This Week

Families, below is an overview of what learners are focusing on this week in each subject. 

Reading: Readers are continuing to read their Native American themed book club book. This week their literature journal focuses on setting.

Writing: Each student will complete their Native American region website and their I AM poem iMovie.

Math: Mathematicians are working on reviewing and applying division facts. I will grade the multiplication tests ASAP.

Science: Scientists will be reading articles about various science topics and writing about what they read. This type of research we will have to get used to when we decide our research topic for the year. We will also have a guest speaker on Flamingo Conservation and ecology of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

Social Studies: Students are choosing and researching a Native American topic they will become experts on.

And here is what the teacher is focusing on this week:

WELCOME NOLA ROSE NEWS

This is by far the most important update ever on the Ecoschoolhouse Examiner:  Please welcome Nola Rose Nies to the world!  She was born 10/16/14 at 10:37 am.  Nola was 8 lbs 2 oz and 20 3/4 inches long at birth.  Everyone is healthy and happy.  I feel truly blessed and I look forward to getting back to the classroom to share my news with everyone in person. 

EXAMPLES AND MODELS

Families, Grant All Stars are models of fine individuals with special talents.  Congratulations to the Blues Corps members who put on an amazing performance of poetry and music at the PTA meeting last night.   Kids wanted me to add an example of a character reading paragraph we discussed during reading today as a model for their literature journal.  Below is also an example of Native American region illustrations for our Native American region website work.

The main character in The Phantom Tollbooth is Milo.  This 10 year old boy is trying to rescue Rhyme and Reason to save The Lands Beyond.  Milo is polite, curious, and often confused.  For example, Milo was polite when he talked to King Azaz.  Furthermore, when Milo comes to a new place and meets new people he asks lots of questions.  Lastly, Milo seems confused because he does not understand how Dictionopolis works

By Avrill

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LEARNING UPDATE

Families, it is smooth sailing in the Ecoschoolhouse while I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new baby girl who will arrive any day now and the Cardinals are entering the NLCS.  Below you will see the focus and upcoming learning for each subject.

Reading: Students are in a book club centered around books with a Native American theme.  We are learning about story elements this week in our Literature Journal.  Each week during our book clubs we will have a week long assignment focused on a certain reading skill.  Our reading will also impact our social studies Powwow theme which focuses on Native American culture.  These books can be used for book share work too.

Social Studies:  Historians are learning about various Native American regions.  We are focusing on the landforms and resources natives used in their daily life.  After we learn about each region with a group poster, we will start to research a Native American topics to become experts on and create a museum exhibit for.

Here links to a few videos we watched to support the natural resource to capital resource idea:

BAMBOO HOMES OF BALI

A TASTE TO CORK

PLAINS NATIVES BUFFALO USES

Writing: In writing this week, we are finally completing our I AM poems.  Students have written descriptive phrases in a poetry format to describe their personalities.  Students who finished early are investigating with iMovie as they recite their poem into a movie format. This great work will be hanging up in the hallways soon.

Math: As I hope you have seen, we are focusing on multiplication during our math time.  As a class, we have studied properties of multiplication, the power of estimation and we are starting on using the algorithm with more challenging numbers.  Students have many opportunities to practice in class and we also have extension activities and math games for those who finish their practice early.

Science:  This week in science we are reflecting upon our community experiences.  Students are finishing their notes for the 3 places that inspired them the most.   I will grade these 3 notes and scientists are using them to create wordles to represent their ideas (example below).  We will use this reflection work to guide our year long experiments and community project.  You can try a wordle yourself here:  http://www.wordle.net/

Students have also continued observing in our gardens at school.  This week Avrill and Ysana found the dark white-lined sphinx (Hyles lineata) moth caterpillar below.  Finally, Mr. K and I won a grant to buy GoPro cameras and nature guide books to help inform our observations in the future.

 

 

  

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

This picture is of the Garden Ecosystem Display 5th grade made last year. Yesterday before the Travel Show many students helped update the QR codes an get it ready for the CCUA Harvest Hootennany at the Urban Farm tonight. There will be good food, music, and prizes.  Mrs. Nies and I will be there unless Junior makes other plans!

As for the Travel Show, thank you to all the All Star families, students, and staff that visited and supported our successful afternoon.  We worked right up to the last minute and kids should be proud of their fantastic work. I look forward to grading each island and enjoying their creative writing. Below is a panorama of our class during our celebration.

TRAVEL SHOW INVITE; CITIZEN SCIENTISTS

Families, I meant to send home an invitation to all for the Travel Show tomorrow.  The invitation is posted below.  Please come and see all our very creative geography and writing work.  You are welcome to come anytime between 12:30 and 3:00.

Yesterday in reading we continued our focus on summarizing.  Part of this required us to take a look at setting.  We also practiced located important information while reading articles about Monarch Butterflies.  This work was prompted by our amazing observation of a caterpillar turning into a chrysalis on the brck wall at Grant School!  Alas, the chrysalis was squished and did not survive.  We missed a great opportunity to view an incredible part of nature.  Anyhow, we memorialized "Chris" the monarch chrysalis with a poem and each student posted facts about monarchs for the whole school to learn.

Here is the chrysalis that formed right after lunch on Tuesday!

Here is the poem to help teach about "Chris" and a QR code to two videos we watched in class. 

Kids posing by there monarch facts!

In science, we have progressed through our bird feeder experiment.  Students are learning the expectations of science experiment work concerning data tables, graphs and conclusions.  This has also allowed us to incorporate many of our math skills. When Junior arrives (any day now!), the kids will work on small experiments in the classroom with the substitute.

In math, we have prepared for out math test today.  After this test, we will focus on multiplication of while numbers from 2 digit to 3 digit numbers.  This is a good time to practice some facts at home.

This Saturday is the CCUA Harvest Hootenanny.  This is a fun event for all, kids and adults with music, games and good food.   CCUA has helped our school with funding and materials for many of our science adventures.  Plus, our Garden Ecosystem display will be at the festival!  

Hope to see you tomorrow at the Travel Show.