Discovering Sensory Details in 4th Grade

I saw a dead bee on my step and it was so cool because the patterns look awesome with its tiny little stripes and it felt so fuzzy. And I saw cicada shells. I also heard them. It almost sounds like leaves rusting very loud. Or Styrofoam when you squeeze it. I saw an amazing looking bird. I saw it run away with its tiny little legs. I also saw a wood pecker. It looked like a mix of a cardinal, a robin and a chickadee. It pecked on the tree back and fourth it remind me of chopping a piece of wood in half. I also saw the beautiful trees across the street I noticed they were starting to change colors they were beautiful orange red.

            - Amani, 4^th grade 

Stenographer pads are just another kind of notebook. But within the hands of 4^th graders at Abington Friends School, these stenographer pads become the magical world where the words of  9 and 10 year olds pop. Inspired by Marie Howe’s talk on the popular podcast On Being, 4^th grade decided to complete an exercise in sensory details. Students would document different things they noticed about the world around them. This is to allow students to practice the art of noticing and giving words to what they see, feel, taste, think and hear daily. The results prove to be evidence of the growing skills of our illustrious friends.

We started by reading Jane Yolen’s gorgeous text Owl Moon. We took time to notice the plethora of sensory details that were present in it: from the sounds of owls hooting to feet crushing the snow as a young one goes owling with her/his father.

We then armed ourselves with our stenographer’s pad and went searching for sensory details around the school’s campus. Students quickly learned that if they were still and paid extra notice to their surrounding, the world had much to offer them: beauty.

As homework, students were asked to document what they notice with their senses. Some students told instead of showed. And that was ok. As they practice and receive feedback they will grow. The grammar was off ; the spellings needed some work. But that was okay. Why? Because the main purpose of this exercise was for students to have a space to freely explode their thoughts, without thinking about edits, and give words to their surroundings.

As the year progresses, these descriptions will be nuanced as metaphors, similes and other sensory details are introduced. The hope is also, that as they practice giving words to the world around them that they will put this into their classroom writing. One could consider these notebooks mere stenographer’s pads. But to these 9 and 10 year olds, it is the beginning of discovering and articulating the beauty of the world around them.

"I Got a Letter!"

In the last week, many second graders have arrived at school eagerly waving a letter that they received from their family pen pal.  These responses are shared with the whole class and allow us all to hear a variety of family stories.  Pictures have accompanied most letters, so we have also gotten to "see" who each classmate is writing to!

As we waited for these replies to our first letters to arrive, the students have been exploring the place where their pen pal lives.  A big, blank map of the United States is on the wall outside Sandy's classroom, and each student traced their state and made a colorful copy of it to add to the map outline.  Using books, websites and fact cards, students are collecting an assortment of information, such as state capital and state bird, to add to their research packet.  In the future, this information will be used to create a large postcard as a way to share what they have learned.

Rainy Day Inspiration

Just as kindergarten entered the music room, the skies opened and it began to POUR! It was so beautiful to both see and hear, we stopped everything, turned off the lights and walked silently over to the windows to look out over our playground.

When we came back as a group to the circle, friends were asked, "What sounds did you hear?"

"I heard click, click, clicking."

"I heard the wind."

"I heard the rain."

"I heard the drops on the leaves."

"I heard shhhhhhhh!"

Friends were then asked what instruments they thought might be good to represent all of the wonderful sounds they heard outdoors. They chose:

Rain sticks

The gong

Rhythm Sticks

Shaker eggs

Drums

Keisha conducted them for the first rain storm. Then, kindergarten friends took a turn being the conductor. It was a beautiful Rain Symphony!

Kindergarten Celebrates Diwali

Last week the students learned about Diwali, the Indian holiday which is also known as the Festival of Lights.  Diwali celebrates our Inner Light which guides us to do good in the world.  Shiv's Mom, Subha, read us a story about Prince Rama who battles and defeats the evil demon king Ravana.  This story represents the triumph of good over evil.  During the reading of this story, the students were mesmerized by the tale and the fascinating illustrations.

