December Busy-ness!

Hi everyone!

I apologize for not giving a solid update for awhile...the days just dissolve sometimes don't you think? It was so enjoyable to see the kids having fun while singing for the Holiday Concert. Music really is such a crucial element to our school experience

Literacy Workshop

We finally finished our read aloud novel The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. What an awesome book! The kids were hooked from the first 2 pages, the true sign of a good read aloud.  This somewhat apocolyptic, alternate society novel had main characters who were children, causing the students to immediately visualize themselves in such a different world.  We used the entire book to focus on Expanding Vocabulary. How did we do this?:

• recorded a running list of new and interesting words
• talked through our strategies for decoding meaning
• recognized that some words can be multiple parts-of-speech (nouns,verbs etc.)
• looked for common prefixes, suffixes, and Latin/Greek roots in our new words
• created a Popplet (a zooming web) to visually explore new words

Our small groups also focused on using these strategies, creating the successful experiences students need to feel confident reading harder text and decoding unknown meaning.

Writer's Workshop

Using Google Drive, students are beginning to effectively create, share, and collaborate on documents. So far we have:

• experienced teacher-student conferring via the commenting feature in Drive
• begun peer conferring using the commenting feature
• shared single documents with peer collaborators
• shared folders with me so I can consistently access their digital writing
• learned how to type the correct punctuation when using dialogue in our pieces
• practiced the reasons writers create new paragraphs to show a change (speaker, event, day etc.)

Word Study

This year, we are approaching Word Study in some similar ways to last year and some a bit different. We will move through the phonics scope and sequence and produce personal word lists throughout the year, but much of their differentiated spelling instruction is happening not only in small groups with me but also Spelling Vocabulary City. This web-based program provides an efficient way for students to access the exact patterns they need (as determined by developmental assessments administered by me via Word Journeys). The extensive and tricky patterns we have worked with lately are:

• r-controlled (bossy r) patterns (ar, er, or etc.)
• digraphs (vowel teams and 2+ letters creating a new sound (ea, ie, ow, oi etc.)

Math

Students are working through computation, beginning algebra and problem solving.  Skills we are working toward mastering are:

• solving for a variable in open sentences using all 4 operations
• creating a true number sentence by adding in parenthesis
• following order of operations
• calculating elapsed time

We continue to used web-based programs to differentiate for our unique needs in math using Khan Academy and IXL. In this way, even when students are not working directly with me, they are working at their own  level.

Math fact practice continues!!!Some students are ready to "test out" of fact practice or move on to a division focus. After the New Year, we will work toward scheduled mini-fact quizzes to narrow down what facts we still do not know. Remember that the goal is to have all multiplication and division (as well as maintain addition and subtraction!) facts down and be able to fluently show how to arrive at answers using a variety of models. This is a heavy goal and can only happen with hard work at both home and school.

Social Studies

We are immersed in our unit about "Our Country". Students have learned to:

• gain geography skills using outline maps and Google Earth
• show understanding of geography concepts, study and memorization skills through regions quizzes
• create webs to understand "Human/Environment Interaction" in the Northeast. (ie: lobstering, blueberry picking, industry)
• think critically from a variety of perspectives when considering historical events (ie: Lewis and Clark exploration, viewpoints of various members of the team)
• create Slavery "found" poetry to show understanding of capture, hard work and escape to freedom
• compare and contrast song lyrics and stories from the region of Appalachia, closely reading lyrics such as "Shady Grove" and "Pretty Saro" and books such as Cynthia Rylants When I Was Young in the Mountains, in order to understand life there
• make bread and create the connect to the "bread basket" of the US (midwest)

***Where's Science??? We place our Science units in the second half of the 4th grade year so skills and concepts are fresh in students' minds when they take the NECAP Science test in May.

Upcoming

• Maple Sugaring season- it will most likely begin the week or so before February vacation and continue until the peepers come out. Look for information in the beginning of January!
• Holiday Party: does anyone want to send in some treats for us to enjoy Friday afternoon? (12/20)

Enjoy your holiday season, everyone. Questions about your child's school experience? You know where to find me. :)

Jaclyn Karabinas

Wood Chopping/Stacking Party is Cancelled!

Hi all!

Email is down, hence me sending this update through our blog. Apologies!

Our wood stacking/chopping party for tomorrow morning has been CANCELLED- our wood donation is not able to arrive until next week now.  Our party will now be Sat., Nov. 16 from 9-12.  Please help in spreading the word with a few phone calls, emails etc. tonight-  I hope no one shows up tomorrow. :(

Thank you and enjoy the weekend!

Jaclyn Karabinas

Some Important Updates!

Hi, everyone!

