Fifth graders are practicing their paraphrasing skills. Their assignment was to put the following sentences into their own words:
During my earlier years, I experienced much strife with my male and female siblings who were born before me. Now that we are more mature, we have overcome some of our differences and have the ability to interact pleasantly.
Here are some of the new sentences the students came up with. I have to say that I was quite impressed with Room 12's contributions ... they are the champions of my four 5th grades!
When I was younger, I always used to fight with my older siblings. Now that we are older, we get along. - M.Q.
When my older siblings and I were young, we were trouble, but now we get along well. - S.F. & O.G.
When I was younger, I fought with my older siblings. Now we can be friends. - E.F.
When I was little, I fought with my older siblings. Now that we are older, we have become closer. - A.T.
When I was younger, I fought with my brothers and sisters. Now we can be more friendly. - G.R. & M.V. & A.T.
Me and my two siblings never got along. Now that we are more mature, we are more friendly. - N.B. & M.K.
When I was younger, my older siblings and I had a hard time getting along. Now that we are older, we have found a way to get along. - G.S. & B.S.
When I was little, I had trouble with my older brothers and sisters. Now that we are older, we deal with our differences and know how to be nice to each other. - O.T. & N.N.
When I was younger, I went through difficult times with my older brother and sister. Now that we are older, we can talk pleasantly and not fight. - M.A. & J.W.
Tiger in My Soup Author: Kashmira Sheth Illustrator: Jeffrey Ebbeler
Super bold artwork shows how a boy's imagination works overtime as he begs his older sister to read him a story. Cool perspectives and visual treats (like the T I G E R cascading into his bowl of alphabet treats as she serves him lunch) make for a striking book.
As a follow-up to the previous lesson about animal sounds, I read Bark, George to
K. Students got a huge kick out of this story about a dog who
doesn't bark ... instead, he meows, quacks, oinks, and moos!
To support their retelling skills, students colored and cut out the characters
so they could bring them home and share story to their families. (You
can click on the link to access and download more copies.)
The
official video of the book - voiced by John Lithgow - sometimes pops up
on Youtube, but then is promptly removed because of copyright
violation. Instead, you can watch this puppet-show version of the story:
Students in 6th grade have chosen their Q2 research topics; the overall themes were music and/or their Individual Learning Plan (ILP) they are working on in Guidance. Here's are some of the ones they came up with:
The rise and fall of Alex Rodriguez
How songs can help you remember facts
Babysitting training
Why Michael Jackson was called the "King of Pop"
How Steve Jobs created Macintosh
Evolution of the blobfish
One Direction v. The Wanted
Guard dog breeds and training
Katy Perry's road to success
Finished products will include a variety of presentation formats, some of which we'll be able to post here. In the meantime, we'll be learning about wikis, primary sources, website evaluation, and bibliographic citation, all as part of the inquiry process.
Each January, the American Library Association awards the Caldecott Medal to the artist of "the most distinguished American picture book for children." Who will win in 2014? Well, first- and second-graders are going to make their pick in library, and we'll see how our choice lines up with the national award.
After round one, the following were cleared to move on with near unanimity:
Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great Bob Shea
Despite a few concerns over the use of the word "stupid" and the "girly"-ness of unicorns, most students were highly entertained by this account of Goat realizing that Unicorn isn't all that bad to hang out with ... in fact, Unicorn is actually jealous of Goat in a few areas! The kids greatly enjoyed the spread where the protagonists imagine being superheroes: "Taste my cloven justice! You've been unicorned!"
That Is Not a Good Idea Mo Willems
Can Mo Willems do no wrong? From the silent movie design to the Greek chorus of baby geese to the twist ending, this is another instant classic. A lot of students recognized his name from the Pigeon and Elephant & Piggie books. And they loved this one just as much as they love those.
I am a huge Buster Keaton fan and plan to introduce him next week before checkout ... see 1:04 and 2:48 for dialogue cards and 2:18 for an amazing stunt.
Remember to credit all of your sources when you're presenting research ... don't use someone else's ideas, photos, or bass lines and pass them off as your own. List the books, web sites, videos, interviews, and anything else you may have used in a bibliography.
Hey, kids! I'm going to order a few copies of the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck. I know everyone will be clamoring to check it out. So here's the deal:
If you're reading this page, then you qualify to be one of the first readers. Leave a comment below with your room number and initials (NO FULL NAMES), and I'll put you on the hold list. Just choose "Anonymous" from the "Comment As" drop-down list. Remember, initials only.
