4R Experiences: Volume 30: 24 April 2017

Our understanding of poetry deepens as we continue to explore different elements poets use to bring ideas and things alive. We looked at two types of poems: Found poems and Change poems. Found poems are made from one, or two, sentences. You take the sentences and keep the words in the same order, but use the poetic concept of "lines" and "stanzas" to help you create new meaning - perhaps to just put emphasis on certain words to make a new point. Change poems take the concept of change, or the evolving state of one thing to something different. For example, we looked at how the classroom changes from 7:45 a.m. to 3:20 p.m.

There was one interesting element of poetry, or lesson, that Ms. Magda did. We looked at how a Polish poet talked about kids. We realized that adults always seem to have a lot to say, but what about kids? Kids have a lot to say, too. So, we asked "What do the children say?" Here is what our children said:

We are the reflection of our parents. The little kids. For example if your parents don’t litter, you won’t either.

It’s like you’re the mini version of your parents.

I want to say to Korean parents, “We are not a studying robot.”

I think that the parents should tell us everything because it’s sort of bad when they hide secrets because we want to know everything. Because that’s hiding information.

Children are also might think more of stereotyping and the unfairness in the world than grown-ups do.

When we’re gonna bike to school my dad says wear a helmet better to be safe than sorry but then he never wears a helmet.

I don’t think a child is the same as adults. They have different opinions, I think a child thinks more than adults. About the problems. Adults worry too much.

I think children dream more because adults are so focused on work and children drae4m of everything.

I don’t really think adults should scream at their kids, I just makes them scream at their kid when they get their own kids.

Kids are more capable then you think.

Adults are lazier than children.

Children are the future of the earth. They think more about pollution than adults do. Adults don’t do anything about it. Children are going to grow up to save the planet.

I think that there are some things that parents can’t tell kids.

We like to move our bodies a lot.

Don’t treat your child badly because they are going to do the same to others. Sometimes people get treated badly in school and they are going to make bad decisions because no one cares about them.

To all parents who don’t have time to sit down and talk to their kids we have dreams, we are alive, sit down and talk to us.

Some parents are so busy that they forget what really matters.

Parents usually do everything for our learning and for our life and they always work the whole day and they do their best just for me.

We try, we learn, and we do things that parents/adults might not have had the opportunity to do it when they were our age.

Children are the growth of the family. It’s with every species living on earth.

Parents help us so we should help them back.

for Chinese/Korean parents from what I’ve heard: if you make us do homework, we will make our children do homework and their children will make their children do homework. If this carries on, no one will know how to have fun and play.

Your parents might give you stuff but you give them more.

It reminds me of a parent thing: my dad was really angry at me because I fought with my brother. He was like “You ruined the whole day for me.” But I thought, “You have a lot of days left.”

Our Geometry Safari brought shapes, angles, lines, and solid figures to the forefront of our minds, as we sought them out in the world around us. Students took pictures on their iPads of real objects and then created Explain Everything videos that use the image and text to describe the features of different shapes, like rectangles and so on. They needed to include the number of faces, vertices, and edges for three-dimensional shapes.

"Why do we need fractions?" asked a student. Pointed and relevant to our transition into studying what fractions are, how they are used by mathematicians, how they are used in every day events, and beyond. We decided to put the concept of fractions in real-life and began with a questionnaire, whereby, students walked around the room recording answers to questions like "How many girls are left-handed?" As we discussed the answers, students began building their understanding of what a fraction is - a number less than 1 and it is "broken" into equal pieces. Deciding how many equal pieces can be the tricky part. More to develop as this fractional story unfolds...

May Book Share guidelines are up. Please read them carefully and enjoy!

Homework

Monday: Fraction Safari: Illustrate it in your home!