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More Than ABC is a informative, fun, creative blog dedicated to share what is going in in our classroom. Using technology, creativity, and quality materials keeps us busy! If your in my class or just a visitor, I'm glad you stopped in!

Showing posts with label class work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label class work. Show all posts

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Partner Reading & Recording

A week or so ago we worked with a partner to master one page of a multi-page narrative poetry piece.
Each group worked on fluency, style, pronunciation, and delivery in their piece.


We then recorded each pair of students and made a class audio book to listen to in class.


Some groups worked reading together, and practiced their timing.


Other groups split the piece and mastered their own section.

Some groups practiced so much they practically memorized the text.

Rereading text passages helps increase fluency, comprehension, and overall oral fluency.
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Friday, August 19, 2011

Silhouette



Isn't it amazing what you can tell from just the outline of a black shape?
Could you guess who someone was just by looking at their Silhouette?

Parents, next Tuesday, August 23rd it will be your challenge to find your
student's silhouette at our Open House.

Students, we've got some sitting, cutting, and writing to do!



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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Learning Prezi.com

Today we worked on our Colorado ABC books.

Many students contributed their information and we're IN PROGRESS in making a presentations.  Check it out!

Prezi is free, so log in and try your own at home.



Posts on More Than the ABC’s may include links to external websites which are not under the editing control of the author of More Than the ABC’s. Please ask that children use adult supervision when visiting websites outside of this blog, especially YouTube. While there are many great videos, please considering the ability for the public to post and comment on videos on YouTube.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Rendezvous & Bartering Day

Dear 4th Grade Families,

We are studying fur trappers and traders in our Colorado history unit. Part of a trapper’s or trader’s life was the annual Rendezvous where they celebrated, relaxed, socialized and traded their furs for supplies for the coming year. The students will be participating in activities on Thursday April 28th related to the outdoor, trapper, and pioneer life.

In order for the kids to experience trading goods for goods rather than using money, we will be continuing our Rendezvous day on Friday April 29th , On that day each student must bring in something he or she can trade. You DO NOT need to go out and buy anything. The item could be a craft, art, or food they have made. In the past, some students have brought some old, small toys or decorative items they and their families no longer want. It should not be anything expensive or of personal value. Once the items are traded they will not be returned to the original owner. If your child brings in food, the items must be individually wrapped (things get passed around!).

Since the purpose of the activity is to experience trading, students who do not bring in anything to trade will not be permitted to participate in the Rendezvous, which will ultimately affect their grade. Students will be responding to the experience for a writing, history, and economics grade. We will discuss the pros and cons of the bartering experience and real world applications.

Thanks in advance for your support of this experiential learning opportunity.

Sincerely,

Fourth Grade Team

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Reading Text Discussion - Cover it Live

Here we discuss questions about our reading text this week, "Dragons and Dinosaurs" an non-fiction piece.


Posts on More Than the ABC’s may include links to external websites which are not under the editing control of the author of More Than the ABC’s. Please ask that children use adult supervision when visiting websites outside of this blog, especially YouTube.

Friday, April 8, 2011

6 Minute Solutions - Fluency Intervention

To help students increase their reading fluency (speed, accuracy, and expression in reading) we've been using the 6 minute solution intervention.  See how it works here.



Posts on More Than the ABC’s may include links to external websites which are not under the editing control of the author of More Than the ABC’s. Please ask that children use adult supervision when visiting websites outside of this blog, especially YouTube.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Vocabulary this Week

We're using our ActiVote clicker-in system to practice vocabulary this week.  Check it out!


Posts on More Than the ABC’s may include links to external websites which are not under the editing control of the author of More Than the ABC’s. Please ask that children use adult supervision when visiting websites outside of this blog, especially YouTube.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Poetry Choice Board

Reading a variety of literature means working with poetry too!  Often we work with fairly elaborate poetry to have high quality examples of figurative language, theme, symbolism, etc.  When the students are interacting on a higher level, we have a lot of creative fun!

Giving students choices means the students are more highly invested in the project and are dedicated to their product.  As a teacher, I pick options that get a lot of the same work done in many different modalities.  We'll be making posters with the three mini-projects they choose from their tic-tac-toe board.

