Tour of the Planets

As the students in our class began studying the solar system, we wanted to create a project to showcase our new learning. Instead of presenting normal reports, our class decided to create a "Tour of the Planets." We would transform our classroom into a solar sytem touring spaceship, become tour guides (as well as visiting scientists and resident aliens), and give a first-rate tour of our solar system. Students formed teams and researched their planet, quickly becoming experts. Our students wrote very creative skits for their tour guides - many involving interviews with aliens from each planet. The final part of this project was creating powerpoints (How good can a tour be without incredible visuals?).

We handed out tickets (free, of course) and were extremely pleased with our turnout. Our spaceship was packed! The video below contains pictures from our tour. You may want to pay attention to some of the food served - Milky Ways, Moon pies, and Tang (most of our students didn't get that last joke). Some of our wonderful homeroom moms also carried on the tradition of a Mr. Brown facecake - this may be the best one yet. The Tour of the Planets is one of my favorite projects of the year. It involves research, science, writing, drama, reading, technology, and teamwork.

I was so pleased with the creativity of our kids. Their voices and humor shone through each part of their presentation. We hope you enjoy!

Click To Play

Poetry Friday Podcast - March 14

During our last Poetry Friday, some students decided to publish their poems on a podcast. Click here to listen to a few poems written by the poets of Room 241. You can also download the podcast by right clicking on "here" and choosing "Save Target As." Choose the location on your computer where you want to save the file, and you can download it.

If you like the poems, leave a comment for our poets. I'm sure they'd love to receive your feedback.

Poetry Friday - March 14th

We had another wonderful poetry Friday on March 14th. We had kids reading poetry, writing poetry, and publishing poetry. We created another class poem where several students contributed. Enjoy!

Nature's Way
The thick green grass beneath my toes
Walking,
Walking towards...
The oak tree.
I see the Great Lake behind Old Oak.
The sun is shining and smiling down on me!
The silent wind whooshing through my hair
whoosh
whoosh
whoosh
Birds flying above me
Squirrels nickering, grabbing, darting away from me!
I feel something I have never felt before
wondering
wondering
what could it be?
It's a wonderful, excellent feeling
As I walk through the field
I feel the leaves trickling my back
The wind wrapping me, keeping
that soft breeze that is familiar on me.
I hear the sound that the beautiful animals make
I smell the scent of the crisp
crisp
crisp air
I twirl while listening to
nature's way of communication

Studycast - Social Studies Chapter 9

Click here to listen to a studycast for Social Studies Chapter 9. The test is Monday, March 17th. The study guide came home last week, but if you need an extra copy, you can download one from the classroom website's Homework page. There's a link on the blog's sidebar.

Please feel free to leave comments to this posting. What are your questions? Did the studycast help? What can I do to improve? Enjoy!

Solar System Studycast

Click here to listen to a studycast on the solar system. If you want to download the studycast to your computer, right click on "here" and choose "Save Target As." You can then choose the folder where you want to save it.

The class test will be Friday, March 14th. There is a lot of material covered in this test, so don't wait until the last minute to study! You can also use your science textbook and science notebook to review concepts. The study guide came home on Thursday, March 6th. If you need an extra copy, you can access the study guide to the test by clicking here. This link will take you to the Homework page on our classroom website.

If you used the studycast, leave a comment below. What did you like? What do I need to change? Your feedback is appreciated.

Poetry Friday - February 29

This is what it looked like in our classroom this morning. This large group of students were huddled around the board creating a shared poem together. It was really fun for me to see this large group of students collaborate, compromise, brainstorm, and write together. They filled up one chart paper, and wanted another! I started the poem with the line "I couldn't believe what I was seeing," and I didn't know where the students would take it. Here is where it went...

I couldn't believe what I was seeing
a dark scary shadow seemed to float across the room
AHHH!
It's coming closer, closer, closer
Until I feel it rub against my skin!
I don't dare to open my eyes
but, I did!
I see
Nothing
Just nothing
The dark shadow seems
to creep behind me, but I can't see it
but I can hear it
I turn around swiftly
I crawl on all fours
charging towards the door
I stand
I run
I trip!
The silence of nothing
Just me breathing
The door slams
behind me
I'm locked in!
I see the window
opened and the curtains blowing
and I hear...
the screeching of the door
I hear the wooden floor beneath my feet
The scratching of the wooden door
louder, louder, louder
the yellow and red eyes
looking at
ME!
They disappeared
I can't move
frozen
hoping it's something else!
a switch turning
sounds like the bedroom doorknob!
I turn around
The door is opened
I stop
stare
and look!
I see it!

