Going bananas

Hello,

I couldn't let it go.  A couple of students had beat my Banana Monkey score and I felt the need to show some brain power.  I played a bunch of times just before writing this.  The kids will see photographic proof of the NEW high score tomorrow.  I should feel guilty that I can't let them win, but I don't.

It reminds me of the time in high school when my uncle was my math teacher, (the only year my father wasn't my math teacher in high school).  My uncle boasted that he had memorized pi out to ten places.  I knew it out to eleven places the next day.  That was my competitive nature.  I told that story at Jordan Acres to my fourth graders.  A girl learned it to twelve by the next day.  I was confident of it out to twenty places at that time, (knowledge long since gone, by the way) so I let her know that. In the next week, she learned it to 45 places!  I kid you not.  She won.  I usually don't go down without a fight, but I surrendered on that one immediately.

I wanted to thank Mr. Merrill for coming in to show us some of his World War II memorabilia. He was great with the kids and I was happy with the many questions that his collection generated from the class.

HBS now has a laptop cart downstairs. All carts used to be upstairs which made it really difficult for downstairs classes to use.  Our class has now been frequent users of the laptops.  We've used them for writing class and for research.  It is often tough to get a spot in the computer lab, so the laptops give us another option.

Your child may be a little tired coming home tonight.  Our class took part in the "pacer test" in PE today.  It basically is a how far can you run test.  Kids go back and forth in the gym for as long as they can,  Their is a time component in that you can't go at a walking pace.  Some kids really pushed themselves.  Well done!

Homework club tomorrow night.  No Harry Potter on Thursday night due to the early release.  No school on Friday.

Thanks,

Mr. Shea

Biome projects

Hello,

I'm going to paste a copy of the instructions for our upcoming biome museums so you know exactly what your child has started researching.

Biome Museum           Your team will be putting together a display for our class biome museum.  You will be graded on your final product and how well you worked together as a team.           Each team has been given a biome based on your preferences.  You now must do all the research it takes to create a diorama and a poster.  The diorama has to be a three dimensional scene that represents your biome.  The following information must be included in either your diorama or your poster. 1.    Biome title
2.    Biome overview (a short explanation of your biome)
3.    Specific precipitation data
4.    Specific temperature data
5.    Common flora (plant life) and their adaptations
6.    Common fauna (animal life) and their adaptations
7.    Predators
8.    Prey
           Be Creative.  Be Cooperative.  Be Colorful.  Be Correct.

Be sure to ask your child how their research is coming along.  We went into the computer lab today for some research. Our fourth grade student links has some great sites.

We still need a few lessons on flora, fauna, and their adaptations, but then they should feel pretty good about all of the necessities for the project.

In math we've started geometry and it has been a refreshing change from the decimals and fractions. I hope you saw your child's recent decimal test. Great success for the class on that, with only two students scoring below a 22 out of 25.  

April Vacation is fast approaching. Next Thursday is an early release day and the kids have no school that Friday as well. I can't believe how fast this is all going. 

Pat, our class volunteer, made up nice picture cards for all of our biography tea party participants.  I hope you saw your child in full regalia. 

I only need to have a couple more parent/teacher conferences. We had a staff meeting last night and a union meeting tonight. I think I'm finally caught up with everything and should get some after school time to breathe in the coming weeks. I'll let you know soon about starting Thursday homework clubs. Not yet.

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

Grant money from BCEF!

Hello,

I'm sorry that I had to run off at the end of homework club to go to a meeting. I like to chat a bit and touch base with all of you, but I needed to go to the library to meet with the BCEF.

The Brunswick Community Education Foundation gives grant money to help support Brunswick public schools. This meeting was for grant award winners. Many teachers from all levels of our school system met to get the details on the next step in the grant process. I'm happy to report that our class will be benefiting from one of the grants.

I wrote up a grant a couple of months ago to support HBS teachers that are trying to teach children to have a growth mindset. A group of teachers had read Carol Dweck's book, Mindset, last summer. This led us to a number of other books on the topic, including Mindset in the Classroom by Mary Cay Ricci. That book recommended a series of games made by a company called Thinkfun! These are games that are meant to be played alone that teach that accomplishment comes through perseverance and learning from your mistakes. The grant allows us to purchase an assortment of thirty of these games. I'm going to write up the order tonight, which means we may have the games before April Break! It's very exciting for me because I've been grabbing these games at lawn sales and Goodwills whenever I see them, but now we'll have a full class set to share.

Thank you BCEF!

I'll update you on when we start using them. I think I may want some parent volunteers, so we can have some game rotations on the first day we use them.

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

Change of plans

Hello,

We're going to wait a bit longer on our research papers. The class voted to get started on our biome unit.  I have now spent a couple of days giving an overview of several biomes.  Students will make their top choices tomorrow.  Based on their choices, I will be partnering them up and they will be putting together mini museum displays. They will have to show off their research findings through a diorama and poster combination as we turn our classroom into a biome museum.

We talked a little about predator/prey relationships today.  We went out and played a deer vs. wolves game. I cut it short when I realized multiple deer trying to get caught by wolves. It kind of messes up the lesson.

