Albert Einstein & Wonders

We have been studying Albert Einstein (and have of course noticed his hair):

We read a few books about Einstein and his life growing up.  

We learned that he studied light, sound, and space...just like we will this year!  He is a reader, a writer, a mathematician, a scientist, and a researcher, but most of all--a thinker.  

When we read On a Beam of Light we learned that he was very unique.  He didn't speak until he was almost four, and started wondering about our world when his father gave him a compass.  He asked LOTS and LOTS of questions--so many that his teachers thought he was trouble.  ;)

He is a perfect person to study for LEADS because he is so full of questions.

Here is a short video so you can see him in action:

We designated one of our notebooks as our "Think Book" and put his picture on the front.  

Today we started to record our important thoughts, ideas, and questions in this notebook.  We also recorded our wonders on post-it notes and put them on our Wonder Window.

We loved Albert Einstein's hair, but we gave him a new hair-do in our Morning Message.

We have so many wonders!

Class Names

In our Spelling Workshop we are observing our class names. 

We sorted our names based on properties of the names.  For example, we sorted based on names that had a's and those that didn't have a's.  We sorted in lots of ways and then had our partners guess!

How would you sort our class names?

Mrs. Going and Our Brains

At our school we have a Growth Mindset initiative.  If you want to know more about growth mindset, click here.

Our literacy coach, Mrs. Going,  came in to talk with us about our brains.

She reminded us about parts of the brain and that an adult brain weighs three pounds!  

We learned about how when we learn something new and make mistakes, the neurons in our brains get stronger.

weak neural connections

stronger neural connections

strong neural connections

We even got to see real neurons connecting on a brain scan.

 What skill is hard for you that you are working on?

The Goldilocks Theory

We have enjoyed reading Goldilocks & the Three Bears. 

We also read the book Walk On! by Marla Frazee.

We discussed choosing just right books. We brainstormed a list about how it feels when a book is too easy, too hard, and juuuuuust right.  

We made an analogy to our Walk On! book.

This is what it feels like when a book is too easy:

You know all the words and totally get the story.  Your brain is growing.

This is what it feels like when a book is too hard:

You have to keep stopping to work on tricky words and you can't even think about the story. 
Your brain isn't really growing smarter.

This is what it feels like when it is juuuuust right:

There are some tricky parts, but you can get through them and figure them out.  Your brain is growing a lot!

During Reading Workshop we read books and sorted them into piles:  too easy, too hard, and just right.

We're working on growing our brains by choosing just right books!

Therapy Dogs

At our school we have two therapy dogs named Grace and Scout.  Many of us have met Grace, who had puppies last year.

Grace

Mr. Morestad, our Dean of Students, came in to introduce Scout to us.

These dogs are available for us to read to, talk to, and ultimately they help us feel good!  We are so thankful for the therapy dogs at Hillcrest/LEADS!