Ned Hector - African American Patriot, Teamster and Bombardier Tells His Story

Ned Hector

This  past Friday we had a visit to fourth grade from Ned Hector (enacted by Noah Lewis), a black Revolutionary soldier from the Battle of Brandywine. Ned stormed into our classroom as though he had time traveled from the banks of the Brandywine River. He gave us a copy of his orders signed by General Washington and then proceeded to tell us his story of the battle he had been engaged in before being transported to our classroom. 

Ned captivated the students with colonial life history from the 1770's by explaining his daily life when he was not working with the Continental Army. The students were completely enthralled and were given lots of opportunities for questions, idea exchanges and a bit of re-enactment themselves. 

Noah Lewis is committed to teaching children that American History is Black History. He does a wonderful job explaining the struggle of acceptance in Washington's army for free Blacks and the role they played in the revolutionary war. After lunch, he surprised us at recess by turning up with speakers and a musical piece called Childgrove.  He offered any interested students and teachers a group dance lesson from the 18th century.

It was a spirited and magical morning for fourth grade.

Negotiating with Aria

Explaining job and duties to a member of cannon brigade

Demonstrating starting a fire using flint and tow, a flax fiber

Dancing  to Childgrove

Giving orders to the commander of the cannon brigade

Our new focus: Ancient Egypt

Second grade is becoming all about ancient Egypt!

In book groups we started reading non-fiction reference books about Egypt, both present day and ancient times. 

We are using Explorer’s Notebooks to record the interesting and important facts and questions we uncover.

This week we started a new read aloud book, The Boy of the Pyramids. The setting of this historical fiction novel is 5000 years ago in Egypt. It is quite a contrast to the much more recent historical fiction and biographies we have read recently.

To help 2nd graders have an understanding of just how long ago 5000 years was we looked at a timeline where each little square represents 1 year. It stretched across the room! We talked about time and used our new multiplication skills to describe a decade, century and millennium.

We also used iPads to take a look at satellite maps of Egypt, noticing the green areas near the Nile River and how much of the country is desert. We even found the pyramids!

Every student is also researching an artifact, using a photo of an object. They are discovering that as they learn about the object it can also lead to more questions and that sharing the information we find can help others, a great example of collaborative learning.

Next week, Egypt will be the subject of a homework assignment: we will be sending home a book, Tut's Mummy, to read and discuss. You will be able to share in the excitement of our learning.

Sledding Fun!!

A perfect day to go sledding!! Enjoy all the bright smiles!!

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Second Grade: An Introduction to Multiplication (and a fun game to try at home!)

We recently introduced multiplication to the second graders, which is a concept they generally have some idea of and are able to grasp intuitively.  When I initially asked the class what they knew about multiplication, they were able to give some examples of multiplication number sentences that they knew, proudly stating, "4x5=20" or "2x4=8."  Through hands on practice with multiplication, the students quickly learn that multiplication is so much more than "times," and expand their understanding to include the idea of equal groups as being an essential part of multiplication.  In fact at the beginning of of exploration of multiplication we say, "4 groups of 5" instead of, "4 times 5" when reading a problem aloud so that we can reinforce the understanding of multiplication as "groups of."

Our initial multiplication activity was a game called "Circles and Stars," which second grade families have by now seen for homework.  In this game a player rolls a 6-sided dice and draws the number of circles that corresponds with the number rolled.  He or she then rolls the die again and draws that many stars in each circle.  After the student figures out how many stars there are in total, he or she writes the corresponding multiplication sentence.  This activity provides a strong visual representation of multiplication as repeated addition.  

Today in our multiplication study, students took on the role of zookeeper and found out how much food they would need to order for the animals for a three day weekend.  They had order slips based on what they would need for one day and then worked to calculate how much they would need for three days.  The students used a variety of strategies, including connecting cubes, base ten blocks and mentally breaking numbers apart into tens and ones to add them more easily.  

After finishing the zoo produce problems, some of the students learned a game called Spiral Multiplication, a game that I just recently learned.  They were eager to test out the new game and they really impressed me with their ability to use mental computation to solve a variety of multiplication problems quickly and accurately.  If you have a deck of cards and one die, you can give this game a try at home.  (See the directions below)

Spiral Multiplication Directions (For two or more players)

1. Use the deck of cards to make a spiral game board starting from the center (take out all of the face cards, but leave in the Aces, those will count for ones.) 