The library often sounds a little like a zoo, but this past month, it
also sounded like a farm! I read a selection of animal sounds books to
the kindergarten classes, including:
Because
students' animal sounds sometimes got a little ... enthusiastic ... I
taught them the conductor's cut-off signal. Which reminded me of The Sesame Street All-Animal Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa. The students got a huge kick out of it and yelled for an encore.
And finally, what discussion of animal sounds can now be had without wondering ... What Does The Fox Say?
As a follow-up to our last lesson, when fourth-graders figured out Dewey Decimal System categories,
this week they assigned a stack of topics to those categories. Each
table got a set of "playing cards" that they had to place in the correct
area of their "game board." Some of the cards were kind of tricky ...
you could make the case for a certain subject to be in more than one
Dewey category. So long as the students could explain their thinking,
they got full credit.
You try
Here are the categories:
500s = nature science
700s = fun activities
900s = social studies
Where would you put these cards?
You have to find out when dinosaurs lived.
You want to learn how to do some skateboarding tricks.
You are planning a trip to Hawaii.
You want to draw the flags of all the countries your great-grandparents came from.
You need to do a report on hurricanes.
You got a digital camera for your birthday and want to learn more about how to use it.
You want to find information on some famous paintings.
Do you have favorite books that you think other students should read
too? You can be in charge of the recommendation shelf for a week! Just
give Ms. Moore a list of 4-8 books that you love (and that we have at
the Stadium library).
Here are Emelia's picks:
Joey Pigza Loses Control by Jack Gantos
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
After we read Earth, Sky, Wet Dry: A Book of Nature Opposites by Durga Bernhard and Yummy Yucky by Leslie Patricelli, Grade 1 students worked together to develop lists of opposites. They got some inspiration from this Sesame Street video, and had a stack of books to help with ideas as well.
Can your family fill in the table below with the missing words? Can you come up with more examples?
up
cold
fast
quiet
inside
sad
Here are some of the kids hard at work:
I LOVE that A. recognized Eric Carle's illustration style
and told me he had seen it in other books.
Kindergartners are learning about sequencing: what comes first? what comes next? We reviewed the order of the seasons and then read The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons. Next they arranged the stages of an apple tree in the correct order:
The Dewey Decimal system is a way of sorting nonfiction books. I don't expect my students to memorize specific numbers; that's what the online catalog is for. I do, however, want them to understand how certain topics go together. At least according to how Mr. Dewey thought they did.
Each table of fourth graders got a stack of books from a "hundreds." They had to work together to figure out how the subjects could be classified under one major label. For example:
Room 9's group discussions got a little more heated than Room 11's ... can you tell who is in which room?
Second graders took notes for the first time in library, listening to Dem Bones by Bob Barner and learning such information as:
Where is your patella?
How many vertebrae are in your spine?
Where is your clavicle?
How many bones are in your foot?
Which bone is the longest?
For our next lesson, they will investigate a list of "I wonder" questions about bones, using the table of contents in different books to find the answers.
Room 3 with our new friend, on loan from Mrs. Hornung, the nurse.
Do you have favorite books that you think other students should read too? You can be in charge of the recommendation shelf for a week! Just give Ms. Moore a list of 4-6 books that you love (and that we have at the Stadium library).
Here are Kelsie's picks:
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell (which had already been checked out before I had time to take the picture
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (one of my personal favorites too!)
It’s the night before library class. You can’t remember which books
you have checked out. And you're worried that the book you want to get
next might not be available. No problem ... so long as you have
internet access at home, your can check your account online via RICAT.
Under “Elementary Schools,” scroll down to the Stadium link. The school library page will open.
Click the “Login” button in the top right.
Enter your User Name: CDS#####
(fill in your lunch/shelf card number)
Enter your Password: MMDDYY (fill in your six-digit birthdate; for example, May 5, 2003 would be typed in as 050503)
You should now see your name in the top right corner of the screen.
Check your account
Click on the “My Info” tab to see what books you have checked out.
Place a Hold
Click the "Catalog" tab.
Before searching for your title or subject, choose “RICAT (all
members)” from the Location drop-down. This will search all schools, so
if Stadium doesn’t have what you’re looking for, you can still
request your item.
When find the item you want, click on the book’s title to go to the Details page.
Fifth graders are reviewing some of the research skills they learned in years past to make sure they'll be ready for upcoming social studies and science projects. Here are some Room 12 students using the table of contents to figure out where they'd find certain information about different dog breeds:
Between D's shirt blending in with the chair and G. peeking in at the corner, this picture cracks me up.
