I AM Portraits

Math Smart

In math, students have learned what prime and composite means. They have demonstrated their knowledge of this vocabulary by making posters, classifying whole numbers as prime or composite.

May We All Strive To Be Like Geese

“May We All Be Like Geese” We shared this story today with our class. You can read comments from students after the story. Lots of lessons to learn, some we already know and some we need to continue to strive toward!

In the fall when you see Geese heading south for the winter flying along in the "V" formation, you might be interested in knowing what science has discovered about why they fly that way.

It has been learned that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own. Quite similar to people who are part of a team and share a common direction get where they are going quicker and easier, because they are traveling on the trust of one another and lift each other up along the way.

Whenever a Goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go through it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the power of the flock. If we have as much sense as a Goose, we will stay in formation and share information with those who are headed the same way that we are going.

When the lead Goose gets tired, he rotates back in the wing and another Goose takes over. It pays to share leadership and take turns doing hard jobs.

The Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep their speed. Words of support and inspiration help energize those on the front line, helping them to keep pace in spite of the day-to-day pressures and fatigue. It is important that our honking be encouraging.

Finally, when a Goose gets sick or is wounded by a gunshot and falls out, two Geese fall out of the formation and follow the injured one down to help and protect him. They stay with him until he is either able to fly or until he is dead, and then they launch out with another formation to catch up with their group. When one of us is down, it's up to the others to stand by us in our time of trouble. If we have the sense of a Goose, we will stand by each other when things get rough. We will stay in formation with those headed where we want to go.

The next time you see a formation of Geese, remember their message that "IT IS INDEED A REWARD, A CHALLENGE AND A PRIVILEGE TO BE A CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF A TEAM".

Here is what we learned from listening to the goose story:

•Seeing someone else do it helps us to do it too

•Being in a group is better than being alone

•Encouragement – seeing what others do can help you

•Helping others is important

•In a classroom with a group you can learn better because others can help you do it

•when someone gets tired or can’t do it any more, someone else can help

•someone can take over to help out

•take turns

•look out for everybody as a whole

•give encouraging words

•be positive to empower people

•tell others they can do it

•if someone is hurt you stay and support them

Homework

Beginning today, we will post homework on the sidebar of the blog. This is a way for you to be able to check in and support your child at home. Just as a reminder, reading is 30 consecutive minutes at least 5 times per week. If you have any questions, please let us know.

Delicious Words

Poetry Workshop and Poetry Share

We had our first Poetry Workshop with Mrs. Hinkle's class! As teachers, this is one of our favorite learning times each week. We come together to share poems, "try-out" a new type of poem, browse poetry, read poetry and write poetry! We began with list poems and shared a few by Douglas Florian from the book "Summersaults" and some from the book "Falling Down the Page" by Georgia Heard. Each person then wrote a list poem. We were impressed with the variety and topics chosen. On Friday, we had our first poetry share at Fancyburg. Here is just a sampling of a few I am Poems. Check back for others soon!

I am

I am blue
The color of the sky,
Swimming though the ocean,
Shimmering water from head to toe,
Splashing bubbles everywhere.

I am green
The color of grass,
Tickling your feet.

I am yellow
The color of lemonade,
Refreshing on a hot summer day.

I am white
The color of snow,
Shivering cold.



I Am Poem

I am a wolf as fast as a ninja, as silent as a mouse, as sneaky as a piece of
cheese.

I am red the color of fire, the smell of a warm smoky hamburger
That’s why I am red.

I am thunder the light bright person, fast as the wind that’s why I am
thunder.

Delicious Words

What is a delicious word? It is a word that is delicious to the mind and the mouth! We discussed delicious words and how we can look and listen for them in our writing and reading. We are making lists of delicious words. We also had a delicious feast last week, after brainstorming some delicious "non-junk food" items, while sharing our delicious words. It was timely to also discuss word choice with our "I Am" poems. For example, some writers chose to use sluggish instead of slow and plucked in place of get. Word choice will be a focus throughout Writing Workshop the entire year.

The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary

The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary by Candace Fleming is our first read aloud of the school year. It is the story of a fourth grade class that nobody wants to teach. Nobody, that is, until Mr. Jupiter comes along. He is willing to take this group of rambunctious (see delicious word post) 4th graders and teach them. They have fun and laugh together and learn at the same time. We are using this read aloud as an opportunity to complete "recaps" in our reader's notebooks. Recaps are brief summaries (2-3 sentences) that tell what happened during the part we read aloud. We are listening and learning from one another as we share.

Colored Dots...

Who would think simple colored dots could create such a positive learning experience. On Friday, we put four different colors (blue, green, red, yellow) of dots on each person's forehead. Directions were given for each person to find other people with the same colored dot and meet together. The only other direction was "no talking." It was great to watch kids communicate with one another to not only figure out what color dot was on each person's head, but also to decide how to meet as a group. When we finished the activity we asked, "Why do you think we did this?" We were impressed with the variety of answers: "to get us to work together, to learn how to communicate without talking, to do something fun that teaches us at the same time," were just a few of the answers we heard. We also had the opportunity to talk about non-verbal cues and how sometimes we communicate a lot without saying a word!