From the Desk of Ms. Demitropoulos:
October has been a very busy month for room 106! In language arts, we finished up our individual consonant practice and moved on to focus on reading short a decodable word family words. This week, we began the sight word journey by composing detailed sentences using capital letters and punctuation marks. The handwriting and general working stamina is increasing daily! These kiddos are really impressing me with their ability to persevere during difficult tasks.
Learning about ourselves and our strengths is tremendously important for self-awareness and self-esteem. We read “I Like Myself” and discussed all of the wonderful, unique parts of us. The students wrote about their favorite parts to create a colorful bulletin board outside our classroom for all to enjoy.
We are also focusing on nonfiction texts about the “Fifty Nifty United States” to help us memorize and sing this catchy tune. The students are using clues from pictures to locate the states on a blank U.S. map. With support, we preview “right there” comprehension questions and then read the text together, underlining important information to answer the questions. These skills are helpful when identifying important information in informative text.
During Writer’s Workshop, the students have learned visualization techniques to compose illustrations, and label pictures. Now they are working on stretching sounds from each word to create full sentences to correspond with their creative pictures.
The students rocked the Addition Unit, so we moved on to subtracting using manipulatives and illustrations. They are doing an excellent job moving through chapter 2! They are also working on identifying and writing numbers larger than 10, writing tally marks and using ten frames to write numbers.
Several Mystery Readers have joined us this month and we are very thankful for them. It is such a special time in our classroom to share a part of our day with a parent! We journeyed to Goebbert’s Pumpkin Patch for our first field trip and participated in our first Bell Walk fundraiser. We can’t wait to see what adventures await in November!
From the Desk of Ms. Kaim:
The first graders in Room 104 were very productive during the month of October! They spent several class periods in the computer lab creating a PowerPoint presentation about shapes. The final animated versions of their slide shows are now complete and ready to show their parents on Report Card Day.
We created slide shows about shapes because our math unit focused on geometry and fractions this month. The boys and girls learned about two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. They used shape nets to build three-dimensional shapes. They identified shapes by name and compared the number of faces, edges, vertices, and angles they have. Two exciting projects this month involved creating structures. The first graders built individual structures using toothpicks and gumdrops. They also worked in teams to create larger structures using cardboard boxes and cartons.
The structure projects connected to our math studies, but also our to social studies lessons as we focused on houses and homes. The first graders read about, and looked at pictures of, different types of homes around the world. We thought about the reasons the houses are constructed in different ways and use different materials. Each student also shared a description of his/her own home. In addition to this, we learned how to distinguish between urban, suburban, and rural communities.
We read the books This is My House and A House is a House for Me. The students used the latter to write their own ideas about things that are houses for things. After reading The Little House, the first graders thought about how communities change over time. We also read Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey. This led to an exploration of animal homes. The Country Mouse and the City Mouse was our first Junior Great Books story. We worked on listening, wondering, and sharing.
In science, we continued our investigation of plants. The students pollinated the flowers on their brassica plants and observed the formation of seed pods. Inside the classroom, the first graders planted pumpkin seeds, grew wheat in straws, and planted spider plants. Outside, they planted tulip and daffodil bulbs in the butterfly garden.
We visited the neighborhood fire house and Goebbert’s Pumpkin Farm. The pumpkins brought back from the farm became an important part of Pumpkin Day. The first graders created models of the life cycle of a pumpkin, read pumpkin stories, measured pumpkins in a variety of ways, scooped out and counted the seeds from big pumpkins, tasted food made with pumpkins, and decorated pumpkins. Our fifth grade buddies helped with the decorating.
Of course, the Bell Walk and Halloween Show were two other fabulous events in which the first graders participated this month. They also created a beautiful wreath out of plastic cups for the Shedd Aquarium’s annual Wreathcycle Challenge. Keep your eyes open for how you can vote for our wreath as your favorite. The class whose wreath gets the most votes wins a free trip to the Shedd Aquarium!
We are looking forward to learning about North America and taking two field trips to see plays in the month of November.
From the Desk of Ms. Murray:
Autumn leaves falling,
Shorter, colder days approach,
as October ends...
Some highlights...second graders enjoyed all things autumnal and "Halloween-y" by composing a Haiku with "Halloween" as the subject! To accompany our Haikus, we colored paper sugar skulls after learning about Dia de los Muertos and the origins of Halloween. We also spent time in the computer lab with our technology teacher, Ms. Newberry. Students used the "Paint" application to create original monsters and then Word to write descriptive paragraphs about their monsters. Ms. Newberry taught the students to change the size, color and type of font to make adjectives "stand out" to the reader. Our monsters are currently hiding in our enchanted forest, waiting to be found so they can go home (see photos). Additionally, students learned Halloween songs and rehearsed for our Halloween Assembly. Lastly, but not least, we enjoyed a field trip to the Chicago Botanic Gardens to view the prairie section and closely examine the plants there. We will refer to this information in the future in Science when we study "Structures of Life." Currently, we are referring to what we learned as we discuss various land forms and the prairies of Illinois.
