Written conversation, discussion, nouns

Today, students met in book clubs and began with a written conversation activity (passing notes!) and then then had a discussion about their reading using what they had written. We debriefed the discussion. Miss Devine passed out book club "role sheets" and students glued these into their book club journals. Tonight's homework is to do the assigned reading and do one "role." Be prepared to discuss your role tomorrow. These are the book club roles:

Connector, Questioner, Literary Luminary, Illustrator, Summarizer, Scene Starter, Word Wizard, Researcher.

We began our study of grammar today with NOUNS. We had a noun race and then started the noun practice sheet in class.

A group of students reading After the War modeled their "think alouds" on the overhead for the class.

Homework: Read and do role. Noun practice sheet.

Book clubs: Reading is thinking!

Today, students met again in book clubs and began with a membership grid activity. Each group had a discussion about chapter one of the book without any teacher guidelines. Afterwards, we processed what went well and what did not go well in these discussions. We made guidelines for good book club discussions. Each group created a reading calendar and determined how much reading they needed to do each night in order to have books completed by the eve of Thursday, October 8th.

Miss Devine modeled "thinking aloud" as she read and students created a list of all the different types of thinking that could be done when reading. Miss D. distributed a pack of sticky notes to each student and explained the homework- to do assigned group reading and to mark any "thinking" while reading on the pages with sticky notes.

Homework: Reminder: Red and yellow tables have current events due Friday. Brittney and Jory are discussion leaders. Students need to do assigned reading and mark "thinking" on the sticky notes as they read. Come prepared to talk about your "thinking" with your group tomorrow in class.

Welcome to book clubs!

Today, we began book clubs. We started the class by doing a chalk talk on good, exciting reading vs. not-so-fun reading. The kids have had both experiences and had a lot to say. We talked about what book clubs are and why we're doing them in class. Miss Devine gave each student a journal that they'll use for book clubs and reading throughout the year. Students assembled in their book clubs and completed a membership grid, set ground rules and made a list of things that active readers do when reading a book. Miss Devine handed out the book club books. Students' homework assignment tonight is to read chapter one of their book and in their journal they are to do one thing that active readers do as they read (their choice).

Finally, we did the current event discussion. Thank you Emma and Thomas for leading the discussions today.

Homework: Read chapter one of book club book. Do one active reading activity.

WWII speaker day!

Well, the weekend's here. Quick week!

Today, advisory had a pet party. We also watched the movie, Hotel for Dogs. It was a great success!

In class, we had the opportunity to hear from a speaker, Beth, from the Atlanta History Center. Beth spoke to us about WWII and we learned a ton! Thank you, Beth. We start book clubs on Monday.

Homework: Orange and Blue tables have current events due on Monday. Discussion leaders, don't forget to bring your discussion questions.

Learning about WWII

Today, we talked about WWII in preparation for our study of the Holocaust in book clubs. We'll have a speaker from the Atlanta History Center come and talk to us about WWII tomorrow.

The students began by creating a K-W-L chart in groups to determine what they already know and what they want to know about WWII. Then, using this graphic organizer, they used books and resources from the Atlanta History Center to answer questions about WWII. We then watched a movie about WWII and continued to answer these questions. We also discussed how war time in the States now is different from war time in the States during WWII. For homework, students will read the WWII article to prepare for the speaker tomorrow.

Finally, we did a book pass in order for students to rank their book club choices. Holocaust-themed book clubs will begin on Monday. These are the book choices:

Milkweed, Jerry Spinelli
Number the Stars, Lois Lowry
After the War, Carol Matas
Devil's Arithmetic, Jane Yolen

Homework: Read WWII article.

Government and Diversity discussion

Today in Humamities, we read from the book, If the World Were a Village. We discussed how what we read had to do with our study of economics.

In groups, we made posters to share out what we had learned about our type of government on Monday and taught the class about our type of government. Students took notes and then we put these types of government on a spectrum of government control.

Then, we had a discussion about Europe's diversity and the advantages and disadvantages of living in a diverse community. Students were graded on their discussion participation. We'll use what we talked about in the discussion to begin our study of WWII tomorrow in class.

We assigned Current Events due dates. This unit's current events should be about Europe. Links for European current events are on the blog link to the right.

Orange and Blue tables: 1st current event due Monday, Sept. 28th. Extra Credit Discussion Leader: Emma.

Red and Yellow tables: 1st current event due Friday, Oct. 2nd. Extra Credit Discussion Leader: Jory

Homework: KWL chart: what do you know and what do you want to know about Europe? Start to work on Europe current events (due dates listed above).

A note for Miss Devine's advisory!

This Friday, is the first extended advisory of the year. Miss Devine's advisory will be having a "pet party." Students in Miss Devine's advisory will be allowed to have family members bring their friendly pet to school and then take the pet home at the close of extended advisory. Extended advisory will be from 8:30am-10:00am. The schedule for Friday can be found here. A letter to explain this event to parents and family members can be found here.

Economy and government in Europe

Rainy Monday. Me oh my...when's the rain going to stop? Mrs. Tillery was out today.

Today, students reflected on what they observed about the economy of their particular region of Europe on Friday. Students wrote down the data they collected in a chart of Comparative Economics. We looked at all of the data collected and observed which parts of Europe seemed to be wealthier than others and we made guesses as to why.

Then, we began to study government in Europe. We began by reflecting on what we think government is and how it influences our lives and the lives our family members. We did a simulation activity where students pretended they were stranded on a deserted island. The only things they had with them to survive were given to them by Miss Devine in a box. Students created tools for survival and the classroom was crazy chaos as students figured out how they would survive. We then processed this activity as a means to understand why humans might have created systems of government.