I've been releasing the class Kindles.  We have three used ones.  Kids are allowed to bring them home.  They are not allowed to download any other book than the one I gave them permission to read.  They can't purchase anything new either.  We'll see how this goes.  I figure that we'll learn as we go.  I plan to get a Brunswick library account set up with them as well.

We are starting geometry in math.  I'm very happy to get into some lessons that everyone is ready for. Hooray for more hands on learning!

Homework club is meeting tomorrow after school.  Harry Potter club meets at lunch.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea

Biography Tea Party

Hello,

I thought the tea party went well. It was quite a mixer. Attendees included President Obama and President Lincoln, as well as first ladies Eleanor Roosevelt and Abigail Adams. King Tut was our youngest or oldest attendee, depending on how you look at it. Maria Tall Chief, Amelia Earhardt, Susan B. Anthony and Clara Barton were just a few of the strong women in attendance. Genghis Khan didn't make too much trouble. Pele, Babe Ruth and Tom Brady were our top athletes. Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant got together, possibly for the first time since Appomattox Court House. Sacajawea made it, as did Annie Oakley. J.K. Rowling, Isaac Newton and Harry Houdini were also popular guests. We were sad that John Lennon was feeling under the weather.

Mr. Banana provided the food and beverages, helped out by many volunteers. Thank you to all of them for pitching in. The kids commented that many of them asked great questions and helped get conversations rolling.

The food highlights included Turkish Delights, fresh coconut, smoked salmon, English cheddar cheese, banana chips, buffalo jerky, sweet potato chips, carrot chips, dried blueberries, Pirouline wafers, dried peas, cupcakes from Pat, almond thins and snow pea chips. Drinks included peach juice, mango juice, pineapple juice, blackberry juice and a cranberry/raspberry mix.  Some real treats for our guests.

I felt like most of the class learned a little about many different people. We had a recap afterwards to see what everyone learned. I was pleased with most of it.

I was disappointed that two students didn't meet the requirements to go to the party. I felt like I bent over backwards for two others to go. I won't do that again. It just takes away from everyone else. Unfortunately, the rest of the class didn't get to learn about Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria. Maybe they'll be able to do a wax statue presentation along with John Lennon when he returns from his illness.

Thanks for all the help today. Like everything, it was a learning experience for us all.

Mr. Shea

Hello strangers!

Hello,

I'm back.  It's been too long.

Big day tomorrow.  Students have read multiple biographies, completed a poster, timeline, paragraph, venn diagram, dress-up sheet and interview based on their famous person in history. It is finally time for our grand tea party.  Parents are welcome to come in at any time.  We will kicking it off sometime around 12:45 in Room 120.  Kids will be able to get dressed after our lunchtime.

Their instructions for the duration of the party will be to stay in character.  Their job will be to learn about all the other famous people in the room, as well as to teach everyone in the room about themselves.  The key will be to mingle.

I will be the butler for the tea party.  (I need to be in character too.)  The kids voted on my name. They will enjoy calling me Mr. Banana.  I don't remember who made that nomination for a name, but it was popular.  I will be serving many appetizers and beverages.  I try to bring in very odd food and drink choices that not many kids will have tried before.  I can't give you a sneak peek into this year's choices because I am doing all of the shopping after I finish this blog.

Parents are not only welcome, but I am really hoping for a bit of help with some food prep and serving.  Pat, our fantastic volunteer, will be here to help, but we could use others.

Okay, I'm going to run. Thank you to everyone who came in for conferences.  I still need to nail down a time for a couple of you, but overall was pleased to get them done within two weeks of the end of the basketball season.

It's good to be back,

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

Enough snow

Hello,

Well, we're having a little trouble remembering our procedures.  I'm not making this up when I say that a student asked, "What is a procedure again?" just last week.  The snow has definitely disrupted our routines, which have been on shaky ground since the sixteen day holiday break.

Now we are less than two weeks away from February break with many other interruptions in our instruction time between now and then.  Thirteen students are involved in the NAEP testing tomorrow.  Ten students will be taking the NWEA math test on Friday and eight more will take the NWEA literacy test next week. We also have a couple more sessions of Arts are Elementary, where the students are making silk prints.

So I'll patch things together as best as I can.  We have started a mystery genre unit with a focus on character development.  In math, we are adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. Math was lost today due to the late start, and tomorrow will be a wash as well, due to the testing. Therefore there will be no weekly challenge this week. (It will be Thursday before we go over last week's challenge.)

Thank you for making sure your children are still getting their reading done at home.  I can't emphasize the importance of that enough, especially with our schedule lately.

We read about Ruby Bridges in our Scholastic Newsletter this morning.  Our discussion that followed jumped from the Little Rock Nine to the Civil War to racism in general.  The homework is based on a make-believe town of Brunswick where one gender is favored over another.  Each student has to write about whether they think they would make a good choice to be part of the "Brunswick Nine," to help break the stereotypes of one gender being better than another.  Would your daughter have the courage and patience to go to an all-boys school where they would be made fun of and feel unwanted? Would your son go to an all-girls school where they would be ridiculed and spit on, and yet not fight back?  I look forward to the responses. (Why they would or wouldn't put themselves in that spot.)  It might be a good one to talk about at home.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea