Geology Collaboration

For the month of October I am collaborating with the third grade teaching team, Mrs. Redford teacher librarian, and third graders on a geology project.  We are asking: What is the impact of water on the land around Richmond Elementary School and how can we record and share this information with others?  After brainstorming areas that we wanted to study, students explored these areas with their scientific observation skills --  measuring the impact of water as well as drawing and taking pictures of their findings.  Next we will be using this collected data too create a visual technology presentation using Movenote.  

Exploring outside presents awesome opportunities for students to use their natural curiosity about the world around them.  By collaborating with other teachers we have gotten the chance to explore in small groups, allowing us to make the most of our time together.  It has been great to view students really connecting with the land around us. They are developing a sense of place as they make  connections with our science curriculum.  These past few third grade enrichment blocks have been a great addition to our learning!

The Enrichment Room is OPEN for PLAY

Kindergarteners excitedly enter the enrichment room pointing out all of the centers that will be open for exploratory play this week.  After five weeks of introducing new centers each week....we are excited that everything is OPEN FOR PLAY!  Our process of the guided discovery of spaces in the enrichment room allows students to feel very comfortable as they explore and discover together.  I find that although this slow introduction is hard in some ways(why isn't the kitchen open yet???!!!), it is very beneficial to our learning for the rest of the year.  Students understand the expectations at each center and can play and learn with few adult reminders.  As the teacher this allows me to really focus on working with students to learn about them and their interests.  Play is such an important part of our learning and I welcome this chance to play as much as students! 

We are performing puppet shows, painting, creating art on the chalkboards, writing, drawing, building with Legos and No Ends, exploring the fairy house, cooking imaginary meals in the kitchen, playing house, creating a restaurant and a shop, exploring the classroom library, and creating stories in the Fairy House and Water Mill! We are learning together as we think, create, collaborate and share in this playful environment! Each week centers will be added or changed, and we will explore in directions based on student interests.

Enjoy some playful moments captured over the last few weeks! (Some first and third graders had to join in!)

Exploring the Writing Medium of Blogging

Students in second grade enrichment classes are learning about blogging. After viewing a few sample blogs  students set to work creating their own 'paper blog'. Here are some of the sample blogs that we explored on our internet journey (of course there are thousands of blogs out there, but these were a few that connected with interests that I knew many students would be excited about):

Mrs Mumford Kindergarten Blog (RES teacher and students)
http://mumfordkindergarten.blogspot.com/

RES PE Blog (RES Teacher)
http://resphyicaleducation.blogspot.com/
RES Blog (RES Staff)
http://resvt.blogspot.com/
Student blog about dot day (US):
http://kidblog.org/JHFIClassof2015/6ce733e4-be4b-406b-8dbb-7787a47018b0/dot-day/
Student blog about Minecraft (US):
http://kidblog.org/weblog14/author/df40390e-9d4c-4e83-9790-9208a4f368d6/ 

Student in UK made a blog about her school lunch because she was unhappy:
http://neverseconds.blogspot.com.es/ 

Second Grade blogger from Iowa

http://hagansworldofawesome.blogspot.com/
Seven Year Old blogger from Australia
http://ameliesanimals.edublogs.org/

Although the central idea of blogging is around using a technology medium to share with others, we are using a step by step process that begins by breaking blogging down into the key components-- many of which are not unique to the use of technology.

We began by first creating a blog title page. We are thinking about the following questions: what should our blog look like? What should it be called? How does the appearance encourage others to read it?  Students used color, pictures and interesting surveys to make the static part of their blog attractive to their reading audience. They mentioned many items that they noticed in the blogs we reviewed to make their decisions.  Classes loved Mr. Godfrey's survey, and pictures to connect with the blog topic were also popular.

Next students created their first blog post on paper. Students were free to write about any topic that was interesting to them. This choice in writing was engaging, and was a great way for both students and myself as the teacher to make connections with student interests.

This week we will use our paper blogs to practice commenting and responding to comments. Armed with all of these great skills we will have a group of second graders prepared to share and learn through blogging! I can't wait to see how these skills translate over time to the development of communication about RES learning with parents, our local community AND a global community!

My goal is to facilitate the creation of an authentic audience that can witness and celebrate the greatness of RES students! I believe that blogging is one avenue to accomplish this goal. Stay tuned for details about student blogging on this blog over the next few weeks!

