Artful Thinking

This past Friday, we decided to expand our minds in one of my favorite ways : Artful Thinking.

The Artful Thinking program was developed in collaboration with the Traverse City, Michigan Area Public Schools. The purpose of this program is to focus on students appreciating art rather than just creating it. I like to use artful thinking to help students create connections between art pieces and the topics we study in class.

We have just begun a new novel study of Scott O'Dell's Sing Down the Moon, so I made this choice for Friday's art piece: 

The students were given some time to view the painting -- just to 'take it all in.' We paired our viewing with a See, Think, Wonder. The students were given 3 color coded post-its, one for their Sees, one for their Thinks and one for their very important Wonders.

 

We used our classroom Target Tabs to track our seeing, thinking and wondering and then they chose one to share with the class on our See Think Wonder chart.

I'm always amazed and the observations they come up with and the powerful impact art can have on young people. It's also a phenomenal platform for visualizing our novel's plot line.

Here are some of their thoughts:

Weekend Wisdom

Common Core Roadmaps!

As November opens it's eyes and we join it in truly welcoming Fall into our grasp, one other thing waits upon the horizon: Conferences.

Some of my teacher friends are already well underway with their conferences -- but here in the Western pocket we have a few more days.

After preparing conference folders last week, I came across some helpful tools that I will be using this year to help parents understand what we do here at school.

Here are some of the things in my toolbox this year.
They are mighty helpful ::: use them if you like!

First up: a video that concisely explains the Common Core and its expectations for students and teachers. This video is free to use as you'd like (meaning it can even be put on your school website)!







Next up:
Some really nice handouts and roadmaps to lead your parents through what the CCSS means and how they can be supportive of these expectations on their end!

These Parents' Guide to Student Success Printable Flyers provide an organized overview of what your child will learn by the end of their academic year in both math and English language arts/literacy.

Click here to access these flyers in color (they are also available in B&W)

Lastly,
Some printable  Parent Roadmaps from The Council of Great City Schools.

These resources guide parents about what their children will be learning and how they can support that learning in grades K-8. These Parent Roadmaps also provide three-year snapshots showing how selected standards progress from year to year so that students will be college and career ready.

If you're interested in checking these out: Click  here!


I hope this are as useful to you as they are to me!




Miss Brown

So long September

It's always hard to say goodbye to September -- the beginnings are over, my birthday is over and the very last reminders of summer are torn from my grasp.

However, the mourning doesn't last long when I think of all of my favorite FALL things.

• Boots
• Pumpkin things!
• Beautiful Colors
• Sweaters
• Scarves

Ah the wondrous excitement that fall brings to my wardrobe and palate.
As we settle into our routines (finally) and begin to dive deeper into the abyss of learning, I become even more excited about all of the things coming our way this year.

One of my most favorite things is turning my fifth grade friends into detectives and teaching them the skill of the inference.
This year we introduced: PIGEON IMPOSSIBLE -- and it is SO worth the time and rambunctious laughter that will surely disrupt neighboring classes.

Check it out ---

I wish you great days!

Miss Brown

Welcome Back!

How quickly the summer flew by!
Here we are again at the beginning of a new year and I am so excited for everything in store!

With a brand new building, the staff at CMS is ready to jump into the 2013-14 school year!


I can't wait to meet all of you at Parent Night on Thursday. Please join us from 5-7 at the Middle School to meet the teachers and tour the school!



-Miss Brown

Summer Salutations!

As our year comes to a close and we say our farewells, wishing happy and enjoyable summers to all -- some things are still on our minds for what we'll be doing all summer!

As Middle Schoolers -- we expect a lot from our 5th graders. This extends into the summer -- as we hate the dreaded "learning loss" that can occur from too much of doing nothing!
Letters have been sent home to our families, outlining the requirements for each student this summer.

Here's the gist:

• Students should be working on IXL. They should log-in and work on it throughout the summer. We are expecting that they gain a medal in every skill in their current grade level (5th). This is showing 70% proficiency in each area that they should've learned this year. 
• Students should also be reading. Push them to read every day -- 10, 15, 20 minutes -- any reading is good reading, if they're doing it all the time! At a minimum, we are requiring 1 AR leveled book that each child self selects be completed this summer. They are encouraged to take their time and take notes on this book -- in the fall they will be given an AR test on that book and that score will be entered into the grade book.
• Student should definitely be writing! Push them to write as much as possible! We request that students write 1-3 "journal" entries each week of the summer. These entries can be prompted (from websites in this post) or free-writes. They can talk about their days, their vacations, tell stories, etc. 

