Newsletter (In Photos) - January 31, 2019

Hey Everyone,

I hope you all are doing well. Thanks to everyone who made it out last week to see the kids share our learning at Gathering. They did a amazing job! We'll host one final Gathering later in the year.

I'm so sorry I've not posted a newsletter the past couple weeks. It's my goal to post once every two weeks (at the very least) but some parts of the year make this more of a challenge. I should be back on track now. In regard our most recent work, be sure to check out the photos below to see the kids in action. There's a lot going on!

In science we've been learning about weather. This began with explorations into sky conditions and then
moved into recording the daily weather on a line graph so we can track patterns across time. So far we've been
doing this as a class. However, the kids will soon begin keeping their own graphs. 

Another aspect of our inquiry in weather has been studying the effects of wind. 

One of our engagements involved blowing wooden dice across the table using different sized
straws. The kids used a stopwatch to record how long it took them to blow the dice all the way
across the table.

To make our data as reliable as possible, we did this many times and then
found the median (middle) value of our data sets.

Before the experiment we each made predictions as to what we thought we would find.
Many of us were surprised to find out using a bigger straw did not necessarily result in
a shorter time to blow the block across the table. When asked why the big straw wasn't always
faster, the kids responded: it was harder to blow through, it made us stop to take a breath more
often, and the air coming out the other end may have gone around the block instead of
going straight into the block (as with the smaller straw). Pretty solid reasoning!

In math we just finished up a focused study of addition with regrouping. Our state standards
call for the kids to be able to generate a strategy for solving these types of problems. We've solved
them, thus far, with manipulatives such as beans, loose blocks. and base-ten blocks. We've also drawn
pictures to solve these problems.

Most recently, we played a game where the kids drew cards from a deck
and used the digits on these cards to create two double-digit numbers. Then they
tallied these up. Whoever had the highest sum was the winner.

To solve these problems, many drew pictures of blocks. When they
had ten or more ones they would circle these to show they were
being regrouped into the tens place. Later this year we'll also learn
the traditional method of solving such problems. As for now, we're focusing
on building a strong conceptual understanding of how the math works.

We've also been working hard as researchers to learn more about severe weather. This has
called on us to work as readers, writers, and scientists. 

The kids were split into small groups with each group researching either tornadoes,
hurricanes, or severe thunderstorms.

This has been a great opportunity to learn about skimming for information when
using a non-fiction text. This is a skill that teachers us the role of titles and subheads.

One of the man things I love about inquiry teaching is how excited
the kids are when it's time to research about something new. Our class
has especially been begging to do an "expert project." We'll begin working on
our BIG expert projects (countries of the world) in about four weeks or so.

In writing we've been working on an author study of Jacqueline Woodson. Author
studies are an opportunity to look closely at a number of different books from the same
author, identify craft moves they use to make their writing stronger, and then attempt to use
these same craft moves in our own writing.

Jacqueline Woodson has been such a rich source for us as we work to keep
growing as writers!