Week 2: Saving Fred

I have been doing morning meeting and closing circles with my students this year. I teach two different classes. I love doing this to build a sense of community. I found this post about organizing the materials needed for morning meeting so I decided to make my own. I used my Cricut to cut the letters for the front of the bucket.



Inside I have a sharing sign up sheet, my resource books, index cards, duct tape, and a few of my noise makers.



I have also been using the iPad app called Music Cues for morning meeting and closing circles. When students hear the song Walking on Sunshine (Morning Meeting) or Final Countdown (Closing Circles) they know it is time to begin greeting their classmates. When the music stops and the chime rings they form a circle for sharing and a group activity.

Both of my science classes saved Fred this week! Check out all the supplies my parents sent in! They rock!



Here is the story about Fred: Fred (gummy worm) loves to go out on his boat (cup). He is out on the water (desk) every day. But Fred can't swim so he must wear his life jacket (gummy Life Saver) every time he goes out. One day Fred went out on the boat on his own and forgot his life jacket. His boat flipped over and the life jacked was stuck under the boat. If Fred touches the water he will die because he can't swim. The students must find a way to get the life jacket out from under the boat and around Fred so he can swim to safety. Here is the catch... students can't use their hands to touch anything. Each student gets 2 paperclips.



It was great to see the students working together to problem solve. If Fred hit the desk they had to set everything back and start over.













This week our daily data question was about their favorite subject: science or math (the 2 subjects I teach them). Students used push pins to cast their vote. At the end of the week we recorded this venn diagram in our notebook and made a bar graph to display the results. Students then made 2 inferences about the graph we created and answered the question "Who cares?" One student said people who created apps might care because they would sell more science apps than math apps.



STUDENTS: What do you like the most about morning meeting or closing circles?

Week 2

Ever done the Sid Shuffle? We tried it during a brain break and the kids loved it. They were asking to do it again all week! You can see them below learning the dance.



We make longitude and latitude cookies this week. The kids used plain cookies and used two different colored icing to add lines of longitude and latitude to create a globe.



I also taught the students a new game this week. We used a 10 sided die (0-9) and a place value. They took turns rolling and placing numbers on the chart. During the first round the goal was to make the largest number. During the second round they tried to make the smallest number.



We also played Make 100 on the Smartboard. We played girls vs. boys. The girls won the first game and the boys won the second game. They took turns rolling the number cube on the Smartboard. The player decides if the number will be used as is or multiplied by 10. The goal is to make 100 without going over and each team must roll 9 times.



At the end of the week we used the iPad to research a blue moon. Tonight we will have a blue moon so I wanted the kids to know what that means. After they researched it, they posted what they found out on Edmodo. The students with correct answers earned the Blue Moon badge!



STUDENTS: Today we learned about a blue moon. You should know that it has nothing to do with the color of the moon. We also talked about what it means when you say something happens "once every blue moon." So tell me something that happens to you once every blue moon to earn a ticket for the good job jar.

Week 2

This week we continued reading about how to keep a writer's notebook. Ask your child about writing small. We aren't talking about the size of the print! We also starting working on "Show, Don't Tell."

Our class also learned how to do a squiggle, which we will do during Work on Writing for Daily 5. You roll a letter die to choose your letter. Then you must draw a picture with that letter in it and write a story about it. We had several great squiggles this week. I even drew a squiggle, Carrot Man, and wrote a story.

The week ended by saving Fred. Fred is a worm that loves to go out on his boat. However, Fred can't swim and he hates wearing his life preserver. Fred's boat capsized and the life jacket was under the boat. Fred was stuck on top of the boat. The students had to use the steps of the scientific method to figure out a way to save Fred by putting on his life jacket using only 4 paper clips (no hands). Fred couldn't fall in the water (desk top). Every group was successful, however, some had to rethink the steps they were using to rescue Fred. Here are a few pictures of the Fred rescue.

Students: This week post what you wrote about this week during writing time. You can share your writing from the squiggle, writing small, or show don't tell. You don't need to type exactly what you wrote (but can if you want to). Just share enough for us to get an idea of what you wrote about.