HomeroomThis was a short week because of our trip to Howell Nature Center to take part in the Global Village program. The program focused on learning about how resources are distributed around the world and who has access to them and who doesn't. Students did a lot of role playing. This culminated in them being split into different group based on different geographic locations. At group had a different set of resources. Some had extra and some didn't have enough. Students then had to negotiate with each other to get the necessary resources for making dinner. This led to a lot of great discussions on what it's like to live in other parts of the world. MathMonday: Because of the short week we spent all of our class time working in our books. Tuesday: On Field Trip Wednesday: On Field Trip Thursday: Book Checks Friday: Game Day. This is our last game day that everyone will received no matter what progress they made in their books. Starting next week access to game day will depend on the book goal we set this week. ScienceWe worked on three activities in science this week. The first being the completion of our forest poster project. Students spent a lot of time researching different forests around Michigan and turning that research into a poster. Part of the process was creating a series of drafts to think about how the information would be displayed. If students didn't finish their posters they were asked to take them home for the weekend and turn them in on Monday. Students also started the 4th Spotlight Lesson. The topic covered was biodiversity. We discussed what it is and why it's important to an ecosystems health. These lessons will continue next week. Lastly, we started preparing for our second park visit to Huron Meadows Metropark. Students started working on their Park Visit Sheet. Before we visit each park students are asked to research the types of ecosystems they might see, list a few species they might see and how to identify them, and create some learning goals to see if they can connect what they're learning in class to what they're seeing at the park. We also worked a little bit on how to read trail maps. We'll be visiting the park on Thursday next week. Make sure they come to school on Thursday prepared to take a walk in the woods. Questions to AskIn this section I'll try and give you a few questions to ask your kids to see what they learned this week or some of the ideas they were forming.
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Homeroom
We continued to work on communications skills this week in homeroom. This included another round of Story Cubes. As well as some time playing Concept. This is a board game were players have to identify animals using non verbal ques. It's fun and it also allows us to talk about how we listen to each other.
Just a reminder that next week we'll be going to Howell Nature Center from Tuesday to Wednesday. This is our first over night trip. I sent an email out a few weeks ago explaining what's going to be happening as well as what students will need to bring. There is a permission slip that they'll need to have filled out to be able to participate in the activities. I sent a copy home this week. If you need another copy here's a digital version. Please have the permission slip turned in by Monday if you haven't turned it in already. Also, here's a copy of the packing list for the trip. Here's an itinerary for the trip. Day 1 10am - Arrive 10am-12pm - Introduction and preparation activities for the Heifer Global Village 12-1pm - Sack lunch in the lodge. Prepare for overnight in the Global Village. 1-4pm - Hike with gear out to Village. Walking tour of the Global Village. 4pm-evening “The Global Village Experience” – participants cook dinner in the Global Village. After dinner - Sleep out in the Village. One final small-group discussion activity will be provided. HNC staff will leave you for the evening and your time is your own. Feel free to bring games (cards, Frisbee, hackey-sacks, etc.) if you wish. Day 2 8-9am - catered breakfast in lodge 9am-12pm - Debrief activities and discussions in lodge. Global Village program finished by 12 noon. We'll be back at SK around 1:30 for lunch. Math
Monday: We completed another round of Sprints.
Tuesday: We had picture day so math class was abbreviated. Students worked independently for the whole class period. Wednesday: We worked on Word Problem #2. This is a great problem for us to talk about bar models and the importance of keeping them proportional. This is also a good problem to talk about how to find the part of a bar model if you have the whole and another part. This skill is needed to figure out how much money Ben has using the information you know about Sam's money.
Thursday: We completed book checks today. The first few weeks of math are being used to get a baseline for how much work each student generally finishes in a week.
Friday: Game Day! Science
This week we focused our attention on learning about succession and how forest grow over time. Students first learned some key terms concerning succession. We also talked about the oak hickory forest we visited last week as a model. Here's a copy of the document we used for our discussion.
