From the Desk of Ms. Demitropoulos:
April has been a very exciting yet short month in 106. We ventured to the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum for a wonderful field trip. The majority of students in this classroom are tremendously interested in science and are full of amazing facts, so it was quite a stimulating day.
The kindergarten students have also been learning about poetry, so they composed Color Poems by using their five senses. They have also started to brainstorm problems and solutions around our school and in our world as we begin prewriting for our persuasive stories in Writer’s Workshop.
Additionally, each student selected a nonfiction subject to research, write about, and construct a personally chosen project during our Genius Hour projects. The students have been working on these self-selected activities when they have extra time in the classroom. I cannot wait to see what they discover when they present their projects next month!
From the Desk of Ms. Kaim:
The first graders enjoyed two field trips this month. They explored the Shedd Aquarium to learn about aquatic life from around the world. Of special interest were the coral reef and Amazon River galleries. They also attended a performance of “The Time Warp Trio” at Lifeline Theatre.
The continent of the month was Australia. The first graders made models of mermaid purses while studying the Great Barrier Reef. They identified monotremes, marsupials, and other animals unique to Australia. They also created a bat colony of flying foxes overlooking the classroom. Finally, we read aboriginal dreamtime stories and a Maori tale about Punga the Goddess of Ugly.
The boys and girls wrote stories based on the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. In addition, the first graders visited the computer lab several times in order to work on a major component of their autobiography projects. Creating a timeline of important events of their lives involved lots of typing! During math, the first graders solved two-digit subtraction problems using a variety of strategies. Explaining their reasoning when solving problems continued to be stressed. Civics lessons focused on responsibility and financial literacy lessons centered on capital, natural, and human resources.
We welcomed representatives from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. They provided lessons about taking care of our water. The boys and girls also discussed and wrote about ways to help the Earth. We ended the month by reading the book Miss Rumphius. Miss Rumphius visited faraway places, lived by the sea, and planted lupine flowers to make the world a more beautiful place. What can you do to help the planet?
By far the most anticipated project of the month was the start of the amazing egg to chick experience. The first graders have been learning about the embryology of chickens, the chicken life cycle, the parts of an egg, and the needs of chickens. They distinguished between oviparous and viviparous animals. After the eggs arrived in the classroom after spring break, the boys and girls began taking turns turning the eggs in the incubator (as well as the practice eggs on their desks). Everyone was amazed to see the embryos moving inside the eggs when they were candled.
We can’t wait to have chicks in the classroom in May!
From the Desk of Ms. L. Murray:
"March twirly birds bring crayfish..." wait, that's not how it goes!!! Except that is what is happening in Second Grade!
In Language Arts, we began our last novel study of Charlotte's Web. While many children are familiar with the story and have even read the novel, we are reading the original text as a mentor text. Throughout the unit, we will apply comprehension strategies such as responding to prompts from a character’s perspective, summarizing, identifying evidence for character traits and using new vocabulary in context. Students will then get to compare and contrast the Bell School play version after our viewing on May 3.
In Math, we finished fractions and began a chapter on measurement. We are refreshing our memories on how to tell time using an analog clock. We then applied that knowledge to solving multi-step word problems focused on elapsed time. Using various modeling techniques such as a number line and skip-counting, students are able to visualize time intervals.
In Social Studies, we finished our unit on the United States Government. Students will then apply this knowledge to the application of laws for our fictional class town, "Bellton." Additionally, we began our last unit of study on our great city of Chicago. Students will engage in a research project where they will summarize information related to important events in Chicago's history such as the Great Chicago Fire as well as helping students to understand the benefits and challenges of living in a major metropolitan area. Second Graders will take their research to the computer lab in May to create "Discover Chicago!" posters in preparation for our final field trip - a cruise on one of Chicago's great rivers!
In Science, we began our last unit, "Structures of Life." Students learned about water as a precious resource as the source of all life on earth. We then reviewed parts of a plant and started an investigation to see if a pinto bean can germinate without soil. The month of May will be bring the dissection of owl pellets as well as the study of life crayfish! Stay tuned...
In Writing, our young writers learned how to organize a formal letter in our "Opinion Writing" unit. Students learned to use three different "attention-grabbing" techniques to pique their readers' interest: ask a question, create a statement that begins with "Imagine when..." or state an interesting fact. Second Graders then gathered three pieces of important evidence to support their claim regarding a character's traits, the setting of a novel, or the lesson being taught in the novel.