It's a beautiful fall, isn't it? I was just telling the students how I love the feeling at the start of fall- change, anticipation...And as it gets darker, I remind myself how much we need to hold onto positive feelings as the seasons change.  The beginning of the year holds so much positivity and the challenge is to hold on to that energy throughout the year.

Mid-Trimester Conferences
Please sign up for conferences if you haven't done so already. The schedule looks about 2/3 full. Remember that if none of those times work well for you, don't hesitate to let me know.  I can always figure it out! Click here to access the conference schedule.

Biography/Social Studies/Technology Project
We have spend so much of our learning time over the past month learning the content and skills we need to complete our Biography project successfully!  Students have had a variety of lessons to reach the "I can" goals I discussed in the last post.

We have reviewed the project expectations many times and revisit the rubric often.  This week we will review how to include our writing in an organized way on the "Glog" by using text features such as bullet points and listed phrases.  Many of the students are filling their Glogs with paragraph text and while I was pleased to see how well they are doing with complete sentences and paraphrasing, a poster does not really need to be completely done in that form.  Students can also record audio of their voice recording a section of text directly in the Glog.  I will reiterate that they can do a variety of things to include the information besides just typing it in.

The original due date was Friday, November 1.  I am going to move this to Monday, November 4, though I am sure many students can finish by the 1st.  I just feel that one extra weekend might help them do their best.

Their "Wax Museum" presentation will be on Wednesday, November 6 from 10:45-11:30. Please come and see the finished projects and performers! If you cannot attend, no worries! I will video for you. Costumes do not need to be elaborate- simple is the word!

Any questions? You know where to find me!

Jaclyn Karabinas

Happy October!

Hi everyone!

These first 6 weeks have been filled with getting back into routines, building our community, awakening our skills and having lots of fun.  I always say the school year REALLY starts after NECAP testing. Looking forward to that! It's a crazy schedule to fit 2 hrs. in each day, but we make it happen. The kids are focusing hard on Reading Session 2 as I type this update.

Technology
We have dived in deep!  With our Google Apps for Education accounts, we now know how to access our own file storage, called our Drive, as well as create, edit, name and share documents with teachers. We can use these logins to access so many other educational tools via the web and iPads.  Our iPad minis are here (we have 3) and the first thing I will teach the students to do is screen-cast.

We will use Educreations for this tool.  What screen-casting allows students to do is record their speaking and drawing to explain their thinking process or learning for a specific skill or topic.  For example, a few students were struggling with multi-digit subtraction and so I had them record a screencast for me while I worked with another group. This provided me with a recording of their thought process that I could hear and see, giving me a chance to find the flaw in their thinking. Awesome! This is one of many ways students will be able to use this tool.  Common Core calls for students to truly be able to explain their thinking in all subjects and support their claims with evidence. This tool will allow me to reach this goal.

I know that having more things online is a tough transition. I am here to help.  Please let me know of any questions or confusion you have with any of the tools your child may be using.  Please also remember that even though we have more access to more technology tools and more devices, maintaining BALANCED TIME away from devices is important to me.  If your child ever tells you that it is their homework to be on the computer for 2 hours, they are fibbing. :)

Math
We began the year with Geometry where the primary goals are to describe and classify 2-dimensional shapes by their properties and to build an understanding of the "building blocks" of these figures (angles, lines etc.)  Students showed their learning by completing the Open Response to classify and defend their choices with evidence (Common Core Depth of Knowledge Levels 3 & 4), as well as complete an online portion of the test to show their basic knowledge (DOK Levels 1 & 2).

Using the online option for testing in the EDM ESuite is new to me...I will figure out the best way to send that information home, but the Open Response will come home on paper.

Literacy Workshop & Social Studies
Our Biography project is a cross-curricular project that Collette Elzey and I wrote together which also reaches many technology goals pertaining to digital citizenship and online safety.  Our end product will be on the online poster tool Glogster By the end of the unit, students will be able to say the following statements:

BIOGRAPHIES: What makes a person notable?

I can identify a biography and explain what it is.

I can explain characterisitics of this genre and compare/contrast it to other genres.

I can put events in chronological order to tell a person's life story.

I can read carefully to find relevant facts about a single topic. (person)

I can tell the difference between fact and fiction.

DIGITAL & PRINT RESOURCES and DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP: How do we read closely to find information in resources?

I can use both digital and print resources to gather information using note taking or a graphic organizer.

I can tell if a website is an authentic, credible source.

I can paraphase/summarize from information on a website.

I can cross reference information to be sure that it is accurate.

I can cite sources that I used for research.

