September: What is Perspective?

Welcome to a new school year! It has been a busy, fast first month! The Spirit and Polar Bears jumped right into gear - they "hit the ground running" as we like to say! We are so proud of how each and every 3rd and 4th grader has taken charge in becoming acquainted with our schedule, getting to know one another as classmates, both new and old, and how they have embraced our school-wide theme of PERSPECTIVES!

We began our first few weeks by integrating creative discussions about perspectives into our daily schedule. How do we define it? How do our friends define it? What are OUR perspectives on our everyday life? The Spirit Bears and Polar Bears created "I Am" poems to share their perspectives, likes, dislikes, fears, and hopes with one another. Following that writing assignment, we were paired up in groups to create completely different characters, and then "take a walk in another's shoes" by creating an "I Am" poem for their character.

I Am Poems from the Polar Bear Class

Answering questions from their character's perspective!

Nathan and Keller answering questions from their character's perspective!

Polar Bear shoe drawings, inspired by "walking a mile in someone else's shoes

John carefully lining up his walls with each vanishing point

The Polar and Spirit Bear classes also explored another take on the word perspective, by learning (and quite mastering!) a 3-Point-Perspective drawing technique. We each chose a specific place, and determined whether it made more sense to draw it from a bird's eye view, or a worm's eye view. Some students chose to look up at a place they've never been, but would like to go. Others chose to look down on places they feel comfortable with, places they feel they have accomplished something. Ms. Theresa shared her art expertise and her own perspective throughout the art lessons each day. She guided students to feel confident in taking risks while trying new art techqniues. Take a peek in our stairway to the MAC to see examples of our work!!

As we've continued in over the last few weeks of September, the Polar and Spirit Bears settled even more into our daily schedule. From cozy reading, with Stop-Spot-and-Jotting, to cooperative math lessons, working hard in P.E., Spanish, and Music, to playing hard on the playground! We are off to a great start, and can't wait to share more with you as the year continues. Please take note of schedule updates below the photos!

In and Out Boxes... on the tables?!

All about a number with the Polar Bears!

Cozying up with a good book: a great way to start a morning!

Music with Mrs. Kelly

Our afternoon experiencing a taste of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival at the Paramount

P.E. with Miss Stacey - getting the opportunity to play games with the Middle School as well as combining both classes!

Thank you so much to those who were able to make it for Back to School Night. Please look for continuing updates as we move into our busy fall months!
Keep in mind, our Grandparents Day open house for grandparents and special friends is on October 24th, with registration beginning at 8:30am. We will need donations of food for the open house, and will be arranging a sign up for that opportunity in the coming few days. Our Grandparents Day Whole School Circle will take place at the Jefferson at 11:00am that morning. Please come to the lovely evening event taking place in the MAC later that evening!
October 31st will play host to our annual Harvest Festival. November 3rd and 4th are Parent Teacher Conference dates. Be on the look out for a sign-up genius with times to sign up! We can't wait to meet with all of you!

Thank you Spirit Bears and Polar Bears!!

Where has the Time Gone?

 

Hello Spirit Bear Families!

It is hard to believe just how quickly the school-year is moving.  Spring is definitely in the air and our Spirit Bears have been ferociously learning and growing!  They continue to be a group of invested and enthusiastic learners, whose thirst for knowledge can never quite be quenched.  The theme of “Making Connections” continues to be a part of our Language Arts, Math, Social Studies and Science curriculums.

 

In Language Arts, our Bears continue to grow and develop as readers through “Stop, Spot and Jot.”  As students read independently, they stop when they come across a word that they are unfamiliar with, jot it down on a sticky note.  While reading, students are encouraged to use context clues to make meaning of the unfamiliar words.  The class has become so invested in developing their vocabulary that students share out each Monday to the whole class one new vocabulary word from their reading.  Mrs. Reed and Mrs. Hawkins then choose 6-8 words from the class list for students to define and act out in small groups for the entire class.  This has become a real hit for the Spirit Bears.  It has been such a neat process for us to watch as the students develop their vocabulary as well as acting skills.  The skits have truly gone from “good to great.”  On Tuesdays, we usually play FREEZE as a whole class with our new set of vocabulary words.  This game continues to help students connect to the words and make them their own.  By Friday, students are ready and well prepared to show us what they know on their vocabulary quiz!  The Spirit Bears as a whole have knocked our socks off at quiz time.  In addition, it is rewarding to hear students use new vocabulary words now in conversation, class discussions and in writing.  They truly have become voracious vocabulary experts.