2. Place your game pieces at the start. 

3. Player 1 rolls the die.  Player 1 multiplies the number on the die by the card the game piece is on. If they are correct, they move the number of spaces the die shows. If they are incorrect, they do not get to move. 

4.  Take turns and repeat until someone reaches the end.

Finding the Hero in ME!

First grade has been spending a lot of time in library thinking about heroes and what it takes to be a hero. It was with this in mind that we watched a video about a Philadelphia pizza shop that is helping to feed the homeless.

After watching the video, we discussed who the hero was in the video and agreed that it wasn't just the person who owned the pizza shop, but every person who bought a slice a pizza for someone they will never know. It was at this point that students started to share how they could be heroes in their own way.

In our next class, we discussed out own personal heroes and gathered words that described our heroes. We then created awards for our heroes which used both words and pictures to describe what it was about our heroes that we so admired.  And of course, we continued to find and read books about famous heroes.

3rd Grade Visits Upper School Technology

3rd Grade had a terrific visit to Upper School as a kick-off  to our Invention Convention.  Director of Technology, John Rison,  gave the students an introduction to all of the amazing things happening in technology at AFS.    The students watched the 3-D printer in action, explored the robotics lab and even saw the new AFS drone!  The students learned that the 3-D printer can print with different materials and original items can be scanned and then printed.  The students may be able to print components or actual replicas of their inventions.  The 1st Annual 3rd Grade Invention Convention will be held in May and the students will be designing something that can be used at recess, either indoors or outdoors.  They will be able to incorporate Little Bits into their creations as well.  

Thanks to John for such a great visit to Upper School!

Family, Culture and Friendship: Fourth Grade Book Group Selections

Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear, Any Small Goodness and How Tia Lola Came to Visit/Stay are three books that the fourth grade students have been reading in book groups.  Culture, family and friendship are themes shared with the reader in each of these books. The authors, Lensey Namioka, Tony Johnston and Julia Alvarez, use rich language, description and metaphor to capture the subtleties of characters and how they navigate their culture, create friendships and cement bonds in their own families.

The structure of each book group allows for rich discussion to occur as fourth grade students read and prepare responses to share in book group as starting points for conversation. Connections between the student and a character, connections between their book and another text and connections with society have been explored in this round of book groups as has a close look at character.  We have given much attention to the personality traits that help a character navigate through the story and the way a character changes and grows during the course of the novel.

Snack Sale on Thursday Demonstrates Meaningful Learning

On Thursday morning, Kathy's kindergarten will host a snack sale to help support saving tigers, an endangered species that has captured the attention of the class. This snack sale will not only raise money for a cause important to this kindergarten class, it is also an opportunity for students to study a topic of concern and determine a course of action.

With the exception of the weekly pretzel sale, we do not routinely hold sales as fundraisers at school unless a compelling case is made for the connection of the sale to classroom learning. This particular sale demonstrates the power of emergent learning opportunities. Emergent learning opportunities are deeply important at all age levels and help foster students' inquisitiveness, love of learning and academic skill acquisition.

Kathy's students have given much thought to the purpose of the treat sale and the planning of it.  In education, we often talk about meaningful learning.  The opportunity to study about a topic of interest such as tigers, raise questions, conduct experiments and take action exemplifies meaningful learning. Lessons of leadership, empowerment and research are integral aspects of this snack sale. To learn more about how the idea of helping tigers was introduced, view Kathy's blog entry by clicking  HERE!

Stories, Songs and Rhythms about The Winter Time - Music

As the weather continues to get colder and the snow begins to fall we have began to look at music that relates to winter and the weather it brings. Across the grade levels we have turned our attention to this theme. I wanted to share some of the stories, songs, rhymes, movement activities and games we are learning in music!

Book: The Busy Little Squirrel 
Music: Vivaldi's Autumn Adagio mvt.2
Song: Hop Old Squirrel
We added more verses:
Hop, skip, jump, crawl, swish your tails etc...
Game: One child sits in the middle of the circle with their eyes closed. Four- six friends hid acorns all over the room. We sing the song with the verse 'Hut for food' and while we are singing the child who was sitting in the middle must find as many acorns as they can. Instead of singing the number of acorns they have found, the child must play the number on an instrument. The rest of the class listens and silently counts the number of sounds they hear to determine how many acorns their classmate has found! 

