Thursday, September 20, 2012

Beginning Our First Exploratoy Center of the Year

At the start of our SAGE day, the last of the boys and girls finished writing the rough draft of their "Take a Closer Look at Me" poem.  Next, they took turns typing them on their own.  Their projects are great!  They will be display at our Oct. 2nd Fall Open House.

 



 During our morning, we discussed Bloom's Levels of Thinking and what each level might look like.  I introduced our Exploratory centers and the procedures we follow to select and complete a center.  The students had an opportunity to look through the choices and list their top three picks.  The boys and girls met with me individually to be sure their first choice center is a good fit for them.  We have students studying coordinates on a grid, wild dogs, Eric Carle, Claude Monet, Volcanoes, Puppets, The Boxcar Children, wild cats and more!  Ask your child which center he/she chose and what drew him/her to that center.

Exploratory Excitement on PhotoPeach

The first step in beginning any center is to fill out their Exploratory Contract.  This helps me keep track of their individualized work and it empowers the children to become more independent in their learning.

After filling out their contracts, they had about 40 minutes to begin the reading or video at their chosen center.  Next week, they will have time to continue their center work.  (The Knowledge Level task usually takes 2-3 SAGE days to complete.)




 
In the afternoon, we worked together in the Problem Solver series.  This week's focus was on the strategy, “Use Logical Reasoning.”  Our problems were not very hard, but we will be ready to apply this to more difficult problems soon!

Have a great week!

7 comments:

  1. We liked looking at your pictures.

    You have lots of computers in your room. We have 4 computers, plus one lap top, an interwrite board and an i-pad. We love working on the computers too.

    It looks like you are doing quality work in your classroom.

    How old are you all?
    We are 5 years old. All of us will turn 6 next year.

    Thank you for sharing your blog with us!

    Wonderful Room One!

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  2. You look like a very busy classroom.

    We would love to read some of your poems and see your funny photos!

    We might write our own poems about us too. Thank you for the inspiration!

    Wonderful Room One

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  3. We love looking at your dotty art. It looks very colourful.

    Miss Bennett is going to find The Dot book and we might make some of our own creations too.

    You have loads of cool things on your blog!

    We tried to listen to your podcast but it didn't work for us. We will keep trying!

    Wonderful Room One

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  4. Dear Wonderful Room One,
    There is a great YouTube video retelling the The Dot book. Our students really enjoyed it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5mGeR4AQdM&feature=fvwrel

    We had fun making our dots too. We would love to see your dots if you get a chance to make them. I am hoping to put our poems on the blog. We are working this week to display them all for our Open House. It is hard to find enough bulletin board space to show the work of 45 students,

    We have enjoyed your comments and the boys and girls will continue to respond to your questions this week.

    Mrs. Koch

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  5. Dear Wonderful Room one,
    I am 8 years old. I am in second grade. I wonder if one
    of you went to go watch the
    olympics? My favorite was women's soccer. Which one was yours? I like
    your comments.
    Abigayle

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  6. Hi everyone
    We watched a video of The Dot book today and we are excited to try making some cool dot pictures too.
    Thank you for inspiring us!
    Wonderful Room One NZ

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  7. Dear Wonderful Room One,

    We are so glad you were able to watch "The Dot" story on the You Tube video. I think it is even better than just reading the story to the boys and girls. It was a fun project. We will look forward to seeing your dots. I like the idea of sharing projects back and forth with our classes. I will email you the link to our "Take a Closer Look at Me" poem idea. It turned out to be a great project and lots of fun for the boys and girls. I told you I would post some of the students poems, but then I forgot about it. I'll try to do it by next week.

    Have a wonderful week,

    Mrs. Koch

    ReplyDelete