Currently May.. HOLLA!

Hooray for May!  May means Spring, flowers, warmer weather, 3 day weekend for Memorial Day, and barely 1 month left until the end of the school year.  That's what's up!  So here's my currently...

 

Listening: I'm lovin' some Ryan Reynolds and Abigal Breslin right now.  This movie is totally adorable.  Love it.

 

Loving: Only 23 days left of school. Yep!  Ca-razy.  I don't want to give {most} of my kids up.  But I know I'll have to, so I'll guess I'll just hang onto my 1st year memories of them!

 

Thinking: Geography.. unit.. start... next week.  BLAH.  I have this fabulous idea but it's totally going to take some time to put together.  I think I've put it off long enough.

 

Wanting & Needing: A shopping spree!! 'Nuff said

 

Summer Bucket List: To ACTUALLY go on vacation.  We only have 3.5 weeks after teacher work days.  Not to mention I have a week long required training I have to attend.  So that leaves 2.5 weeks.  Justin and I always say lets go to the beach for a few days.... but it NEVER happens.  It always ends up being, well we will save it for Fall Intersession because it will be cheaper and less crowded.  Then spring intersession rolls around and we never make it.  This time, I want to actually make it.  I think we deserve a little break.

 

 

Head on over to Oh'Boy Fourth Grade to Link up with Farley!

 

 



Five for Friday!

I am terrible at taking pictures throughout the week... like TERRIBLE.  I bet if I had that Cannon or Nikon camera I want SO bad, I would be way better.  But, even without my dream camera, I am really trying to get better and this week, I succeeded (more than most weeks!) So I decided I could link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday Linky! Yay. Here are 5 {mostly school related} things from my week.

 

 

Our Mondrian inspired collaborative art piece is starting to have more color!  I can't wait until we've gotten all the pieces.  This project is great because we've been able to connect with other kids around the US and Canada, and as pictures come in, we color in our map to see where the pictures are coming from. Check out Project by Jen to join this and other projects to connect with classrooms around the world!

 

 

Only a little over a week until we have some chirping hatchlings!  My kids have been busy learning all about life cycles of many different animals and taking care of our chickies!

 

 

This week, we learned about the life cycle of insects including Lady Bugs, Fireflies, and of course Butterflies (We're hoping ours will emerge soon!!)  Today we did a little craftivity to show the life cycle of a butterfly.  How cute are they?

 

Yesterday, on our walk with Kole it was raining... Dollah Bills!  Takin' this one to the store to buy a #winning lottery ticket.

 

A couple of my kids finished their life cycle craft early. They asked if they could make another one, but they didn't want to just make another Life Cycle Caterpillar, they were making me a present. 

"Ms. Gravelle, we made you a present!  It has 19 circles and one persons name on every circle so that you won't forget us!"   How darn sweet! How could I ever forget my first loves? Laminating this one and keeping forever, for sure! 

 

Head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to link up and share 5 things from your week!

 

 

Seminar: Setting up the Rules

Quick Post! 

The first thing we always do with students before we do anything is set the ground rules, right?. What do we expect of each other?  What is this going to look like, sound like, feel like?

Before you begin having these discussions with your students, you are going to want to set the ground rules.  For many people, it might not look very different than your normal classroom talk so it won't take a lot of time, but for some others; it will be a brand new thing for your students.  So what are the rules of having this type of discussion?

Background by Teacher Lisa

 Fonts by Kevin & Amanda

Background by Teacher Lisa

They are pretty straight forward, but require a lot of practice!  

We spend 1 day thinking and brainstorming what we would expect from each other and going over my expectations for our discussions.  The next day, we tried it on our own, reflected, and talked about what we needed to do better.  We continue to practice each time we do a seminar and keep building on our abilities.  So that's it, the Rules of Seminar! :)

Semi-Wordless Wednesday

 

Watching The Lorax during Lunch in honor of Earth Day!

 

 

Paideia Seminar: Part One

Recently, our school AIG teacher lead an afternoon of Common Core PD.  I have to admit, I was skeptical at first.  When I heard we were learning about "seminar" I thought, "How in the world does this pertain to my kids?" I had never heard of it and knew it was introduced to 5th grade by her earlier on in the year.. All I could think was "I really hope this afternoon is not going to be a waste!"  It definitely wasn't.

For anybody who hasn't heard of Paideia Seminar, it's basically a way to get kids holding conversations about pretty much anything.  It requires kids to listen to what other's are saying and be an active participant by responding to what other participants are talking about (Common core!).  In a perfect world, the facilitator (YOU) would just have to ask some questions and then the kids will lead the way.  In many cases, you may just have to ask an opening question and that will get the kids talking, listening, responding, connecting to a text, to their life, to what others are saying.. They answer the questions you had on your plan without even being asked because they are thinking deeply about the text and building on what others bring to the table. Oh, you just MIGHT have to stop them if you run out of time (Awe shucks)!

