Second+Quarter

December 17, 2009

As you all know, I have been in Florida for the past ten days caring for my father. I am happy to say that he is recovering and each day gets a little better! I expect to be back at school when we resume in January. Below are the long-promised photos from the Global Impact Fair. You can very proud of the amazing work the children did on this project. They did a terrific job in setting up their displays and presenting to the hundreds of visiotrs who came through that day. I believe they truly did make an impact on thier community! I wish you all a lovely holiday and look forward to seeing you in the new year.













November 26, 2009

 We have had two wonderful weeks filled with all kinds of interesting activities and fun! Last week our class earned a place in the World Air Toss Championships and this week we competed against 5H for the trophy. Although our class lost in terms of the point score, the kids did an amazing job in terms of playing hard and demonstrating great sportsmanship. I was very proud of their class spirit and the several of the parents who came to watch agreed that they deserved a special treat. As a result, we were treated to class pizza party today during lunch. Special thanks to Tracy Park, Stephanie Teo, Rajini Srinivasan and Joyce Zhang for this wonderful treat! Another special activity this week was another get-together with our buddies. First, the children learned how to use a digital story telling web site called StoryBird. On Thursday our buddies came up to our room and together they wrote stories and published them on the website. You can visit this website at [|http://storybird.com] and log in to read their stories! The user name is kwilliams and the password is buddies. The final special event was a visit to a Great Wall Shootout basketball game between ISB and NIST. During half-time, our UES dunking Dragons performed and we were all excited to watch Ethan, Warren, David and Jason Yan do an amazing job during this performance and, just as exciting, to watch the Dragons win!



Academically, it has also been a very busy time. The children have continued to work hard on research for the essays they are drafting and they have been doing some incredibly creative work preparing for the Global Impact Fair. In math we completed unit 4 on division and got a start on our next unit: Fractions, Decimals and Percents. I also introduced the problem solving strategy of looking for a pattern and the children had a first go at it. It is impressive to see how much better the children are able to write about their thinking as they work on these problems.

One of the most impressive events of the last two weeks was the presentation of the book club projects. After completing their first book club novels, each group planned, completed and presented a project that demonstrated that they understood the plot, characters, setting and theme of their novels. Projects included a story quilt, an ABC book, a set of character monologues and an interview. After they completed their book club work, the children completed a reflection. Below are some of the things they wrote, in response to prompt questions, about what they learned from their experience.

“I enjoyed this book because all of the characters are well developed. The characters changed and grew during the book. William Ernest becomes braver after Gilly taught him to stand up for himself and Gilly learned that happiness does not always come to you in the way you expect. Although the book is about a sad topic- the problems of children growing up in foster homes- it is never too emotional. Gilly is a strong character who has learned to take care of herself. I would recommend this book to other readers. It is a well written book.”// Ilze//
 * //What did you think about your book? Would you recommend it to others? //**

“I remember when our group discussed about Eddie kissing Sara. It made us all jittery and excited. We talked about it and then we read it out loud sentence by sentence!” //Rachel//
 * //Were there any memorable moments in your group discussions? //**

Bradley is the main character in our book and also a change-very-much kind of character. A new lesson could be trust in yourself. That’s because Bradley changed himself by trusting himself first. Also, another lesson is even really mean, bad bullies like Bradley can always change if they trust themselves. Also another message is if you don’t have friends, you’ll be mad, bad, mean, bully.” //Warren//
 * //What lessons can we learn from the story? //**

It is different because the author tells the story through Sara’s tapes. She describes the characters through Sara’s point of view, so if Sara thinks that a character in the story is pretty, then the author says that they are pretty. I think the author wrote this book because right now there are a lot of people moving around, and to tell you that change isn’t always bad and you’ll make friends. It keeps you interested because people in the story are going through happy and sad times at the same time” //Lily//
 * What did you notice that was different or interesting about the author’s style? **

“I learned that I can respond with deep thinking ideas that are not shown in the text, and listening to others more than talking made me think more and learn more. These experiences helped me change by allowing me to good reflections on things I did. Listening more than talking helped me be able to think more about what others say instead of rushing to speak.” //Emily//
 * What did you learn about yourself as a reader from this experience? **

Next week the Global Impact Fair will take place in the Upper Gallery, above the ISB theater. Our class will be presenting from 11:00-11:45 a.m. and again from 1:00-2:00pm. I hope you are all able to come during one of those time slots to see their booths and hear what they have to say about some of the issues that will be facing them as they reach adulthood.

November 13, 2009

We have had two weeks of wild and weird weather, but that hasn’t kept us from our work! We have had a time for normal morning meeting routines and the children have had the opportunity to practice their keyboarding more consistently as well. Each morning the class splits into two groups. One group practices their keyboarding skills while the other meets with me for word study. Over the past two weeks we have three children who have “tested out” of keyboarding with speeds of over 40 words per minute! In word study we have been investigating the answer to the question of why final consonants in some words double when you add a suffix, while others do not. Your child should now be able to tell you when and why final consonants double in mono- and polysyllabic words! During our book talk with Mrs. Krembs this week the children got to explore author’s websites and found that there are many exciting and interesting things on the web related to the books they love!