In Residency news, as part of our Financial Literacy Residency, students studied the global issue of inequitable access to clean water and its effect on a person's ability to grow their household's income. In our Civics Residency, students continued to collect quarters (and dollar bills) for our "Quarters Count" campaign. Quarters will be used to purchase groceries to give to the Common Food Pantry - a field trip that is scheduled for the middle of May. This month brought conversation around using various problem-solving techniques.
The month of May will be busier than ever with a total of FOUR field trips!! See you next month!
From the Desk of Ms. Thiel:
This month we finished our novel Bud, Not Buddy. As a class we explored the relationships in the book as well as the impact of the time period; The Great Depression. The children are currently working on sketching a plan to create their own Hooverville dioramas as discussed in the novel.
In math we explored measuring and drawing angles using protractors. We then moved into learning the relative size of measurement units. This chapter covered all areas of measurement including length, weight, liquid volume, line plots, units of time and elapsed time.
We completed our unit on Energy in Science with a focus on kinetic and potential energy. The children learned how energy can be transferred and how objects in motion have energy. We participated in multiple investigations on light refraction and reflection.
In Social Studies we moved into Chapter 5; The Thirteen Colonies. The class explored the religious beliefs as well as the economies of the New England Colonies, the Middle Colonies and the Southern Colonies. We learned a great deal about this subject by taking a field trip to the Naper Settlement. Here we explored what colonial life was like by visiting a schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, printing press, and log cabin.
In Financial Literacy the children created amazing acrostic poems about their life goals. Look for published copies soon as we continue to work with poetry this month!
In writers workshop we completed and published our persuasive essays. Our focus in April will be a research paper on an inventor or scientist of the student’s choice.
A highlight from this month was our Buddy Day! The children were able to practice finger spelling the sign language alphabet and how to sign their own name. They then created a poster with sign language hands spelling out their names with their buddies.
From the Desk of Ms. MIlstein:
April went by incredibly quickly! The month did not pass, however, without a lot of interesting and important work done by the 4th graders. We wrapped up both the Civil War unit in social studies, and our novel study on The Watsons go to Birmingham 1963. We were lucky enough to attend the play of this story at the Chicago Children’s Theater with Ms. Caskey’s 5th grade class right after we finished reading.
A highlight of this month was student led conferences. For the third quarter report card pick-up, the 4th graders planned and led their own meetings. All year long, the students self select artifacts to include in a portfolio. The items they select for their portfolios reflect items they are proud of, things they would like work on, and topics that interest them. Using these portfolios and other means of reflections, each student planned, prepared, and conducted their own parent conference. We spent a lot of time in class organizing and practicing both independently and with peers. It was a great success!
From the Desk of Ms. Caskey:
Students in 317 continue to work hard as spring approaches. We wrapped up Red Scarf Girl and will present an exhibition about what values our culture holds compared to the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Red Scarf Girl supported our theme of courage throughout the year. Courage comes in different forms and this novel explored how we can be courageous during times of uncertainty. We will move to our final unit of the year in reading: courage in the elements, with Hatchet and some paired texts about survival.
Our work in writing has us shifting to a quick persuasive and looking at both sides of an argument. We will quickly move to our expository writing to get ready for the Options showcase!
In math, we continued our unit on linear patterns and building equations based on story problem scenarios. We will complete the unit it early May with equivalent expressions.
During science, we continue to explore the Earth's history through elaborate timelines using scales and fossils. We also had our Robert Crown presentation. This will lead to a Family Life unit in late May, early June.
Social Studies has been an exciting time of the day. With our economics simulation wrapped up, we moved to ancient history. We identified early patterns of civilization in Mesopotamia and we are building to a simulation on Ancient Egypt, which will be a very exciting time. We are also getting ready for our financial literacy assembly presentation!
From the Desk of Mr. Klein:
In sixth grade physics, the students are currently engaged in two projects that focus on the use of solar power. The first exploration has the young men and women of room 303 building model cars that run on energy from the sun. The concept is to learn how solar cars work as well as investigating different variables. The second investigation has the students cooking with solar energy by capturing that energy in a usable way. The concept here is to learn how solar ovens work.
In seventh grade language arts, the students are currently having far more freedom in choosing the short stories that they are reading. The current focus is stories that focus on the apocalypse or are dystopian in nature. The students are displaying their understanding of the work through the taking of notes, the creation of interpretive questions, and the development of projects that take into account their individual learning styles and interests.
In seventh grade chemistry, the students are currently engaged in a project that produces metals through the use of electricity by passing a current through a solution. The more abstract study at the moment is a further look at the relationship between moles and mass.
The eighth graders in their study of biology are focused on an introduction to animals. The primary focus has been on the dissection of several specimens to study the anatomical structure of the creatures. An alternative to such exercises involves computer technology.