Isn't that scary?! Even though it is a scary poem (not my favorite genre), the kids did a terrific job using imagery and telling the events in a step-by-step fashion. While this group huddled around the board, other students were posting poetry to think.com, reading poetry with a friend, or writing poetry with a friend. Poetry Fridays are quickly becoming a favorite activity for our class. I love it when the students walk in and say (in a sing-song way), "Yeah! It's Poetry Friday!"

Room 241 Newscast - February 25, 2008

Here's a short newscast some of our students put together. We hope you find the update useful and informative. Leave us a comment with your thoughts.

Click To Play

Poetry Friday!

Even though our study of poetry is over, we don't want it to leave our lives. So we've started having Poetry Fridays. Instead of having class meeting and read aloud on Friday morning, we spend time simply enjoying poetry. Students can read poetry by themselves or with a friend, write poetry, contribute to the poetry project on think.com, or contribute to the class poem. We just spend our first thirty minutes of the day enjoying poems! It's so rewarding for me as a teacher to see our kids living poetic lives.

Taurus is enjoying a poetry book by Jack Prelutsky.

Justin is publshing one of his poems on think.com. Our poetry project on this site allows our students to publish poems and receive feedback on their writing. Many students just enjoy visiting this project to read their classmates' work.

Naomi and Amy are contributing to our class poem. Each student could add one line to the poem. Here is the final draft:

The light casts small shadows across the floor
A faint sound of music flows across the room
The light shines down upon everyone
The sun sets in my eyes
It wakes me in my sleep
I rise from my bed, wiggle my toes, and think about the day ahead
I feel the cold winter floor on my toes and feet
I glide down the wooden stairs
and print my face in the glass-framed window
I never thought I'd see this but it's
snowing
I saw a white blanket of snow cover the field
I could smell the crisp ginger cookies and hot chocolate
I love cold winter days!

We invite you to experience Poetry Fridays with us. How can you bring poetry into your life on a Friday? Leave us a comment - we'd love to know your thoughts about Poetry Friday!

What's the Chance?

We've had a lot of fun this week exploring probability during math workshop. We started the week throwing wadded-up pieces of paper in the trashcan (you don't get to do that too often in school, do you?). We found you are certain to hit the trashcan from 3 cm away, likely to hit the trashcan from 150 cm away, unlikely to hit the trashcan from 250 or 350 cm away, and it's nearly impossible to hit the trashcan from 6m away with your eyes closed.

Our second activity this week dealt with dice. We posed the question: If you roll two dice and add them together, what sum will you most likely roll? There were a variety of predictions to this exploration, and most of us were surprised by what we found. Partners worked together to roll dice and record their results. We found that 6,7,8 were rolled most often, while 1,2,3,10,11,12 were not rolled as frequently. After we studied our results, Atticus shed some insight into why 6,7,8 may be rolled more often. Atticus proposed that 6,7,8 had more combinations for sums than the other numbers. We tested out his results, and we found out he was right! The sum of 7 has six possible combinations. You're more likely to roll a sum of 7 than any other sum. Isn't that interesting?

Our last probability activity for the week involved pulling colored cubes from a bag. The students already knew that if you put 2 blues and 2 whites into a bag and pulled one, you would have a 50-50 chance. So...we posed a new problem. What if you pulled 2 cubes at once? What combinations and chances would you pull? Most students' predictions followed one of the following:

Blue-Blue - 25%
White-White - 25%
Blue-White -50%

OR...

Blue-Blue - 33%
White-White - 33%
Blue-White - 33%

After conducting the exploration, we found out all our predictions were wrong! Our results were close to this:

Blue-Blue - 15%
White-White - 15%
Blue-White - 70%

We started thinking about the possible combinations, and we found that there was only one combination for Blue-Blue, one combination for White-White, but 4 combinations for Blue-White. Therefore, 4 of the possible 6 combinations would produce a Blue-White - which is 66% of the time. WOW!

But we didn't end there. We posed a new problem...What would happen if we put 3 blues and 1 white in the bag? We quickly predicted that we would be more likely to pull Blue-Blue than Blue-White. That would make sense, right? But our results of the experiment proved our prediction wrong once again! Our results gave us an equally likely chance to pull Blue-Blue as Blue-White. Can you figure out why? (Hint: Think about all the possible combinations.) I challenge you to pose NEW problems to this exploration and see what you can find out. Have fun!

Studycast - Social Studies Chapter 8

Click here to listen to our first ever studycast! This is a podcast that will help you study (hence the name, studycast). Hopefully this studycast will give you some needed tips for studying and understanding the material in Chapter 8. Please leave me some feedback if you used this podcast (just click on the word "Comment" below and you can leave a message). If this is something you'd like me to do for each chapter, I can possibly do that. What parts were helpful? What do I need to do differently? Let me know what you think.