Holiday Celebrations

We had a terrific time celebrating together before winter break! Enjoy!


Holiday from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Root Study

We worked on our first root yesterday: "geo." The students illustrated the meaning last night. Based on the pictures, perhaps you can figure out part of the meaning!

Reading Final Project

We finished our Readers Theater story, "A Small House," so the students completed summary activities: a paragraph, a comic strip, or a timeline. They did a terrific job!

Exam Card Making

We made good luck cards today for our older buddies as they are taking exams this week.

Fly Prezi Pictures

The next steps include uploading pictures, editing text, and creating the Prezi path!

Fact Practice

As we work through our facts, we have enjoyed some fact practice in class. We have learned 2, 4, 5, and 10 facts so far. The students are working hard on mastering these at home as well. Terrific job, students!
Fact practice from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Reading Morpheme Practice

Feel free to watch our newest morpheme letter tile practice! This involved adding prefixes and suffixes to a root.

reason from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Math Turkey Facts

To practice our multiplication facts and get into the holiday spirit, we created Turkey folder papers with each product connecting to a particular color.

Spanish Visitors

We were visited by middle school Spanish students to share their recently created stories; the boys enjoyed hearing them and explaining the meaning to our French students!

Root, Suffix, Prefix

We are continuing with our word study by focusing on identifying roots, suffixes, and prefixes. Here is a short video from reading class! I am fortunate that the students are all so eager to share their knowledge with our blog readers!

Turkey Tango!

We had a terrific time with our older Turkey Tango buddies!

Toy Drive Day 4!

Wow! Our presets have stretched across the room! We are certainly going to make the holidays special this year!

Toy Drive Day 3

The gifts are piling up! Many thanks to our generous Ninth Age families!

Native American Storyteller

We had the opportunity to experience firsthand some of the incredible history associated with Native American storytelling. Here is a quick video from our recent assembly.

Native American Storyteller from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Second day of the Toy Drive

Wow! We are already up to 13 gifts! What a wonderful way to start a Tuesday!

Toy Drive

Many thanks to our first donors!!

Reading Morpheme Instruction

We have continued to work on new morphemes! We added two suffixes, "er" and "ed." Here are two quick videos of students working with letter tiles (continued phonemic practice) to make root words and then to form bi-morphic words! We always discuss the root meaning and any changes in tense or part of speech.


Catcher from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.


Blanketed from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Morpheme Study

We have begun to expand beyond basic phonics to include a focus on morphemes. We have covered two prefixes so far, "pre" and "un." We work with the prefixes using letter tiles, as well as exploring them through written activities in our journals. Below is a short video as a student builds the word "unbelievable."

"Un" Prefix from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Halloween Excitement

We had a terrific time celebrating Halloween at school on Thursday. Enjoy your "virtual attendance!"

Halloween 2013 from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Make Four Sums

We joined today with Mrs. Holt's math group to practice our addition skills! The students played in partners to make four sums in a row, while trying to block their partner's sums by changing the addends! Terrific job, everyone!

220 pounds!

Congratulations to the 9-1 families for supporting the fresh food drive with 220 pounds of fresh food! It was a perfect start to our Community Outreach involvement this year as the boys were so excited to weigh and tally our contributions each morning! Thank you to everyone for your support!

67 KG goal exceeded!

WOW! We have exceeded our second goal of the week by bringing in 171 pounds of fresh food! Stay tuned for a final amount on Friday!

Fresh Food Drive

We have reached 110 pounds and we have two days left to go! Many thanks to our supportive parents!

67 Pound Challenge Met!

The boys have already exceeded our "donate a student's weight" in fresh food! We have donated 77 pounds thus far! Thanks to K. S. for his suggestion of a new goal: 67 kilograms of fresh food! This makes a new target of 147 pounds! Can we do it?

Lost teeth!

We lost two teeth today! Their smiles still look great, though!

Stuart Little Extension Projects

The students have been working on their Stuart Little extension projects in class this week. They selected to create a timeline, write an extra chapter, or create a six panel cartoon from a major event in the book. The students have done a terrific job!

Fresh Food Farm Challenge

Can we donate a student's weight in fresh food in one week? Follow our 67 pound Challenge! Check back tomorrow for an update on our progress.

Global Read Aloud

Pyramid Research Composition

The boys have worked hard this week completing their research for the "Pyramid" composition. We worked together reviewing the NOVA website to practice proper web-questing and research skills. The boys will gain more independence with research assignments as the year progresses in preparation for our two end of the year projects focused on biomes and medieval times. The boys did a terrific job with their research, and I look forward to reading their compositions this week!

