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Friday, December 19, 2014

Character Traits

Happy Holidays! In this crazy week leading up to the December vacation, it is often difficult to get kids' attention and keep focus on the school work at hand. However, this week was a little different, at least during reading class. The students were introduced to a wonderful online resource called Popplet.  It is basically a way to organize your thoughts and ideas. The students were asked to do some thinking about the main character in their reading club books. We discussed character traits and the evidence we have to prove that a character is a certain way. Students talked about the differences between being a characteristic at one small moment in time because of a single event and being a trait most of the time, over and over.  They worked hard on diving into their books and finding examples of the traits that they categorized their character.  From there they organized all of their thinking in a fun, meaningful way using Popplet.

Once finished, they shared their Popplets with the members of their reading group, who then got to add comments, suggestions, their own thinking, and compliments right onto the popplet. Then the owners could go back in, read all of the comments, make changes and respond.  It caused for wonderful conversations and sharing of thinking. I've posted some of the popplets below for you to see. You won't be able to see the comments as the site is interactive, and in order to see the comments you have to push on the Popples themselves.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and a great two week vacation.






Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Drama Club Rehearsal Schedule

Week of Dec.15-192:45-4:00 ALL CAST- Read Through2:45-4:00 ALL CAST- Chorus Rehearsal2:45-4:00 Scene 1- Orphans only (No Miss Hannigan)
Week of Jan. 5-912:35-12:55 (recess) Hard Knock Life Dance 2:45-4:00 Scene 1- Orphans, Miss Hannigan, Bundles12:35-12:55 (recess w/ Mrs. West) Scene 2-Annie, Apple Seller & Ward 12:35-12:55 (recess w/ Ms. Moon) Orphans 2:45-4:00 Scene 3-Tessie, Ms. H, Ward,Grace, Annie 2:45-4:00- All Chorus Songs w/ Ms. Moon (All Cast)12:35-12:55- (recess w/ Ms. Moon) Annie 2:45-4:00 Scene 4- Annie, Grace, Warbucks, Servants
Week of Jan. 12-1612:35-12:55 (recess) Hard Knock Life Dance 2:45-4:00 Scene 5- Grace, Warbucks, Annie, Star-to-be, NYC People12:35-12:55 (recess w/ Mrs. West) Scene 2- Annie 12:35-12:55 (recess w/ Ms. Moon) Ms. Hannigan 2:45-4:00 Scene 6-Grace (until 3:15), Ms. H, Rooster, Lily2:45-4:00 Scene 7- Annie, Warbucks, Grace AND Scene 6- Ms. H. Rooster, Lily (Ms. Moon & Mrs. West will share people)12:35-12:55 - (recess w/ Ms. Moon) Annie, Warbucks, Grace, Star-to-be (NYC) 2:45-3:15- Scene 8-Annie, Warbucks, Healy, Sound Effects Man 3:15-4:00- Scene 9- Orphans & Miss HanniganNo School
Week of Jan. 19-23No School12:35-12:55 (recess w/ Mrs. West) Orphans 12:35-12:55 (recess w/ Ms. Moon) Annie 2:45-4:00- Scene 9 & 6 Miss Hannigan, Rooster, Lily2:45-4:00 Scene 10- Grace, Annie, Warbucks 2:45-4:00 w/ Ms. Moon TBD2:45-4:00- Scene 10 & beginning of Scene 11- Grace, Annie, Warbucks, Servants2:45-3:45- Annie, Orphans, Hannigan, Grace, Warbucks, Lily, Rooster REVIEW SCENES
Week of Jan. 26-3012:35-12:55 (recess w/ Mrs. West) Orphans 2:45-4:00 Scene 11- ALL CAST MEMBERS12:35-12:55-(recess w/ Mrs. West) Annie & Warbucks 2:45-4:00- Scenes 1, 2, 3, 6 & 92:45-4:00 Scenes 4, 5, 10, 11 2:45-4:00 w/ Ms. Moon TBD2:45-4:00 Scenes 7, 8
Week of Feb. 2-62:45-4:45- All Cast Rehearsal on Stage2:45-4:45- All Cast Rehearsal on Stage2:45-4:45- All Cast Dress Rehearsal1:15- Show Time 6:00- Call for 6:30 show time

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Fourth Grade Historians

The fourth graders began the Vermont History Unit this week. This week's focus was on learning about the job of a historian and starting to notice the change and continuity in Vermont using artifacts. It was a really exciting few days.
 
 We started the week focusing on the job of a historian. Ask you child what a historian does and why they do it, I am sure they will be able to give you an earful. To make this more meaningful to the students, we covered the room with old artifacts spanning the generations of Vermont's history. Thank you so much to Mrs. Susan Moore for bringing in all sorts of old family gems. After becoming familiar with the job of a historian and why the study the past, the students were given post it notes and told to roam the room exploring. They were given the instruction to write down any questions that they might have about the items they were looking at. The students spent the next half hour exploring, talking, examining, and most important, thinking.  When we gathered back together they had a million questions of the items. They were very thoughtful and had wonderful predictions based on what the items looked like or how they moved.
 
On day two, students were given access to this amazing website that offers thousands of old photos of Vermont. They had a task to begin looking at the photos as historians, trying to find clues to how things were during the time of the photo. Students began noticing the details. Some of my favorite comments from this activity:
   "The houses have more windows! Maybe they needed them because they didn't have electricity."
   " The women are wearing this think around their neck that look like they choke them."
   " Why do all the men have big bushy beards?"
As you can see, their minds were racing with questions.

On day three, the class was given multiple old maps of Vermont. They ranged from 1774 to the late 1800s.  They had a task to look and find the similarities and differences in the maps. I explained that Vermont hasn't always looked exactly as it does today. They were told to pay close attention to the towns, counties, boundaries, spellings of names, etc. They dove in and began noticing some fascinating things. Every discovery brought up new questions and more predictions. "How come on this map it says it is New York?" "How come this map says it is the Province of New Hampshire?" They were so into this activity that they didn't come close to finishing. They will have more time on Monday to finish.

Next week we will shift our focus to building a general timeline of the Eras of Vermont. Students will each get to study one of the six eras and share their findings with the rest of the class. We will put together their work to create a giant timeline of the History of Vermont.

Here are some photos of the Artifact Walk the students took on Monday.