 

Mrs. Reed read aloud Will in Scarlet, by Matthew Cody.  The book itself got mixed reviews from the class, however, getting to Skype with Matthew Cody was a HUGE hit with the entire class!  Phoebe’s mom is good friends with Mr. Cody and connected us with him so that the students would have the opportunity to meet him and learn more about the writing process.  We were able to Skype with him for about an hour one morning.  Spirit Bears had the opportunity to ask Mr. Cody questions specifically about Will in Scarlet and Powerless (a read aloud from last year) or about his journey as a writer.  The class was very thankful to have such an opportunity!

 

Currently, Mrs. Reed is reading aloud Wonder.  The storyline of this book has inspired lively discussions in class and insightful writing responses.  Students have made personal connections to the characters of the story.

 

The Spirit Bears continue to develop as writers.  We’ve written leprechaun stories and poetry connected to what we’ve been studying in Social Studies.  Upon return from Winter Break, we looked at our three branches of government and connected the establishment of our government to our study of the Ancient Civilizations and what our forefathers borrowed from those civilizations to create the current government as we know it today.  We wrapped up our study of the US Government with our trip to Washington, D.C., where we were able to tour the Supreme Court and the US Capitol Building. 

 

We are now travelling back in our US history, and learning about Jamestown.  We began our study with reviewing the explorers that we’d learned about last year and why they would even be exploring new lands.  We then narrowed our focus to English Explorers and why they would desire to come to the New World.  As a result of studying England during the late 1500s and early 1600s, we included a study of Shakespeare and what London was like during his time period.  Students have compared Shakespeare’s London to the New World through poetry and art.  Phoebe’s mom came in one afternoon and shared with the class her knowledge of Shakespeare and even acted out a few scenes from several of his plays.  As we continue to study Jamestown, we will also read and act out a few scenes as a class from a Shakespeare play.

 

In math, we have truly become mathematicians!  The Spirit Bears have continued to build on their number sense and number relationships.  We have worked on multiplication, division, fractions and have just started to explore decimals.  We continue to play math war and around the world with multiplication facts to help students’ automaticity.  Students have become more fluent with their multiplication facts, which has helped tremendously during our study of division and fractions.  Fractions have become relevant to the Spirit Bears as we used examples of food to illustrate fractions.  We then moved to fraction sets and used M&Ms, Starbursts and Skittles to understand fraction sets.  To further our understanding of fraction sets and connect to the Earth Day Festival, we used different types of pasta to determine fraction sets that were used to make necklaces at the Festival.  Students are truly beginning to see the relevance in daily life of fractions.  Moving to a study of decimals is a natural segway.  We have started to help students see the connection between fractions and decimals and the use of decimals in everyday life.

 

The Spirit Bear Scientists have been busy at work planning a playground and learning about biomes and habitats. 

 

We are looking forward to finishing the year strong with our Spirit Bears!  They have become such a tight-knit group.  They have grown individually as well as a group.  We can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings! 

 

Below are pictures from some of our adventures from the school year--most recently the trip to Jamestown and Cape Charles!  Enjoy!

 

 

 

First Days of School

Hello Spirit Bear Families!
We are so excited to have your children back with us for another school year!  They are an incredible group of invested and enthusiastic learners!  They are excited and full of positive energy.   As a result, we have hit the ground running across the board in reading, math, science and social studies. We feel like we want to pinch ourselves when Ben says, "Please can we skip recess after the field trip and go work on our Mind Maps," and his classmates back him up with a resounding, "Yes!"

Our school-wide theme this year is "Making Connections."  We started making connections with each other right away, catching up with old friends and welcoming new ones into our community.  To help our kids connect with one another, the Spirit Bears participated in a variety of activities.  As a class we created actual string webs, tossing a ball of yarn from one friend to another.  We shared summer experiences, laughing about giant roller coaster rides and one upping each other with "the biggest wave" stories. All the kids were beaming and eager to connect their summer adventures to one another's. To connect with our table mates, each child creatively filled a puzzle piece highlighting their interests.  They then pieced the puzzle together, discovering and celebrating their similarities and differences.  According to Ania, "Though we may have different interests, we still fit together!" Finally, as a way to give the children  an opportunity to further connect, they worked in pairs on Venn Diagrams and partner portraits.

