Looking Glass

We are one of the lucky classes to pilot MBS’s new iPad cart. Our class has access to 10 iPads throughout the day. At MBS, the other 10 iPads are shared with music and both art teachers, as well as Ms. Hebert, Mrs. Rogers, Ms. Sato and Mrs. Forrest’s classes. Next year they will be available to all teachers!

My first priority was to get reading groups working on the iPad. The new National Geographic Explorer App had just what I was looking for. We read an article on thunderstorms and how they are tracked. Our task was to explain the steps of a thunderstorm in the correct order/sequence.

They recorded their ideas on a sequencing chart available in the Tools4Students App. Everyone was engaged and eager to email their graphic organizers to our class email.

One iPad created all parts of this post! This video was created using iMovie. The WordPress App created the blog post, inserting the image and video easily!

We made iMovies on our iPod Touches in small groups. We planned, shot footage, edited, trimmed, added themes and transitions right on our iPods!

Math Facts:

Making Blogs Better:

Writer’s Workshop:

Important Places at MBS:

Ever wonder what technology looks like at MBS?  If you’ve ever spent time in our building you know technology tools are around every corner.  Check out this video and see what one day looks like at MBS!

Miss Gorton worked for a week with an injured arm to create bookmarks with a compliment from one Techkid member to another. My bookmark had a compliment from Livy Everyone enjoyed giving a compliment to someone else.

We loved the yummy ice cream sundaes. Vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce were the most popular combination. I took a few pictures when the kids were passing out their Valentine cards.

This week we are performing How the Robin Stole Fire for our Reader’s Theater.  It’s a folktale from Australia. You might wonder . . .  Why do we do reader’s theater? or Why don’t we have costumes or use a stage?  The answer to these questions is in the name: READer’s Theater and it’s all about the reading.  Fluent reading. We use our voices during reader’s theater to read accurately with expression using an interesting voice.  It’s all about reading your part fluently and accurately in an interesting way.  The video below is from our first reader’s theater.  Our participants set a high bar for every other group that followed

Each week five to nine students perform a reader’s theater.  Our weekly performances are much more engaging when everyone has practiced their part and can pronounce the words correctly.  You can help!!!!  Please consider reading the play with your child and practicing tricky words/parts with them throughout the week, so they can read confidently on Friday.  Reader’s theater should be added to home reading

N stands for “never give up” and that was just the beginning!  MBS students participated in an assembly geared toward teaching kids the importance a positive attitude, good behavior and academic achievement.  NED stands for Never Give Up, Encourage Everyone, and Do Your Best.  The kids were mesmerized by the presenter’s yoyo and storytelling skills.  His message was simple, clear and easy to understand.  Go NED!

Now, before vacation, we learned a new tech tool: Glogster.  Glogster is a program we can use to create interactive multimedia (video, audio, images, clip art, graphs) posters.  They can be embedded into our blogs and viewed full screen.  So, rather than create a video for this post, I decided to create a glog poster so you can see some of this assembly.

We had our first Four Winds lesson about insects. We are lucky to have Mrs. Porter and Mrs. Moore as our parent teachers. The kids really enjoyed this lesson! It was chilly out, so we weren’t able to find many insects to observe, but it was fun searching for them in the MBS garden. Each month we will have another Four Winds lesson.

Phew  . . . that was a tongue twister!!  We had a great time walking over to Mazza’s for an afternoon of fall fun.  Many of us were reunited with old friends as we spent time with Mrs. Bonfigli and Ms. Rayner’s classes.  Enjoy our slide show.

Each morning on our morning message we have a survey question.  Survey questions at this time of the year are designed to help us get to know each other.  For example, last week I asked everyone to vote on their favorite season.  Interestingly, winter and summer were the top vote earners.  In today’s survey we learned about each others favorite school subjects.  Clearly we are a class of readers and writers!

Our Workshops are up and running!  Each day we have a Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop.  The first few weeks we’ve focused on developing routines and stamina.

Reader’s Workshop:

Reading is Thinking! This is an important concept that we will work on throughout the year.  At this time of the year we are practicing reading “just right” books independently.  Earlier this week we created a chart to help us remember how to pick a “just right” book.  Here’s what we decided:

• Read most of the words
• Read fluently (like conversation, not speed reading)
• We enjoy the book
• We understand the story

We use the 5 finger test to help us determine if our book is “just right”.  If we have to work at solving or can’t solve 5 words on one full page of text, it’s probably too hard and not just right.  At this point, we are reading for 20-25 minutes independently and will continue to increase our stamina with a goal of reading 40 minutes independently.  Once we are able to read independently, we will begin guided reading groups.

Writer’s Workshop:

We had a blast this week personalizing our writer’s notebooks.  We covered our notebooks with scrapbook  paper and wallpaper samples.  Then we added our family photos, stickers, and magazine cutouts.  This weekend I will add contact paper to preserve these important notebooks.  We’ve also been practicing our independent writing skills.  We write in our notebooks most days.  Some days I give a journal topic and some days students choose their own topics.