Ending the Year with a lot of Fun and Learning

We packed a lot into our last week of school in 2016. We had our classroom holiday celebration, auction, white elephant book exchange, Polar Express presentation, beeswax candle making, and we even found time to watch a movie. All of the aforementioned did not get in the way of making sure we also learned a lot including more work with fractions, a careful study of theme and point of view, and a project based learning task in which students constructed their own Maker Space.

What we were able to accomplish in 2016 proved pretty amazing and I look forward to what we do in 2017.

Holiday Celebration 2016

Thanks for all the families who helped with our holiday celebration. From crafts to cookies, the students clearly enjoyed themselves.

This Month’s Art Lesson: Holiday Ornaments

Today students created holiday ornaments during their art lesson. Several different techniques were employed simultaneously and the final product looks great. Students will take these home next week to share.

A Study of Personal Narratives and Point of View

Since returning from our Thanksgiving Break, we have taken a very close look at the personal narrative with an emphasis on point of view. Students can be pretty adept at identifying first person from third person point of view and even third person limited from third person omniscient. Understanding and analyzing how point of view impacts a story is an entirely different endeavor and this is why taking so much time with it.

Students are reading rich personal narratives and are also writing their own. They may have been asking about the history of their name and we will be turning what they learn into a graphic essay.

A Visit from the Sierra Watercolor Society

We were very fortunate in having the Sierra Watercolor Society visit our classroom and share their expertise with us. We engaged in careful observation of how watercolors work, learned more about the medium of watercolors and were instructed on specific techniques to take full advantage of the watercolor palette we worked with.

The finished product will serve as a terrific holiday gift. Moreover, there was no cost to the students or Roy Gomm. Instead, the four volunteers shared all the necessary supplies and a lot of their time.

Sharing our Google Slides Presentations

The students started sharing their Google Slides presentations on Friday and we will continue to do this throughout next week. The presentations look great and showcase how “digital natives” can fluidly blend a traditional book report with 21st Century tools.

Many students already emailed their reports to parents and in some cases, to their classroom peers.