Ho, Ho, HOT CHOCOLATE!

I’ve told you how amazing Rm. 202 kiddos are, right? And I think I’ve shared with you how amazing their parents are, too, right? Well here’s another post that proves that fact.

Mrs. Callier had a project to suggest to us for a fun Friday afternoon and of course we had to say yes. We scheduled the date and she prepared her activity and came so ready that I didn’t have to do anything! Love those kinds of projects!

Ok…so basically kiddos were going to do a painting project of a chalkboard mug that they could write a message on, and then add the hot chocolate, marshmallow and candy cane stirrer to make a cute “treat” for a loved one. Well, or for themselves. 🙂

Kiddos had SO MUCH FUN, Mrs. Callier (and Grandma Becky!) did a great job with directions, management and best of all, kiddos went home with a goodie that they had made that they were SUPER proud of. Check it out!

The finished product turned out so cute! I didn’t get a pic of everyone’s mug (because some were still drying as I walked around), but these turned out just like we had hoped!

Thanks so much for a fun Friday afternoon, Mrs. Callier! We appreciate your help and your idea for such a great project! 🙂

#classroombookaday UPDATE: Week 16 (yep, we’ve missed a few)

Whew! I’m pretty sure I blinked and November was over, and I also took a look and now we’re on WEEK 16 of our book-a-day (or a little more!) challenge. I think I shared that we’ve now moved to the inside of our door, but if not, here’s a pic so you’ll see what we’re up to now. Sorry to have missed the last 3 weeks! Thanksgiving break always throws a little bit of a wrench in the works. 🙂

So…here’s where we are as of last Friday, December 9:

We’re up to 266 books!! I am still wondering if my prediction of 500 will happen, but for sure we’ll get close to filling up this side of our door before Spring Break!

Patterns in the Sky

I just went back to link back to some work we did with shadows and realized I NEVER WROTE ABOUT IT! What?? Well goodness gracious, Mrs. Bearden, it’s about time!

We spent much of this last quarter working on learning about Patterns in the Sky–discovering new things about the sun, moon, stars and planets. During our study we read lots of books on the topic (many whole group, but also lots that kiddos read individually or with a partner);

had lots of conversations and discussions about what we noticed happening each day (with the sun) and at night (when we saw the moon at home); created videos and art pieces; went outside to explore how the apparent movement of the sun affects our shadows;

had the KSD planetarium visit us along with Mr. Bartin, and then we created a class poster to both help show our learning, as well as remind us of what we had discovered. Students worked with their partner to create an image to represent the big ideas we’d worked on during our unit. Turned out pretty great, and kiddos did super work!

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Close-ups of each one are here (plus what they represent):

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What do you know about patterns in the sky that you could teach us about? What do you wonder?

Acts 1 & 2, Day 1: #classroombookaday

It happened again. Remember when I struggled on this blog somewhere last year with the idea that I don’t tell all the parts of a story and then forget about it or time passes and I don’t tell any of it? Well, boo–this is another time of the year when so much is happening and I haven’t been telling some of our stories because there are so many pieces. This ends now! 🙂 Very slowly….with day 1 of a new project today and then hopefully all the parts of a few other stories soon. Hopefully. LOL

So anyway…at a professional development meeting I was in yesterday, I learned about 3-Act Math Tasks and knew I wanted to give them a try. I am all about productive struggle, giving kids meaningful, motivating math tasks, and using contexts that are relevant to our mathematical community. These seemed right up our alley!

As you read in the explanation, these tasks start with a video or picture that invites wonder and questioning. There are very few words and kiddos can go in a variety of directions as they engage with the visual.

Our 1st Act started with this picture, which I found on Twitter and comes via @MrsHessClass and @MrsAclass_Rm214 (thanks, by the way!). It connects BEAUTIFULLY with what’s going on in our room this year. 🙂

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As we started our work, I gave kids a chance to study the picture and then talk with their partner about what they noticed and what they wonder. We shared out and gathered these questions:

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Once we had an idea about where we might go, partners were invited to choose a question they thought they could answer and have a go. They could choose any on they wanted to (to start with) but they needed to be sure to show their thinking and convince their classmates that their answers are correct. We reread our chart to remind us of what that meant:

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Then we got busy with our first drafts of work. As they got their paper and got started, I gave each partnership a copy of the picture in case they wanted to use it in their work.

We will continue our work tomorrow, but Day 1 of Act 2 (where kiddos work to find a solution) went fairly well and EVERYONE was engaged.