Great to see what the students are up to and how they are enjoying their time off. Parents, thanks for sharing the pictures!
Spring Break 2018
Category: Uncategorized
Cowriting and Sharing Persuasive Letters
The students spent part of the last two days sharing persuasive essays. Following the model in the children’s book I Wanna Iguana, students wrote back and forth to each other in their “Writing Coaches” corresponding journals. The writing was terrific and students stuck to our model of Claim-Evidence-Reasoning-Closure.
Students wrote from the perspective of pillows, tennis balls, favorite pets, celebrities, and family members.
Valentines Day 2018, The Learning Part
We continued our exploration of chemistry by looking closely at how things can be put together and taken apart. Further, we worked with creating a solution and then discovering the saturation point. Students are building a important bank of understanding around dissolving, evaporation, saturation, mixture and solution.
Our Work with The Phantom Tollbooth Begins
Today we started our work with Norton Juster’s classic, The Phantom TollBooth. We did a lot of things to get us ready for this including careful observations of paintings by Salvador Dali (e.g, The Persistence of Memory) and a close reading of Abbott and Costello’s skit, “Who’s on First.” In addition we deconstructed how puns are largely based on homophones, homographs and idioms.
The hard work paid off and the student’s understanding of how author’s use word play to cause humor and confusion allowed for a successful launch of The Phantom Tollbooth.
Constructing Earthquake Resistant Buildings
Today we were visited by NevadaTeach students who guided us through an Engineering lesson. The experience focused on constructing a “skeleton buildings” that could make it through a simulated earthquake. Students soon discovered that some structures were more stable than others.
Halloween 2017: The Learning
Today we started our work with fractions. Although it was Halloween, we made it through the lesson with kids partitioning, finding equivalence and using number lines to compare.
The kids also shared their Pro/Con writing and reviewed work around early explorers.
Halloween 2017: The Celebration
Thank you to all the parents who helped put together our celebration. Having multiple stations kept everyone engaged and having a great time. (You have set the bar high for our Holiday Celebration!)
A Visit from NevadaTeach
Today we got a visit from University of Nevada Reno students and the NevadaTeach program. It was a chance to work with engineering standards and learn to use the Richter scale by modeling earthquakes.
The NevadaTeach program is a great way of getting science and math students into Washoe’s classrooms.
A Successful First Auction
Today we had our first auction. Having paid rent on Thursday, students could spend their extra cash on items donated from a number of local, national and international companies.
Some students, however, sat out the auction. This is likely because they are saving their money to turn their desk rental into a condo.
First Week Meant Lots of Firsts
We finished our first week of school and managed to get a lot done. Aside from securing important routines and procedures, we completed our first Number Talk, our first Close Read, our first Writers Workshop, our first art project, our first Kahoot, and our first reading of a 9th grade reading passage. (Although, until this post, no one knew it at the time.)
