Growstown May 9

Hello,

We had a visitor from the past speak to us about our upcoming experience at Growstown School.  We will be dressing in our best old fashioned garb on May 9th and visiting the one room school house.  Our class will be transported back to a day in 1853.  Boys should wear button shirts and knickers (pants with white socks pulled over them works great).  Girls should wear long skirts or dresses.  Clothes that are too big would be perfect for the times as most kids wore hand me downs from older siblings or even parents. 

Everyone in the class will be playing a role as a student in 1853.  We will be given new names and backgrounds.  I will also be a student on that day.  Some students may be asked to play six year olds, some nineteen!  I think the whole class was excited about the prospect.  Permission slips will go home tomorrow.

I hardly saw my kids today.  We went from math to music to recess to lunch.  After lunch we met with the Growstown representative, then went to recess, then went to Mrs. Smith for Maine studies.  The class got to make butter with Mrs. Smith.  They are doing some of the activities that Maine families used to do.  The day ended and I realized we didn't get to even talk about last night's homework, so we went light tonight and limited it to reading.

Our latest read aloud is Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy.  We are reading this in conjunction with the Maine studies.  Ask your child about the school teacher with the bull whip.  I think they liked that chapter.  I'm not sure they like the idea that each family has to house the teacher for two weeks during the school year though.  That would be very odd. 

Tomorrow is space day, including a visit from a real astronaut.  It is also May Day.  My family used to leave baskets on people's doorsteps and run away.  Our Growstown visitor mentioned this tradition.  I'll explain it a little tomorrow.  It is too bad that it is a fading tradition.  I loved running after my cousins every year. 

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

NWEA MAP Test approaching

Hello,

The testing is coming.  Next Monday afternoon, the class will go to the computer lab to take the NWEA MAP reading test.  It is not one of my favorites, but hope everyone will be rested and present.  The math portion of the test will be taken with your child's math class.  My math class will be taking it next Monday morning.  That means three students will get tested twice in one day.  Everyone else will have the tests split up on different days. 

My philosophy on most tests is the same.  If I do my job well, your child should do well on the tests.  The NWEA is a little different in that it doesn't match our curriculum.  It is a multiple choice test that is supposed to get harder as your child does well, (or easier if your child is doing poorly).  I have seen the tests enough to know many of the types of questions that they are likely to see.  Unfortunately, I'm not going to disrupt the order of things to cram for these tests.  For example, I told my math class this morning that they will probably see two or three metric measurement and volume questions, but we're not going to get into those subjects yet.  It is a tough position to be in: to know what could help them score well on the test, but knowing that it doesn't fit into where we are at this point.  It will get harder knowing that our class will be put under more of a microscope as a looping class.  I feel like we can't lose sight of the big picture, and the results of this particular test is more of a distraction for me than anything.  That is my personal opinion.  I welcome yours.

We worked on Lego gear kits in science today.  Some kids from the Lego club got to work on the K'nex simple machine kits instead.  I'm still working with another class in science and the contrast is astounding.  I can't say it any plainer then saying that I really appreciate how well our class works together. 

We tried to add more figurative language to our poetry today.  Literally.  We are working on our similes, metaphors, personification and idioms.  They make for a confusing language to learn. 

We are starting to read books by Andrew Clements.  Report Card, Frindle and Landry News were the choices.  The assignment was to start reading tonight and write a little description of the main character. 

What a gorgeous day.  Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Poem in your pocket day tomorrow

Hello,

Your child's homework is to bring in a poem in their pocket, preferably two: one they wrote themselves and another favorite written by someone else.  We heard a great variety of poems today.  Shel Silverstein still rules the day, but we heard quite an eclectic mix.  Only three people in the class haven't yet recited "Poem in Your Pocket" to me.  There will be an open microphone night tomorrow (Friday) at Crooker Theater in BHS from 6:30 to 8:00.  I think some of our kids could do very well in front of an audience.  I think it would be a great experience for them to hear and share their own poetry. 