In math we wrapped up unit 3 with a look at tessellations and each child has created a tessellation of their own. These incredible works of mathematical art are on display outside of our room. We also started an Angle Tangle championship and that is still going on. After a review, the class took the unit test and we have now started work on our division unit. The children have learned a strategy for mental division and reviewed the partial quotients algorithm. Our problem of the week last week focused on the strategy of acting it out and, after taking a week off this week, we will continue to practice that strategy next week. Finally, we have continued to do a weekly fact test and some of the children will need to work a little harder to increase their speed as the expectations have risen for the second quarter. Ask your child how they are doing with their fact speed!

Book club groups finished reading and discussing their novels last week and each group has been busy this week creating a final project to share what they have learned. The projects ask the children to focus on the characters, plot, setting and theme of their novel. These projects will be completed and shared on Monday.

In writer’s workshop the children have had a little time to work on some of their poems and free choice writing, but the bulk of our time has been spent looking at the structure of a five paragraph essay and the ways in which a persuasive essay is developed. The class learned how to frame a thesis statement and, after being assigned to topic groups for the global impact fair, each child drafted their own thesis statement for the essay they will write. The class had time in social studies to begin research on their topic and we will continue over the next two weeks to use writing and social studies time to develop their essays and displays for the fair.

Our social studies time has, of course, been dedicated to identifying some of the issues that face our world and researching what is being done to try to help resolve the problems. The children focused on three issues they were interested in learning more about and then they narrowed their choice down to one. Next, groups of three or four students who have identified a related area of need were created. These groups will work together to submit a proposal, develop an action plan, and prepare and present their ideas at the Global Impact Fair on December 1st. The fair will be set up in the upper gallery near the theater. Student presentations will be focused on influencing UES children in grades 3&4. Two to three weeks after the Global Impact Fair students will reflect on the effectiveness of their project by surveying the fair goers to assess their level commitment to the issues. Parents will be invited to attend, so you might want to mark your calendar now. Presentations for our class will take place between 11:00-11:45am and 1-2pm. Finally, we are almost at the end of our simple machines unit. The children have been incredibly engaged in creating and testing their compound machines, and in drawing blueprints of their creations. Groups will share their inventions during science from 2:15-3:15 on Monday afternoon. Parents are welcome to come and see them!

October 30, 2009

media type="custom" key="4687803"We have had two weeks packed with special events and activities! Last week we enjoyed a beautiful blue-sky day at the Ethnic Park (see slide show below) and special thanks go to Sylvia Kong and Nancy Weddle for being great chaperones. The children rejoiced in the freedom of being let out early for parent conferences on Thursday and Friday, and it was terrific to meet with all of you. This Wednesday we all celebrated International Day with a parade and spent time visiting the displays sharing how dozens of countries celebrate. Thanks to Mrs. Srinivasan for bringing in an Indian treat called gulab jamoon. We have had an unusual number of children out sick with colds, coughs, rashes or fevers. Thanks to their parents for keeping them at home when they are unwell. I hope to see everyone back soon! media type="custom" key="4687341" Our reading workshop over the past two weeks has focused heavily on how to conduct discussions about books that deepen our appreciation and understanding of abook. After two meetings in which groups practiced techniques for great discussion, we held Socratic circles this week. In this activity, a book club holds a meeting while the rest of the class observes. After the discussion has concluded, the group that observed shares what they noted about what went well in the discussion and what members had done to help the group. This can be a nerve-wracking process for anyone and I was truly amazed at how well the children did, both as members of the group being observed and as observers! We also continued our read aloud of __In the Year of the Boar__ and we are now nearing the end of the story. Finally, I was able to meet with most of the children this week to discuss their DRA test results and some goals we might work on for their reading.

We launched our poetry unit in writing workshop with a look at some of the ways in which poets gather ideas for their work. The children learned about something called the five doors of poetry and started to draft their first poems. Next, we looked at the importance of word choice and using all five senses, and the children started to draft poems about cities they love using their sensory memories. This week the children started to read poetry anthologies and they will be collecting favorite poems. We will be working on poetry at least once in a rotation for the rest of the year. By May, each child will have created an anthology of their best poems that will also include the treasures they have collected from their reading.

In math we have continued our work in geometry and the children have been introduced to a great volume of new vocabulary. We have learned how to measure angles with half and full-circle protractors and the children are now playing Angle Tangle, a game that allows them to practice estimating and measuring angles. This week we looked at attributes of polygons and the class has learned another game, Polygon Capture, which helps reinforce the definitions and attributes of various polygons. In problem solving, the children continued to work on the strategy of making an organized list.

