Second grade went on a FABULOUS field trip today and had a gorgeous day for it, which means I didn’t get to see them at all.

We are almost done with our What’s the Missing Side assignment. Students completed a gallery walk today. During their gallery walk they look at the work produced by the other groups and offer constructive criticism designed to make their visual proofs stronger. This is the second time they’ve done this type of activity and they were even better this time than last. Students then took the suggestions, read them, applied or discarded them as appropriate and are in the process of creating a final copy that will hang in the hall next to their visual proofs for multiplication. While this activity took many days to complete, it really does help students to understand what is going on when they divide.

Third grade math continued to work on their graphing activity. We’ve had quite a few bumps, but despite this students claim this is the MOST FUN EVER. I may need to switch up my game or risk losing my title as dungeon keeper. We’ll continue to work on graphing next week, as this tends to be a weirdly difficult concept to master when you take into account all of the little rules students must be able to apply when it comes time to show off their understanding on the SOL test.

Fourth grade math took a break from their exploration of multiplication and division to help me with some new supplies I received yesterday. I ordered a variety of critical thinking games and activities to share with teachers. My fourth grade group test drove the activities for me – figuring out the spatial puzzles, using logic to solve the Logic Links puzzles, and to challenge themselves using the BrainBoxes.

Fourth grade reading talked about the different kinds of characters. This is something I did with my sixth graders and I wasn’t entirely sure the fourth graders would grasp some of the nuances involved in the definitions, but for the most part they did really well. Students learned about different kinds of characters: protagonists, antagonists, foils, dynamic, static, round, and flat. Last, but not least, we discussed the different character archetypes. This seemed to be the easiest for them to understand and they found it easy to give examples of the hero, mother figure, mentor, innocent youth, and villain. I look forward to talking to students about these types of archetypes as we read a variety of books.

I conferenced with my second grade reading group today about the books they’re choosing. Some are choosing books that are entirely too easy and I am encouraging them to pick books that are more challenging. Some students are picking books that are entirely too difficult. We talked about how to tell if a book was too hard. We use the five finger rule – pick a page in the middle of the book and read it out loud. Put up a finger every time you come across a word you don’t know or can’t pronounce. If, at the end of the page, you have five or more fingers up, you should probably pick an easier book. That is an inexact science, but it’s a good place to start.

Fourth grade finished their reading SOL test today. They worked really hard and I know they did awesome.

Third grade reading kicked back and relaxed today. We read and talked about reading. I conferenced with some students regarding their book choices. I’ve found that students often get into a “reading rut” where they read a series over and over or the same types of books. Students can sometimes be reluctant to move into larger books because they look “too hard” or “too long”. That’s definitely something we’ll continue to work on.

I had a third grade testing group this morning. They worked super hard and did a great job.

The second grade reading group finished their projects today and desperately tried to find out my next top secret assignment. Some students tried to sneak up on me while I was at my computer to find out this top secret information. They are now desperate to know what fun things I have in store for them. I guess they’ll have to wait!

Third grade math reviewed a variety of concepts in anticipation of their term test this afternoon. We worked on multiplication, arrays, rounding, and other topics.

Fourth grade math continued their fraction exploration using Cuisenaire rods and a 12 cm number line.  They used the rods the mark off increments of 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/12 on different number lines. They used those number lines to answer a variety of questions which required them to add fractions and to determine equivalent fractions.  There were a few questions that stumped the audience but for the most part students are becoming more comfortable with fractions.

Johnson held their Nat Geo bee this morning. We had ten fourth grade finalists who braved sitting on the stage to show off their knowledge of geography. We are so proud of ALL of the finalists: David, Ev, Jakerah, Luka, Nora, Nysoun, Oak, Sahana, Sha’Mira, and Shrey. Nysoun and Shrey tied for third place, Ev was our runner up and David is the Johnson Geography Bee winner!  David will now take a test to determine if he is eligible for the state geography bee! Good luck, David!

I pulled my third grade math group today and we worked on the vocabulary of geometry. They learned that poly- means many, -gon means angle, and -hedron means faces. We talked about how they could use that information to differentiate between 2-D and 3-D shapes.  We moved on to number prefixes and students did a really good job of using those prefixes (tri, quad, penta, etc) to determine the number of sides (or angles) a shape might have.

Fourth grade reading read (another!) challenging story. They read “The Golden Touch” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The vocabulary in this story was a definite challenge. I encouraged students to read the story through the first time to develop a basic understanding of the story before they re-read the story and spent time looking up words they didn’t know during their first reading. This conversation also led to a reminder of exactly what reading is – reading to understand, rather than simply decoding the words. At this point, the students are very capable readers who are not often challenged by the vocabulary in what they read. It is important they develop the skills they’ll need in order to work through more difficult text, though that can sometimes be frustrating.

We’ve been reviewing measurement during the last few days in fourth grade math – which has been a decided weakness for students. With the results of today’s term test, it became clear that students have made great strides in all aspects of their understanding of measurement – relative measurement and converting between units. Based on that information, I introduced our fraction unit. Students have a good understanding of the basics, but in order to be successful as math becomes more complex a deeper understanding of fractions and their relationship to whole numbers, decimals and percentages will be important skills to master.

Third grade reading met today to start planning their research poster. We looked at informational text books to look at how those books use text features to organize information. Students pointed out headers, sub-headers, pictures and captions, short, informational paragraphs (rather than longer narrative passages), putting the information into geographical and chronological context, as well as the use of bold and italicized words to reinforce an idea or to show readers that it’s important. Students will be using this information, as well as their research, to create posters that are visually pleasing and well-organized in order to help their fellow students learn more about their research topic.

This morning I pulled my first grade reading group. We started by reviewing the different people (and the different kinds of thinking) we’ve met in Crystal Pond Woods. We continue to spend time with Yolanda the Yarn Spinner, who is teaching us about divergent thinking and good storytelling. Today we learned about onomatopoeia and wrote a poem together.  Here’s our first effort:

On a nice, sunny afternoon, a screech rang through the air.
The ball bounced down the hill.
Boing, boing, boing, boing.
Richard picked it up and dribbled it.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
He kicks it high into the sky and yells, “Goooooooooooooal!”
Catherine picks it up and pretends it’s an egg.
Chirp, chirp, chrip
Hart bumps into the egg and SMASH it broke.
Wah, wah, wah.
With a clap, recess was over.
Booooo!

When we finished, students illustrated the poems and picked out some books.

The kindergarten group worked on math this morning. We played a game called “Win 100”. We used a die, base 10 blocks and a base 10 mat to begin our exploration of the patterns in the base 10 system. As one student wisely pointed out, “This is an absolute stumper.”

Fourth grade math reviewed measurement. They have notes in their folders and will have a quiz on Friday for the conversions they have to memorize. Students will retake the quiz until they get a perfect score (or as close to one as possible). These are facts they simply have to know (16 ounces in a pound, etc). We had a lot of practice on converting and estimating relative sizes (definitely something on which they need practice).

Tomorrow is part 1 of the fourth grade math term 2 test.

Today was so much fun! I didn’t see everyone because so many classes were doing so many fun things in their rooms. The students I did see played math games and talked about books. Have a wonderful break! I look forward to seeing everyone in 2016!

I didn’t see any groups today because everyone went to JPJ to see the UVA Women’s Basketball team play Bowling Green. I had a chance to talk with a few students when they returned and it is clear everyone had a really great time!

Please help students with their research projects by answering the following surveys.