Returning from Winter Break, we have launched into reading the award nominated books of our Illinois Monarch List! As we make our way through reading this amazing list of books, we talk about genre, theme, author's message, text features, fiction vs non-fiction, as well as learn new vocabulary. We use "turn and talks", whole class shares-outs, and Seesaw Assignments, to consider questions that come up as we read, and give our thoughts, predictions, and connections. When we've read all of the books, we'll vote in a bracket style to see who we will crown the winner of the Monarch Nominees! It will be a tough choice this year!
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Teachers are students alike are having fun with the January board! Teachers sent in pictures of themselves as young elementary students, along with their favorite book as a kid! Students and teachers have to match the "now pic" to the "then pic" pic on the board. Not only has this has been enjoyed by all, but it has gotten students looking for the books their teachers enjoyed back when they were kids!
This week is "Hour of Code!"
Hour of code week is held in early December each year to recognize of the birthday of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, which is December 9, 1906. This week our 2nd-3rd graders worked in the Kodable App, where they drag blocks of code to guide a "fuzz" through a maze. Meanwhile, our 4th-and 5th grades worked in the Code.org website completing modules that guide them through a progression of coding, including learning to use repeated blocks of code and looping. They used these skills to go into creative areas of the site to create games, art, and dance. Kindergarten and First Graders have been getting acquainted with coding using our BeeBots. BeeBots have a great memory and only do what you program them to do. Not only did these students do a good job coding, but they worked well with their partners taking turns, using kind language, and solving the maze together!
Fifth grades are using the Rig-a-Ma-Jig building kits to think through some challenges. After winter break, they'll be designing and building prototypes of playground equipment they think would be fun!
First graders used a non-fiction book on sculptures to learn about text features like table of contents, index, and glossary. Then it was their turn to sculpt! We've got some talented artists!
October's Villain Wall has been a hit so far!
Pictures of villains from various stories have been posted on the board. Students are guessing the name of the character and the story they are from! Can't wait to see who wins! The fiction in our library has been re-organized by genre and topic, so the way we use the online catalog has changed as well! We need to look at call numbers differently now and so we had a class scavenger hunt to practice the new way of locating fiction material. They did amazing!
Kindergarten has been reading and discussing stories about the alphabet. In our stories, the lowercase i has lost its dot, the x is sad because it rarely gets used, and zebra is tired of being last! We have talked about problem and solution of a story and then spent some time building letters. We've used piper cleaners and legos to create letters and words! We have been sharing and using kind words during our building time. Way to go Kindegarten!
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