Creative Thinkers & Fledgling Bloggers

The boys and girls got off to a great start this morning!  We began our day with a discussion on our class Blogging Guidelines.  These can be found in a new tab on our main page.  Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with them.  


We also reviewed the components of a quality comment and how to post a comment on our blog.  I explained that our blog is an "academic blog" and should not be used as a social network.  I want to avoid students spending large amounts of time just socializing here. 

I want them to post comments on their learning and "Ah Ha!" moments.  The source of their learning and revelations can be from within or outside of school.  Ideally, I would like to see students post a comment from home once or twice a week.  In the beginning, their comments may not be very sophisticated.  With instruction, practice and encouragement, your child will gain a desire to share their ideas and opinions with others and the skills to do it through our blog.  Blogging provides a real world platform for students to improve not only their reading and writing skills, but also the technology skills 21st Century Learners will need.  


Please encourage your child to share their enthusiasm and experiences from rich learning moments.  At this age, they will need your support and assistance with proof reading their comments prior to clicking that "publish" button.  In the next week or so, I will try to get a screen cast tutorial made on how to post a comment to our blog for those parents and grandparents that would like directions.  By all means, please encourage your child's grandparents, aunts, uncles and other interested adults to post comments about your child's projects and learning on our blog too!   I am looking forward to hearing from you all!

The students continued their individual work in the Math Rules program and their Exploratory center today.  Ask your child about their current task.  I think almost everyone is now past the Knowledge and Comprehension level tasks.  Now they can choose any other task from this same center to complete. 

Currently, a person is reading about bats, bones and rodent fur is being dissected, a puppet is in the design stages, illustrations of a sinking ship are being drawn, dental impressions have been taken, origami figures are being folded, a wild cat model is being designed, original patterns have been created and color schemes are being analyzed.  This is an exciting place to be in the afternoon!  I will continue to encourage them to take their time for their personal best effort.  


In the afternoon, they learned/reviewed the rules for brainstorming. 

• Accept the unusual
• Never critcize or compliment
• Piggyback when possible
• Never stop too soon.

They individually brainstormed "things you might find in a pocket."  We judged their ideas for their fluency and originality and if they were relevant to the problem.  Have your child tell you more about their list.  They are a very creative class!

We ended our day working on our critical thinking skills.  The students were given two different problems that could be solved through the use of a matrix.  With their thinking caps in place, they analyzed the clues and made inferences based on the information provided to match up the people to their homeruns (and in the second problem, to the insect they brought to school.)

Have a beautiful fall weekend!