Volume 21: January 25, 2016

Harlin ready for Esperanza Rising.

What a busy week we have had! The graphing mania has been just that... mania. We learned how to ask different questions that will yield different data. We had a whole class debate over the question, "Is red your favorite color?" We learned that asking questions that have an "Yes" or "No" answer will give us a limited amount of data, so we need to be careful in how we craft our questions. We looked at different ways of visually representing data once we collected it, including pictographs, line graphs, bar graphs, pie charts, line plots, stem and leaf plots, frequency tables, and more. We shared our work with each other and drew some conclusions. For example, we found certain data should be represented visually in particular ways - like a line graph is good to show data over time. Finally, in analyzing the data, we found patterns like outliers, clusters, and looked at different ways to measure data like mean, median, mode, and range.

Students are ecstatic over the new books they chose for book clubs. We are working on predictions and how great readers use predictions to actively think about the story, or set a purpose for reader. Answers to our predictions also help us discover new clues towards making new predictions, as we learn more about the characters and plot.

I am always astounded by the PuppetPal scripts that our students write, in which they retell a migration story. Not only does this unit draw deeper connections to our students, but it relates to real-life crisis' that are occurring right now. Students are creating an intricate web of understanding between their own lives, our read aloud Esperanza Rising, the Syrian Refugee Crisis, stories they have heard, stories they have chosen, guest speakers (Ms. Magda and Ms. Gulbohar), and each other. Their unit projects reflect such connections and what actions they choose to do on their own to create a better world. Very cool!

The January/February Book Share Guidelines are up. This week your child received paper and a clip to create his/her book. If you have any questions, please email me.

I have a lot of pictures from the past weeks, so please enjoy with popcorn:) Enjoy the week!

Homework: Read 20-30 minutes each night and complete the following...
Monday: Change the Meaning Prefixes and Suffixes
Tuesday:
Wednesday (1/2 Day): IXL Grade 4 W.3 & W.4 Mean, Median, Mode, Range (Choose Grade 3 if you did not complete these at 80% or better)
Thursday:
Friday: Read, Relax, Hopefully enjoy snow!

Ms. Magda tells her migration story.

Grade 8 shares their work on alternative forms of renewable energy.

...Just want community meeting looks like.

Creating migration stories is a process...

Book Clubs.

Community Meeting.

Unit of Inquiry map work. We have to know where our migrants are actually moving.

Migration story PuppetPal creations.

Collecting data over time.

Talking about the many different visual representations of data.

Sometimes you have to find a quiet place to record, a really quiet place.

Migration stories take time to make, but the end is something incredible and moving.