The importance of these tasks cannot be stressed enough. If your son/daughter keeps their math skills sharp, reads regularly and keeps writing -- they will enter next year so much more prepared! The transition will be smoother for them and their teachers next year and their successes will be greater!

REWARD! 

•  Our gracious and lovely PTO, as well as the 5th grade team have decided to purchase iPod shuffles for the students who complete their summer tasks. Every student, who has been promoted (not placed or retained) who completes their Math and ELA assignments will be entered into a grade level drawing to win an iPod shuffle! 
• We'd like to reward the kids for keeping their brains sharp and working hard over the summer with incentive and drive to keep plugging along.

 I know it's a lot to take in -- but if we band together, everyone will win!

-Miss Brown

Here are some websites that may help out this summer!

• IXL
• A link directly to the student's math website!
• AR Book Finder
• This site will tell students the level of the book as well as if it has an AR test or not.
• Students should be reading at or above their reading level. We encourage them to choose books that interest them, but to stay AT or go BEYOND their reading level!
• Book Lists
• This list offers books at various reading levels. This will help students to choose AR books at their levels!
• Scholastic Book Finder
• This allows you to search for books within a reading level!
•  Journal Prompts
• Possible Prompts for students to respond to! 
• More Prompts
• Reading Log
• A sample reading log for the kids to keep track of their reading.
• Scholastic's Summer Reading Challenge
• Scholastic allows students to log-in and track their minutes over the summer.
• Time For Kids
• A great resource for informational text options for the kids to work on! This will boost their test taking abilities, their science and social studies understanding and keep them sharp and ready for the high demands of the Common Core!
• Scholastic News
•  A great resource for informational text options for the kids to work on! This will boost their test taking abilities, their science and social studies understanding and keep them sharp and ready for the high demands of the Common Core!
• 
  

Keep checking back and there may be some additional helpful links -- if I come across any.

Springing into Break!

We've finally made it! Spring has sprung (sort of) and the weather is starting to reflect how we've all been feelings in Room 702.
As we prepared ourselves for a week's vacation -- we enjoyed ourselves a little week of spirited activities.
Our countdown had begun -- we wrapped up units, pushed through our Math topics and even had a celebratory Spring assembly to kick off vacation.

 We began our week with a Social Studies -- Gallery Walk!  I divvied up the kids and gave each group a different poster, as well as a different colored marker. They were each given 2 minutes to write anything they could remember on the topic we'd been discussing for the past month. All of our colonial knowledge, slavery, economics, and government came together through this summarizing activity. The groups then rotated through, so every group had a chance to work at every station. The results were really cool -- this is a great way for them to demonstrate what they know and review with the ENTIRE class! :)

The end of the week proved to be a bit crazy, but not any less exciting. Our amazing 6th grade Math teacher took on the task of doing the St. Jude's Math-a-thon. 23 of her students rose to the challenge of raising money for this amazing cause. The challenge: Raise $1,000 and their science teacher would shave his head. As the money poured in and these kids worked hard to complete their math activity books -- it became clear they were going to meet and surpass that goal. When they passed $1,000 -- they wanted another victim - they asked one of the Title Aides if he'd join in as well (at $1,500 would he shave his head?). He agreed and the donations continued. As a final tally -- the kids raised $1,800 for St. Jude and at our Spring Assembly -- two male staff members (the only two who weren't already bald) had their heads shaved in front of everyone.

The science teacher prepped himself for this endeavor by dying his hair school colors on Thursday morning. 

With all of that excitement the kids were sent on their way -- with hopes of happy and relaxing weeks off. As we teachers take a few minutes to relax ourselves!
Although I have lots of ideas circulating and some things to look forward to when we return!

Book clubs:

and beginning our fun and exciting unit of poetry!

Have great Spring Breaks and hopefully you all return refreshed and ready for the end of the year!