Partners interviewed each other, first generating then answering questions.  They then painted portraits of their partner.  It was delicious to see them, all sprawled out across our classroom, giggling, water coloring and listening to music.  It was gleefully obvious that strong connections were being made! Here's a preview, but check out all of the Venn Diagrams and partner portraits along the art hall of the main building!

In reading, the Spirit Bears have selected an independent book that they are excited about and connected to.  "Stop, spot and jot" has been a hit with the group! As they read, the children use sticky notes to jot down new vocabulary, interesting sentences or passages, and/or connections made to onesself, another text or to the world.  They then share their "jots" in small book group.  This gives the kids the opportunity to engage in a meaningful discussion about what they are reading.  It is such a thrill to listen to them compare plot lines and revel in beautiful descriptions.  We love watching them fall in love with words and connect to characters.  We continue to grow our vocabulary as a whole class by using context clues to understand the meaning of unfamiliar words and making words more memorable by acting them out or sharing specific experiences where the words are applicable.  They are such avid readers and their enthusiasm is infectious.  They continuously beg for more reading time and are wonderfully supportive of one another.  We often hear words of encouragement from one child to another.  We overheard Mikey during independent reading saying to a friend, "I can really tell you read ALOT over the summer.  You sound so good!"

To honor the season of summer, we kicked off writing with an "Ode to Summer."  We were inspired by the John Keats poem, "Ode to Autumn."  The children listened to the piece, eyes closed, letting the poet paint a picture with his words.  We discussed that sometimes when we read poetry, we may not be completely certain of the author's intention.  We learned that finding beautiful words and phrases that we connect to within the piece is inspiring.  The Spirit Bears revisited the writing process and used their own bank of summer adventures to create Odes to Summer.  We shared them in the author's chair, offering and receiving constructive criticism to make our work go from good to great! They shared their writing with zeal and confidence, cheering each other on and offering advice.  It is a joy to watch them stretch and grow as authors.  Brody inspired the class with his homework assignment when he described John Keats as "the Monet of writing."  We decided to create illustrations to go with our poems.  After learning about Claude Monet, the Spirit Bears painted impressionist style beaches, boats and sunsets.  We can't wait to share them with you this Wednesday at Back to School Night!


We've started our study of Social Studies reviewing the four ancient civilizations that we briefly studied towards the end of last school-year.  Our study of ancient Egypt, China, Greece and Rome includes understanding aspects of culture, including food, clothing, holidays and festivals.  The children also reviewed the geography of each country and are understanding how geography impacts daily life and culture.  We will continue our study of the four ancient civilizations, first comparing the governments of each, then investigating connections between ancient governments and our current US system. The children are incredibly engaged in this study.  They are barreling through web sites and books and researching with purpose.  They are effective, focused and energized.  The culminating project will be a Mind Map book and study guide.  Each child is using their research to create a page in our class book.  The page will feature simple illustrations coupled with writing.  It will serve as a springboard for our comparative government study.  Next week will examine architecture of Egypt, Greece and Rome, particularly focusing on pillars.  We are planning a field trip on October 3 to visit the Corcoran Gallery of Art.  Asa's aunt has an exhibit which perfectly connects to our study.  Washington, DC also serves as a wonderful architectural backdrop and demonstrates how much our world is and was impacted by ancient civilizations. 

Our theme of "Making Connections" continued into science.  We began the year by investigating quotes from famous scientists, such as Edwin Hubble and Albert Einstein.  The Spirit Bears worked together to interpret the meaning of the quotes.  We then followed up by making a giant web of what science means to them.   We are studying natural disasters.  The children examined photographs of natural disasters after watching a Brain Pop video.  They used their knowledge and inference skills to identify which natural disaster matched each photograph.  It was a challenging activity as many of the photos required scrutiny.  Next week we will research natural disasters that impacted ancient civilizations.  The Spirit Bears will also participate in some hands on experiments involving plate tectonics.


A review and deeper understanding of place value through the millions has been our focus in math.  Playing whole class math games has been a great way to get students' brains engaged in solving math problems.  The Spirit Bears are working in differentiated groups, according to their specific learning needs in math.  They are particularly excited about a dice game that involves building the biggest number into the millions.  Ask your child to play it with you at home.  It combines risk and higher level thinking skills.  Games such as "Guess My Number" require them to apply their understanding of number sense.  We are also re-visiting graphing.  We begin each math class by creating a question and gathering data.  We will be learning to build many different types of graphs.  Next week we will review adding and subtracting with re-grouping and borrowing into the millions.  We will then quickly move into multiplication and division.  Math is interactive and applicable to the real world in the Spirit Bear class.  Many of the children say it is their favorite time of the day!

