Spring Break Challenge: Structure Search

During the next two weeks, keep your eyes open for examples of STRUCTURE.

As open-minded inquirers, look forward examples of various forms of STRUCTURE:

  • physical
  • social
  • emotional
  • organizational
  • procedural
  • artistic / aesthetic
  • text

When you see something interesting, take a picture and send it in. If you find links to interesting websites, you can also submit those.

One example of structure I came across this past week is an illustrated example of the periodic table. This table has a very specific STRUCTURE to help organize the elements and understand their individual properties and their relationship to one another.

Periodic Table of Elements

In preparation for our new country of focus, India, I also found this example of STRUCTURE. This is a screen shot of a portion of New Dehli, as found through Google Earth.

Multiple Source

City Structure Models

Of course, one of the most famous STRUCTURES in India is the Taj Mahal.

Multiple Sources

As an inquirer, I became curious about the social STRUCTURE of India. What can you find out from these resources?

 

As you search for STRUCTURE, think about these questions:

  • Form: What kinds of structures exist in the world around us?
  • Function: How do structures affect individuals and societies over time?
  • Change: How do structural changes have both positive and negative effects at the same time?
  • Connection How can structures free us and hold us back?
  • Responsibility: How do I operate within structures to sustain or shift them?

Solutions Surface from Struggle (Problem Solvers & Survivors)

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.

Multiple Source:

Ms. Kraft also shared with us another video about a creative way Cambodians are clearing the landmines… with giant Gambian rats.

Multiple Source

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!

          

 

Celebrating CENT = The 100th Day

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 connectionschanges, 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).

Multiple Sources

 

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.

Multiple Source: Math is Fun – Measurement Index

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!

 

 

Quality Questioning… Quenching Curiosity

After being hooked yesterday by Gloria Whelan, the author of Goodbye, Vietnam, we were anxious to continue our reading of the story featuring Mai, a 13-year-old girl from a village in Vietnam. The first chapter introduced us to the characters and allowed us to envision life in her village. The details provided by the author caused us, as readers, to QUESTION… an important (and scholarly) reading strategy. Our inquiring minds caused us to wonder about Vietnam and Vietnamese culture.

In an effort to satisfy our curiosity, we paired up and logged into our Google Classroom, where we found an assignment entitled “Visualizing Vietnam.” The primary resource we used today was an article from Encyclopedia Britannica. As we read, we tried using Cornell Notes to save and organize our ideas. Since this was our first official attempt at Cornell Notes this year, we realized there is a lot of room to grow.

To learn about Cornell Notes as a note taking structure, listen to Mr. G explain. While it sounds like he is talking to an older audience, I think his visuals will be beneficial.


If you’d like to take your Cornell Notes to the next level by combining them with Sketchnotes (which we talked about on Tuesday), check out Doug Neill’s video. I think you’ll LOVE this as an option for learning.

In the personal example he shares, I was especially amazed at the neatness of his work and how purposeful and patient he was in putting together all 11 pages. I can infer that the book he read and the topic he was researching was important to him.

As I was researching sketchnoting AND our region of study last night, I came across an amazing site that combined the two. Eva-Lotta Lamm has posted some of her sketchnote journal entries from her travels. Two are posted below (one about Cambodia and one about Vietnam). In addition to the unique facts and bits of information sketched,

  • what are some common, organizational elements that she includes in her sketchnotes?
  • Also, what elements do you notice that connect to the videos we watched about the building blocks of sketchnotes?
  • What do these examples make you wonder about?

This afternoon, we revisited partitioning, looking at some larger numbers, one of which had some unusual characteristics. One of the most powerful QUESTIONS during our math time today was about zeroes.

  • What do you do with the zeroes in the MIDDLE of  number?
  • How do you represent those using an array (PARTitioned rectangle)?

Lots of GREAT thinking came out of that QUESTION.

Visualizing… Vietnam

Today we started looking at another country in our region of study… Vietnam! Right next to Cambodia, Vietnam also provides us with an opportunity to inquire into our central idea of struggle and survival.

We started our new book, Goodbye, Vietnam by Gloria Whelan, which prompted us to make prediction and connections to Chu Ju’s House, by the same author.

To get a glimpse of what life might have been like in Mai’s village, take a tour of these villages. How might where Mai lives be connected to our central idea?

For math today, we played with a practical problem set right here in Kinshasa – a traffic jam! By visualizing the road and the long rows or cars, we made connections to arrays and PARTitioned rectangles. We connected the visual representation to a numerical representation of partial products. In addition, we wrote equations to represent our process. We will continue looking at this tomorrow and extending our thinking over the next few days.

At the end of the day, we were introduced to sketchnoting… a new strategy for all of us. While we only began to get a glimpse of the building blocks, we already see the potential for academic doodling.

Rewatch the videos from class and continue learning how to sketchnote at BrainDoodles.

Half a Spoon of Rice… and a WHOLE bunch of Determination

Our spelling list this morning sparked some critical conversation. We discussed the synonyms and antonyms listed and really zoomed in on the math vocabulary. Two words that seemed new to us were “urban” and “rural.”