We are happy to welcome family members in to the classroom to share family traditions.  This is one of the many ways that we explore diversity in kindergarten.  We learn that people can have many different beliefs and traditions.  We talk about how it is important to have respect for each other, and that it is ok if we believe different things.

The students also enjoyed coloring designs called Rangoli, which are made during Diwali to bring good luck for the coming year.

Author Janet Benton Joins Lower School Book Club for Adults

Janet Benton the author of Lilli de Jong joined the Lower School Book Club for Adults during its first meeting of the school year on Friday, October 13th. Her book resonated with all of the members of the group. It is a story of a young woman in the colonial time period in Philadelphia who finds herself in the perilous position of having a baby as a single mother. Lilli is part of a middle class Quaker family living in Germantown and is teaching, along with her mother, in the Quaker Meeting and school. Her father is a furniture maker and her brother is learning this craft along with another young man. Circumstances change and Lilli is faced with the challenge of surviving with her baby and without family support.

Janet meticulously researched the historical time period and this is brought to life in her book. She shared that the idea for this book was inspired when she gave birth and nursed her baby. It took a number of years for this book to be finished. The book has been published and reviewers and readers alike are moved by Janet's novel. It was so exciting for those participating in this discussion to have the opportunity to understand how Janet crafted this book and also to share their own connections to the issues in this story!

This dates and the list of books selected for the rest of the school year can be reached on the Lower School website parent page through this link.http://www.abingtonfriends.net/current-parents/division/lower-school/ . 

We hope to have you join us at our next meeting on Friday November 17 from 8-9 am in the Lower School library to discuss A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. 

Third Graders Explore Place Value

     Our math exploration this year has begun with reviewing place value concepts and practicing place values with numbers up to 10,000.  An understanding of place value serves as a foundation for much of the math work that we will be doing this year.  When we teach computation, we don't want students who merely memorize algorithms, but rather, students who are able to apply their understanding of place value to help them work with numbers, whether using mental math to compute or when solving multi-step problems.

    Students practiced representing numbers in different ways, beginning with more concrete representations such as place value charts and base ten blocks.  They also practiced representing numbers in standard (number) form, expanded form (ex. 258= 200+50+8) and word form, all of which they initially learned in second grade.  Using these skills, students have worked on comparing numbers and completing number patterns.  We will soon be moving into addition and subtraction of numbers up to 10,000.

https://ledascience.edublogs.org/files/2015/05/sun-earth-and-moon-sizes-tm05jb.png

    We connected our study of place value to our Social Studies theme of China.  We have been learning about the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival and have been reading stories and folktales about the moon, as well as non-fiction texts to learn about the moon.  As we have been learning about the moon, the students have been eager to find larger numbers related to moon facts.  As we have come across these numbers, they have taken turns reading the numbers out loud and writing them up on the board so that we can keep track of what we are learning and practice place value skills.

Highlighting Second Grade

Second grade has plunged into the world of computers. Students are starting their exploration with learning how to work the trackpad. Highlighting with the trackpad requires a certain amount of patience and practice. While some students master the skill with ease, others will need more support and multiple opportunities to practice this skill. The first two programs the students use are Word and GarageBand.

The students manipulate text in Word, changing the size, font, and color. Currently, the students are playing with the letters in their name. As the year progresses, we will find more opportunities to manipulate text in other programs such as PowerPoint. 

In addition to strengthening their skills with the trackpad, the students are introduced to the toolbar. Students start to become comfortable with where to find multiple tools.

Once the students gained some confidence in Word, they were challenged with GarageBand. Here the students worked to edit recordings of Elephant and Piggie books they made earlier in the year. The students delete parts of the recording they don't want, such as giggling, or false starts. This gives them further practice using the trackpad to highlight sections of their work.

