Meet the Crayfish!

For the Structures of Life unit we have some additions to our classroom… crayfish!!  Crayfish are marvelous classroom organisms that are exciting and easy to care for.  Through close observation and investigation the students can learn interesting details about animal structures while developing sensitivity to the needs of living organisms.

The students love standing around watching and conversing about the crayfish.. they’re like little living magnets!  They’re terrific animals for us to study with fascinating appearances.  They’re quite bizarre with an array of legs, appendages, and movements. 

Crayfish are great animals for us to study! They walk, swim, eat, hide, breathe, mate, molt, and die right in the classroom.  Our crayfish habitat is a microcosm of life of earth and we’re learning somuch by spending some time with them! 

Story Flow: Grab and Keep Your Reader!

The boys and girls really enjoy working on their Young Author's Day books!  We work on them a little each day and every time we go over the schedule and they see "YAD" there's cheering J The kids are strong in their understanding of narrative/expository writing and it's a treat for me to help them mesh that with their creative ideas and the process of writing a book.

So far we’ve covered the planning stage where each child developed their ideas and drew out a “story map” that included characters, setting, a problem, and lose ideas about what happens in the beginning, middle, and end (ask your kiddo where they may end up if they go on a road trip without a map…) J

Next we dove into how to begin a story and what the beginning should do.  We’ve read and discussed several books as a part of this process including “What Really Happened to Humpty?” and “A Book For Bramble”.

We have also discussed what happens in the middle of stories, and what good authors do to keep a reader’s attention.  Part of the analogy we’re using is “it’s not very useful to catch a fish if you lose it while trying to reel it in”.  You can “lose a fish” by adding too many details, changing too many things, or just the opposite. 

We’re currently in the middle of our Young Author’s Day rough drafts and I can’t tell you how proud I am of how far your 3^rd grader has come with their writing.  They are really stepping up to the challenge and I can’t wait for the finished products!

 

Critical Prompt Words

At this point in the year, I can tell that the students have truly grown in their ability to identify what it is they're being asked in a question and respond appropriately. I am thinking particularly of the growth I've seen in 4-pt Quick Check questions.  Now is therefore the perfect time to begin the discussion around addressing specific writing prompts.

Prompt reading is a skill that is honed over time and with experience. Grammar, vocabulary, and personal ability are irrelevant if a writer doesn't know what they're supposed to be writing. Thankfully, there are certain key words that tend to get repeated throughout elementary curriculum. Today we created a list of words that we consistently see in prompts and then we dissected a response to the following prompt: Describe your favorite part of the day and explain why it is your favorite.

The first thing we did was pull out the critical words from the prompt: describe, explain, and favorite. Next we talked about how it's ALWAYS a good idea to begin a prompt response by repeating the prompt. Also included in our discussion was how good responses do more than respond- they elaborate and give details! They also include language relevant to the prompt (since the prompt was about a favorite time of day- we boxed words that we felt were related to "favorite"). Similarly we talked about using fun words (if we can use them correctly) J  Lastly, we talked about ending a response by relating it back to the prompt.

Phew! We worked hard on this, but the kids had a blast and were able to tell me at the end of the day the elements to a good prompt response.

They say writing a great paper that doesn't address the prompt is like riding a one-way cruise liner to the middle of the ocean: it's fun, but going nowhere. As emergent writers, I want the kids to feel successful and confident and hope building a strong foundation that directly teaches how to address a prompt will help get all their cruise liners headed toward somewhere more like Hawaii J

 

 

Applied Learning

In true March Madness fashion we said so-long to the Madness with a bang!  We reviewed how 64 teams were divided and divided all the way down to 4, and how the number of teams per region after each round was multiplied by 4 to get the total number of remaining teams.

To go along with our earned Game Day and “Air Bud” movie the students also earned Madness Goody Bags- but there was a catch.  In order to get their baggy and drink for the movie we did a rapid-fire times table and each kiddo had to answer a multiplication question J 

After the movie and recess, students used their tickets to get into our “Big Dance”!  This is where they used their whiteboards to compete for the “Wooden Trophy”!  They responded to the multiplication and division questions on the PowerPoint you were sent earlier.  The winner of each then got 3 chances to shoot a basket.  The boys and girls were so into it and very supportive- cheering and yelling for everyone to get a hoop!  The student with the most points at the end won the Wooden Trophy (a stuffed basketball) J  There were also some buzzer-beater questions to help get rid of left over candy! 

Our principal and some other building staff came in at the end to join in the last of the Madness, and to help us pick the championship game and champions…. We’ll have to see if Wichita State plays Michigan, and if Wichita State makes it all the way!



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An April Fools' Prank Gone Wonderfully Awry!

What started out yesterday as a well-planned April Fools’ prank turned out to be something much more J  Our principal and I orchestrated a plan for him to come to the classroom at the end of the day during Madness Math, which he did.  He told the boys and girls that his boss, the Superintendent, had come in and seen all of our UW vs. WSU rivalry stuff and demanded it stop and we all get along- aka be on the same team.  To see if we were going to have to be Cougs or Dawgs for the rest of the year, he was formally observing me and how well I taught/how well the kids learned would determine if we could stay Huskies or would have to become Cougars!

