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Sunday, January 29, 2017

Important Dates

Friday, January 27th:  Report cards were mailed home to families.

Friday, February 3rd: Teacher Inservice/ No school for students

Tuesdays, February 14th (tentative date- changed from the 7th) and 21st: E.C.O. mornings 9:05-11:05 am

Tuesdays, February 7th, 14th, and 21st: Winter Wellness afternoons

Tuesday, February 14th:  Valentine's Day Friendship Celebration

Wednesday, February 15th:  I Love East Montpelier Lunch

Thursday, February 23rd at 6 pm:  EMES Celebration of Student Learning

Classroom News

Literacy/Writing:

Students have continued reading and writing "expert books" as part of our literacy and information writing units.  They have been looking for "expert words" in our books about plants with interesting defenses, animal eyes, dinosaurs, the coldest town in the world, the invention of duct tape and other exciting topics.  These vocabulary words help us to be able to "learn the lingo" of our topics.  They also continue to ask and search for answers to their own questions about their texts.

We have also been learning about the different types of information that we can add to our own "expert books" to teach our audience even more about the topic, such as definitions, explanations, details, facts, steps, and tips.  Students have been setting goals to "lift the level" of their own writing.  It is exciting to see how they are learning to assess their own progress and push themselves to stretch out their writing, check for capital letters and punctuation, and use interesting vocabulary words in their daily writing.

Technology Integration:

During our Technology Integration times, we have been working with Ms. Arlyn to change the speed and direction of our robots' movements.  First, we experimented with different ways that we could attach the belt to the two pulleys.  Students made predictions and then recorded their observations and results.

Next, partners were challenged to create a program to make their Dancing Birds turn clockwise and then change directions to turn counter clockwise.  They could also add other interesting steps to their programs, such as making sounds or changing the backgrounds on the computer screen.

Throughout the process, students have been recording their ideas and learning in their Lego Robotics journals.  We have been impressed with their collaboration and problem solving!

Read Aloud with Ms. Lyford:

Ms. Lyford joined our class this week and read us the story, One, which connects with our learning about how to prevent bullying.  In this story, the characters are colors.  Ask your child about this story and how it connects to our learning during our Thursday PBIS Morning Meetings, as well as our classroom discussions about bullying prevention.


Lego Robotics











Our latest class celebration:  Indoor choice time!










Read Aloud with Ms. Lyford

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Classroom News: "Flooding the Model"

During our Library/Technology and Discovery times, we have been working on our "Flooding the Model" project that incorporates important ideas about geography and earth science.  We started this project with a clay model.  We discussed various types of landforms and students created labels for the landforms on our model.  These landforms include: mountains, canyons, valleys, and craters.  Then, students colored and labeled their first maps of the model.



Next, we added water to "flood" our model.  Students watched how our landforms changed and recorded these changes on a new map that showed bodies of water and land.  We continued to add more water over the next few lessons.  Students added a new blue color to their second maps to show the changing coastlines and areas of water and land.  We also discussed additional vocabulary words for the landforms and bodies of water that we noticed, such as lake, river, ocean, and peninsula.




One of our mentor texts for this project was Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea: Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor, which tells the story of a woman who showed perseverance by proving that women can be scientists and by figuring out a way to create a map of the ocean floor.  We made many connections to our model project during our discussions.  One big idea that we discussed was how there is land underneath the ocean's surface.  This lead to a deeper discussion about the earth's crust, plate tectonics, and Pangaea (the supercontinent that existed long ago when today's continents were joined together).








We continued to add more water to our model, which changed the landforms and bodies of water.  Our new maps looked very different from our first two maps.  Students also continued to rename the places on our map based on our changing model, including new islands and bays.








Next, I read aloud the book, Island: A Story of the Galapagos.  This book describes how one of the Galapagos islands was formed and how it changed over time.  In addition, we learned about how different species of animals adapted over a long period of time to help them survive changes in their environment.  This discussion made an important connection between this current geography/earth science unit and our upcoming study of animals and adaptations.

Finally, students wrapped up the unit by writing about changes that they noticed in our model over time.  We also continued to add to our vocabulary posters to include words such as strait and archipelago.

A big thank you to Ms. Arlyn who co-taught this unit with me! 

Friday, January 6, 2017

Classroom News: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Everyone returned after the break with great energy and positive attitudes about learning!  We were also very excited to welcome our new student and her family to the EMES community!

In math this week, we played card and dice games that helped us practice adding two or three addends and comparing sums.  Students did a great job sharing their “thinking strategies” that could be used instead of counting up to find the answers.  For example:, to figure out 16 + 6, you could think:

“6 + 6 = 12 and then 12 + 10 = 22.”
or
“I took 4 from the 6 and added it to 16 to get 20.  
Then, I added the remaining 2.”

We have also been learning strategies for adding multi-digit numbers.  These strategies include drawing a representation of the addition using base ten blocks, creating an open number line, and using expanded form.  Students are developing flexibility by thinking about addition in different ways, such as adding tens and ones or keeping one number whole and then adding the other number.  

During literacy times, we have been focusing on reading and writing non-fiction (informational) texts.  We have started by reading some unusual texts, such as a guitar chord chart, a calendar, house floor plans, and a trail map.  We discussed how readers can look for details and put different parts of the text together to help them learn.  We also talked about the importance of asking questions as we read to help us “lift the level” of our understanding.

In writing workshop, students have been creating their own information, “expert” books.  Partners carefully examined informational texts from our classroom library to see what writers can do to write an interesting introduction.  Some ideas that they discovered were to ask a question, include interesting facts, use strong vocabulary words, and include a joke or riddle.  After that, students crafted their own introductions using these ideas.  Then, they were ready to start writing their chapters and stretching out each part.

We also started our first Lego Robotics project of the year… Dancing Birds!  Look for more information and photos over the next few weeks.