The Spirit Bears have gelled together so well already. We are thrilled to be working with your children this school-year!  We are looking forward to making this the best year yet at CDS!

November 2012

Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a glorious Thanksgiving.  Please know that amongst the many things I am thankful for, teaching your children is at the top of my list. There are moments throughout the day where I am overwhelmed with gratitude for this magical school and the opportunity to watch your children fall in love with learning.  I hope I can capture their joy, and mine, in this blog.

The Washington, DC adventure was a booming success.  I dropped Jane, Jorun, Laura and Ms. Katie off at the sculpture garden and went to park my car.  Upon entering the garden I was met with shrieks of glee, "Ms. Reed,  Ms. Reed," they screamed and grabbed my hand, "they have an Alexander Calder stabile!"  You would have thought it was Christmas.  They dragged me to the Cheval Rouge (Red Horse) and proceeded to regale me, and other awed visitors, with information about the artist.  As their classmates trickled in they mobbed the structure, amazed by it's size, vibrant color and engineering genius.  We even made a mini-documentary with my phone.  Their appreciation and understanding of all they had read and researched about Alexander Calder was brought to life through this meaningful experience.  And this was just the beginning!

We strolled over to the east wing of the National Gallery of Art and I pointed out the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building.  Since we had just recently discussed the election, they of course were filled with curiosity about what went on beneath the nine million pound dome. A five minute walk turned into an in depth discussion about American government.  We proceeded into the gallery and met our wonderful tour guide Rosalie, who began by telling us she had read both of the books that had inspired the trip, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Chasing Vermeer.  From painting to painting, we ohhhhhhed and ahhhhhhed but it wasn't until we met face to face with The Lady Writing that they truly came to life.  When asked to comment on Vermeer's work they could barely get their hands up fast enough.  Mikey said that although he was starving, he would rather skip the cafeteria and spend the whole day with The Lady Writing.   Asa said it made her sad to even think about leaving DC without her.  Rosalie, our docent, was impressed by their poise, investment, bank of knowledge and ability to apply what they had learned.  The next day she called Stacey to say they had been beyond outstanding.

After the east wing we headed over to stand beneath the giant Calder mobile in the east wing.  The children marveled at its size. Knowing that Calder had studied engineering, they had a great appreciation for the process he went through to create this enormous, balanced piece of art.  The day before they had tried their hand at a Calder inspired engineering challenge - to  create a stabile, without using glue or tape.  The exercise proved to be difficult and rewarding.  It made them appreciate Calder's genius that much more.  After admiring the mobile from every angle we visited the Calder room.  The children were mesmerized by the stabiles and the shadows they projected on the walls.  Gus got down on his belly to examine the work from a different perspective.  Many of them got out their sketchbooks and drew what they saw.  Some wrote stories inspired by the art.  Others engaged in conversations that were rich beyond their years, debating and comparing the merits of Alexander Calder and Johannes Vermeer.

The Air and Space Museum was next.  The children watched To Fly through engineer's eyes.  Afterwards we discussed all of the engineering feats that were featured in the film.  They of course missed nothing.  We meandered about the museum and talked about aeronautical and aerospace designs.  Many of them have ambitious career goals!  The museum served as a perfect springboard for our moon study.

We waltzed up Capitol Hill under a moonlit sky.  There was a bite to the wind but what gave me chills was listening in on their conversations.  Amidst singing and laughing of second and third graders, there was a palpable sense of accomplishment and pride.  Seven, eight and nine year olds were comparing great artists.  They were discussing which ones motivated and moved them.  They were connecting what they had seen to what they had read, researched and written.  They were inspired by engineering feats of giant mobiles and complex rocket ships.  Their prior knowledge and understanding combined with this rich experience transported them to a whole new level of learning and they were giddy.  So was I.

Thank you for trusting me with your children.  This was an ambitious trip and I am grateful for your support.