We held our first seminar last week (our AIG teacher came in a facilatated for us!).  It was definitely less than perfect but for our first one, I was happy.  First, the kiddos read a short passage and wrote down anything they were thinking. This story was about a horse who really wanted to be a tap dancer.  So she practiced and practiced.  When she thought she was good enough, she held a recital for her friends.  Her friends were less than impressed.  They told her she could not dance, she was just an animal like the rest of them.  The horse didn't let her friends get to her and continued to dance which made her very happy!

 



We went over rules (Coming to a post soon!) and set up our chairs in the circle so that everyone knew we were all equal contributors to the conversation.

 

Then of course came the conversation.  We talked about things like how the horse felt.  Had there ever been a time where you felt like that?  How did you handle it?  Did the friends make the right decision when they told her she couldn't dance?  What would you have done?  Would you have told the horse the truth?  Is it ever OK to lie to someone if you are going to hurt their feelings?  

 

The conversation needed A LOT of prompting from our facilitator.  But our goal is to be able to hold meaningful and purposeful conversations where we are able to link back to the text and are comfortable enough to share our own thoughts and questions.  Hopefully without a lot of prompting from me!  All in all, I am so excited to use this more frequently in my room and only wish I knew about it at the beginning of the year!

 

Keep a look out for more Seminar posts coming soon  (Rules, A Seminar Plan, Choosing texts, and more) so you can hold a seminar in your room (From grades K-12)!  

EGG-Citing Experiments!

Our chicks are just 18 days away from hatching!  Today, we learned that the chicks head and heart are beginning to grow.  Then, we learned about the parts of an egg.

First, a 2 days ago we started a fun experiment with an egg and some vinegar! Just drop it in, simple as that!

Today, we observed the egg... We noticed that it was now kind of like jelly & it expanded.  Why was the shell gone?

The acid ate away the shell.  So why didn't the egg explode?  Why did it stay together? It looks yellow, so we think we can see the yolk.. hmmm....

 Because of the membrane!  The vinegar can't dissolve the membrane, so it stayed in the shape of an egg.  It got bigger because some of the vinegar was able to pass through the membrane into the egg.

Then comes the cracking of an egg..

Please excuse the yucky nails, I was painting my house over the weekend &
haven't gotten around to repainting my nails yet!)

See the thin, soft part right above the shell? We determined that was the membrane.  I told them there were actually 2 membranes (inner & outer).  The kiddos were AMAZED!  

Then we looked at the bottom of the egg.  I couldn't get a good picture of this.. but I asked them what they noticed.  Something strange at the bottom that looked like a bubble.  Why would an egg need a spot for air? SO THE CHICKS CAN BREATHE (I only write that in caps because they were seriously excited).. Yep! It's called the air pocket.  

Then we talked about the yolk and the embryo.. They helped me label my pathetic drawing on the smartboard...

They were in disbelief that ALL that could fit into one tiny egg..

And of course, they got to draw their own!! (I forgot to take pictures) :(

LAST- my question... do you think the egg is solid or liquid inside?  A few voted solid but most thought liquid.  "POP IT MS. G, POP IT!"... It exploded a little more than I expected, luckily it didn't get on any kids! :)

What kind of fun experiments do you when you are learning about life cycles?

Animal Experts... Research in a Primary Classroom

How many times do your kids do a research project during the school year?  With the new CC Standards, I think we are going to see more and more research projects being done in classes throughout the country more often.  This year in my room, we've done a number of research projects, including a U.S. Symbols Project, a Black History research project, and currently, an Animal Expert Project (This unit hopefully coming soon).  The kids l.o.v.e. these projects because they get to pick what they learn about.

To start our Animal Experts project, we previewed LOTS of books, this way, the kids don't choose just any ole animal.. Dogs= BORING... Cats=Snooze fest!!.. Porcupines?= Fabulous... Armadillo?=Wonderful!! My kids are researching animals and insects like a bee, an ant, a lady bug, a toucan, arctic fox, polar bear.  They are learning all about some animals they never even knew existed.  Oh, did I mention it goes with our science unit on Animals & Life Cycles??

Then, we used our non-fiction books and the computers to jot important notes about the animals appearance, diet, habitat, predators, life cycle, and fun facts.  Here's a little freebie for you...

To do some internet research, we used PebbleGo.. a seriously awesome website that is perfect for K-2 kiddos!

You need a subscription to use it, but they do offer a free 2 week trial if you want to check it out.  The site has great features, like videos, maps, and a read aloud option.  Here are my kids doing some computer research...

 

All of this took us just about a week (Choosing an Animal, Researching with Books, Researching Using Internet).. but we also have done a good number of research projects that we dont have to talk about what's important to stop & jot, what I expect etc. 

Now, we are beginning to write and this time I decided to give them the freedom to write their expert book in anyway they choose, as long as they included nonfiction text features, and some type of organization (which of course, I model, model, model)  I'm scared of what some kids may do, but others are already off to a great start..I'll just have to steer those other ones in the right direction.

When we're all done with our expert books, we are going to create and present powerpoint presentations about our animal!  They are so excited.  Keep a look out for that post coming in the next few weeks!