Work in science for the last two weeks has centered around planning and preparing for the our final project in which they must build a compound machine that incorporates three simple machines to complete a task. The children have been placed in teams of two or three, and they have identified their task and started work on building their machines. They are working very well together and it is wonderful to watch how they work together to solve problems and figure out how to make things work the way they would like them to work. Here is a short video clip to give you an idea of what it looks like on our room as they work!

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Our social studies work on the global impact unit is moving forward very well. The children spent time during the ethnic park field trip last week gathering information about the ethnic minorities in Qinghai province. We used Google Earth to take a closer look at the geography of that province and visited a few websites to look at some of the issues and problems that face the people who live there. This week we had a guest speaker from Qinhai province, a woman who is a member of the Tibetan minority. She shared a slide show to highlight such problems as lack of clean drinking water, electricity and fuel, and to talk about a non-profit group called Pentok that she has started that is working to make a positive impact in Qinghai. You can learn more about her organization by visiting their website at []

October 16, 2009

What a lovely way to end our week….with the Terry Fox run in the sun! Since my last update our class has been as busy as ever. The children have all returned from their holiday rested and ready to share many wonderful stories. This week we spent a good deal of time on ISA testing and the children were excited to get to know some new class pets. We have acquired a hamster named Han bao bao and several shrimp and frogs for our fish tank (thanks to Karina)! Perhaps the best activity before the break was sharing ice cream sundaes. The class earned this treat through great cooperative work and behavior throughout the quarter. I brought in three flavors of ice cream and may of the children brought in toppings and we all had a tasty celebration.



Our reading workshop time for the past few weeks has continued to be dedicated to our theme of friendship and change. In our read aloud, we have been watching Shirley, the main character from __Year of the Boar__. She is becoming more Westernized as she settles in to her new home, even as she worries about losing her old friends and her Chinese cultural identity. I have been working with individual students to complete the DRA testing and I am happy to say that we will soon be finished! Finally, we kicked off our first book club. The children have already had their first two meetings and are learning about the difference between taking turns to share notes and having a real conversation about their thinking. I’d like to remind you that all children are expected to read every night as a part of their reading homework. If you aren’t seeing your child read, please remind them that they need to do this!

We have been very busy in writing workshop with conferring and revising personal narratives. Many children were able to finish their first piece and have been working on free choice pieces of writing this week. Today the children broke into groups to read their stories aloud to each other. Each group selected what they felt were the best pieces and those will be shared with the whole class on Monday. When you come to conferences next week, you can read some of these stories yourself on the bulletin board outside of our classroom! We also continued our word study work by learning how to construct a matrix for word, showing all of th prefixes and suffixes that we could find to build words from that base. This was a challenging activity and the children did a wonderful job with it!

We have gotten a good start on our new Problem of the Week routine and we also kicked off unit 3; geometry, in math. For the Problem of the Week, I will be teaching explicit problem solving strategies and steps to the class each week. They will be given a problem that allows them to practice using that strategy in the week it is taught and again the following week. After all of the strategies have been introduced, the children will be given a problem each week and they will have to select the strategy they feel is best applied to solving it. There is a lot of emphasis on the process and the children should quickly gain more confidence in their ability to tackle challenging word problems. In our geometry unit the children used pattern blocks and their knowledge of the number of degrees in a circle to prove the number of degrees in the angles of equilateral triangles, squares, hexagons, parallelograms and trapezoids. This unit is filled with great hands-on investigations and a lot of new vocabulary. You can help your child at home by asking them to demonstrate to you what they learned in class and by reviewing the vocabulary with them regularly.

Our science unit on simple machines is coming to an end. The children used a program called Inspiration to complete mind maps of what they have learned in the unit, then they compared them to the maps they had created before we started the unit. They were all quite impressed to see what they had learned! In our culminating activity for this unit, pairs will work together to construct a compound machine consisting of three simple machines. Their machine must be built with found or recycled items, or items available in our classroom, and it must complete a task the pair has selected. Some examples of tasks are opening a laptop, feeding the class pet and putting toothpaste on a toothbrush. Each team will have to create a blue print of their model and explain how each simple machine works to transfer effort and/or provide a mechanical advantage as it completes their selected task.

 As we wrap up the science unit, we have also been getting started on our Global Impact unit for social studies. Over the last two weeks we have looked at the words impact, influence and interact, and we have started to discuss the ways in which we interact with each other on an individual level, on a local level and on a global level. After a lesson on spheres of influence, the children discussed terms such as political, geographical, economic, educational, social and environmental. They collected current event articles that demonstrate interactions with impact and we started to share and analyze these articles on class on Friday to determine what spheres of influence they represent and whether they demonstrated positive, negative or possible both kinds of impact. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;"> Next week we have our field trip on Tuesday and the children should wear their house color shirts and bring a packed lunch and a little money for shopping (about RMB50-100). Also, please remember that the students will be released at 11:20 on Thursday and Friday for parent conferences. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">