Best,

Karin

 

 

 

September

Dear Parents,

How can it already be October?  The chill in the air assures me that summer has passed.  I can also judge that fall is upon us based on your children.  In just four short weeks the Spirit Bears have transitioned from a great group of individuals to a cohesive community.  Their work ethic is astounding, their enthusiasm boundless and their curiosity inspiring.  I welcome you to come watch them in action.

The Spirit Bears are prolific authors.  They have already published three pieces! They begin their work with a brainstorm, followed by a sloppy copy, then editing (both peer and teacher), revising and finally publishing.  If you haven't already, stop by the art hallway for some comedic poetry.  The "What I Didn't Do This Summer," demonstrates their first efforts as second-third graders.  We laughed ourselves silly in the author's chair while sharing these funny pieces.  The children embraced the next assignment which was inspired by our first read aloud, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  They each wrote several diary entries about a pretend run-away adventure. They chose a specific destination that they were experts on, ranging from the local library to Disney World, and created day by day, play by play entries about their experience.  They are adding "delicious details" to their work and implementing constructive criticism to make their writing go from good to great.  We are currently writing mysteries with an ominous mood.  This assignment was inspired by our new read aloud, Chasing Vermeer.  We also used the picture book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.  The exquisite illustrations served as a springboard for writing.  The children capably created interesting characters and developed a mysterious plot filled with twists and turns.  This is a challenging assignment and I am thrilled by their response.  They are motivated to write and eager to share their work.  Several of the children have cited Writer's Workshop as their favorite time of day.  Our first publishing party will be on Grandparents Day! 

Your children are budding engineers!  The pasta tower building served as the perfect segue into thinking and planning like engineers.  The children begged, even after three rounds, to let them improve on their pasta tower designs.  They learned valuable lessons throughout the process.  According to Diego, "If you don't collaborate, your tower will fall."  Casey realized that the base of the tower needed to be wide and sturdy.  Laura and Jane learned that when it comes to tape, sometimes less is more. After building the towers we discussed that engineers first ask what the purpose of their project is, then imagine it, plan it, improve it, build it and finally evaluate it.  We will use this method each time we embark on an engineering challenge.  After the towers the children took part in an engineering rotation.  They read, recorded and reported on nine different types of engineers from civil to environmental, chemical to mechanical.  Ms. Stacey stopped by during the process and was amazed by their bank of knowledge.  Our most recent engineering feat involved building bridges using five sheets of newspaper, twenty paper clips, two chairs and a foot of masking tape.  We used our engineering method in pairs.  The most successful bridge held eighteen toy cars.  After testing the bridges, the children evaluated their own work as well as their classmates' work.  They were reflective and thoughtful with their evaluations.  Next week we will build our second round of bridges.  We will hopefully use our reflections to create an even more successful design.

Ask your children about Michelangelo,  Johannes Vermeer and Alexander Calder.  These three unique and powerful artists are featured in our reading.  We have been admiring, investigating and comparing them during our Language Arts block.  Several of the children painted underneath the tables, their paper taped above their heads, mimicking the process used to create the Sistine Chapel.  During the next couple of weeks we will be examining the work of Johannes Vermeer more carefully.  Many of his pieces were left unsigned.  Like Calder and Petra, the main characters in Chasing Vermeer, we will be examining and comparing these works, looking for discrepancies.  We will also design mobiles, using Alexander Calder as inspiration, while applying engineering principles to make them balanced.  We are hoping to visit the National Gallery in Washington, DC to admire some of the original works.

In math we continue to work on graphing while revisiting place value.  We begin each math block with a whole class game.  These games are designed to improve their speed and accuracy with math facts.  The Spirit Bears are incredible big picture thinkers.  Their understanding of math concepts wows me daily.  The project/game based approach used by Ms. Cope clearly had a big impact.  We will continue to celebrate their big picture understanding while fine tuning their number sense through daily practice.  Currently the class is divided into two flexible groups.  The grouping is based on their pre-tests, is flexible and meets the needs of each learner.  We will be comparing numbers through the ten-thousandths place, rounding, adding using re-grouping an subtracting across zeros.  Any opportunity to practice math facts is a huge help!

Thank you for sharing your children with me!  They are delightful.  Seeing the world through their eyes is refreshing.  Gabby asks me daily if I can do anything to make the school day longer!  I couldn't agree with her more! I look forward to our continued work together.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Warmly,

Karin

P.S. Below are photos of some of our poetry on display in the Art Hall. Check them all out sometime soon! Click on the photo to enlarge it.