Made with Padlet

To learn more about urban, suburban, and rural, watch the following video.

We then reread Half Spoon of Rice by Icy Smith, our third book about Cambodia. Today’s read generated quite a bit of discussion, which could lead to further inquiries.

In library, Ms. Kraft provided another perspective on our central idea of struggle and survival by sharing a video about the Panyee Football Club on the island of Koh Panyee, Thailand. We were all engaged in these boys’ struggle. (Note: Thailand is another country in our current region of study.)

After music, P.E. and French, we returned to the room to extend our thinking from Friday’s math challenge. For those of you who want to keep thinking, here are the details:

Use what you learned on Friday and the following facts to solve the problems below:

  • A stack of bills 1 inch high has about 250 bills.
  • A ream of paper is 2 inches high.
  • The box holds 10 reams of paper.

Is it possible to fit the reward of one million dollars in $1 bills in your box? Show or explain how you know your answer makes sense.

Ahhh… struggle. SO satisfying!!

Main Message, Multiplication, Metric Measurement, and… Mistakes

This morning, we used ideas saved from yesterday’s reading of A Song for Cambodia to complete our summary graphic organizer. Since the story was more complex than The Caged Birds of Phnom Penh, we had to think more critically about the main character’s motivation, conflict, plot, and theme.

We then watched a video featuring the REAL Arn Chorn Pond. In his own words, he shared about his struggle to survive in Cambodia and the different, but equally challenging, struggles he had in his new home in New Hampshire. It was amazing to hear his story and to think about our own stories and the stories of those around us.

In math today, we merged our work with multiplication with the measurement of liquids with the metric system. We created a double number line to help us visualize and compare liters (L) to milliliters (mL). We also used an input-output table to convert the units. Students worked diligently to demonstrate understanding of these concepts, making sure they showed their thinking for each question.

Tomorrow, we will revisit some of our “Favorite No’s,” which were mostly found in multi-step word problems. Since those are most connected to how we use math in real life situations, it will be important for us to identify important information, prepare a plan, and solve with efficient and effective strategies. What we found out today was that we can apply a lot of what we have been learning the last two weeks. Thankfully, we have created multiples sources to which we can refer.

Check out this video from YouCubed (one of my favorite math and mindset resources).

Mistakes

How does this video connect to our central idea related to struggle and survival?

Here’s another one that celebrates the brain-growing power of mistakes.

  • What mistakes can you celebrate today?
  • How did your mistakes provide an opportunity for you to struggle?
  • How did your mistakes help your brain grow?

Challenge: Think of a metaphor or simile to illustrate the power of mistakes?

 

Tackling Tough Topics with Technology

Tuesday was terrific as we tackled a few tough topics using technology today.

Which type of figurative language did was used in that first sentence?

Using the documents and resources on Google Classroom, we tried to expand our repertoire of figurative language. Personification and idioms proved to be the most challenging. An idiom is a phrase or expression that has a meaning different from what the words actually say.  Below is a list of additional resources that illustrate the literal meaning of idioms.

Challenge: Choose an idiom from one of the sites and illustrate the literal meaning. Be sure to include the written version of the idiom and it’s figurative meaning. When you are done, scan and send your image to Mrs. Rupp or bring in the hard copy when you return to school.

PERSONification is a form of figurative language very common in literature, animated movies, and advertising as writers bring inanimate (nonliving) objects to life. This form of figurative language is not too tricky to recognize, but it is somewhat challenging to craft effectively.

In the following video clip, the dishes are personified. If you were going to write a description of this scene, what would you say?

Mathematically, metric measurement merged with our work with decimals and fractions. We looked at how to represent measurements of centimeters and meters as decimals and fractions, and discussed how to convert these numbers in multiple ways. We also compared decimals and ensured that we could provide evidence in multiple ways.

Finally, we used two of our cardinal directions (north and south) in an activity related to our central idea of struggle and survival. First, we recorded our Stance (S) about struggle and survival. Sentence stems starting out as “I think that struggle /survival is…” or “I believe that struggle / survival is…” We then thought about what we Need (N) to know about struggle and survival. What questions or wondering we might have. We will look at the other directions (E / W) on Friday.

 

The Making of… a Movement Movie

Today we embarked on a project that will allow us to mull over and muse about the form and causation of movement as a change agent. After reading and ruminating on a reading about earthquakes, volcanoes, and/or tsunamis, each a type of fast change experienced in Japan, students synthesized the information to share with their target audience – a team of geologists, sociologists, and artists. While that might sound like a odd combination of people, each one is uniquely affected by these types of change. It was the task of each scholarly news reporter or documentarian to determine the positive and negative implications of each form of movement and COMMUNICATE (our trait for the month) those effects clearly.

     

GRASPS Task & Single-Point Rubric

Finished products will be posted to the blog.

Trait of the Month: Communicator

I see… I think… I wonder…

… about movement. Today, students examined sets of images depicting various aspects of life in Japan. Images were grouped to promote thoughts and wonderings about Japan and movement as a change agent. As we continue our inquiry into how the world works, we will revisit these images, making connections and exploring ideas more deeply.

         

Resources:

Skip to toolbar