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Friday, November 16, 2012

November News!

November Update!

1st grade: We have been enjoying learning about the sun, moon, planets, and stars!




2nd grade: We have been enjoying books by Roald Dahl. Our group just finished The Magic Finger and we will read Fantastic Mr. Fox next!

3rd grade: Medieval tales have been a blast! The students have been reading and discussing the following stories: Robin Hood, Beowulf, The Green Knight, The Island of the Lost Children, and The Werewolf. Some students have been crafting their own stories at home!

4th grade: It's Maniac Magee time! Fourth grade has been reading and analyzing this text for a week now. The students are making some amazing connections and thinking deeply about the themes of the story. They have packets with critical thinking questions and vocabulary to explore.



5th grade: We have been reading and writing poetry from the book Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle...
My students picked a poem of their liking and wrote a different version of it. They turned out great!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Political Science

OUR MAJOR THIS WEEK: POLITICAL SCIENCE!

Student mobiles of the THREE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT and CHECKS AND BALANCES.

First, second, and third grade are now posted!  





































Some more students brought in bridges! Chris the Carpenter even made one!

Chris the Carpenter made this? Very blue!

William's Arch Bridge! Legomania!

Jakob's bridge...Very realistic!


Tre's Snowy Bridge!


Dianara's Awesome Arch Bridge

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Websites you need to check out!

www.icivics.org  (Great games for learning about politics and government)
Here are some games I recommend on the website above:

Executive Command - Be the President for the Day

Balance of Power - Explore what it is like to be the judicial, executive, and legislative branch

Win the White House - Campaign for the Presidency!

Argument Wars - What is it like to be a Supreme Court Judge?


Activate- Students campaign for an issue of their choice.

 Cast Your Vote- Students choose the questions in a debate, rate the candidates responses, and cast a vote.

 Immigration Nation- Students help newcomers along their path to citizenship.

 Responsibility Launcher- Students help others with civic common sense.

Do I Have a Right- Student run their own law firm that specializes in constitutional law.

 Counties Work- Students make decisions about community programs and services.

 People’s Pie- Student control the budget of the federal government.

 Crisis of Nations- Student work to solve international problems.


www.brainpop.com - awesome educational site with videos to watch and activities. Brainpopjr is also a good one for grades K-3.

www.factcheck.org  - check out different claims made by various politicians to see what is true and false.

www.storybird.com  Great website that we used to write short stories. The stories are still on the website. Read them while they are hot!

Please suggest other educational websites that we can add to our class site!

Radio Broadcasting

4th and 5th grade learned about how to make a radio broadcast and write a realistic radio script.

The best part were the presentations. One of our groups even turned their script into an alert now for Positive Behavior Day at Dana Elementary School! WHOA!

We are still working to put up the videos from the presentations.








Riddle Madness

4th and 5th grade developed creative career riddles!


1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade wrote riddles on civil engineering!

We just had to hang them in the shape of bridges!


1st grade's riddles: A beam bridge!

Second Grade's Riddles!

4th and 5th grade - Career Riddles!


Note: The riddles from 3rd grade are coming!