After learning about succession students started researching the different types of forest in Michigan. Here's the instruction sheet for the activity. After taking some time to learn about the different forests present in Michigan students took that information and created posters to hand out around the school. Here's a copy of the rubric we used. Questions to Ask
n this section I'll try and give you a few questions to ask your kids to see what they learned this week or some of the ideas they were forming.
HomeroomThis week in homeroom we focused on two activities. On Monday we got into groups and played with Story Cubes. Story Cubes are a fun device to use to practice using your imagination. There are nine dice and each one has a different scene on it for kids to interpret. Using their interpretation of the image they create part of a story. The next kid rolls a different die and adds even more to the story. Story Cubes are a fun way for us to practice working in groups and hearing how other people think. The rest of the week we focused on what I call "Moment of Pride". We took some time to share parts of ourselves or actions we've taken that we're proud of. This led to a great conversation on what self-esteem is and how to cultivate it. MathHere's a rundown of what we did in math each day this week. Monday: We talked a lot about how to use our textbooks as a tool in math. Here's a copy of the graphic organizer we'll be using: Tuesday: We did our first Sprint activity. Sprints are timed mental math activities where students complete a series of problems in a minute. We do Sprints to practice our mental math skills and practicing how to work under a little bit of stress. You can find a copy of the Sprint worksheet on the Math web page. Wednesday: We practiced word problems for the first time. Every week for the rest of the year we'll spend a say working on word problems. Being able to decode words into math expressions is a difficult task for young learners and it's something I want to make sure they're proficient at. Here's the problem we did as well as the answer. Thursday: We had our first goal check in. I'm asking students to complete 8 to 10 pages in their textbook each week. On Thursdays I'll check in with them to see if they accomplished that goal. The goal of 8 to 10 pages is recommended, but it's also flexible. Based on what type of learner they are I might adjust that goal for the next week. Thursdays are also a great day for their math folders to come home to talk about what their plan is for finishing their math work for the week. That plan might or might not including bring their math home as homework. Friday: We played some board games! ScienceThis week in science we learned about food chains and webs. Students learned some key terms about how we describe living things based on what they eat. During the middle of the week we changed gears and focused on our trip to Hudson Mills Metropark. While at the park we applied our observation skills and practiced identifying plants. Students were super engaged during our hike that we had to cut it short because they were stopping and pointing out so many great discoveries. The next day we reflected on our experience and brainstormed some ideas for how to better prepare for our next park visit. I can't wait to take them out in the field again. On Fridays we always take some time to learn about current events. This week we focused on learning about invasive species by reading this article. Using current events gives us an opportunity to talk about different points of view and how the actions of others impact the environment. Questions to Ask Your KidsIn this section I'll try and give you a few questions to ask your kids to see what they learned this week or some of the ideas they were forming.
HomeroomWelcome back to school. We're off to a great start. We spent a lot of time in homeroom talking about what it means to be a learner and a community member here at SK. Students brainstormed what that means using a chalk talk. You can find their ideas on the Learning and Community Expectations page on this website. During curriculum night next week on Thursday (9/12) I'll be asking you all as parents to come up with some expectations as well. During curriculum night we'll also go over what students will be learning this year and how that will happen. Students also learned to use the Mood Meter to help them build their emotional vocabulary. We'll be using that to as a tool throughout the whole year to build their social and emotional intelligence. MathIn math this week we focused on creating dice games. This is a great way to get back into thinking about math because it's super fun and engaging. Students started by playing Yahtzee and then spent sometime creating their own games. On Friday students shared their games. It was really fun to see them using both their creativity and math knowledge. Project TimeWe started our project on Michigan Ecosystems. Check out the project page to learn more about the specifics. This week we focused on how to identify organisms. Students learned about flow charts, tables, and dichotomous keys. They practiced creating keys by making one for five random objects around the classroom. On Friday we collected leaf samples from County Farm Park to ID and make keys for next week. Questions to Ask Your KidsIn this section I'll try and give you a few questions to ask your kids to see what they learned this week or some of the ideas they were forming.
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