Book: The Snowy Day
Music: Instrumental Morning has Broken
Mvt. Activity: After reading the story the class recalls the sequence of what Peter did when he went out to play. The class then acts out the story silently while listening to the music.
Song: What shall we do when we all go out?

Game: One child must act out something that they like to do in the snow while we sing the song 'what shall we do?'. At the end of the song we must guess what they were doing.

We had lots of ideas  of things that we could do in the snow:
Make snow angels, skate, build a snowman, make snowballs and lots more!










Book: The Snowman
Music: Theme We're Walking in the Air
Dramatic Play: What if you were a snowman discovering everything for the first time? With a partner, one person pretends to be the snowman. The snowman discovers an objects (a flower, pencil, scarf etc..) pretending they are seeing it for the first time.. Without words the other person must show the snowman what to do with the object.


Song: Winter Snowflakes

Song: Who has seen the wind? (originally a poem by Christina Rossetti)

Rhyme: Where oh where did my mittens go?
Are they somewhere in the snow?
I've looked high and i've looked low
Where of where did my mittens go?

Music: Vivaldi Winter
Mvt. Activity: Move through the room while listening to the music. Use high and low movements, when the music stops, freeze and make a shape with your body

Fourth Grade Travels Back to Colonial America Through Their Trade Research

The fourth grade is deeply immersed in their research of the many different colonial trades and professions that were available to men, women and children during the 18th century. We pulled all the books our library had on the subject and brought them into the classroom. We then spoke a little about each profession and let the students look through the pile of books we had on hand. They were asked to write down their top trade choices and were later given one of them to research. 

The students are learning about organizing topics and ideas. They were given a guide to use to break their research into manageable sub-topics and questions they needed to discover the answers to. They are using coded index cards as a way to record their facts, sources and page numbers. They are required to use three sources, including any of the following: books, magazines, internet and video. 

Once the student and their teachers are satisfied that they have answered all their questions on their topic, they sequence their cards in an order that they feel best tells the story of their trade. At this point, their creative juices get flowing and they start to write their story weaving in their facts from their cards with knowledge they have accrued from all their reading. The students will be creating a trifold pamphlet to hand out at their Colonial Trade Fair. It is on the calendar for February 6th commencing at 8:30 am. The students will be dressed in period clothing while presenting their knowledge and skills trying to persuade attendees to come and apprentice with them. All are welcome to attend!

    

Third Grade Codes for Comprehension

Coding is a strategy that can help to deepen comprehension while reading. Students use a symbol to represent a reading strategy. Third grade used coding while reading articles about the Chinese New Year celebration and the Kitchen God. A star represented an important fact, an exclamation point stood for an interesting detail, a question mark was used when the student had a question or wanted to know more and a squiggly line stood for a new word or a vocabulary word. It was remarkable to see how using these symbols helped the students to be very active readers.

When they finished coding the article, students looked back at what they had marked and selected the most interesting and important information to record on their form. The reading of various kinds of texts allows for different kinds of reading.

We teach students strategies to deepen their thinking while reading in hopes that they will have an array of strategies to use when reading on their own at home. Students have various learning styles and being able to draw on a strategy that fits their own learning style is important. This experience with coding will be a positive addition to a student's collection of reading strategies.

Fourth Grade Woodworking

The fourth grade artists have been putting the art room workshop to good use! The fourth graders began by creating designs for their displays in the Colonial Trade Fair. After viewing images of colonial trade signs, they were able to determine that the illustrations were just as important as the words because many people in colonial times were not able to read. With this in mind, they created designs that would easily communicate their trade, using images.

After the designs were finalized, the fourth graders started cutting their shapes out of wood. Using the coping saw, which has an adjustable blade for curves and tricky shapes, they were able to bring their signs to life.

 
Using woodworking tools engages learners through physical activities, promotes problem-solving and gives students a sense of independence and ownership of their work using "real" grown-up tools. Soon the students will have the opportunity to paint their signs and put them to use at the Colonial Trade Fair!