Mrs. Smith commented on how fantastic our class was today.  She said she can't believe the quantity and quality of the questions.  It is great to hear. 

Mrs. Farrand, school counselor, came in this morning to talk about the code of ethics words.  There are six of them, but I'm not sure I can remember them all.  Compassion, courage, honesty, respect, responsibility and one more.  The kids split into groups and then wrote and performed mini-skits to illustrate some of the different code of ethics words.  They did a very good job, but obviously must have not included one of the words, thus the gap in my knowledge. 

The Lego Club movie team is rushing to the battle scene to "get to the good stuff."  We'll see what we can do, but we only have a few short weeks before this year is really winding down.  There has been a lot of talk about next year.  I'll have to run this by the class, but I'm thinking a building club next year that includes Legos, but also could include erector sets, models, knex, etc.  (any and all building materials)  Why limit ourselves?  We'll see what they have to say about that.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Quick Post

Hello,

I apologize for not blogging last night.  My computer wouldn't allow me onto our network.  I got some tech help this morning and hope that it's good to go from now on. 

It is already 7:00 so I'm going to make this quick.  Did your child recite "Poem in Your Pocket" to you yet?  I heard it from many kids today.  Memorization is all about repetition.  They are doing well with that skill.

We made it back into the computer lab today for biome work and have more time scheduled for tomorrow.  I'll do a couple more mini-lessons on editing and revising and then some should be getting ready to type out a final copy.  Slower researchers may have a little extra work to catch up. 

We worked with wedges this afternoon.  Wedges, not wedgies.  I was surprised that joke didn't come up today.  We cut clay with different wedges.  We also did some work with gears (wheels with wedges) and figured out an interactive Rube Goldberg.  Ask your child if they were able to successfully deliver the burger.

Thanks,

Mr. Shea

Welcome back

Hello,

I hope everyone is refreshed and ready for the rest of the way.  All math classes are jumping into fractions.  We will have a heavy poetry reading week.  Friday is "Poem in Your Pocket" Day based on the following poem:

Keep A Poem In Your Pocket

By Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

Keep a poem in your pocket

And a picture in your head
And you’ll never feel lonely
At night when you’re in bed.

 

The little poem will sing to you

The little picture bring to you
A dozen dreams to dance to you
At night when you’re in bed.

 

So - -

Keep a picture in your pocket
And a poem in your head
And you’ll never feel lonely
At night when you’re in bed.

We'll be reading and sharing a lot of poetry this week, so that the poem that your child has in their pocket actually means something to them.

The homework assignment tonight is for your child to keep a running record of how they spend their time.  As it looks more and more like I will be getting the opportunity to loop, I'm thinking more and more about how I can get your child to become better readers and better students.  Hearing from the class about the amount of time spent over the vacation in front of TVs, computers, and video screens makes me cringe.  I'm taking the tact that I need to get some students to first admit that they have a problem.  Just like a big spender needs to be aware of where their money is going, I need students to be aware of how much time they are wasting.  I'm anxious to see what tonight's log shows.  I also want to see a similar log of how they spend their weekends.  We'll use the information to make bar graphs, but I'm also hoping that the info may awaken kids to the amount of time that they are spending to their detriment.  I'll keep you posted.  I read a lot about kids and screen time over the vacation, so it's fresh on my mind.  We'll see where this little experiment takes us. 

I hope you all get a chance to see the ferris wheel that we built in the class.  It is quite impressive.  Wedges and gears are our next simple machines.  We did a bit today and we'll delve in more tomorrow.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea

Early release tomorrow

Hello,

Confirmed strep case number ten in our class today.  Luckily we had a couple return from the sidelines, so I'm still fielding a full team.  We need that vacation to reset the germ level around here.