Appropriate Appreciation

This past weekend I took quite a risk and agreed to go fishing. Relying heavily on friends to supply me with necessary things (waders, fishing poles, bait, a boat...ya know common items), I rode 2.5 hours up to Baldwin late Friday night to a friend's cabin. Slept a few hours into the morning and then began to pile on layer...upon layer... upon layer of clothing. Pants, long-johns, waders, underarmour, patagonia layers, sweatshirts.... hats, gloves. The list could extend the length of this post.
I was sure to document -- since I knew nobody would believe me that I actually wore waders...and actually went fishing.

We arrived on the PM (Pere Marquette -- for those of you who don't fish .... me) and began the adventure.

I managed to land myself a wee little rainbow trout -- which I proudly boasted to anyone who would listen. 

After 8 long hours of floating the river -- I'd lost feeling in my finger and we'd all gone a little bit Castaway -- If there'd been a volleyball around -- we may have befriended it.

Overall, it's a new experience that offers up many new stories to share and laugh over -- which is worthwhile for me!








To wrap up this post -- and stick to the title theme -- I wanted to showcase and highlight that today was Joe/Willie Appreciation Day! We showed our gratitude for CMS's favorite custodians by making banners, cards and treats for our favorite guys!
Rm. 702 made a whole stack of cards that were scattered throughout Joe's day and I made a class card to post on his door.  Just a little thanks for keeping our school looking snazzy!

-T

Words of Wisdom

I'm intrigued and interested to have come across this today. I love public education.

A little Tuesday pick-me-up.

Q: "What is a nebula?"
A: "Nebula is a women's name."













Taught the kids about writing vignettes and was eagerly approached by one of my girls:
"Miss Brown, I finished my vinaigrette... will you look it over?"



These are a few of the many reasons I love and will always love my job.

Skiing across the country.

Since West Michigan (and now the rest of the state) has been blanketed in a bouncy layer of snow, 5th grade decided to take advantage and introduce the kids to Cross Country Skiing at the local nature center. On Wednesday, 3 of the 5th grade classes piled onto big yellow buses and made our way to Sarett. Bundled in snow clothes and wearing big warm boots -- the kids filed in for their crash course on the history of skiing. After learning the basics about the "babbish" on a snowshoe and how we don't want to be "high sticker-nose pickers..." but rather "low sticker - thigh flickers" with our ski poles -- we got our boots and separated into groups of 10. 

 We met our naturalist in the parking lot, skis in hand as we all fumbled putting on the (very) slippery skis. Once our boots were locked in, she taught us how to get up if we fell. The entire time I was thinking, "It's fine...I just need to avoid falling so I don't have to do that much scooting and rolling in the snow." (I wasn't that lucky).  The groups wobbled on their skis toward the "practice circles" so we could test out our skills gliding, walking, and pushing ourselves through the snow.

 Each group, like ducklings to their mother, disappeared into the woods. My skis were awesome! A nice pair of Crown skis and pretty blue poles. I know nothing about skiing and had never been on a pair of skis -- but I enjoyed my pair and really liked gliding around.






 We ended up with a perfect day, quite warm and sunny with beautiful, snow-covered trails to glide through. Eventually we made our way to one of the "baby hills" as our instructor assured us. By this time I'd fallen twice -- once landing my head right into the side of a tree. I was a little apprehensive of this hill -- so I played "photographer" at the bottom.                 

 We had some wipeouts on this hill -- as I watched it be quite difficult for some kids to stay in the track. Those that did fall, 
became experts at popping back up after wiping out! I had a dad from my class attend the field trip! Mr. Tavolacci was our seasoned expert on the skis -- and he raced his son down the hill a few times, which was fun to watch!

 After a tiring day of skiing -- the kids were quiet on the bus ride back to school. Most were chilled and had bright rosy cheeks, but had nothing but great things to say. One of mine came up to me while turning in his skis and said, "Miss Brown -- I can snowboard and not fall...but I fell 8 times on these things!" I asked, "Did you have fun?" "Well, yeah..." "Then it was worth the falling.." I replied. :)
I felt the same -- the kids were overly interested in how many times I fell on my skis -- I kept my number at 3 .. but one of them was because I crashed into one of my students.

