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!

The Surprise of My Life

Last week I had the surprise of my life.  Our school was all geared up for a visit from our state superintendent, and our entire school gathered in the gym to hear him speak.  But Dr. Rex only spoke for a moment when he began introducing a man named Lowell Milken.  Mr. Milken took the stage and began speaking about the difference that teachers make in the lives of children.  After a few minutes or so, the entire Stone staff realized that this was not what we first imagined.  Mr. Milken was here to recognize and celebrate a teacher with a national Milken Educator Award.  

I was completely stunned when my name was called.  I am surrounded by incredible teachers who give their all to their students - day in and day out.  I am just one of many teachers in my school, district, and state who do what's right for children each day.  Thank you to my Stone Academy family and our wonderful school district for the support and leadership they provide.  Thank you to the Milken Foundation for celebrating teachers all across the nation.  It is an incredible honor to be part of the Milken family.  Here is a video clip and some photos from this special day.

Fraction Games

I love learning about fractions.  We play these wonderful games that give kids an excellent conceptual understanding of what fractions are and how they relate to each other.  By playing these games, our kids naturally learn how to compare fractions and how to find equivalency.  I remember at the end of last year, my students and I were discussing a problem related to fractions.  Several of my students told me that they instantly began visualizing our fraction kits and the games we played earlier in the year.  These fraction games stick with the kids (and they have blast playing them, too!). 

Fraction games

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What Can Light Shine Through?

We asked ourselves this question the other day.  We then spent some time shining our flashlights on lots of different objects, which led to some interesting conversations.  We found some objects that appeared to have translucent and transparent parts, leading us to think about objects in our home that may contain elements of both.  This investigation also led us to new questions.  Is colored glass translucent?  Or is it just colored transparency?  Does colored glass "block" light like other translucent objects?  Or does it just allow certain colors to go through?  Great questions!

Opaque, transparent, translucent

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Making Arrays

In order to gain a better understanding of the relationship between multiplication and division, we began studying arrays.  We looked at them in different ways and learned to see the multiplication and division facts they could represent.  In this activity, each team of students created an array with objects in the classroom.  Then they visited other teams' arrays and discussed the fact family they saw.  Students took along their white boards and wrote down the facts they discussed. 

Making arrays

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