Blog Break

 Hello, all! 

I have noticed a lot of blog traffic lately and wanted to let you know that we will be on a COVID hiatus. It is too much for me to teach virtually as well as keep the blog up to date. As soon as we're a bit more balanced I will start posting to iseeithinkiwonder.blogspot.com again! 

Stay safe and healthy!

Chatterpix

We have been doing such a great job at school these past few weeks!  Room 612 got a special treat today--we learned how to use the Chatterpix app. 

If we learn virtually from home, this is a great app to share a story or to share some learning in a fun way.

I shared one I created, then we created one together and explored the app.

Here we are working on crafting our Chatterpix buddies!  

Tomorrow we'll learn how to upload our Chatterpix buddies into Class Dojo!

 

Working our Math Brains

 We have been thinking about numbers a lot in our time together. We work with numbers at our Number Corner, as well as during our Math Workshops.

Since it was our 14th day of school, we focused in on the number 14. We tried to come up with as many different ways to represent 14 as we could.

We came up with lots of different equations, tallies and pictures!

For Math Workshop we learned about part/part/whole mats.

We watched a video from our Math Coach, Mrs. Moeller, about using these mats to help us represent and solve problems in different ways. We paused the video every now and then to solve the problems on our own and then kept watching to check our work.

We have also been sharpening our estimation skills! We saw a picture of a jar with glittery balls in it and made a quick estimate of how many balls we thought were in the jar.

We found out there were 24 balls in the jar.  After talking about reasonable estimates, we made estimates of other similar jars of balls, using what we learned about previous jars each time that we made a new estimate. 

Based on what you learned about the first three jars in the picture above, can you make a reasonable estimate about how many balls are in the jar in the last picture?

Thinking About Jane Goodall

 We have been learning about the life of the researcher, Jane Goodall.

We started learning about Jane by reading a book about when she was little.  She always loved animals and was very patient and determined when she observed them.

We learned that when Jane was little she had a stuffed toy chimpanzee named Jubilee.

We had lots of questions after we read that first book.

We then read the book The Watcher, which told us more about how Jane accomplished her dream to work and study with chimpanzees in Gombe, Africa.  We also got some of our questions answered!

Jane was not only a researcher, but also a writer.  She kept piles and piles of research in her tent when she was working with the chimpanzees.

We learned that one of her favorite chimp companions was named David Greybeard.

However, after many years Jane realized that the chimpanzees she loved were in danger of becoming extinct.  She realized that the best way to help the chimpanzees was to share their story with the world.

Jane Goodall is an excellent example of the 3 A's:  Activism, Awareness, and Aid.  When we do our inquiries this year, Room 408 will keep these 3 A's in mind.

This is a National Geographic video that we watched before writing entries about Jane in our Think Books. 

This video shows what stuck with us about Jane Goodall.

What inspires you about Jane Goodall?

Learning from Goldilocks

 We have been enjoying lots of books by Paul Galdone, including The Three Bears.

Today as readers, we tried to pay attention to how it feels when we read a book.  We used the Goldilocks Theory to check:  is the book too hard, too easy, or juuuust right?  This is what our Reading Workshop goal board looked like...

As we read a book we sorted them into three piles:  too easy, too hard, or juuuust right.

We are excited, because many of us are just starting to read!  It felt so good to find books that are filled with words we can read.

At the end of Reading Workshop, Room 408 discussed how it felt when a book was too hard, too easy, or juuuust right.

Next week we'll be zeroing in on just right books in our library and finding books where we can read LOTS of words.

We are strong readers!

Committee Work!

 Our Committee Work is underway! 

In Room 612 we have jobs, but we work together to get the jobs done.  We have four committees:  the Reading Committee, the Writing Committee, the Math Committee, and the Group meeting Committee.  Each committee has two jobs that the members rotate between for each quarter of the year.  When we choose new committees, the old committee members train the new ones.

Here are some of our committee members getting their Morning Committee Work done! Because of COVID, much of our collaboration is sharing and trading off the work, instead of working so closely together. Here are a few of our committee jobs:

Accountants count up the milk and fill out the order slip

Woodworkers make sure we have enough sharpened pencils

Librarians make sure the library is in order and books are returned

Electricians make sure all the folders are turned in and passed out

Secretaries write the short date on the calendar display

Messengers fill the milk order

Teacher Assistants lead the Morning Message

Way to go, Room 612!

Counting by 2s Patterns

 Since our popsicle inquiry, we are still practicing counting by 2s. We like this song:

 

 We also did our first entry in our Think Books today. We colored numbers on a 120 grid that we say out loud when we count by 2s.  We noticed the pattern right away!

Our First Chapter Book Read Aloud

 During snack time we will be reading a chapter book for a read aloud. This is a great time to get Room 612 thinking deeply about books that are above their reading text level.  We will be doing high level thinking such as predicting, and inferring as well as laughing and crying as we enjoy powerful books together.

Our first three choices are:

After reading the blurbs on the back of the books, we voted.

Here are the results!

We're excited to read Charlotte's Web, first!

Rockin' with Pete the Cat

 Today we read the book Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes.

We also enjoyed listening to the rhythm of the book in this video:

 

 Then we decided what we were doing in our school shoes! Watch this video to see what your child did in his/her school shoes.

Sending Encouragement Across the Miles

 Lately we have been noticing how our words can help or hurt.  We can choose to have powerful self-talk, and we can use our words to encourage others. Our words are powerful!

I shared the following quotation with Room 408:

We read the book The Bad Seed by Jory John and noticed how the bad seed became what he told himself he was. When he said he was bad he would do more bad things, when he said he was doing well he did kind things.

We talked about how positive self-talk is very important, especially when things get tough.  I shared with Room 612 how my son, CJ, is in Basic Military Training right now. (CJ is in the middle, 3rd from the left).

 CJ sent a letter to me last night requesting that our first graders send letters to his flight. There are some members who aren't getting any letters from home. We talked about how challenging Basic Training is, especially when no one is sending letters of encouragement.

We worked on writing words of encouragement and pictures to Flight 732. Here are a few examples:

We sent over 45 letters!

Tomorrow we will make a ring of self-affirmations to keep in our safe zone, to give ourselves words of encouragement.

Here is a great video about believing in yourself.