We had a nice day.  My math class did a lot of mental math.  Our homeroom heard from Bicycle Bob in their P.E. class.  The Harry Potter club started discussing the third book: The Prisoner of Azkaban.  We talked about rhyming and rhythm in our poetry session.  Science was fantastic, with everyone hard at work building machines.  Some were discovering advantages and disadvantages of fixed axles with the help of Legos.  Others, worked at assembling wheeled machines (a carousel and a roller coaster) with our new K'nex sets.  We may have an entire K'nex midway in here before too long.

Don't forget: Early release tomorrow.  No Lego club.

Book orders went home on Monday.  If you order through the website www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and use our class code, J36TM, you'll get a five dollar coupon for next month's order.  The class also gets 3.00 worth of free books for every online order.  Thank you for those.  I asked the kids to choose their favorite choices on the current book orders. Oz and 101 Animal Records were the only choices to get more than two votes and so I'll order those for the class.  I was amazed at the variety of the class choices.  Each student picked five books and yet only nine books got more than one vote. 

This will probably be my last blog until we come back from vacation.  Thank you for continuing to emphasize the importance of reading with your kids.  I look forward to seeing the reading logs.

Have a great April vacation,

Mr. Shea

The day in haiku

Hello,

It is seven and I am late for a dinner.  So here goes:

math, music, recess
lunch, reading, diamante
Farmer Boy, Maine, done

It would be more accurate to say homework club instead of done since we had thirteen kids stay after, but I only had one syllable left to use. 

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Short week

Hello,

I want to remind everyone of the short week.  Thursday is a 1:00 release and there is no school (for students) on Friday.  Historically, this has been conference week.  It feels weird to not have that on our plate as we approach April vacation.

Strep throat is continuing to take its toll.  We have had nine kids from our class out due to strep.  Two more were out today, but I haven't found out if strep is the cause for those absences.  Another fourth grade teacher had three out due to strep today.  Please remind your children of the importance of clean hands before eating. 

We switched with Mrs. Smith's class again today for Maine studies.  I'm not sure what they did in there so you'll have to ask for yourself. 

We were back in the computer lab this afternoon continuing our research papers.  Five have started writing rough drafts.  Fourteen are still researching. 

All the math classes are starting a bar modeling unit.  This is what the fifth grade teachers have told us is the most important thing for our fourth graders to learn to be successful next year.  The work I sent home tonight comes from the third grade text.  It is important to get these skills down before we hit fractions. 

My summer plans are starting to take shape.  I got a plane ticket for Denver.  My plan is to scout out a kid-friendly trip consisting of Moab (Arches National Park), Bryce Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon.  I've spent quite a bit of time out there and would love to take groups of kids out there to expand their horizons.  My nephew is my guinea pig.  Half of the fun is in the planning. 

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea
 

Let the building begin

Hello,

The science problem of the day was to figure out how to drag a dictionary across a floor using less than five newtons of force.  The simple machine that I wanted them to focus on was the wheel and axle, although some of the solutions focused on reducing the friction in other ways.  The biggest trouble that most groups ran into was that fixed axles tended to move off the base, and independent spinning wheels were harder to keep near the edge of the axles without falling off.  They are learning quickly that problems are part of the invention process.  Finding out what doesn't work gets them one step closer to a solution.  I think it is great because the kids have been hearing that problems present opportunities, and this is a unit where they can clearly see that if they don't have problems then they aren't trying hard enough. 

We were so involved in our building this morning that we worked through our lunch recess.  I was impressed that I didn't get any complaints from the class.  Maybe they're starting to realize who the boss is.  heh heh. 

We wrote concrete poems today.  I think they are really liking this unit.  I'm hoping to see a lot in their free write as we go along.

They spent the last hour of the day with Mrs. Smith.  I'm not sure what they did yet, but I'll find out. 

Spelling test tomorrow. 

