Raney's Rock Stars: Week 9

This week was full of hard work. We finished our first math unit together, which required students to show all they have learned so far. We also finished up our first science unit last week, and they were assessed on this. Tuesday we got a special surprise. Mrs. Shepard's husband donated wood to our classroom to use to build a bridge in the woods this weekend! Together, students lifted and moved the wood to our trail. It certainly took a lot of communication and teamwork. On Thursday, our school was filled with ORANGE everywhere. Unity Day was a huge success at DBS. We just finished our latest read aloud, The Hundred Dresses, which focuses on a girl named Wanda who was bullied at school. Another main character Maddie learned the importance of standing up to bullying. Students created an art project to reflect the hundred dresses of the story. I'm hoping they will share more details of the story with you at home.

Reminder: Please join us on Sunday, October 28th at 10am to work on our Forest Classroom.

Questions to spark conversation:
1. Who is Wanda and why was she bullied at school?
2. Who is Maddie and how did she change over time? What made her want to change?
3. What scenarios did you see at the Unity Day celebration?
4. What is an Upstander?
5. How are you doing on your personal goal? What are you doing to achieve success on your goal?

Raney's Rock Stars: Week 8

This week will go down in the books as the best week to date! Throughout the week, several students demonstrated wonderful collaboration and problem-solving. They were understanding of the needs of others and really made steady advances in their learning. We finished our first science unit this week on the Power of Flowers: Plant Life Cycle and Heredity. We will have out unit assessment next week. In math, we finished our first unit focusing on addition and subtraction strategies and word problems. In writing, we are continuing to develop our first seed stories, students' personal narratives. We are hoping to have a published piece within the next two weeks. Throughout all of these activities and more, students demonstrated kindness, flexibility, and generosity towards others. Together, we earned 1,041 tokens this week! With twenty-one students in our classroom, that averages out to be almost 50 tokens per child for the week! I continue to be amazed by the maturity that is beginning to develop within this group. Their potential is off the charts.

Questions to spark conversation:
-What traits can you find in a tree?
-What more can you tell me about the books you are reading?
-Why is pollination important?
-How many milliliters are within a liter of liquid?
-What can you do to prevent bullying from happening?

Raney's Rock Stars: Week 7

The highlight of our week was the "summer day" we spent at Riverview Orchard.  Students explored in small groups and conducted an apple investigation.  This inquiry included describing the traits of an apple, drawing a diagram and graphing the number of seeds.  The time went by way too quickly!  Back at school we are finishing up our unit on recycling and getting ready to write our first informational piece using 2 different sources.  Our focus in reading this week has shifted to comprehension.  We are learning to stop as we read and ask ourselves, "Who are the characters in this part?  What just happened?  Does this fit with something that already happened, or is this new?"  In math this week we worked on figuring out multi-step story problems.

Questions to spark conversation:

-What happened on your field trip?  Did you make any new discoveries?

-Why do some pumpkins grow to be SO big?

-What do I need to show when solving a story problem?

-What happened during Forest Friday?

Week Six: Raney's Rock Stars

This week our math groups really set into place. Students did a fabulous job transitioning between stations. We worked on multiple-digit addition and subtraction. In writing, students continued to build on their seed stories. We worked on trying different leads. We learned how every lead should begin with some kind of hook. Using dialogue, immediate action or creating the mood of your story are all great ways to begin. In science, we took a closer look at the process of selection and how apples have changed over time because of selection.

Next week, we will be going to a local orchard to see how pollinators and the power of selection have worked at this orchard. Please reach out to me if you would like to join us.

Ideas to spark conversation:
-What is selection? Why do farmers use selection?
-What is a Make Ten fact and how can it help you solve 27+44?
-What is your seed story about?
-Can you teach me how to play, Target 20? *You only need a deck of playing cards.

Sometimes working with a buddy is the best way to stay focused. 

Working on our recycling posters

Playing a math game is more fun with XL cards :-)

Math groups at their finest

Sorting our words of the week

In science, we got to taste test various apples. Some tasted very sweet....

...while others were not so sweet at all!