In Language Arts, we began and are half-way through our first class novel, Bunnicula - a humorous mystery/fantasy novel where a dog named Harold narrates the strange happenings in his household after the arrival of a peculiar bunny that they name, Bunnicula. Harold, the dog, and Chester, the cat, discuss the peculiar findings of white vegetables and note Bunnicula's vampire-like markings. We are learning to sequence, summarize, and apply character traits as we enjoy this strange tale.
In Math, we finished our second chapter, Represent and Interpret Data. Students learned to record data in frequency tables using tally marks. We then represented the data in three types of graphs: bar, picture and line plots. To keep with our Halloween theme, the students created "Splattered Witch" Glyphs to represent information we gathered related to Halloween such as type of costume and favorite candy. Afterwards, we made a frequency table to record the data. We then began our third chapter, Multiplication. Students are learning that multiplication is a faster way to add equal groups of numbers.
In Social Studies, we learned about three different communities in which people live: rural, urban and suburban. Students analyzed in which type of environment they might like to live when they are adults. We also learned about land forms and we will connect this information about land forms to why people settle in different areas when we "settle" our own town in the second quarter. We will build on this knowledge when we take a closer look at our city of Chicago.
In Science, we analyzed the difference between magnetism and gravity as forces. A force is defined as a "push" or "pull." The force of magnetism can either be a "push" or a "pull" depending on when poles of the magnet are in proximity to one another. We also learned that gravity is always a pull.
From the Desk of Ms. Thiel:
October has been a busy month! We finished reading our first novel Raymie Nightingale. We engaged in many group discussions and worked on finding evidence to support our ideas. We discussed character traits of our main characters and then compared and contrasted the characters.
In math we dove right into multiplication and the many methods you can use to solve; distributive property, partial product and expanded form. We learned how to regroup using two and three digits and applied this to word problems.
In science we continued to investigate with mixtures and solutions. We weighed a salt solution and predicted how we can separate the salt. We estimated the length of time it took to crystalize, recorded data and interpreted our results.
In social studies we began our chapter on Early People. The children are beginning to identity possible explanations of how people came to live in the Americas. We will also learn how early people lived, hunted, and farmed. The children will begin a group project on Native Americans in November.
This month in writer’s workshop we incorporated the use of adverbs, dialogue and how to substitute nouns for pronouns. We worked on how to develop an interesting lead and selected our seed story. The children are now in the process of writing the first draft of their personal narrative.
We had a wonderful meeting with our 7th grade buddies. The children had the opportunity to meet and talk with all the students for a brief period of time. This meet and greet helped Mr. Klein and I pair up the buddies for further activities. Congrats to our class for raising the most donations for the Bell Walk and being able to participate in the Color Run.
We attended our first field trip to see the play Bunnicula with our 3rd grade friends in Room 201. We ended our busy month with a fabulous Halloween Day! We worked hard on our Halloween songs and enjoyed the parade and party.
From the Desk of Ms. Milstein:
October was a busy month in 4th grade! As we worked through our second chapter in math, the students mastered new strategies to complete division problems with 2 digit divisors. In addition to our daily practice, the class engages in weekly math centers. Photos included show groups working on games, puzzles and technology as some of our centers.
Every four weeks, instead of math centers, the class gets to enjoy a group STEM challenge. This month the students were tasked with building a structure with two swings out of a seemingly random collection of materials. These STEM challenges require the 4th graders to plan, collaborate, design, build, evaluate and reflect. Pictures below show students working at all these stages of the process as well as some of the finished products.
We also dug into our narrative writing unit during this month. After working in writer’s notebooks to develop ideas for realistic story writing, the students have begun writing elevated narratives with a focus on action and dialogue. In order to inspire detailed and descriptive stories, the 4th graders spent a writing class acting out selected scenes that they had written. See the writing come to life in some of the photos below.
From the Desk of Ms. Caskey:
317 has started a new class novel in reading. It's the perfect time of year to read Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. We're finding the story connects with the theme of bravery much like our last novel, Number the Stars. With Coraline, we'll take some dramatic twists with reenacting scenes, creating one line plays, or writing in different roles to infer how all characters across the text might be feeling. We've also looked at author craft with how Gaiman builds tension with sensory words and other adjectives, as well as short sentences and long paragraphs. He makes you want to keep reading!
In math, we've continued our rational number journey, but we've added fractions and ratios to the mix. Be sure to check out our Mystery Number posters in the hallways during report card pick up. We completed these entirely in class, and it was a great culmination of our exploration of whole numbers. Can you guess what our numbers are?
Our tour of our solar system continues in science, with simulations of the moon phases to reflect our moon logs. We've also explored day and night patterns all over the world! We'll be visiting the Challenger Learning Center in Woodstock on December 7 to take part in a simulated space mission where we will embark on a mission to Mars! Stay tuned for those permission slips! In the meantime, we'll be moving on to crater formations and the origin of the solar system.