The choices are:
  • text to self- how you react to it
  • text to text - compare to another text
  • text to world - learn about the part of the world
  • format copy cat - write a poem
  • acrostic - write a poem
  • inspiration journal - journal about an authors point of view
  • illustration - picture story
  • wordle - hand made word organization of important phrases
  • mini bubble - word maps of vocabulary


For our next poetry unit we will be working with poems that are a bit easier and more approachable for students to access on their own.
Our leveled book room had a class set of
"all the small poems and fourteen more" by Valerie Worth.

Most poems have a simple noun topic with detailed language and descriptions.



Friday, March 25, 2011

Space Dodecahedrons




A Dodecahedron is a 12 sided object, in this case, made of inscribed pentagon's in 12 circles.
Students wrote mini reports on some given topics as well as picking their own interests to research!




Posts on More Than the ABC’s may include links to external websites. Links to external sites are not under the editing control of the author of More Than the ABC’s. Please ask that children use adult supervision when visiting websites outside of this blog, especially YouTube. While there are many great videos, please considering the ability for the public to post and comment on videos on YouTube.
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Monday, March 14, 2011

Pi Day Activities

On 3/14 our class celebrated Pi day!  We had an awesome lineup of fun activities to introduce young learners to Pi.

We measured the diameter and then multiplied 3x that of the basketball court circle, hula hoops, cups, and other circles.



A midevil tale of how a boy saves his father by finding out the value of Pi.


Number strips to make a Pi chain!
 It's a great visual to remind us that Pi doesn't repeat and has no pattern.



Check out how long it got!  If you stop by school in the next few weeks, you'll see it in the hallway too!



Posts on More Than the ABC’s may include links to external websites. Links to external sites are not under the editing control of the author of More Than the ABC’s. Please ask that children use adult supervision when visiting websites outside of this blog, especially YouTube. While there are many great videos, please considering the ability for the public to post and comment on videos on YouTube.
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Sunday, March 6, 2011

Math Centers Extravaganza

As a 4th grade team we set up over 20 math centers as a fun review session of the many math skills we’ve covered so far this year. Students rotated between classrooms in small groups to complete different tasks.


Students used math games, flash cards, computers, hands-on manipulatives, our Promethean board, and good ol’ pencil and paper to practice dozens of math skills and concepts.



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Math Centers Extravaganza II


Patterns, Designs, and Geometry
Students used computers in my room to get on Virtual Manipulatives
Fraction circles to identify parts of the whole


Area and Periemeter Review


Posts on More Than the ABC’s may include links to external websites. Links to external sites are not under the editing control of the author of More Than the ABC’s. Please ask that children use adult supervision when visiting websites outside of this blog, especially YouTube. While there are many great videos, please considering the ability for the public to post and comment on videos on YouTube.
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Thursday, March 3, 2011

Can you B-I-N-G-O ?

After a wonderful lesson from our Library Technology Educator on Friday, we reviewed Reading Standard 5 material with BINGO!

How well would you do?

What are the uses of an encyclopedia, thesaurus, dictionary, almanac, atlas, map, table of contents, glossary, index, title page, and more!

Here are some online materials that you can use at home. Most have links from our school site if they need a password, so I would recommend going there first.  If you need a password please send a note in your child's planner!

Encyclopedia World Book Kids

Dictionary.com

VisualThesaurus.com


Posts on More Than the ABC’s may include links to external websites. Links to external sites are not under the editing control of the author of More Than the ABC’s.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Netbooks I

After some saving, spending, wiring, waiting, installing, and checking,
our school has a mobile set of netbooks ready to check out for classroom use!!! 

I, for one, am THRILLED!!!

We already benefit from typically a very accessible set of computer labs, but now our classroom can become a computer lab too!


There are enough netbooks for each student in the class (set of 30) and they are stored in a mobile cart system that can also be plugged in to charge them.  The carts wheel to different rooms as teachers check them out for class use.

Imagine trying to arrange all those cords!  Parents, if you get a chance, thank our Library Tech Educator for all the work put into this system!
Once students are assigned a netbook they can take them to their desk to work from their own seat.


