January has been busy! We are so excited because we just finished our read aloud: Matilda! Yeeeee! It was an awesome book. It was crazy when we found out that (spoiler alert) Ms. Honey’s aunt was the revolting gumboil Headmistress Trunchbull. We are excited because next week we get to write our own amazing fantasy books.
In math, time travelling Tesla came to Mr. Mirsky in a dream and asked us to design petting zoos for him. Some kids don’t think that really happened, but it helped us learn about multiplication. We also learned our 6-9 times tables and a lot of different strategies.
In Tefillah, we broke up into groups to learn about prayers. We are continuing to study them and it is really fun. In Hebrew we started doing holiday work on Tu B’shvat (the birthday of the trees!).
Today in community time we talked about project time and how to organize our bulletin boards so that they have more kid writing. We also will be hanging up our non-traditional homework presentations. We just had three amazing presentations about Leonardo Da Vinci, Roald Dahl, and Greek Gods.
The most exciting part of the week is…..(drumroll please) the Chumash Ceremony parts. We got our characters and we are so excited to perform for our families and friends!
OK, time for shabbat. Au Revoir from THIRDGRADIAN BLOGGERS.
Children have completed their 3-d design unit and have created a variety of structures and figures. To earn the privilege of using glue and tape, kids first had to show they could build things using different attachment strategies. Even after glue and tape were given to them, students continued to build small creatures and plants using their newly learned attachment strategies. I decided to put all of their creations together in a display that we call “The Glueless Forest.” The results are impressive and speak for themselves.
Since returning from Winter break, students in grades 3-5 have begun learning all about Ukulele. We began with the basics of care and tuning, and now we’ve even got a couple chords under our belts! Look out for more to come from these fantastic young musicians!
Fourth grade scientists have been working for weeks on mixing and separating mixtures, both wet and dry. Before we left for winter break, these special students accepted a mystery challenge. Separate a mixture into four materials: salt, diatomaceous earth, gravel, and a mystery substance using a filter, screen, water, and a magnet. The scientists broke into small groups and got straight to work. Each team was responsible for designing, executing, and editing their experiments using design thinking and engineer practices.
Would you believe that each team was able to complete the task independently?
What will we separate next? How can we apply this new knowledge to the world around us? We are about to find out!
As part of our focus on Jewish Values, First Grade has worked very hard to create a music video that shows our Ga’ava (pride) in being Jewish and in going to a Jewish Day School. Together, we wrote a song based on discussions of what we are proud of. This project has been a true collaboration with Mr. Mike, our music teacher, and Mr. Mirsky, our art teacher and resident videographer. The kids had a blast recording themselves in and around the school. First grade was proud to invite the entire school into our classroom for the premiere showing. The audience loved it so much they begged for an encore!
First grade Rockstars!
Check out our bulletin board outside our classroom which features the words and illustrations of the song.
Lately 5th graders have been learning about chord progressions. Here they are working on a I-IV-I-V progression using piano, organ and xylophone! Later we’ll be applying these same chord progressions to other instruments!
Reading is Thinking. During read alouds, we have enjoyed reading many books that have helped us to focus on cause and effect in a story. Some of our favorite books are If You Give a Dog a Donut and If you Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff. We also practiced this skill during our guided reading groups. When you can figure out when the author is telling you about why something happened, or the cause, and what happened, or the effect, then you will better understand what you are reading. In our class, we have become so good at noticing cause and effect in our readings that we wrote our own cause- and-effect stories. Some of our creative stories included: If you Give a Chicken Chinese; If you Give a Dog a Dill Pickle; If you Give a Monkey a Muffin, and If you Give an Ant an Apple. Reading and writing is fun when we wear our thinking caps!
This year, the Design Lab has a small corner carved out with bean bags and pillows. It has become affectionately know as the “Recharging Station” and is meant to be used for students to relax for a few short minutes during their busy days to unwind and recharge.
The citizens of Thirdgradia noticed that the Recharging Station was being used during class in a distracting and unhelpful way. Students were getting too comfortable and spending too long there. The third grade class decided to focus on this ‘problem’ and to find a solution for it through the design thinking process. Luckily, two Brown Engineering students, Katie and Sara, were also working on a similar design problem. They were looking to create furniture for children that was designed with children’s input. We invited them to the third grade Design Lab class every Friday to be a part of this process.
