Cingiser Class News

March 17, 2008

Quick update:

We are back into our regular routines after the February break and the 2 day week that followed it. These snow days are really throwing the activities that I have planned out of whack, but being flexible is an essential component of being a teacher and working with kids. Prior to the break, we had completed an extensive study related to the story of how life came to Earth. We reflected on scientific theories as well as other cultural theories that tell how life came to this planet. We focused most of our attention on the study of plants. At first, the kids were not at all thrilled to study plants; they all wanted to study animals. But after, asking them if they had ever studied animals and all of them answering yes, they did concede that they should focus on plants. And focus they did, doing research through their ILPs, creating a poster that showcased their individual plants, and writing a report whose topic sentence was "The _________________ plant has adapted in various ways in order to survive." These products of our plant studies were shared with the group and the posters and reports have been hanging in the hall and will be there through the end of this week. Take a look at them when you come in for your conference.

We have just begun a unit on fractions in our third and fourth grade groups. Joni Clemons has the third graders and Whitney Jones and I have the fourth graders. We started off the unit with a pre-assessment, which guided us in how we would proceed with our instruction. The unit is hands-on, using three different models: the area model, the set model, and the linear model. Most of the math homework that you have seen has focused on the area model, with some set model thrown in. I hope that you had the opportunity to read the Family letters that Joni and I sent home with your children. They give a good explanation of the math involved in the unit. Let me know if you have any questions.

Prior to the break, the students finished reading group books, discussing them on a daily basis, and reflecting on them through a project of some sort. One group wrote reports; other groups wrote letters from a characters perspective; and one group engaged in a debate regarding one aspect of the book. The class is now reading biographies (and in a few cases, autobiographies). Each student chose a person about which he/she wanted to learn more and then chose a book from the library. Over the next few weeks, the class will be immersed in coming to know and understand the contributions of the people about whom they read. Last week and this week, their ILP time should be spent doing research about the contributions made by these people. The focus here should be on what makes this person important enough to have books written about him/her, not the dates associated with the person’s life. It is much easier for students to focus on the dates; our job is to help them see that there are reasons these people are important.

After finishing the reading, there will be four projects to complete:

Writing a letter from the person’s point of view

Gathering artifacts/props that are representative of the person’s life

Photo scrapbook documenting four important events in the person’s life

Dressing and acting as the person at a Meet the People event where all of the pieces of the project will be shared

Of course the question is when all of this will occur. Well, that depends on when the books get finished. I will take a look at where we are in the reading and try to pick a date this week. Remember, flexibility is essential J In the meantime, please help your child with the artifact/prop part of the project, which is as follows:

I will let you know when to send in the bags to school, so students can practice. Thanks for your help in advance. It is truly appreciated by me and your children (even if they don’t’ say so J )

Finally, please be sure to call Pam Kathan and sign up for a conference.

I look forward to seeing you this week. (I guess this wasn’t all that quick…sorry!)

Karen