Publishing: Hard Work of Authors in Room 408

In Writing Workshop each student in Room 408 chose one of their favorite pieces to "stick with" for a while, in order to make them even better and get them ready for publishing.  We had to reread our pieces over and over and over to make sure they sounded right after we changed parts and added parts using flaps.  We also realized how helpful it is to have writing partnerships!

Publishing is hard work, but it's worth it!

Coalescing our Space Learning

This week we have been reflecting on all of our space learning.  We looked at our research club charts and organized our learning to see what "Big Ideas" we have about our research club topics.

 Here are our research club charts, after we organized and coalesced our learning into "Big Ideas":
Planets Research Club...

 Moon Research Club...

 Sun Research Club...

 Stars/Space Junk Research Club...

 Space Exploration Research Club...

We are getting ready to "Go Public" with our learning.  Stay tuned for how we will share our space learning in Room 408!

Our Fantastic Elastic Brain

We are busy creating a Growth Mindset at our school.  We have a great literacy coach who has visited every single classroom to talk about mindset with Hillcrest & LEADS students.  If you missed my previous post on mindset, click here.

 Our literacy coach, Mrs. Going, talked with us about how powerful our brain is by reading us books, showing us how our brain is like a sponge, and helping us remember that we learn from our mistakes.

She also brought a 3 pound weight to let us feel how heavy our brains will get by the time we are adults.  It was heavier than we thought!

Mrs. Going reminded us that we stretch our brains every time we try something new, make mistakes, or work really hard at something.  She gave us a lot to think about...a lot to turn & talk about!

To help us remember how to S-T-R-E-T-C-H our brains, she left us some reminders:  a "Stretching our Brain" poster for our classroom...

brain stickers...

...and brain erasers!

Thanks for helping our brains grow, Mrs. Going!

We got into a discussion about Albert Einstein's brain, since he is a scientist that we researched in the beginning of the year.  I found pictures of Albert Einstein's brain:

Here is a video of a brain learning and making connections.  Amazing!

What are you wondering about brains?

December Learning Mural

Upon returning from our Winter Break, we reflected on our December learning.  As usual, we brainstormed everything we could remember about our learning together in December.  We collaborated to create ways to represent our learning.

 We also reflected on the collaboration chart we created together over the past few months.

We noticed that we have grown a lot as collaborators since the beginning of the year.

Check us out!

Do you like working on our learning murals?  Why or why not?

Humane Society

Instead of exchanging gifts during the holidays, Hillcrest & LEADS 1st graders have chosen to make donations to our local humane society.  Look at how much we were able to donate in December this year!

We were able to get a visit from some thankful pets and members of the Humane Society.

We learned about ways to be safe around pets and read dogs' body language.

We even got to see the many talents of dogs.  We met a dog that could use his sense of smell to find objects.

Thank you to all of our Hillcrest & LEADS families who donated items!

Log Cabins

We have been reading Little House on the Prairie during our Snack/Read Aloud time.

The Ingalls family traveled all the way from the big woods of Wisconsin to a homestead near Independence, Kansas.

We have gotten to one of my favorite parts of the book, which is when Pa builds their log cabin.

Undoubtedly at this point in the book after seeing the above picture, one of the kids makes a connection about Lincoln Logs.

I pulled out the Lincoln Logs from our storage room and the kids started building and exploring. 

Here is a picture of the recreation of Little House on the Prairie in Kansas, near Independence.

Next, I introduced them to a movie about a man named Dick Proenneke.  

He was a man who decided to test himself to see if he could live off the land, all alone in Alaska.  He built a cabin from scratch, using only hand tools--he brought the steel parts of the tools, but even built the handles of the tools with local wood.  We learned that he was a mathematician when he measured and constructed the cabin, as well as a writer because he recorded his life and experiences in journals.

Today before our early release, we got to see him building his cabin in the documentary Alone in the Wilderness.

The kids were in awe as we watched him chop and saw, carry tree trunks, construct his log cabin, build a fireplace, make furniture...just like Pa in Little House on the Prairie!

To learn more about Dick Proenneke and his adventures in the Alaskan Wilderness:

click these words to learn more about purchasing the documentary

click these words to learn more about his life

click these words to be taken to the National Park website where his cabin is located

click these words to go to a youtube search for various videos about Dick Proenneke

or watch this youtube video below:

Do you think you could do something like Dick Proenneke?