Field Day 2018

On Thursday, we ran, slid, jumped, kicked, threw, and battled it out against each other at our annual school field day.

Our favorite activities were the ones that involved water. On such a hot morning, we loved getting wet.

Another highlight of this year's field day was the opening of our new playground. After months of playing in the courtyard, we are thrilled to have a new play set to use. In keeping with our "green" school, the new playground is made entirely from recycled materials. Recess is getting exciting again!

We are moving closer to the end of this writing unit. This week we began drafting our final book chapters with our book club friends.

We started the process by writing out our table of contents and deciding what kind of structure each chapter would have (see structure examples below).

Then we wrote long to draft each chapter. We included everything that we learned about our two animals.

Finally, we are beginning to revise and edit our chapters on the computer. Once the text is finished, we will add text features and photos.

We are still reading as researchers. Our research book clubs are now studying penguins, whales, and sharks.

Here are some of this week's teaching points:

• Reading Closely, Thinking Deeply - when we read nonfiction we can be aware of how the author makes certain choices. We ask: Why did the author choose to include this? What does the author want me to know and think when I read this?
• Experts Widen Their Field of Focus - to develop expertise on a topic, nonfiction readers go from learning about specific topics (frogs and penguins) to learning about their bigger field of knowledge (the animal kingdom). The researchers starts to think more about patterns and relationships.
• Asking Questions, Growing Big Ideas - as we research the similarities and differences between the things we are studying we ask: Why? Are others the same? What explains this? These questions lead to more thinking, more talking and to more reading.

We will soon be finished with reading as researchers.

Our next unit is reading mysteries!!!

We are in the middle of writing research club information books. Students have been editing individual book chapters.

1. Writers draft and revise by looking for ways to add more, or elaborate, on the information they have written.

2. Writers make sure their writing contains both facts and ideas.

2. Writers think about their readers and make choices based on what they know about their readers.

We had an incredible time visiting the Hand in Hand School for Autism this morning. It was a bit surprising for our students to see a school so unlike Concordia, but one that is full of love and amazing kids.

Hand in Hand was started by a group of moms who had children with special needs. Their aim was to educate their children to be as fully functioning as possible. The stories of students' growth in remarkable. Some students learn how to speak at Hand in Hand. Another young girl has learned how to walk and can now ride a bike! All of the students have their own teacher who can work individually with them.

In 2008, this small group of families was able to find a space to set up their school in Hanoi. This school is made up of a series of rooms for collective learning and one-on-one lessons. There is a kitchen facility and cafeteria where students eat. All of the food is prepared on-site to meet the dietary needs of each student. Outside is a lovely natural space for students to play and dance or ride bicycles. There is even a garden space where banana trees are growing and providing fruit.

On our trip today, we were given a tour of the school and met some of the students. We learned how to make sausage rolls with bread dough. We played outdoors and petted the school dog. The PE teacher helped to organize a water balloon three-legged toss and tug-a-war which we played with Hand in Hand students. Later the students taught us how to do a dance they had learned.

Thank you Hand in Hand for giving us a memorable morning!

Elephants, Sharks and Whales! Oh, My!

We continue to read informational books about animals in our research clubs.

We have five new animal research clubs happening right now. As students are reading, they are also asking questions, taking notes, and learning how to grow their own ideas about their animal topic.

Ask your child to share with you a fascinating fact that he or she learned about their animal.

This Week's Teaching Points:

• Use the topic's special vocabulary. Write down any special words that have to do with the study of your animal. Remember these words so you can use them and sound like an expert!
• "The bad apple spoils the bunch." We took a lesson to reflect on our attitudes within our research group. Are we a "bad apple" who has a negative attitude and complains about the work? Or are we a "good apple" who keeps our energy high and our attitude positive?

We began a new informational writing unit this week. The kids are excited about returning to writing about topics they are experts in. Thanks to our Active Global Citizens unit in Social Studies, we now have lots of experts about animals, which is the topic for our writing.

Writers Grow Their Own Ideas!

This week our focus was on how we can use research books and videos to grow our own ideas about a topic.

There are Signs of Spring in the Science Lab...

Our new Science unit is all about the Structures of Life.

We are incubating chicken eggs right now waiting to see how many chicks hatch.

We began to water different varieties of seeds to see what effect water has on seeds.

We are getting close to the end of the year. We have just started our final math unit - multiplication and division.

This week we learned...

...how to play "Product Pile Up" to identify factors that make larger and larger products.

...how to calculate and compare mass through division number stories.