Reading Class

Geography Latitude and Longitude

We are beginning to work with latitude and longitude in geography class. We practiced applying this skill today when the boys had to locate and rescue "survivors" on "deserted islands" on their game boards using latitude and longitude cards. We will continue with this skill next week!

Regrouping Dice Game

Today the students worked with partners to practice identifying when they need to regroup in double digit addition. After rolling the dice, the students had to determine if the value of the numbers rolled created the need to regroup. They all did a wonderful job and clearly have a good understanding of this skill!

Global Read Aloud

We are taking part in the Global Read Aloud this year in 9-1. This is a world-wide project that takes place in October each year. This year's book for our group is Marty Mcguire. This humorous book has the boys laughing outloud over the antics of Marty, the protagonist, who is the most "unprincess-y princess" in third grade...In fact, she spends most of the time chasing frogs or kickballs, and likes it that way. We have begun to communicate using kidblog with our partner school, The Kinkaid School, and have enjoyed getting to know one another as well as discussing the book. We look forward to our continued partnership in the coming weeks!

5th Grade Buddies

We joined our 5th Grade buddies on the field on Friday to play some touch football. It was great to see the 9-1 boys fitting right in with an older group, and it was especially special to see how well the brothers supported and encouraged one another! We look forward to seeing them again in a few weeks! Terrific job, boys!

Character Traits in Reading

We spent time using the Scholastic website to create a Stuart Little scrapbook, listing character traits we had identified from our reading. The students did a wonderful job using the website and demonstrated an in-depth understanding of our mouse protagonist.

Partner Proofreading

After each composition, the boys review the composition checklist and proofreading their writing out loud with a partner. This helps the boys identify and correct errors in their writing, apply skills learned in grammar class, and share different ideas developed from the same topic.

Geography Treasure Map

To practice our geography mapping skills, the boys drew their own treasure maps with directions to reach the treasure! Each map included 8 landforms, key, and a compass rose. The directions used transition words from composition class and the cardinal directions  to help the treasure hunter navigate the trail to the treasure. The boys did an incredible job!

Character with Mrs. Nichols

Mrs. Nichols visited the boys on Friday this week. During her lesson, the boys interviewed one another and then began to practice making commercials about each other. They did a terrific job with their interviews, and their commercials are sure to be terrific.

Math: Comparing Numbers

This week we worked on comparing numbers, which also reviewed place value and <,>, and = symbols. The students learned how to use the symbols to create expressions to "prove" their answers to word problems.

During class, the students challenged each other with difficult number comparisons on the board. The students also held secret numbers on their foreheads as teammates arranged them to make the greatest number possible (working up to the hundred thousands place!) We just started working with rounding, spending Friday working as a group with number lines. We will continue our work with number lines next week to ensure that each student has a conceptual understanding of rounding by continuing to strengthen his or her number sense.

Stuart Little Boating Adventure

After spending time working as a group to preview Stuart's boating adventure, the readers broke into small groups to work on their fluency. The students continued to focus on the new vocabulary words and helped one another sound out challenging phrases. After completing this activity, each student identified exciting sentences from the chapter to illustrate. It was evident that this chapter was one of everyone's favorites thus far!

Family Interviews

The boys shared their interviews with one another last week. We enjoyed finding similarities and differences among our families. Since we will be visited Mrs. Nichols this week, we will complete the family interview activity next week!

P.E. Team Building

This week the Ninth Age boys and girls joined together for some terrific team building activities. The video below will give you a sneak peek into some of their challenges.

PE Team building video from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Math Journals

We have begun our work in our math journals this week, and the students have done a wonderful job! We practiced standard, expanded, and word form, geometric shapes, and patterning. I look forward to their continued hard work!

Place Value Battleship

During homeroom math we have continued to practice our place value skills, working up to the ten thousands place. Today the boys played "place value battleship," which added an exciting twist to this skill.

Place Value Battleship from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Two Inch Adventure

While reading Stuart Little, we have enjoyed hearing about the adventures made possible by his size. The boys took a few minutes to create stories about an adventure they would take if they were only two inches tall. Throughout the year we will write stories from others' perspectives; based on the creativity shown in this short writing assignment, I look forward to their future compositions.

Two Inch Adventure from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

September Mile Run

Today the Ninth Age boys tackled the first mile run of the year. They will track their scores throughout the year to see their progress. I am already impressed by how they challenged themselves and how hard they worked!

September Mile Run from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Welcome Back Assembly

Today we had our Lower School "Welcome Back" Assembly. We greeted new students and faculty members, discussed our year-long focus on the pillar of compassion, and accepted the school-wide challenge to do (at least!) one kind thing for another person at Calvert.

