and chants...

Narrative and Word Play Celebration

We had a wonderful time sharing our writing during last week's celebration! The kids loved hearing your comments and reactions to their work. Here are some pictures from our time together...

Jada and Sloan - Chant Fanatics!

We're wrapping up our unit on Word Play. The kids have had a wonderful time during this study - we've written jokes, chants, songs, riddles, and even idioms. Each day I would teach strategies for these types of wordplay, and then students would have a "menu" of options to choose from as they worked in writer's workshop. Jada and Sloan really took to chant writing. Chant writing is fun - it has rhythm, rhyme, and is really silly (things kids love). I was proud of the effort and hard work these two students put toward their craft. Here are Jada and Sloan sharing a few of the chants they created...

Stop-Think-React

Good readers are active readers - they're not passive. Good readers constantly ask questions, make predictions, form inferences, and find connections. One way we've been practicing this stance is by using a strategy called "stop-think-react." You do just what it says! In this instance, partners were reading a National Geographic Explorer article together. At different places in the text, they would stop, think, and discuss their ideas with each other. Here are a few of our kids sharing their thinking...

Red Ribbon Day

"Show Good Character - Say No to Drugs!" was our class theme for Red Ribbon Week. We created a banner, and each student dressed up as his or her favorite book character. Our kids marched proudly in the parade, chanting slogans to the top of their lungs! After the parade, we had small group discussions where each student "became" his or her book character and talked to other characters in the class. It was fun to actually be some of the characters we've read about - and it was fun to watch and listen to the other "characters" share about their lives. Here is some video footage from our day together...

Space Facts from Room 241

After returning from our field study to Roper Mountain Science Center, we decided to do a mini-inquiry into space. We had learned so many new interesting facts about our solar system, and had a lot of new questions. We began this inquiry by developing our questions and wonderings. We then spent a lot of time reading through resources, trying to find the answers to our questions. We learned to read "big chunks" at a time; we learned to connect our new learning to our background knowledge; and we learned to stop, think, and reflect about what we're reading. We decided to showcase our new learning with a display on the outside wall of our classroom (it's currently being created). But I also got the video camera out and had a few kids share their learning on film. Hope you enjoy...

Living Together Differently

At the beginning of the year, we asked ourselves, "What does it mean to live together differently?" We have 28 students in our class - each one is unique. How do we expect to work together, get along, and live within these four walls of this very small classroom for almost 7 hours each day? I shared some picture books with the kids that focus in on this issue, and we came up with lots of ideas of how to "live together differently." The video below shows some of the ideas we felt were most important...

Our First Week of School

At the end of our first week, I was able to capture some of our students talking about their favorite parts of our week. Enjoy the video below...

Weather Fronts

Last week, we learned what happens when cold air masses and warm air masses collide. Cold fronts generally are generally heavier and have higher pressure (they don't budge easily). Warm fronts are generally lighter and have lower pressure. When these air masses meet, you're sure to have some interesting weather. The kids created skits to explain their new learning...

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African Dance

Our 4th and 5th graders were able to learn with the Borenya African Drumming and Dance Group during our artist in residence experience last week. The 5th graders learned African drumming while the 4th graders learned African dance. Our class worked extremely hard all week learning and perfecting our dance. I was proud of their focus and hard work! Below is a video of our performance.

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Camp Thunderbird - Part 1

Mrs. Selby (Alex's mom) took some incredible pictures of our kids while we were at Camp Thunderbird. I highly recommend you watch these pictures with your kids - let them tell you all about the activities we participated in - canoeing, camp fire, predator and prey, aquatic ecology, wildlife ecology, living history, hanging out in the cabins, rec time, and dinner time! Be sure to thank Mrs. Selby for sharing these photos with us!

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