In social studies, we are continuing and wrapping up our Eastern Hemisphere study. We exhibited knowledge of our physical regions (see those maps at report card pick up as well), and now we are moving onto cultural geography. With cultural geography, we have picked one country in our region and we are looking closely at holidays, religions, ethnicities, food, clothing, and customs and putting all of these ideas into a guide book. Right now we are in the research portion and we are really enjoying using databases from CPS's digital library to help guide us.
Finally, in writing and ELA we are extra busy. We are creating our own moon origin story based on tales we've read in science. We're also wrapping up our narrative work in Writer's Workshop. We are rounding the academic corner by partnering up and editing/revising. During grammar, students are working with "sentence type" exploration with reviewing subjects and predicates in sentences. We've also started our Greek and Latin roots with some prefix reviews. We're taking the quizzes on Google Forms, which makes quizzing exciting and the feedback almost immediate!
Make sure you follow me on Twitter @MsCaskey317 for fun updates!
From the Desk of Mr. Prince:
6th grade has finished reading Nothing But The Truth by Avi. The book culminated with students creating scenes that could have, but did not appear in the book. Students also read the shorts stories Charles and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. They compared the untruths of each to the untruths in Nothing ButThe Truth. In math students are working on Similarity in the Unit Stretching and Shrinking. This year students have taken charge of many aspects of class climate and Culture. They have built a website, created a newspaper and decorated the class for the fall and Halloween. Students use committee meetings once per week to make sure they have all aspects covered.
7th grade math is working on the unit Searching for Pythagoras. They have been studying aspects of square roots and the ideas that will lead to a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem.
In 8th grade math students continue working through the CME Algebra text at their own pace. They are currently working on a range of chapters from Rational Numbers, to Measures of Tendency, to Linear Functions and Slope to Quadratics. Students work in small groups or individually in order to move forward.
In sixth grade physics, the primary focus has been on simple machines with special emphasis on mechanical advantage as exemplified by the use inclined planes, pulleys, and levers.
Seventh grade literature featured the class conducting an author study of Edgar Allan Poe as his style was discussed in the following stories: "Manuscript Found In A Bottle," "Ligeia," “The Fall Of The House of Usher,” and "William Wilson." The second half of the month saw the class examining the speculative genre of horror. The authors covered during this study were Neil Gaiman, Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Dickens, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. To illustrate their understanding of these works, the students worked collaboratively to produce a story map, create a collage, and write a letter of inquiry to an author.
Experiments in seventh grade chemistry focused on the concept of the conservation of mass. Laboratories centered on color change and buoyancy. Quizzes emphasized the importance of percentage calculations as well as the concept of direct and inverse proportionality.
In addition, the seventh graders travelled to the Shedd Aquarium to experience a dissection of a squid. The class also attended a Chicago Wolves game along with the seventh graders in the other two departments.
The eighth graders in their study of biology focused on ecology with special emphasis on populations and humans in the biosphere before shifting the priority to cell structure and function, photosynthesis, and cellular respiration.
I can't believe we're ending 1st quarter already! It's not hard to believe that it has been as excellent as it has, due to the hard work and enthusiasm of all your students.
In 6th grade Social Studies, 1st quarter saw us grapple with the Essential Question "What is Justice? How are laws created and how do we know they're fair", with a case study about Hammurabi. We followed that with an exploration of "Human Geography: how does where we live change who we are?", which was our entry point for discussion about Egypt and the Nile. We followed that with "Cost Benefit Analysis: How do societies make the BIG decisions?" and a case study about the Great Wall of China. Now we are starting 2nd quarter with "How do we judge achievements in history?" which includes my favorite historical analysis.... the Voldemort Principle (i.e. great but terrible) as we interpret the actions of Alexander of Macedonia (a.k.a. the "Great")
7th grade Social Studies spent 1st quarter rolling through units on early American History. We looked at "What it takes to survive?" in Jamestown, "Why do we always scapegoat the 'OTHER'?" in Salem, and now we are wondering "How is power distributed, fairly/un, and how can we resist, redistribute or revolt?", our Essential Question for the American Revolution.
In 8th grade Social Studies, we've covered contentious periods in American history, starting with analysis of the Causes of the Civil War, follow by the Epic Failure of Reconstruction (and whose fault.....). Now we are talking about the next period of American Westward Expansion and its inevitable but unfortunate conflicts with Native Nations. We are exploring the idea of American myths and stereotypes, particularly as they appear in media and popular culture, but also how they may or may not exist in a Collective Unconscious.
In 8th grade reading, we should soon be ending our unit on Narrative Poetry, as we are wrapping up our Literature Circles about the same. I look forward to the group presentations next week, and 2nd quarter will see us starting our next unit, on Narrative non-fiction with a whole-class text of There Are No Children Here. I'm sure second quarter will be every bit as productive and enjoyable as the first.