Today 9-1 was the banner class for the assembly. F.M. did a terrific job starting off this tradition for the year!

First Day of School

Today we were busy finding new rooms, setting up our folders, writing the story of a mysterious box, and learning the routines of 9-1, but we still had time to have a little fun on our first day back.

Welcome to 9-1!

As the final weeks of summer approach and the excitement of a new fall arrives, I eagerly await the start of our year together. This year I look forward to embracing the symbolism of this class's banner colors: black and white. The white demonstrates the strength and pride associated with all of the boys' classes, and the black embodies the solid foundation they will receive in our lower school. These characteristics will be supported and cultivated throughout this year. The shape of the banner the boys bring with them into Ninth Age symbolizes the growth of the class emotionally, socially, academically, and athletically. This development is evident in Ninth Age, as the boys enter as recent Eighth Agers and leave as the student leaders of our school. 
The banner's colors and shape will be represented by our class emblem, the lighthouse. It serves as a reminder from Mark Twain that with guidance we can,

 "Throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Getting to Know You!

Thank you and Happy Summer!

I feel so fortunate to have had such a wonderful year alongside the boys of 9-1. While these students were always going to hold a special place for me as they were my first class at Calvert, being able to teach them again gave me the opportunity to see firsthand the incredible progress that students make in preparation for Ninth Age, as well as their development throughout this year. I know we learned a lot from one another, and I will thoroughly miss them as they enter into their final Lower School year. I look forward to hearing their summer stories in the fall (or before!), and I am excited to sharing our travels for history this summer through our blog. Happy Summer!

Biome Presentations

Here are the first few biome presentations. The boys did an incredible job, and it is exciting to see that so many of them are continuing to create prezi's over the summer!

Track and Field Day

The Ninth Age boys and girls participated in a "make-up" track and field day as the first day was unfortunately rained out. Here are a few quick shots from the day...


I was so proud of all of the boys for their sportsmanship and effort, but I have found that there is usually one race that stands out each year as the "epitome of track and field day." That race this year was the long run with hurdles. One student unfortunately slipped and fell just steps after beginning the race. While it would have been easy (and even understandable) to be disappointed and to have given up, this runner took off after the other racers, who had already jumped the first set of hurdles. He caught up with the pack and at the last moment took the lead to win. The determination to stay in the race, despite a set-back or frustration not only epitomizes Track and Field day, but also what I hope many of the boys have learned throughout the year, as this message is truly invaluable throughout the years to come.

Thank you, Mrs. Bishop!

We are saying "Thank-You" and "Good-Bye" to one of our favorite lower school teachers, Mrs. Bishop. We will miss her tremendously next year but are so grateful for all that she has given us in her years at Calvert!

Good Bye Mrs. Bishop from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Medieval Projects

I have been so proud of the boys' hard work during their medieval projects. Here is a quick video of their topics, but I am also going to post some of their presentations-they are too good not to share!

Medieval Project from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Medieval Times Field Trip

The students enjoyed the field trip to Medieval Times! We learned more about knighthood and they made some terrific connections to the material they have been studying for their medieval projects.

C:UserskgentryDesktopMedieval Times Movie from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Fair Weather Readers

The rain has finally gone away (for a bit) so we headed outside for some outloud reading in preparation for our "Confession and Confusion" skits. It was wonderful to see everyone enjoying this exciting chapter and the beautiful weather!

Pearltree Collaboration

During the biome project, we often collaborate with other classes to share our information. One way we collaborate is by using pearltrees, which allows every Ninth Age class to have access to and share useful websites. The 9-1 boys spent time teaching the 9-A girls how to use pearltrees, and we will be able to learn from the sites they add to our pearltrees.

Egyptian Writing

The students created their own hieroglyphic messages as if they were members of the Egyptian game!

Story Patch Plot Summaries

To review the plot thus far in The Egypt Game the students worked in partners to create storypatch stories on the iPads reviewing the characters and their adventures. The students did a wonderful job and were eager to share their understanding of the novel.

Pearls of Wisdom

Below is the base Pearl Tree from which each student will be working. From the base, they access their individual biomes and add websites ("pearls") to that biome's pearltree to use for research next week.

Web Questing Begins!

The students are beginning their web quests for Biome information. They accessed Pearl Trees from Edmodo and began "pearling" their websites. Many boys even spent time at home finding new sites to use for research and adding them into their pearltrees! They will be teaching another class how to use this researching tool on Tuesday and will be collaborating with all four classes throughout the project to share resourcces!