Bounce back day

Hello,

Sorry that this is late. I had a tutoring session in the gym. I've tutored kids in math for years, but the past three years I've been tutoring in basketball as well. Lots of fun. This might be a good time to tell you that I will be helping out with the Bowdoin women's basketball team this winter.  I love the sport and am really looking forward to it.

Our class had a good day today.  We started off by reading My Mouth is a Volcano! by Julia Cook. This was in direct response to yesterday.  I was very pleased to see kids catching themselves before erupting with whatever thought just crossed their mind.  It was a nice step along our journey.

I gave the kids the Spaghetti Marshmallow Challenge.  Each team of two had eighteen minutes to build a marshmallow topped structure out of dry spaghetti, string and masking tape.  The object is to get the marshmallow as high as possible.  I saw great communication, teamwork, learning from mistakes, risk taking, and very little fear of failure.  I read that kindergartners were more successful at this challenge than many adults.  Part of this was attributed to young peoples' growth mindset.  They haven't learned a fear of failure yet.  I will blog more about mindset when it isn't so late in the day. Ask your child about their structure.

Thank you for doing all of the parent homework last night.  All but four came back.

We got going on our Little Miss and Mr. stories this afternoon.  I'm looking forward to writing with this group.  Second drafts are always an adventure.

We wrote out long numbers in words in our math session.  I would write a number on the board like 4,527,030.  The kids would write four million, five hundred twenty seven thousand, thirty on their dry erase boards. It went well.  I gave one for homework.

We had our first Sitton spelling test.  I'll explain how our spelling program works next week, when kids will have to put in a little time with their words.  Today just gave me a baseline to work with.

Our student teacher, Ms. Hill, gave everyone a get to know her quiz today. I only got five out of nine, but in the end, we all knew a lot more about her.  Ask your child to tell you a couple facts about her.

Thanks for reading.  Again, sorry so late.

Mr. Shea