It was a phenomenal day and a great field trip. I love getting out of my comfort zone -- and watching kids get to try something they might not have tried on their own -- or have never done before. I thank Sarett and the parent volunteer for giving us a great day in the snow!


To end this post -- I'd like to share a picture from yesterday. Yesterday was "Team Day" at school. Students were told to wear a shirt/jersey representing their favorite team. Our principal pushed for increased MSU gear...heavily biased in his favoritism :). I wore an old school hockey jersey -- representing the San Jose Sharks. Now, I'm a Wings fan all the way -- but I couldn't pass up wearing one of the old jersey to school -- plus it's TEAL! The kids had no idea it was one of the old jerseys..but they liked it anyways. A handful of staff members had a similar idea representing, MSU, Boston Bruins, and Chicago Blackhawks for hockey!

A FANtastic Friday!

Running Circles around Lit Circles.

 
Today is the exciting and long awaited day!
5th grade begins Blood on the River today! I've decided to take on the task of launching my group into self directed book clubs to work through this book. Coming off of our study of the establishment of Jamestown in Social Studies, I picked this book to dovetail what we've been studying.

I've spent the last 3 weeks preparing all of the materials, folders, comprehension questions, vocabulary, and projects that will accompany this book over the next 5-6 weeks. We got off to a delay with days off these past two weeks -- but we're off to a bang!
The kids like it... they're actually all participating and discussing what they read. I love peeking in and listening to them talk and work through the book on their own.

Each day begins with a task page that outlines what they need to accomplish in the circle for that day. The kids have already read, so they're ready to discuss --
I give them some possible discussion topics for the chapters assigned, and off they go.

Walking by hearing, "I think that word is an insult because in the book it says he whispered it."  or "How would you feel if you were stuck on a boat with people you barely knew?"
AMAZING.

I love literature and love watching students love literature. 

Wait... I'm a teacher?

It officially became winter here in the southwest corner of the mitten! That may be the understatement of the year, actually. We got hit with a LOT of snow and ice. Let's take it back a quick jog ... I was living life gloriously as a teacher with MLK Jr. day off. Spending the day just relaxing and mentally preparing to go back to work. Little did I know, Mother Nature had other plans.
    Tuesday morning I awoke with a jolt to the sound of my phone ringing, alerting me that "Coloma Community Schools would be closed" ... HALLELUJAH -- the first snow day of the season, in a district where I was assured, "we don't get snow days." Totally unexpected and totally awesome. I frolicked, yes frolicked in the snow that day  --- in the -20 degree weather -- I excitedly jaunted through the snow.

This is where I live -- and what it looked like on Wednesday by the lake. :)

Got myself all rested and prepared to go back on Wednesday --- psyche! Not happening -- Wednesday was called off too and then Thursday! It became sort of funny that we had all of these days off, but the snow kept coming and the wind chill kept dropping, so to keep the kiddos fingers and toes on their bodies - we gave them day after day off.

     It got to the point that we were joking about our jobs, "I think I'm a teacher... but I'm not sure anymore."
Friday was the day we, teachers, had all waited for -- back to school for a Monday sort of Friday. We reviewed, we played Math and Science games and we said farewell to our classes for the weekend (already). The weekend was odd, I felt like I was getting so much time off and that it was like Christmas break all over again!
       I spent the weekend, just as I had the past 4 days off of school -- lessons done, grading done... just enjoying time off. Monday came with a surprise -- 5:42am -- another day off. Sleeping in until 8 was becoming a bad habit -- but I was amazingly productive... cooked a delicious dinner and relaxed yet again.
Back to school today -- tough to get back into the grind, but I was SO ready. The kids love the days off .. but I know the consequences of too much time off and I was ready to see them again!

We spent today launching back into our units -- Dividing Decimals, Studying the Southern Colonies and Saturn. Oh, beautiful.. glorious .. ringed Saturn. We read from our textbooks as a class and then I showed this video:

I'm a BIG fan of Charlie -- but I had NO idea that he had a series on the Solar System! What a diamond to find -- the kids LOVE him because he's hilarious -- and he talks to them, just like I do. Like someone who is BEYOND fascinated by space and just oozes with excitement to share all of the crazy weird things that happen in space.

AMAZING.

Happy Happy Tuesday, teachers.

Welcome back.