The netbooks have a more limited memory capacity compared to a laptop, but have Internet access, wireless printing and programs that word process, present, etc. that can convert back and forth from the other classroom computers.
We won't get to use them ALL the time, but it sure did motivate students the first and second times we've used them.  I can't wait to see what we might be able to accomplish!  Two days before break students were eager to type away on the netbooks.  Paragraphs about an interesting, exciting, or important event of 2010 rolled off the printers with impressive writing!

Teacher Note: Knowing how to type makes a difference, and will continue to do so for all of these student's lives.  If possible, encourage your child to type correctly and practice at home.  Try Here, scroll down, and practice typing in the box in lesson 1.


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Sunday, November 21, 2010

Working Hard!

Look at who we found working hard!

A big focus this year is teaching students how to answer questions as a short constructed response, or SCR.
Students know, restate the question, answer it, and add an important or additional detail!
Students are also often reminded about the importance of going back into the text to find answers!

 Or using the glossary to look up a word they aren't sure of.
focus, focus, focus!
 
Thinking about what the question is really asking gives us the best chance of giving great responses!

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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

100% Engagement

As a school we are working hard at what we call "100% engagement"
This means that during academic times students are following the lesson, particiapting, and actively learning.
Seeing students eyes, bodies turned toward the presentation of material, participation, and work completed in class all help us toward that goal!

Our Promethean Board ActiVotes (clicker in system) also helps keep students accountable and engaged with the lesson.  The immediate scoring of a question with the ActiVotes keeps eyes and brains on the lesson.


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Friday, November 12, 2010

Minotaur

This week during our focused reading time my reading group will continue to read about the Greek myths, this time about the Minotaur. These myths have many different versions so explore some additional myths outside of class. If you would like to listen to one about the Minotaur this week go to Storynory and you'll find many myths, including one about the Minotaur.

As someone who loves classic literature, it is exciting to see how interested students are in the Greek myths. The mythology and literary importance will continue through high school and college level classes.
Classic pieces of literature like Homer's epic poems Illiad and Odyssey have many references to these Greek myths. The characters and stories continue to be referenced throughout literary history into Shakespeare, poets such as Tennyson, Keats, Byron, Shelley, and American writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne and T.S Eliot.
My English Literature Loving Heart is Pitter-Pattering!
Does your child want to learn more about the Greek Myths? Check out this site for kids!



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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Descriptive Writing



We pulled a picture from an OLD National Geographic magazine and have been working on describing the scene in writing.
The picture of the crocodile has a lot of interesting things in it. ~D.
They are prehistoric and violent animals. ~I.
They have long snouts for jumping out of the water to catch its legendary prey. ~T.
Crocodiles hunt in pacts. ~J.
Their teeth are like razors. ~N.
The crocodiles are in the dirty swamp. ~V.
Some crocodiles are good and won't bother you unless you bother them. ~D.
The crocodile lives in a small swamp with green algae. ~S.
How did the crocodiles survive the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs? ~J.
The crocodiles are happy now that we aren't hunting them. ~Z.
The crocodiles are huge and hungry. ~J.
With the amount of dirt and grime on their body they look very dirty. ~B.
The crocodiles are happy but I'm scared near the muddy lake. ~M.
I would not like to be in it's clutches. ~B.
The crocodiles have lots of teeth and they are very wild. ~R.
If I were there with them I would probably faint. ~E.
The crocodiles were probably going to shore. ~I.
The crocodiles can be muddy. ~W.
In between the scales that covered the crocodiles was mud and algae. ~G.

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Monday, September 13, 2010

Traditional Chinese Music



Our Reading text for this week:


Here is a sample of some traditional Chinese Music.






















Posts on More Than the ABC’s may include links to external websites. Links to external sites are not under the editing control of the author of More Than the ABC’s. Please ask that children use adult supervision when visiting websites outside of this blog, especially YouTube. While there are many great videos, please considering the ability for the public to post and comment on videos on YouTube.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Colorado Symbols

Our first unit of study in Colorado
Colorado State Symbols




Learn more about all the state symbols on this great Colorado website!

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