Math Folder Papers

Our math students were busy working this month on their first folder papers of the year. The organization of math folder papers can be challenging, but is very rewarding! The students are strengthening not only their math skills, but are also improving their spacial awareness, confidence with measurement, and cultivating an appreciation for the process of developing a strong finished product.

Character Partnership

We met with our character class yesterday, 6-B for some unstructured time on the playground and blacktop. We will join together for a variety of activities throughout the year, and this partnership serves as a wonderful opportunity for the Ninth Age boys to serve as mentors to younger students at school.

Spelling Pre-Test

This weekend is the first weekend for spelling pre-tests at home. This week is focusing on the chapter 3 words. The tests can be given by a family member or can be taken using "Spelling City." Spelling City will read the word aloud and your son can take the pre-test independently. Additionally, this might be a great resource for word review during the week!
The link to Spelling City is on the left side of the 9-1 blog, under "spelling words."  The pre-test does not have to be graded, but should be turned in on Monday morning.

Prehistoric Presentations

The boys presented their "solutions" yesterday to our troubled prehistoric tribe...we are sure to have plenty of food, water, wood, and healthy trees, thanks to these ancient problem-solvers!


This project was a slight change from the cave-tool projects which we have completed in the past. In previous years, the boys are told to bring in supplies to build a prehistoric tool. I found it very interesting that while the boys had the opportunity to study any area of "prehistoric life," so many focused on building tools and weapons, which made this project look quite similar to those in the past.

I enjoyed giving the boys the opportunity to research and explore their topic of choice. Having them research "issues and solutions" that could face and help our "tribe" also presented a realistic and meaningful context for their research. Additionally, the opportunity to write about, draw, or build a creation to share with the group allowed the boys to select a medium in which they were most comfortable. One group even presented a "play" about discovering spears to be used for protection! Finally, the boys were allowed to partner together on any aspect of the project (brainstorming, research, creation, presentation). Watching boys join together for certain aspects, while completing other elements independently allowed for more organic collaboration than assigning groups or only permitting individual work. So, while this project looked similar in many ways, it had a very different feel to it.

I look forward to our wrap up discussion tomorrow, as I wonder if the boys' desire to focus on tools and weapons came from genuine interest, more prior knowledge, a lack of available information on different topics during web quests, or because of another reason (or a combination of factors). Additionally, there were a few boys who focused on a different topic, and I look forward to hearing their motivation for doing so. I will ask the boys for feedback on all of the aspects of the project, as they provide the best feedback for which I could ask. As the year progresses, I enjoy hearing from the boys regarding all of our activities and projects; their valuable insight into the discovery and learning process provides me with the opportunity to grow alongside of them, one of my favorite parts of being a teacher.

Prehistoric Project

The young tribe members of 9-1 have been very busy with the final stages of their prehistoric projects. Boys are building, drawing, or writing descriptions of their solution to the problems facing our tribe. The collaboration and creativity displayed by the boys has been impressive, and I look forward to seeing their solution presentations on Tuesday.

Math Class

We were very busy in math class this week. We covered place value, word problems, ordering numbers, and rounding! The students used virtual manipulatives called Thinking Blocks, base ten blocks, and a place value board game to reinforce these concepts. Terrific job, mathematicians!

Global Connections

Today the boys continued to work on their blogging skills by posting comments on other third grade students' blogs...in South Africa!
Blogging benefits students in a variety of ways. It provides them with the opportunity to practice their writing in authentic ways, while focusing on being clear and concise. It also allows for collaboration with classmates, and chances for revisions based on immediate feedback. Our focus on commenting led to a discussion on giving specific feedback (a "praise" and a "polish"). We will continue to focus on this skill, but I am already noticing a difference in our first two blogging sessions!
I was looking forward to the commenting from the moment we located the school on our map, and the boys could hardly contain their excitement:
"I love soccer too!"
"I am going to ask what 'Netball' is!"
"Look, it's their playground!"
An unexpected highlight was when I received a message from the teacher in South Africa during our posting (despite the six hour time difference!), saying that the comments coming in were terrific! The boys crowded around to read the message that had traveled all the way from Africa.
Now our connections were starting to feel really real. 


We partnered with 3D today and look forward to future collaboration opportunities!

Second Week of School

We had another incredible week at school! The boys read the first three chapters of Stuart Little, completed their first math folder paper, created a virtual character scrapbook on Scholastic, learned how to create a web planner for composition, wrote "All About Me" composition, posted comments to Kid Blog, finished geography flipbooks, started All About Me slideshows on Photo Peach, and researched questions for the history prehistoric project...

and it was only a four day week!

 

First Week of School

This week we have attended assemblies, completed classroom jobs, explored Edmodo, posted first drafts and uploaded pictures to Kid Blogger, learned about our first PBL project on prehistoric tribes, expanded sentences (literally and figuratively), and spent time learning about one another. It has been a very busy three days!

I look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday!