Today we had an opportunity to share some love (and brownies) with… Leo.
To celebrate his special day, Leo shared some super soft, scrumptious homemade brownies that put a smile on everyone’s face.
You know the snacks are good when a scholarly secret agent says, “Leo, what’s the recipe?!”
To add to the celebration, Hannah shared a pot of popcorn she had brought in, which was an extra special surprise.
This topped off our buckets, which started to be filled at the outset of the day with hearts and cards from Cadence and Isabel. In this month of caring, we are grateful for these selfless acts of kindness.
As our spelling words for this week were revealed, we realized that many reached across subject areas and caused our brain to cross and connect between the visual and verbal. Work we’ve been doing about research, using multiples resources, analyzing, and synthesizing all came together in this week’s list. The challenge will be, how will we put not only the words but also the skills and strategies they represent into practice? That’s what scholars do!
We are so grateful for Ms. Kraft and the time and effort she spends each week searching for resources that connect to our unit. She really encourages us to consider different points of view and to explore different facets of our countries of focus. Today, she shared two videos with us that allowed us to see some unique aspects of Cambodia. First, she introduced us to Mosha, an elephant injured by one of the millions of landmines that still remain in Cambodia. We had read about the danger of landmines in our read aloud Half Spoon of Rice, but were intrigued to see how they not only affect people but also animals.
How do these videos expand our ideas about struggle and survival?
Particularly, considering perspective, how has the struggle for survival in Cambodia lead to opportunity?
As promised, we put our measurement multiple source to work today as we converted various units of measurement in input-output tables. To show our evidence, we made sure to record the process (ex. 3 kg x 1,000 = 3,000 g). We also identified a rule for each table (ex. Rule k x 1,000 = g). After completing some conversions, we applied our knowledge to some multi-step word problems. Remembering to activate our visual and verbal parts of our brains, we used number lines and bar models to visualize the problems and equations to capture our mathematical process.
A magnificent moment marked the end of our day as we celebrated Mathew! Mathew’s mom and dad arrived at the end of the day with a delightfully delicious cake with a lovely lime flavor and sweet and sour candy. Mmm… marvelously mouthwatering! Happy birthday, Mathew! We hope YOUR day is as special as YOU!
Quote of the Day: “Mrs. Rupp, look at how many multiple sources we are using!”
Today, we continued our read aloud of Goodbye Vietnam, learning more about Mai, her family, and her village. We made it to “Part 2: The Journey,” which described the secret departure from her home… a home that had been in her family for generations. In this section of the book, the author revealed a number of struggles caused by the move and allowed us to consider connections, changes, and perspectives related to those struggles. Grandmother’s stubbornness was a focus of some discussion. As the family entered the town of Go Cong, they (and we) encountered a suspenseful moment. For the first time, Grandmother’s stubbornness was helpful.
Reflect: How does one’s character or character traits relate to struggle and survival? (Scholars… consider different points of view!)
The following video is from a market in Go Cong taken during Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year).
(Note: the description of the video provides a bit more information about Tet).
After reading, we put our hands to writing. Since it was the 100th day of school, we enthusiastically embraced today’s writing challenge… writing a collaborative 100-sentence story. Students, working in groups of 4 or 5, took turns (sentence by sentence) drafting a 100-sentence story. Writers had the option to draft on paper or on a Google doc. And, groups could decide to focus on one story or craft 4 or 5 collaborative stories simultaneously. The energy and engagement for this activity was high. In addition, students naturally initiated thoughtful writing conversations about the effectiveness of hooks, word choice, figurative language, character development, plot development, and conventions (spelling and punctuation).
This afternoon, we spent some time reading independently in order to build up our reading stamina and apply some of the strategies we have been learning about. Scholarly readers:
preview and predict
monitor comprehension and clarify understanding (pause and ponder, tackle tricky words, reread)
generate questions (about the text and about the author’s purpose and intent)
make inferences (prior knowledge + text evidence = inference)
envision / visualize (brain crossing)
make connections (to self, to other texts, to the world)
consider text structure (use graphic organizers)
synthesize / summarize (SWBST)
think about thinking (metacognition)
evaluate (determine importance)
Phew… reading is a complex activity that requires a W I D E variety of skills and strategies.
Which skill or strategy allows your to soar as a reader?
Which skill or strategy do you struggle with… and how can that struggle make you a stronger reader?
We finished our week by completing a multiple source for measurement. This tool will be very useful in the week ahead as we apply our knowledge to a variety of problems.
Our 100th day of school ended with a flourish this Friday as we celebrated Jessica’s birthday. Jessica herself baked a beautiful batch of chocolate cupcakes to share with icing and sprinkles to add some sparkle. We are grateful that her mom was able to join us in celebrating the joy that is Jessica!
On Tuesday, we tackled a tougher text titled A Song for Cambodia by Michelle Lord. This story takes us on a treacherous journey with Arn, a boy from a village in northern Cambodia. With well-chosen words, the author allows us to step into Arn’s shoes (an idiomatic phrase meaning to see life from someone else’s perspective). This story prompted a number of important inquiry questions related to survival and struggle and Cambodia’s history, which we will investigate further in the days ahead.
(Note: I am working on recording a read aloud of this text, which will be posted in your Google Classroom (Stay tuned)).
After French, we continued our work with multiplication extending our extended fact exploration. We also reasoned through the reason for reasonable estimates… an important process for our everyday lives. Students spent significant time working in their Everyday Math workbooks.
After art, we revisited our inquiry topic of survival and struggle by writing about one time we struggled. For some… thinking of or narrowing down a topic was a struggle. A similar assignment is posted in your Google Classroom with the Compass Points: Struggle to Survive activity. There is a description of the task and space to write on the second page of the document.
We ended our day with our first birthday celebration of the new year. Mohammad’s mom brought in a beautifully decorated cake to help us celebrated her son. Special!! Happy Birthday, Mohammad!
Today we had the opportunity to celebrate… Kahara!
We are grateful for her thoughtfulness and generosity. The homemade cupcakes were scrumptious, and the goody bags were a huge hit! More importantly, we are grateful for the way Kahara brightens each day. Thank you for sharing YOURSELF so generously!
Today was the day for… a tri-lingual celebration! Noah’s mom brought in something scrumptious to sample, but only after a scholarly serenade. A special celebration for a special young man!
Even Mr. Fitz, with fork in hand, got in on the food and fun!
If you haven’t done so already, be sure to share your recipes using the form below. We will assemble all contributions into a book of birthday bounty. Mmmm…
August ended with a bang as we celebrated not one, but TWO birthdays today.
Daniel and Jao both brought in a bunch of birthday bounty, allowing us to celebrate each one with some delicious treats.
Cake and candy were enjoyed by all, and kindness and consideration filled up everyone’s buckets as we burst our way in to the weekend filled with sugar and smiles.
Daniel’s Birthday
Jao’s Birthday
Do you have a favorite birthday cake recipe you are willing to share? If your tasty treats are not top secret, please share your recipes using the form below. We will assemble all contributions into a book of birthday bounty. Mmmm…
