Good-bye Summer, Hello Mill Pond
Wonder Jar Wednesday
The weekly wonder jars encourage and give the students an opportunity to expand their brains. They are asked to ponder factual questions they have about the item(s) in the jar. Our hope is to tap into the students' curiosity and have them ask inquiry questions that they can explore. Today's jars (bowls) were filled with fish, now our class pets.
Reading
Reading will be a daily part of learning in our classroom. The students showed me how serious they take their reading time too. When returning from lunch every student grabbed a book, sat and quietly began to read...on their own. I was one happy teacher!
Learn Like a Pirate
Over the summer I read a professional development book titled, Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess. It discussed increasing student engagement and boosting their curiosity to transform their learning in school. I thought, if I teach like a pirate, shouldn't students learn like a pirate? Now, we are not talking about the dirty thieves who kill. We are talking about the adventurous, determined, and risk taking fellows. In Dave's book he has an acronym for pirate:
P= passion
I = immersion
R= rapport
A = ask questions
T = transformation
E = enthusiasm
Our goal is put all of these qualities into our teaching and learning to be life-long engaged and curious learners. I invited the students to join me in a year of learning like a pirate. They all eagerly agreed. AARG!
P= passion
I = immersion
R= rapport
A = ask questions
T = transformation
E = enthusiasm
Our goal is put all of these qualities into our teaching and learning to be life-long engaged and curious learners. I invited the students to join me in a year of learning like a pirate. They all eagerly agreed. AARG!
Which Ball Can Roll the Farthest?
Over at Franki Sibberson's website, Solve it Your Way, she and her students have challenged others to solve the given problem and share the results. As a class we brainstormed and considered the balls we would use in the experiment, how we would create an incline, where we would roll the balls and how do we assure the balls all roll with the same force.
After making predictions or hypotheses (most students believed the bocce ball would roll the furthest, no one believed the tennis ball would roll the farthest) we took the balls outside to roll down a paved driveway. We quickly learned that instead of the balls following the pavement, most rolled onto a grass area or bumped into a fire hydrant. The tennis ball surprisingly rolled the furthest.
As scientists do we considered the variables and decided that the experiment did not give fair and honest results. We took the experiment inside. In the hallway we set up a ramp with a 3-fold poster board and let the balls roll down the hall. Again, the balls rolling was interfered with obstacles.
What did we learn? We concluded that in any learning situation results do not always come easy. We need to think, rethink, make changes and try again until we get results.
After making predictions or hypotheses (most students believed the bocce ball would roll the furthest, no one believed the tennis ball would roll the farthest) we took the balls outside to roll down a paved driveway. We quickly learned that instead of the balls following the pavement, most rolled onto a grass area or bumped into a fire hydrant. The tennis ball surprisingly rolled the furthest.
As scientists do we considered the variables and decided that the experiment did not give fair and honest results. We took the experiment inside. In the hallway we set up a ramp with a 3-fold poster board and let the balls roll down the hall. Again, the balls rolling was interfered with obstacles.
What did we learn? We concluded that in any learning situation results do not always come easy. We need to think, rethink, make changes and try again until we get results.
Free Draw Friday
Inspired by author and illustrator Mo Willems who uses butcher paper as a tablecloth at this dinner table to sketch and chat with his family, I decided to bring this concept into the classroom. He believes that sketching is a lost art that encourages imagination and creativity. It is not about a perfectly drawn picture, but the process of taking ideas and creating. There was a positive response from the many talented artists in the room.