Thanks for reading and go sox,

Mr. Shea

Force and motion

Hello,

It wasn't my original plan, but I started our force and motion unit today.  What a difference between the two classes!  I tried to teach the same intro lesson that I taught to Mrs. Smith's class yesterday.  We got about a third as far into the lesson as I did yesterday, and while I was very surprised, I was as pleased as punch.  Our class asked so many questions that it took so much longer.  I would make a statement and three hands would go up.  It was fantastic.  I was blown away by the difference in the classes.  It made me feel like many in this class are taking responsibility for their learning.  That's not an indictment on their class.  Classes take on a personality of their own every year.  I was just really impressed with the curiosity level and the courage to ask questions that I saw today.  I think it is the first time in my teaching career that I attempted to teach the same lesson plan twice in a row on consecutive days, and it just showed how all of the planning in the world doesn't make its execution predictable.  I'm very anxious to see how the rest of the unit goes. 

Homework has to do with friction.  We didn't write a specific definition yet, but they should have a good sense of what it is.

I have a little egg on my face today.  I finished my last report card conference last night and I accidently got the numbers flipped.  I gave ones instead of fours.  Umm... I meant that they consistently do their homework not that they never do it.  We went through the whole conference and I never realized that I had all the wrong grades in.  At Jordan Acres, ones were good and fours were bad.  I guess my brain hasn't let go of the old system yet.  The student informed me this morning.  Oops.  Sorry.

The poetry word of the day was onomatopoeia.  Ask about that one.  Hint: groan, creak, click, moo, crunch.

Have a good night,

Mr. Shea

Hello

Hello,

It's nice that it is still light out even though it is 6:45.  What a difference!

The class went to Mrs. Smith to start a mini Maine studies unit.  Their homework is to write a paragraph on what they learned so I can get a glimpse into what happened up there.  I started the force and motion unit with her class.  I hope to learn their names before the end of the unit.  We'll switch again on Thursday.

Spelling tests went back today.  We'll have our next test on Friday.  We pretty much have our there and their down, but are still struggling with they're. 

Recorder Karate is continuing in music class.  I thought the concert was the culmination of the unit.  My apologies if I caused confusion when I stated that it was coming to an end.  I was wrong.  I'm not sure how long it will go and I won't make another prediction on that.

Our research is also continuing for our biome reports.  It feels like it is starting to get old for some kids.  It will get older.

Thanks for reading and have a great night,

Mr. Shea

April Fools Day

Hello,

My school day was sandwiched between two meetings.  I missed the morning meet and greet, as well as the morning work due to the first meeting.  I was pleased to hear that the class got right down to business. 

Our math class got into some bar modeling this morning.  I'm hoping to provide enough of a base, so they can use it as a tool to help them during the fractions unit.  We'll be solving all sorts of word problems as we get to know bar modeling.  It should help many students find a jumping off point for solving word problems.  That seems to be the biggest issue other than checking to make sure our answers make sense.

We wrote some nonsense poetry on Friday.  First I read Jabberwocky to the class by Lewis Carroll.  I think that they are really going to enjoy our poetry writing sessions.  I come at it from a perspective of NO RULES!  I think starting out with nonsense poetry is a great way to emphasize that.  I gave them small booklets to write their favorites in.  Hopefully they will each have a nice collection of various poems in a couple months. 

Today I read some poems that use repetition to provide emphasis.  After only two days of writing poetry with some direction, it is clear to me that we have a lot of natural poets.  It makes sense.  They are writing what they know and writing what they feel.  Some write with great rhythm, some with a great sense of comedic timing.  I'll give them mini-lessons and writing time every day for the next few weeks.  Slowly we'll put together a poetry tool box that they can draw from when they want to write poetry. 

Congratulations to all the participants in the HBS Variety Show.  I think we were all impressed with the talent level of our school mates.  It takes a lot of courage to get up in front of everyone and I was pleased with the number of participants. 

Sickness is still going around.  Please remind your child to wash their hands every time they eat. 

Homework club is on for tomorrow night.  Lego Club on Thursday.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea