Today we discovered what Michael brought us in the gift bags from last Wednesday.!! Since we are learning about Informational Writing we used the blank pumpkin shaped books to create a nonfiction book about Pumpkins that we will be sharing with some first grade classrooms soon. We even got to enjoy a treat from the bag and each student took home some stickers and erasers:) Thanks Michael & Mom!! I finally received all the books I ordered in the mail for the Boys Only Book Club that will take place every Wednesday during recess through April. The boys are allowed to bring a comfy blanket, pillow or towel to hang out on as we read books that I hope they will enjoy. My goal is to only bring enjoyment to reading- no tests! no quizzes! just discovering books that make us laugh, make us inquire, and make us want to READ more. The Coding Club for Girls will be coming soon! Book Character Day was a lot of fun! The students did a great job presenting and were proud to show their character reports. I know I learned about some new books that I plan on reading and loved seeing some of my all time favorite characters. I hope they did too:) We had some risk takers (courageous students) go up and talk about their book characters at lunch today. In the afternoon we got to go and read our PUMPKIN books we made to Ms. Mori's and Mrs. Meaker's Classes. The first graders loved listening to their informational books on pumpkins and the First Grade Teachers loved seeing their former students or familiar faces. They were very impressed with their books as well. Hopefully we will visit them twice a month to share our writing with them. We walked over to Julka Hall and Trick or Treated throughout the hallways. When we got back we had a few students hand out some treats. Then we got to choose one treat and we spent a lot of time sorting the treats in many different ways and then talked about data we could collect from the sorts. At the end of our day we put our reports outside our classroom above our lockers. I've got some real characters in this class! Hahahahahahah! Book Club was so much fun today! Not the best pictures but once we started reading the conversations were fun, they liked the book and time flew by so fast:) Ms. Melissa from The Playhouse came Wednesday afternoon for our Post Musical Workshop. She taught us about choreography and had us singing, dancing and acting to Hansel and Gretel. We were so well behaved she worked with us an extra 15 minutes! That earned us more fun with her and a game piece!!
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Our Class wore a lot of Orange on Thursday for UNITY DAY. A strong message against bullies and showed that we are united over Kindness and Acceptance. This is also a great time to learn what bullying is and is not and start those conversations so that our children come to us when they feel they might be being bullied. Unfortunately people of all ages say and do things they shouldn't but that does not make them a bully if it is a one or two time event. Many times students will come and tell me they are being bullied when they are also doing and saying the same things to others as well. I always take every concern seriously and have conversations with everyone involved because it's important they feel safe at school and know what they need to do in social situations. I love when students want to come in and share books with the class that they have made a connection with or learned about. Kalilah brought in An American Girl Kaya book on Native Americans and shared her favorite part. Listening to her speak afterwards showed all of us how stories make us think and feel for the characters in them. This story used the word "slaves" and there were many students who had no idea Native Americans were also enslaved. On Friday we observed the worm container again to see what has changed in its environment. It was taken over by fruit flies so the old wet newspaper had to come out and new paper had to go in. Students also got to do their own worm investigations. Many students had to be risk takers while the worm wiggled and squirmed next to them on a wet paper towel as they journaled their findings. We had an outside picnic before heading to the Playhouse. We had a fun walk over to the Playhouse. They loved how much closer it was than our other school and they got to see different things along the way. Several of the boys in front were playing that game I can remember playing in 2nd grade about not wanting to step on a crack:) What an amazing musical to end our week with. They were able to make many connections with the workshop they had with Mr. Eric last week. We earned another prize for working together as a team to follow the 6 Essential Agreements and celebrated with some popcorn on the playground!
On Tuesday we went to Ms. Chambers room because the worms were delivered for our unit!! We had them shred newspaper to put into its new environment and discuss what it might be used for. We let them hold a worm if they wanted to and then Ms. Chambers showed the students how you can squeeze them and push what they have eaten out of them- a real crowd pleaser! On Wednesday (Day Two) they got to observe the worms in our classroom and make observations and wonders about the worms. On Thursday we went to the Cleveland Zoo. The weather was absolutely perfect for the zoo so we got to walk and see as many animals as we could in the time we were there. Thank you to all the parents who came and spent the day with us!