Later, we defined government and the five functions of government using this graphic organizer. We divided into groups and researched 4 different types of governments and took notes on these types of governments in our graphic organizer. Tomorrow we'll share our findings and educate each other on other types of government.

Homework: Finish up reading about your assigned government and complete the notes sheet. Do the "Reflecting on Europe" questions to prepare for tomorrow's class discussion on diversity in Europe.

Economics of Europe

Happy Friday! Today we focused on another theme of Social Studies: economics. We defined economics, currency, development and per capita income. The "Economics in Europe" sheet with all of these definitions can be found here. We looked at a map representing the per capita incomes of all of the regions of the world and discussed our reflections when viewing this. Then, we browsed two books- Material World by Peter Menzel and What the World Eats by Peter Menzel- and reflected on these books using questions. The students were blown away to learn about the spectrum of economic difference in the world and even in Europe.

Homework: Complete the "after section of your economics notes sheet. On the back of this packet, write a reflection on what you felt or thought looking at these books today.

European culture

Today we continued with our study of the culture of Europe. We broke off into European region groups and explored various aspects of culture of particular countries in our region. We took notes on a culture graphic organizer and then got together in a pow-wow circle at the end of class to share the most interesting thing that we had learned about the culture of our regions.

No homework.

Culture in Europe

Today we began talking about culture in Europe by doing a chalk talk on religion. After doing readings about the three main religions in Europe- Islam, Judaism and Christianity- the kids had a lot to say. Then, we talked about the cultural iceberg metaphor, or the idea that much of a place's culture is the above the surface portion of the iceberg. It's explicit and easier to see. Still, much of a place's culture is implicit or below the surface, and takes time to understand.

We then broke off into religion puzzle piece groups to share what we learned about the religion we studied. Each student fully completed their religion notetaking sheet. We completed a Venn Diagram to draw similarities and differences between these 3 religions. We then talked about the universalities of religions in the world.


Homework: Parents and guardians, I challenge you to ask your students to use their "Cultural Iceberg" sheet to explain what this metaphor means to them.

European geography day!

In the 5 themes of Social Studies, geography is first. Today was European geography day. We divided into groups based on the regions of Europe we're going to study this week (northern, southern, eastern or western Europe). We labeled the countries in our region and then broke off and taught other students about the countries in our region and we labeled the other region's countries as well. Then, we had a geographic landform competition, labeling the major landforms in Europe. Later, we reflected on how the location and landforms of our region would influence life there.

Tomorrow we'll talk about European culture.

Homework: Complete your Europe religion reading and notes sheet.

Intro to EUROPE!

Welcome to Europe! Today we began our unit on Europe entitled: How can one individual affect change? A look at upstanders in European history. We began with a chalk talk about Europe, went over the unit overview, looked at photos and created a KWL chart, classified pictures of Europe and then watched a movie clip introducing Europe.

This is going to be an exciting unit. Parents and guardians, if you feel you have anything you can contribute to our study of Europe, WWII and the Holocaust, send me an email.

Homework: Read half of your European religion packet (about either Islam, Christianity or Judaism) and use the notetaking sheet to take notes. You will have tomorrow evening to do this as well. It will be due Wednesday.

Remembering 9.11.01

Today we remembered September 11, 2001. It was difficult but important for us to learn about and think about this day. We began with a chalk talk and then we broke up into groups to think about what we knew about this day and the day's events. We looked at last night's homework article ("Federal government to buy land for Flight 93 memorial") and Miss D. modeled the protocol for completing the "It's a Small World" current events assignment. Then, we had a class discussion about this article and reflected on how this event has changed our lives and the world.

Europe unit begins on Monday. Be ready!

Diagnostics and higher order thinking skills

Today, we finished administering reading diagnostics to determine students' independent reading levels. We looked at the article on Sid and Terry and discussed higher-order thinking skills using Bloom's Taxonomy (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create). We kept our copy of Bloom's Taxonomy in our folders to refer to throughout the year. We listened to Obama's speech for students and discussed our reflections. Tomorrow is September 11th.

Homework: Read September 11th Memorial article. Come prepared to discuss.

Portfolios, reading diagnostic

Today, students finished making 3 entries to their portfolio for unit one. These submissions were turned in for a grade. Mrs. T and Miss D administered a reading diagnostic to all students in order to determine reading level. We will finish up reading diagnostics tomorrow.

Homework: Read the passage about Sid and Terry that Miss Devine passed out at the end of class. Come prepared to talk about it.

Reflection day and portfolio work

Today, was a unit reflection day. Students took out all the assignments, projects and tests that they had completed during our first unit, Exploring Cultural Diversity. They reflected on the unit and chose three artifacts to submit to their year-long portfolio. Students chose an artifact to represent their growth in reading, writing and cultural and historical understanding. Tomorrow, we will attach artifacts to the artifact entry sheet and then submit our first portfolio entries.

No homework this evening.

Book project work!

Ms. Devine was out sick again yesterday.

Today students worked on their Seedfolks Book Projects with their partners or independently. Ms. D explained the rubric for how students would be graded on these projects as well as the book reflection sheet that they would be responsible for tomorrow. We look forward to the book project presentations tomorrow!

Homework: Make sure your book project is ready to go when you walk into class tomorrow!

Mapping the Seedfolks share day

Today, students did a musical share of their "Mapping the Seedfolks" project and then some students shared their stories with the whole class. We had a discussion about Seedfolks using student-generated questions. We talked about the Multiple Intelligences Book Project that is due this Friday. Students chose a project option based on one of their intelligences and then chose to work independently or with a partner.

Homework: Bring any materials needed to start working on Book Project in class tomorrow.