Just In...from Singapore!

I just got a tweet from a teacher in Singapore...two more moons!

Sunday, 11-9-14 @ 10:20pm

Wednesday @ midnight

Beautiful!

How are they the same?  How are they different?

Our Moon Collection

It has been cloudy in Shawano and has been difficult to collect local moons.
However, Room 408 tweeted out about our project on collecting moons, and we have gathered moons from around the world!

from Barnet, Vermont, 11-5-14, 6:30pm

from Bloomington, Minnesota, 11-6-14, 6:06pm

from Collins, Iowa, 11-6-14, 7:00am

from the Everglades, 11-6-14

from Melbourne,  Australia, 11-6-14, 10:37pm

from Minnetonka, Minnesota, 11-4-14

from Fowler, Colorado, 11-9-14, 9:30pm

from NSW Australia, 11-6-14, 8:10pm

We'll be marking these locations on our map.  We will tweet it out again in two weeks to see if the moon's appearance changes around the globe.

Can you guess where this moon is from?

Thank you to all who sent us moons for our collection!


How are these moons alike?  How are they different?

Exploring Doubles

We read the Chinese folktale Two of Everything during math workshop:

In this story, the old couple finds a magic pot that doubles objects.  It doubles their coin purse, hairpins, and even people! 

We discussed what we noticed about some ten frame cards that illustrated doubles.

We had fun learning a new doubles song and added our own motions!

Making Butter, Just Like Ma

In our read aloud book, Little House in the Big Woods, we learned about how one of the chore days involved making butter.  Not many of the kids in Room 408 had ever made butter before...

We watched the youtube video on making butter from one of our previous blog posts.  Then we recorded the ingredients in our Think Books, in case we ever want to make it again in the future.

Then we "shook it up" along with the "Shake It Off" Taylor Swift song.

After about ten minutes of shaking collaboration, it started solidifying.

Getting closer....

Once it was finished, we spread it on some bread, it was yummy!

Here is a more in-depth video to enjoy our butter-making festivities:

If you want to get more details on making butter, click here.

October Learning Mural

At the end of each month we reflect on how we have grown smarter.  We brainstorm what we can remember about our learning for the previous month. Often we use our blog to remember any learning that we may have missed.

Then we practice collaboration skills and use art materials to make representations of our learning.

Here is a video showing our collaboration skills:

Our finished product!

What did you enjoy learning about the most in October?

Bus Safety

Johnson Bus Company met with us to talk about bus safety.

We learned four important things so we stay safe when we ride a bus:

1. We listen to the bus driver.

2. We sit "strong" in our bus seat.

3. We use quiet voices.

4. We keep our hands, feet, and objects should be kept to ourselves.

We headed to the bus to try out some of our rules and new learning.

We learned that there are cameras on all of the buses to make sure we stay safe.

It was quite interesting.

 We got to practice crossing in front of the bus and we also practiced signals for knowing when a situation isn't safe.

What do you remember about bus safety?

Announcing Our Next Read Aloud...

On Election Day the class voted on the new chapter book that we will read aloud during snack time.  The winner is....

We started learning about what times were like back in the late 1800s by viewing some images. So far, we have learned about smoking venison in a tree trunk, butchering pigs, and storing food to keep for winter.  Before reading the part about butchering the pig, I showed Room 408 the following picture to pique their curiosity:

We talked about the image with our talking partner.  They discussed possibilities such as it being a water bottle or a spider's egg sac (can you hear the learning from Charlotte's Web coming out in their talk?). When they looked closer they noticed some kind of tied string, the variation of colors, and the dark line going down the side.

As we read the chapter on butchering the pig, Room 408 started forming an idea of what this strange object might be.  We discussed how back then when they killed an animal they tried not to let any part go to waste.  They were surprised (and a little grossed out) to find out that this was a pig's bladder...and that Pa blew up the bladder so Mary and Laura could play with it like a balloon!

Tomorrow should be an exciting day...we'll be learning how Laura and Mary helped Ma make butter.  We'll even be collaborating with a partner to make our own butter!

If you want to build up your schema about butter-making, watch this video:

What is your favorite part of Little House in the Big Woods, so far?

Collecting Many Moons

Please help Room 408 collect pictures of the moon from different places around the world!  We will be collecting pictures during the month of November.

If you snap a picture of the moon where you live, please record the place and time, and then send it to us in one of these ways:

Tweet it to @betsyhenning73
Email it to hennine@shawanoschools.com
Thank you!

Charlotte's Children, the Aeronauts

We just finished reading the book, Charlotte's Web.

At the end we find out that many of Charlotte's 514 aeronaut babies fly off into the warm spring wind.  I thought Room 408 might like to see real spiders do this:

What are you wondering?

Literacy Fun Fair

On October 31st LEADS had our Literacy Fun Fair.  LEADS students came dressed up as a book character.

In the morning we collaborated across all grade levels from 4K up through 2nd grade to record our costumes and talk about our books.

By chance, 1st grade Anna & Kindergarten Elsa were paired up!

In the afternoon, Room 408 had special Halloween stations.



Happy Halloween from Room 408!

Collaborating Mathematicians

We have also been working hard on using collaboration skills during math workshop.  At math stations we often work as a team.  We also started using math contracts to keep track of our work as mathematicians.

We're getting smarter every day!

Personal Spelling Words

We read the book I'm the Best by Lucy Cousins:

This book helped us realize that each person has things they are good at and each person has things they need to work on.  

Each week we have class pattern words that we add to the Word Wall in our classroom.  Once a word is a Word Wall Word, the expectation is to spell it correctly by using our resources.

This week each student also received their Personal Word Wall to keep in our Writing Workshop folder.  This Personal Word Wall contains words that are specifically challenging for us.  Once we master a word and spell it correctly in our everyday writing, that word is then highlighted on our Personal Word Wall.

We brainstormed a list of ways that we could work on our personal words each week:

We got really creative and worked hard during Spelling Workshop.

Watch this video for more spelling highlights:

After each creation, we recorded it by taking a photo with our ipads.

During Sharing at the end of the workshop, we used AppleTV to share our creations.

What is your favorite way to work on spelling words?