Although sometimes frustrating, their confidence and skills are growing fast. It is a joy to watch the students learn and surprise themselves with their skill.

Memory Writing: Connecting with an Artist

Second, third and fourth grade students had the opportunity to forge a connection with an artist and her exhibit called:What is it About My Memory? Artist Sherri Cornett creates exhibitions at galleries around the world based on issues that resonate with her. When her mother started to lose her memory, Sherri realized how precious our memories are and she developed this project.

 (This link will enable one to read more about Sherri Cornett and her art. http://www.sherricornett.com/)
We received a package of large tags that the students used to write their own memories. These tags have now been sent back to Sherri and will be tied on to her sculpture to be part of this project.
The first step for our students after looking at the image of Sherri's sketch for her sculpture and learning about the reason she thought of this idea was to listen to the book- This is the Rope A Story of the Great Migration by Jacqueline Woodson.

In this book a family remembers and shares important memories attached to the use of a rope that is passed down through several generations. After listening and sharing memories from the book and from their own lives, students then wrote a draft of their own memory. We discussed the power that just a few sentences can have when descriptive words are used. After revising and editing their writing, they then chose a tag to write their final version. They included their first name and age on the tag. This experience was meaningful for the students, and it was clear watching them in the various stages of this process that they were aware of the power of memories and the power of sharing a piece of themselves with the greater world. We are looking forward to updating this blog when the installation is complete and we can share where this exhibition will be installed.

Third Graders Envision Grace Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Third Graders have been thoroughly enjoying our read aloud time, where we have been reading Grace Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, a children's fantasy adventure novel inspired by Chinese folklore. The read aloud time is a wonderful time for the class to bond in our investment in a shared story and to delve into conversations about the book. Often, students make predictions about what will happen next in the story based on what they know about the characters, ponder interesting questions, or make connections between their own lives and the story. In addition, third graders have been practicing their skills of summarizing and retelling through creating a summary of each chapter that we read together. Students then take turns creating beautiful illustrations of each chapter.

Artículo determinado en tercer (3º) grado (Definite articles in third (3rd) grade)

In the Spanish language, all nouns have gender; some are masculine and others feminine.  Every noun has a specific, definite article that indicates the gender of the word. The definite article means “the” in English while in Spanish there are four forms, depending on whether the noun is masculine, feminine, singular or plural. La (singular) and las (plural) are feminine articles and el (singular) and los (plural) are masculine articles. Often, masculine nouns end with –o and most of the time feminine words end with –a. But, because many nouns end in letters other than –o or –a, it’s always good to learn and memorize the definite article when learning a new noun. So, to put these grammar concepts to practice, the third graders have been learning the vocabulary for some classroom objects and its definite article. We first began with focusing on the singular forms el and la. Here, give it a try:

1.     The backpack -  ______ mochila

2.     The bookcase - ______ librero

3.     The calculator - ______ calculdora

4.     The calendar - ______ calendario

5.     The whiteboard - ______ pizzarón blanco

6.     The computer - ______ computadora

After introducing the vocabulary, the students were challenged to a fun game of los matamoscas (the fly swatter) game. In this game, the flashcards were placed on the floor and the object was for the students to match the oral command with it corresponding picture by gently swatting the card. Both the small and the large swatters were used.

Another game we played to help reinforce the new vocabulary and its definite article was Pulgar Arriba (Thumbs-Up). To start this game, students are selected and invited to the front of the classroom. The students seated at the tables are encouraged to place their heads down with eyes shut, extend their arm and put their pulgar arriba. The chosen students are given a flashcard and then circulate the area, secretly pressing one thumb each and then returning to the front of the room. On cue, the students raise their heads and each takes a turn at guessing who pressed their thumb. But, instead of using the student’s name, she or he states the item and its definite article on the flashcard that the individual is holding up. What fun! Next, following these auditory fun activities, we will complete worksheets that include reading and writing the newly learned words and their definite articles. Stay tuned!