The first step the third graders took was to be empathetic in order to understand the users (tired students). They compiled a list of questions and interviewed students from all grades during their recess and free time for two weeks.
The second step of Design Thinking required that third graders study and understand the data and information they collected and then defined their problem in a ‘How might we…’ statement.
Here is their statement: How might Thirdgradia fix/ change/ redesign the Recharging Station so it will be a small, private, less comfortable, calming and less attractive spot?
The third step of their Design Thinking process was to brainstorm and think of as many wild solutions as they possibly could. This process was facilitated by our friends Sara and Katie, from Brown. Students noticed that the Recharging Station was too open and its boundaries undefined. Students’ ideas included adding a privacy screen, developing a system that shows who is in the station, adding windows, and adding an escape route in the event of a fire. Students also wanted to reduce comfort (remember, one of their problems was that kids were spending too much time in the station!) by rearranging the pillows, building a plain cardboard structure, using a plain color and reminding users about appropriate use of the station.
The fourth step in the process was prototyping, at which time students were able to create and build. They worked with the Brown students to build small models of what they hoped to create. The students had a short initial prototyping experience, where the groups of students were asked to draw or build some aspect of the ideas generated earlier.
This prototype represents a new way to arrange the cushions in the stationThis prototype is part of a ticket systema special phone system that teachers can use to communicate with students in the station
Last week, Sara and Katie brought to class their final prototype that incorporated many of the students’ solutions and perspectives. They call it the Quiet Pod. The class put the pieces together to create the final product in half an hour. The students had lots of fun, and were given ample opportunities for collaborative work and cooperative learning. They also gave the designers thoughtful and useful critique.
We are grateful for our school’s partnership with these talented students and the engineering department at Brown.
Our work is not done yet, but it is incredibly exciting to see our design process coming to life!
This is what we’ve been doing for the past few weeks:
Let’s start with science. We took wires and a battery and a light bulb and tried to make the light light up. We also tried to make a long string of lights and make all of them light up. We unplugged one of the lights but the other ones had to stay on.
In spelling we are having a lot of tests. We have pre-tests to help us prepare, and then a post test. The theme last week was consonant blends. Also in ELA, we finished our final persuasive essays and now we are starting on a new unit on Fantasy. We are reading Matilda out loud. We have jobs like “empath” who answers the question, “what would you do if you were _____.” We also have an artist, our personal favorite, who has to draw a picture based on the chapter we are reading.
In community time we have been talking about problems and design solutions. Just today Mr. Mirsky told us about a new money system (Cubucks). We can earn them by doing more homework, not calling out, and being more respectful to our peers.
In Judaics we made Parsha cakes based on scenes from the Torah portion with Jacob in it. And we have been learning about Chanukah. We just finished our Lights of my Life project (see photos above). They are hanging up in the Lobby and they look awesome.
When I was in elementary school, homework was mostly photocopied dittos. These “skill and drill” worksheets were tedious, boring, and were easily completed on the bus ride to school. In my opinion, the classroom is the place where practicing skills is most beneficial, where the teacher can provide targeted instruction, and the community can provide expert feedback. The home provides a more comfortable, less formal learning environment that allows children to take manageable risks as they follow their interests. Nontraditional homework harnesses the benefits of learning from home, and flips the traditional model of homework that I grew up with.
In Thirdgradia this week we just had our second round of presentations, and each of them was rigorously researched, intentionally crafted, and passionately delivered. For the first round, children were limited to people (fictional or real) and their chosen topics encompassed a broad range of personalities. Although all presentations incorporated a poster board, each student’s personal style was on full display.
I was genuinely moved by the hard work evidenced by these presentations. I look forward to seeing the rest of the community present, and you can look forward to another blog post soon to document their efforts.
Today in community time we talked about project time and how to organize our bulletin boards so that they have more kid writing. We also will be hanging up our non-traditional homework presentations. We just had three amazing presentations about Leonardo Da Vinci, Roald Dahl, and Greek Gods.