The kiddos couldn't believe it but when they realized we were "serious", they got serious.  Our prank was going well and the kids were very engaged in the lesson J  They were working on their white boards to address questions like:  if 4 games were played over the weekend- how many total teams played? And, if there were 16 teams left on Friday and 2 teams play per game- how many games were played over the weekend? 

Then the announcement was made that we were “taking too long to solve the problems which reflected poorly on my teaching” and that “we clearly needed a Coug in charge and would have to take down all of our Dawg gear and anything purple/yellow”.  The kids thought he was kidding, but I played along and went around taking down all things Husky. 

I was still under the impression we were going to shout APRIL FOOLS’! at some point… until the principal said that if the students could solve one last problem in 2 minutes or less, he’d reconsider.  The problem was: can you determine how many teams are left in the whole tournament?  Yes or no, show your work.  They worked in partners and I’m not sure I can say the kids have ever worked harder!  They were discussing, collaborating, thinking and rethinking and then not so shockingly… they started to hold up their boards with work that clearly and correctly showed that yes, they could determine how many teams were left in the whole tournament!!

It was such a treat getting to see the kids apply newly learned skills to a real life situation.  So much so that ultimately we couldn’t tell them they’d actually done it all for a joke.  We wanted them to think they’d used their newly learned math skills to save our Husky pride, because they DID!  So, what began as a prank took an unexpected turn for the better J

 

Madness Math!

Today your child graduated from multiplication to division and I couldn't be more proud! We learned that as with multiplication (which is used to quickly add repeated numbers), division is used to quickly subtract repeated numbers. Throughout this EnVision Topic we will learn two interpretations of division, how to model the difference between the two different interpretations, and how to apply whichever model works best for your kiddo to real life situations.

Case in point: I can't think of a more fun and enjoyable way for your third grader to celebrate graduating than with some March Madness Math! We are capitalizing on what is being referred to in our classroom as "the Madness" by combining many different aspects of learning :)

I told the kids that in the NCAA tournament, 16 teams start out in each of 4 regions. Since bracketology involves the same number of teams playing per region, we used that knowledge combined with what we know about multiplication to help figure out how many total teams are involved in the Madness (16 x 4 = 64). We used the 4's trick to help solve, too! (16x2=32, 32+32=64).

We also know certain things happen within each region to help narrow down the 16 teams. For example in each game, there can only be 2 teams that play and 1 winner of that game. We used what we just learned about division to help understand the systematic process taking place within each region to get us down to semi-finals, and ultimately "THE BIG DANCE!" (16/2=8, 8/2=4, 4/2=2, and 2/2=1 team left per region).

Combine all of that with the energy and excitement that comes naturally when talking about rivalries, underdogs, big dunks, and teamwork on the basketball court- and it isn't hard to understand how Madness Math has quickly become the highlight of our days here at Rush!

The atmosphere in our classroom when we incorporate lively discussions with relevant learning targets is truly special.  Everyone is engaged, focused, respecting each other's opinions, and having fun!  For instance, after we wrapped up the Madness today and were filling out our Daily Planners, one student came up to me and said, "Miss Dupart I think our Florida Gulf Coast team is going to win on Friday because in our planners it says that Friday is 'Good Friday'"...I couldn't help myself but to laugh out loud; you know me :)  What a wonderful thought!

The boys and girls also have the opportunity to earn a vote at the end of the day for who they think is going to win what match-ups are left... today everyone voted for the Sweet 16 winners! Any opportunity to build on community and classroom environment... :)

Hawks: Risk vs. Reward

Yesterday the Seahawks began trade negotiations with the Minnesota Vikings regarding acquiring wide receiver Percy Harvin- and I was reminded of one of my all-time favorite quotes:    

“A child can teach an adult 3 things- to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires…” – Paulo Coelho

Coach Carroll’s philosophy “win forever, always compete” is something he began after being fired as New England’s head coach. From New England he went on to make 7 straight BCS appearances as the head coach at USC.  During his last 3 seasons with Seattle Pete's kept the Seahawks busy with the same mantra, and our most recent trade aligns with the team’s focus. They seem to be working hard as individuals toward a common group goal- get to/Win the SuperBowl.  Everyone seems willing to do their part.

But you can’t attain big success without big risk, which is what some say the move for Harvin is. In life, if you choose not to seize crucial moments out of fear- either from what others will think or of rejection- then you run the risk of denying yourself the chance to capitalize situations that may only come around once and could be game changers. The key is preparation.

It is vital that our students understand we work hard in life and in school because hard work is what awards opportunities. The ability to know which opportunities are worth seizing come via preparation and readiness. Like the Seahawks who are busy working hard every day in order to put themselves in a position to acquire potentially game changing players, we too need to busy ourselves with preparation for the future. This is of course so that when the right opportunity presents itself we are ready, educated, and unafraid to seize the moment and command… demand… that which we desire.

Carroll emphasizes the importance and influence of words. He talks about the lasting impact that words can have on one's ability to achieve what it is they set out to accomplish. In the same fashion that a locker room is a great place for a coach to use words to challenge and motivate athletes, the classroom is a great place to challenge students while simultaneously reminding them of all their potential. So long as they learn to busy themselves with preparation, they will earn the capability to demand future opportunities.