Thursday, May 28, 2015

Mingi, Volume 38: June 1, 2015

Mingi (above) is known for his spontaneous laughing. Apparently, JunHyeok has gotten used to it.
...Another tremendous week! Basically, we have completed our "What Makes a Good Friend?" writing piece, completed our 3D cube creations accompanied with written instructions, and began work on the BAZAAR, BAZAAR! our summative assessment for our inquiry into how we organize ourselves- Money.

Check out this week's pictures! Enjoy your week!

Sprinkler Party this Thursday, 4 June 2:45-3:15 at school. Please have your child bring a towel and a change of clothes.

Owler: Mingi!

Homework:

 JunHyeok is back! Reagan, publishing her piece.


Some people's needs are other people's wants. How can that be?
 Awhoooooo! Let's get building!

 Ekaterina, uh, I don't know how to say this, but there's a parrot on your shoulder! Ahhh!
Apparently, something needs to be demolished with TNT! (I'm dy-no-mite!)
 Hassaan and Anthony, as well as Christopher and Braelyn, finished their pieces with a comic and puppet pal video they created, respectively. They were amazing and creative!
Reagan: "I should've used this book for my construction part of my Publisher page. So cool!"
 So, I asked students to put real-life examples of different vocabulary words from our inquiry of money, like producer, consumer, supply, demand, and so on. They were all working together and all of sudden... they turned around. I tried to capture the moment, but they caught me:)



What more can I say? Olga writing her 3D instructions for her creation. We have fun!
 Our exploration of our money books continues to inspire, make use more knowledgeable, and influence our very own 4th grade money designs!

Hard at work... and play.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Amazing Kickball

Grade 4-5 were combined to play Kickball Game during PE class, both classes have shown great sportsmanship towards others and teamwork skills. The game was played with great enthusiasm. Both classes really appreciated playing a game with a different class.



Music Artefact

Interpreting music from the Medieval Ages

Students learn about vocal notation from the 12th century. They were given a Grigorian chant to decode the melody and play it on the xylophone. Well done! Our goal is to look at different types of notation and music symbols from the esthetic point of view and later try to create a prototype of our own notating system.

A sample of the old notation

















Thursday, May 21, 2015

Khwahish, Volume 37: May 25, 2015

Khwahish writing her story.
What a week! It has been a celebration of many things. First off, 4R won a Popcorn Party because we met the challenge to read more, rather than have "screen-time"! Very exciting! Our party will be Friday, May 29. Thanks to Ms. Sayyora for challenging kids to dive into books, rather than a screen!

In celebration of writing and all our growth this year, we are writing a response essay to the prompt "What makes a good friend?" The Learner Attitudes and Learner Profile that we try to embody through our learning and character in our community are shining through. Students' ideas include being trustworthy, honest, loyal, caring, empathetic, cooperative, funny (obviously!), integrity, risk-taking, and someone who would stand up for you, and you would stand up for them. It is clear that students' are writing from their hearts!

Our money unit continues to dive deeper into what money is? The history of it? And the different forms of money? Students have performed a script that is set in Colonial America. We discussed challenges with using cows, goats, and different currencies to purchase something. One student noted, "You can't split a goat in half. What would you do with the other half? Keep it?"

We also played a game called Barter Island, where we found that "coincidence of wants" only goes so far to help us get what we need. Reagan did a great job relating this to something that happened at home. Sometimes trading, or bartering is inconvenient because it takes too longer to get what you actually need.

Ms. Shaknoza came in and spoke with us about the Silk Road and the current day Uzbek Soum. Along with some book exploration and looking at different real currencies from around the world, students came up with six characteristics of money: Portable, Stable in Value, Acceptable, Relatively Scarce, Divisible, and Durable. Pretty impressive!

We are working on finishing our choice literacy activities. Some are reading The Whipping Boy as a book club, others are creating original stories in a comic/graphic novel-like format, and others are reading and/or writing independently. The Westing Game book club with me is continuing on. Have you had a chance to read it, or look at it?

In math, we have looked at geometric shapes from both 2D and 3D perspectives. We've examined silhouettes and listed a number of key vocabulary words, phrases, and different ways to write instructions to create a building. With that practice done, students are now creating an original 3D cube design of their own, along with instructions to create it. We are like "Lego-engineers" and designers here! So much fun!

The Elementary Camp out was a huge success again! Thanks to all those that participated! The s'mores were delicious, the fire was bright, the games were fun, and the laughing was hysterical. Have a fabulous week!

Owler: Khwahish

Homework:
Monday: Regular Plural Nouns activity
Tuesday:
Wednesday: Typing Ace
Thursday:
Friday: Read, rest, rejuvenate.