Atlantic City Adventure

Today we read a book about the high-diving horses in Atlantic City in the 1930s. It is a story of a girl who accompanied her father one summer to Atlantic City.  After she visited the boardwalk and saw a girl on the high-diving horse, she dreamed of doing it herself one day.

 It is a great example of writer's craft.  We noticed how the author slowed down the most exciting moments in the book.


We also liked how the author used "horse" words to write, like "Summertime gallops by" and "heart pounding like hooves."


They were fascinated by the idea of a high-diving horse and amazed to find out that high-diving horses and riders really existed.


Here is actual video footage of the stunt:


Would you high-dive on a horse's back if you got the chance?

The Word of the Day is...Collaboration

Room 408 worked on our collaboration skills today.  We worked on our January Learning Mural, where we represent different things we remember learning in the month of January.  We discussed the things we do when we collaborate, and how collaboration helps us all learn more.

We collaborate when we share jobs and split the work equally.  The group representing The Little House in the Big Woods wanted to represent when we learned about the pig's bladder.  They split the balloon into three parts to share the work equally:

Room 408 is also really into data and measuring.  They created a math station to collect data about measuring.  Yesterday it was Flea Jumps and recording data about how many inches high we could jump.  

Today many students created their own round of calisthenics for data collection.  Makenna had me touching my toes and measuring a sit-and-reach style task.  Brianna was timing how long students could hold various positions such as the following:

It all just made me smile (and giggle a little, inside).

Wild & Wonderful

We have been studying the author Steve Jenkins and marveling at his collage artwork as he shares cool animal information.  He is the perfect complement to our animal inquiry.  His books fill us with wonder and get us asking lots of questions!

We read his book Actual Size.

All the animal creations in the book are displayed at actual size so we can imagine the actual size of various animals.

Maddy found out that her arm is about the same size as the saltwater crocodile's snout!






We have also been writing stories from our lives in Writer's Workshop and meeting with our partners to share our writing.

We also read Steve Jenkins' book called Biggest, Strongest, Fastest.

We learned so many cool facts.  One of the most amazing was that the sun jellyfish is the longest animal in the world, with tentacles over 200 feet long.  We will be trying to measure this out tomorrow.  

The kids were amazed by the highest jumper (for its size):  the flea.  If Mrs. Henning was a flea, she could jump to the top of a 65-story building!  This information led the kids to create a new math station...Flea Jumping.  Hmmm...I think we will be starting our measurement unit, soon.

You can hear the excitement in these researcher's voices as they describe some of their findings!

Our Own Starry Nights

Our Van Gogh-inspired Starry Night pictures are finally posted! Enjoy!


If you want a link to view some of Van Gogh's other paintings, click here!

The Van Gogh gallery link is here.

Animal Questions

River shared his cute new puppy this morning. 

We even measured him!

Today we also  began narrowing down our wonders and beginning to figure out what animal will be our research focus for the next few weeks.  After studying our plastic models and photographs of animals, we opened a "Today's Meet" room to post some of our lingering questions. (I'm not sure why the times are off, but we did it around 11:00am.)

Soon we will be forming our inquiry groups!

Room408animals

How meeny rows of teeth dos a grat wit shark have? 06:34PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Alex

How long is a sting ray? 06:35PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Alex

Haw. Maney. Teth. Harx. Hav 06:36PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Ryan

Dose's a lisert eat fly's 06:37PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Maddy

How far can a cheeta run? 06:37PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Alex

Doz the arctic fox eat the sam thing as an rom 06:37PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Jacob

How log can a owl be? 06:37PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Brianna

How long is a king kobrue 06:37PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by River

How meny Gavial are they? 06:38PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Erik

What sound does a zebra make? 06:38PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Mrs. Henning

What dose a koala eat? 06:39PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Makenna

I. Like. Lazrzs 06:39PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Ryan

Das a hawk eat fish 06:39PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Logan k

Is a snak lik a wom [worm] 06:39PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Blake

How sarp ar barracuda teeth 06:39PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Logan s

Does a zebra have black stripes or white stripes? 06:39PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Mrs. Henning

Why do zebras have stripes? 06:40PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Mrs. Henning

Is a zebra a kind of horse? 06:40PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Mrs. Henning

what does a zebra eat? 06:41PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Mrs. Henning

black 06:41PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Logan k

Do cats yoos sand or gravel for liter 06:41PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by River

How fast can a gorilla go? 06:41PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Brianna

haw big can a arctic fox get 06:41PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Jacob

Do pokipns [porcupines] dig? 06:42PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Erik

What do pairie dogs eat? 06:43PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Makenna

Wot doz a lion eat 06:43PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Jacob

Cats. Yoos. Sand 06:43PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Ryan

Shrly it's the cheda. 06:43PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by River

R wels [whales] the bigest 06:44PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Blake

Mete 06:44PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by River

Dose a tree frog clim? 06:44PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Maddy

I. Love. Cats 06:45PM Mon, 03 February 2014 GMT by Ryan

"I can feel my brain getting bigger..." quote from Blake

In Writer's Workshop we have been writing stories from our life and talking about ways that we can make our stories "come to life."

We have also been working hard in math...we are estimating:

...we are doing surveys...

...and we are doing algebra on our ipads...

When we research, we are finishing up our "immersion" stage and soaking up new knowledge and collecting new learning on our class charts.

We are especially noticing how animals' bodies are specially made to help them survive.
We read the book Best Foot Forward which tells us about how feet are specially made to help animals survive.

What kind of body parts do these animals have that help them survive?

Animals, Animals, Animals

No, I'm not describing my class with that title.  :)  We just got a whole lot of animal research done today.  We are still in our immersion stage, where students read lots of animal books in Reading Workshop and leave tracks of their thinking.  We are also reading lots of animal books together to build our background knowledge.
We started out the morning by reading One Tiny Turtle by Nicola Davies.

They were surprised to find out that very few hatched turtles survive and actually make it back to the sea.  If you are interested in learning more about turtles like this, watch the video below.

We learned that when we leave tracks of our thinking, it's important to be clear so that we can remember our learning later...even after we remove it from the book!

We practiced being clear with our notes while reading One Tiny Turtle.

This afternoon we read the book What Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You? by Steve Jenkins.

One of the big ideas of our animal inquiry in the Next Generation Science Standards is that animals have special parts of their bodies that help them survive.

Two of our favorites from the book were the bombardier beetle and the gliding tree frog.  Here are two videos to show more information.

What are you wondering about these animals?