Garden Visit and Plant Observation

Students in first grade enrichment will be actively studying plants throughout the year.  We will use a variety of activities to enrich our learning.  One of the objectives of this science study is to become observant, and then to use these observations to create scientific drawings that include details and labels.  I have teamed with. Mrs. Elliott, art teacher, to emphasize the closely connected skills of art and science, and first grade students have been practicing their observational drawings in art class. You can read about  this work here:

http://mrselliottart.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-shoe-game-res.html

This week in enrichment we spent our time in the RES community garden reinforcing these observational skills.  Students had ten plant pictures and had to match them to the correct plant.  Once students agreed as a group that they had a match, they took a picture to prove they had found the correct plant.  I heard great conversations as students debated about leaf shape and size, and discussed how they could be sure they found the right plant.  This was also a great opportunity for us to visit and explore the garden. I look forward to watching these great foundational skills lead to amazing scientific drawings as we continue our plant studies throughout the year! A special thanks to Mrs. Woodruff who went on our garden visits and helped students identify some tricky plants!

Our Place in This World

Third graders have spent the last few weeks of enrichment class thinking about their place in the world.  World geography is one of the social studies units which students will focus on in grade 3, and by starting with this project students had an opportunity to think about their geographical place on an introductory level.  This was also a great opportunity for us to get to know each other as a class of learners, and practice collaborative group work skills which we will use all year long! Students selected a place in this world they wished to share. Next they worked with a small group to design a three dimensional way to show that place.  Students used clay, popsicle sticks, maps, flags, cardboard, technology, and much more to create their place.  Once all of the creations were complete, we worked as a class to create an iMovie that shared our place in this world-- beginning with ourselves as a group of learners and then growing all the way up to our Planet Earth! Throughout this project students were engaged and enthusiastic, and they really worked as cohesive teams!

This work is a great foundation as we will spend time later in the year digging deeper into our understanding of world geography.
Third graders hope you will enjoy our iMovie Presentations!

Mrs. Ayer's Class:

Mrs. Ankerson's Class:

Ms. Darby's Class:

Celebrating International Dot Day at RES

Classrooms all over the world, in 60 countries including the United States, use the week of September 15^th to celebrate International Dot Day!  This celebration is an opportunity for teachers to share the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds with students and connect with others about how we make our mark!

At RES students in grades 1-4 created  “DOTS” to represent a little about their talents and passions. When we follow our heart we make a difference and we learn how to “MAKE OUR MARK”.  Students all had a chance to use the coLAR Mix app on the iPads during their enrichment class and many were able to share their work and the technology with their families during our Open House. Check out this video of our celebration of Dot Day and more importantly, each other!

I feel it is very important at the beginning of each school year to make connections with each of my students. This dot day project allowed me to use our first classes together to not only integrate technology and practice our technology usage....but also to chat with each student about their passions.  Next year I hope to expand on this project to build connections beyond our Richmond community!

Welcome Back to the 2014-2015 School Year!

The first weeks of school have gone by in a buzz of excitement.  I feel so lucky to get the chance to visit with and catch up with every student in the school over the course of these first few days of enrichment AND to meet all the new kindergarten students!  I really cherish the summer time spent with my young family, but I also feel so lucky to come back to find my school community ready to jump into our next learning adventure.

In the enrichment classroom we spend the first few sessions of the school year getting back into our school routines, feeling out our news classes and working on projects that allow us to try collaboration in different groupings-- from individually to pairs and groups of four. In all five grade levels my first classes begin with students creating raps to describe their interests and passions.  Next we tour the classroom space and share observations and things we are excited to use/do/explore!  After our tour, students in grade 1 -4 participated in a global project called International Dot Day (look for a separate blog post on this activity coming soon!) During this project we each explored how we 'make our mark' with our talents and interests!

In kindergarten we begin the year by sharing one of my all time favorite picture books --Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester.  We talk about the importance of being individuals--of sharing our talents AND appreciating our friends!  Next students each create a paper representation of themselves. Their paper person has a special shirt that shares one of their interests!  These paper people will be on display in the enrichment classroom for all the other grades to learn about our newest RES students.

I look forward to great learning with all students at RES this year.  I welcome visitors into my classroom at any time and am always looking for ideas,comments, questions and collaborators to make our learning environment the best it can be.

I am so thankful to learn alongside the teachers, staff and students at RES, and I can't wait to see what the year will hold!  Happy 2014-2015 school year everyone!