WE STARTED OUR WEEK OFF WITH THE K-2 MORNING MEETING TO CELEBRATE THE SEPTEMBER CARING AWARDS, LATEST BIRTHDAYS, A FEW PERFORMANCES AND IDEAS FOR CHARACTER BOOK DAY. Shane brought in a quote to read for us and a book to share by Jackie Robinson, the author of the quote. His action shows his ability to be Reflective on what we are learning in class and his Communication skills to present it to his classmates. (We call this living the Learner Profile one of our two missions at Campus International) He's also making the world a better place (the other mission at Campus International) by starting with our class. Thanks Shane! As another provocation into our new theme Sharing the Planet, I placed many books in a circle on the carpet and asked what we were looking at besides books and animals. Getting them to think deeper and beyond the surface of what they are seeing and how it relates to our central idea was VERY DIFFICULT for the whole group. They are used to just giving a response and having it be right and not wanting to think a little deeper. They showed persistence by coming up with answers to questions I posed to get them thinking and working on inferencing. I didn't think it would've taken as long as it did to come up with the books all being Ohio Animals since we went to the Natural History Museum just the other week and saw everyone of these animals either outside or inside. This was a great lesson because it showed we are not always challenging ourselves and using a Growth Mindset. Then we walked around the books to make sure we got to see all of the choices and chose the animal we wanted to do our Informational Report on for this planner. I had so much hope driving into work on Wednesday. Maybe next year! They were so excited to be able to Code this week because the laptops have been being used for testing a lot lately and are still working on being able to get ourselves on independently and doing some of the basic trouble shooting themselves. This week we got to browse the Book Fair and they each brought home their wishlist. Our shopping day is on Monday, October 16th at 9:50am. We learned how to say family names in Mandarin using cards and then on the computer. During Math we are always looking at the key concepts of Form and Perspective. What should the equation or drawing look like? How can we show our work? and What are the other ways to solve the problem besides the way you used? All three of these students got the correct answer but they each used a different method or strategy to get it and that's ok. We learn tolerance, respect and how to be open-minded during our daily Number Talks. I love coming down to the cafe and sitting with the students and getting to know them outside of the classroom. The cafe is so inviting this year! I love all the jobs the students have to take ownership of the space.
Check out the new words added to the main entrance wall-LOOKS Amazing! On Monday we finished up our Summative Assessments for Who We Are. They will be shared at the Student Led Conference at the IB Station and reflect their understanding of the Central Idea: Attitudes influence relationships. We also did a Last Word for CONFLICT and RESOLUTION which showed huge growth from the First Words we did back in August. Please share if you have noticed any ACTION This week in Mandarin Lin Lao Shi taught us about The Mid-Autumn Festival and had the students make lanterns, watch a video about what happens during the festival and then make a Comic Story about what they watched. On Wednesday we had our First Classroom T-Shirt Day! This week we started our next theme: Sharing the Planet. We did a few different provocations to get them thinking about our central idea: Environments change over time. Students did a See, Think, Wonder on their own. Based off of what I read in their Inquiry Notebooks and heard as I walked around, I decided to go home and find more pictures that might get them thinking a little deeper and have them work in groups rotating to different tables with different images of environments that have changed to see if this might spark some questions and wonders into our new concepts. Students were able to get more from the group work and came up with human activities that lead to some of the images they saw and came up with questions they will research as part of this provocation. This week we also did a Chalk Talk with the central idea to see what they knew about the concepts in it and will work on defining them and digging deeper into our lines of inquiry as the unit unveils. Our week ended with a morning of excitement with the Cavaliers Scream Team and some FUN dancing at the Dance-A-Thon! The 2nd grade classes raised over $4400 (parents added $ after the signs were held up!!) at the end of our dancing time on Friday. We will know the final numbers on Tuesday. A huge THANK YOU to all of the families and their friends that supported this event. The children loved it! I tried to take a lot of pictures to give you a glimpse into the day and apologize if I didn't get everyone as they were running and dancing in non stop motion the entire time :) When I went to pick them up from music in the afternoon I heard beautiful sounds coming from the Music Room and being played by your children. The opportunities they have at CIS makes me want to be a child again. Where else do you get to inquire, explore, learn, create, celebrate, dance, learn, code, create music, and learn another language and all in the same day?
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AuthorMrs. Humphrey
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