Monday - A beautiful sunny day
In robotics our budding engineers started programming their creations to allow each machine to modify its behavior. Meanwhile other students attended sewing. They started cutting out their Halloween costumes and created stuffed animals. Every student was sure to get to their math as well.
Later in the day our young writers reviewed the sound of letters and practiced writing both upper and lower case letters and words. Other writers continued working on their stories and research papers. Our authors are now working on peer conferencing skills. It is very exciting to hear students reflect on each other’s work with great care, careful consideration and enthusiasm. Recipients have been accepting and willing to consider advice. The benefit of this exchange is clear in their writing as well as their collaborative work in other areas.
Our younger scientists continued their examination of crystals. The salt crystals on a string and the magical crystals that grew on a rock amazed them. They considered how crystals are formed and what household material might form a crystal. Our older students started a long-term experiment that will allow them to measure the effect of irrigating plants with a various liquids. They selected soda, Gatorade, worm tea and tap water recognizing that they need a controlled group. Each student predicted which substance would be most and least beneficial to the plants.
In Global Studies our older students worked on the creation of their fictional presidential candidates. Many focused on their candidate’s background information and political platform. They debated gender, political issues and physical appearance. There were some rousing conversations. The younger students revisited Who’s in Rabbit’s House. The children were quite capable of recalling details from last week’s reading of the book. This story is a folktale that personifies animals and details problem solving skills.
Tuesday 10/14/08
Another beautiful, unseasonably warm day
Inspired by Who’s In Rabbit’s House, children made masks to represent the characters in the story. They began their work with templates for both a frog and a rabbit, but the masks expanded far beyond the basics. End products included a motorcycle, a tulip and Halloween themes. Several students measured a tarp for our life-size chess set. They calculated the size of each square, 16”x 16”, and decided to use a plumb line to mark the pattern. Fun Math!!
In Reading/Writing Workshop our younger students began writing in earnest. They were introduced to a new writing sheet that provides picture space and writing space with the divided lines for upper and lowercase letters. Each student drew a picture and wrote a sentence to explain it. Of course teachers assisted those who were unable to write by taking dictation and providing each word of their story on a separate card. Students with these cards are encouraged to put them in order and tape or glue them to their page. This allows children to recognize beginning letter sounds and word and sentence structure.
Most of our older authors began or continued typing their work and organizing and reorganizing their thoughts and research information. Students received instruction in sentence structure, bibliography format and active language that invokes interest in a story.
In Global Studies younger students reconsidered our collection of instruments and the countries they come from. They matched pictures of each instrument to its country of origin on a map using pieces of yarn. They also decided which instruments best represented each animal in the Rabbit story considering the character’s actions and the qualities of the instruments. Older students worked on their candidates, preparing for our upcoming primaries. They shared details they have already decided upon and identified questions that still need to be answered. Tenure became the word of the day when one group stated that their platform included guaranteed long-standing jobs. Another, student brought to everyone’s attention the concept of tenure. Children debated the value or worthiness of such a policy.
In music some children focused on rhythm and beat playing a variety of instruments and moving in time. Others attended guitar class, working in pairs, helping each other place their fingers for each chord. This approach was very effective as it allowed teachers to move from group to group and offer more focused instruction. Keep practicing!
Wednesday 10/15/08
Sunny and warm
Global Studies and Math were the focused of our workshop period. The older students continued fine-tuning their politician’s background and points of view through small group meetings with a teacher. The candidate information is getting quite detailed. Many of the younger students (as well as those young at heart) enjoyed a spirited game of Life. Of course everyone found time to do their page of math and many children engaged in building with Kinex and magnets.
The kitchen was busy all morning with our young chefs each taking time to work on our lunch. Their menu included spicy, mild and vegetarian chili, homemade cornbread and baked apples for desert. A small group of students took charge of composing ingredients for cornbread with attention to measuring accurately using measuring cups and spoons. This challenged some, as they needed to consider fractions and conversions. Another challenge in the kitchen was timing. The children needed to consider each recipe’s cooking time and place and then organize their steps accordingly. They did bring all the food out hot and it was delicious. After challenging their palates, several children, who first announced that they did not like chili, returned for seconds.
During physical education many of the students played a game of capture the flag while others explored the semi-dry streambed. The weather has allowed us to explore the edges of the woods and spend a lot of time pondering birds, bugs and the changing of leaves.In Reading/Writing the younger students acted out the rabbit story with masks and sound effects. It really was quite a show. The older students read quietly, listened to a story and continued they’re writing.
Thursday 10/16/08
Warm and humid
This morning we witnessed thousands of migrating birds in the trees above us. It was loud and exciting. Children considered where the birds are going and expressed concern for droppings that might need to be dodged.During workshop we offered Math, Beading and Italian Language. At the students’ request, they learned the fundamentals of poker including strategy, bluff and odds. Since they were learning a new game they were mostly relieved of having to speak in Italian at all times.
Some of our students learned how to create a lizard out of beads. Others worked on necklaces utilizing regular and tiny seed beads. Children revisited symmetry and considered the seed beader and how it works to gather hundreds of beads from a spinning pot.
While in Reading/Writing our younger actors revisited the instruments they were using to act out the rabbit story. Once they considered each character’s personality they revised their instrument selections to tell the story more effectively.
In addition to feeding the plants their experimental food our older scientists practiced identifying their own and their colleagues heart rate. They took their pulse at the carotid artery and radial artery. This exercise provides an introduction to the heart as a muscle and the effect of various stimuli on heart rate. Our younger scientists shared crystals and rocks they brought from home. After much speculation about what might be in the center of their rocks they agreed that they needed to split them. Off they marched with safety goggles on and hammers in hand. This freedom to do creates palpable excitement.
Students continued their work on our life size chess set in art today. In addition to marking a pattern on their canvas they designed and constructed headdress for pieces. Several artists made additional frog and elephant masks as well.
Friday 10/17/08
Sunny, getting cooler
On the morning walk the children explored the Halloween decorations scattered throughout the woods for the Girl Scout Haunted Woods for Spooktacular.
The youngest group performed the Rabbit story with their new instruments. They discussed the quality of the performance and how it could be improved. The older groups continued to write and then had a discussion about which books they would like to read in Book Club.
In Art, the kids explored many different materials. Some painted, some worked on their masks and others started flip-book projects. They talked about how your mind convinces you that still pictures are actually moving across the page.
After Math they were dismissed to their waiting parents. Have a great weekend!