I can make good choices when communicating and sharing online. (Edmodo)

I can use Creative Commons to find photos, video etc. that I can use with permission so not to violate copyright.

For now, students have chosen their books, reviewed instructions and the rubric for the project, practiced using Glogster and practiced taking notes on notecards using a graphic organizer to guide them. The project is due November 1st.  There will be more lessons to build their skills for success in this unit and more information coming about completing the project.  They will be performing a "Wax Museum" to share their "Glogs" and biography speeches on November 6 in the morning! 

Field Trip to Mt. Major

What a great way to end testing! Next Wednesday, October 9, we will hike Mt. Major in Alton Bay, NH.  Regular gym shoes will be just fine for this trip and students should dress in layers.  Please send your child's permission slip in as soon as you can and let me know if you have any questions.

That's PLENTY for now!  Talk to you soon,

Jaclyn Karabinas 

Google Resources, Parent Survey and more!

Happy Labor Day, everyone!

Norah is 5 months old today! Thankfully, she took a nap this morning so I could finish creating the brief survey for you as well as work on a "binder" of resources to assist with finding out more about technology in our classroom.

Here is the survey. You can take it right here OR you can click here to view it in full screen.




This is called a "Live Binder" (livebinders.com).  I compiled a few articles on Chromebooks, BYOD & 1:1, and Google Apps.  This is just a sampling of information available out there and I will likely add/edit/revise to keep it up to date and useful. If you have any links feel free to send them to me and I will add them. You can view the binder here OR you can click here to take it to full screen.




Thank you and see you very soon.  Please take the survey by mid-next week...by Wednesday, September 11?

Jaclyn Karabinas
jkarabinas@sau21.org

Here we go...!

We are on Day 3 today! I am feeling very positive about our start. The students seem to have grown as individuals since March, as well as bonded a bit more as a class. We still have work to do to build our family, but they are up for another great year!

This week we are exploring our individuality as represented by our fingerprints and focusing hard on the idiom "fill a bucket".  We are learning to be "bucket fillers" not "spillers or dippers" when it comes to interacting with EVERYONE around school, making this a positive place and a "mean-free zone". This metaphor of "filling a bucket" is going to remain with us this year and I am looking to link with other classes to expand this message.

Technology at LAS and in our classroom!
We have come so far! It's awesome and your children will certainly be trailblazers in this area.  A few notes on recent initiatives that have been communicated to you via email or letters home (such as the Google info coming home today).

Chromebooks:  If your family is choosing to participate in this purchase program, I believe the deadline is September 6th. Contact Zach Lamare (zlamare@sau21.org) if you need this information again, but if you have questions about classroom use, you can direct those to me.  It is my understanding that there will be a second round for this opportunity mid-year. If your family is in the position where you could take advantage of this opportunity and you believe your child is ready, go for it! A parent asked me a few weeks ago through email what my thoughts were on this and I am going to copy and paste a portion of my response here:

Some of the tasks we will use them for are:
-Academic practice sites such as IXL and Vocab/Spelling City
-creating online notebooks using Evernote
-using Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Forms and more with Google Apps for Education (GAFE) accounts
-Edmodo: learning games, sharing resources, collaborative projects, literature discussion groups
-Making recordings (such as for fluency) on SoundCloud

And that is just the beginning! 

That all being said- It's important to know that these things can also, and have been, accessed on school computers.  The benefit of having the Chromebook is an inexpensive (comparatively speaking) way for a student to always have access to their learning and creations.  I teach my students not to be device-dependent so they can accomplish goals on any device. 

You can read more about my goals regarding easy access to technology on my other blog by clicking here. 

Other devices: It is my understanding that students are permitted to bring in personal laptops and/or tablets, iPads etc. that they already own that we will use for learning purposes! I believe locks for lockers have been ordered in case you are worried about that element.  If your student has a device, I really would love to guide them in using it as a learning tool so they can experience that devices are more than just games!  I don't know Zach's process yet with registering these devices with the school so I will let you know when it is ok for students to bring them in, get them set up with school wi-fi, and then they will learn about these devices as learning tools.

Google Apps for Education (GAFE)

YAY!!! I mentioned this in my post to you a few weeks ago and today the information and permissions will come home.  It is a long document and can be hard to follow all the policy language, so I thought I would sum it up for you:

-GAFE provides students with their own accounts so that they can learn to use these tools appropriately with regard to learning.  Last year, this class learned to use Google Docs, as well as the commenting feature, by me creating documents, sharing it with them via Edmodo, then they could access their documents. Whew! NOW they will be able to create their own docs, collaborate with me and classmates, as well as learn how to create useful surveys and analyze the data they provide via graphs and detailed summaries.

-While students are issued an email address (@lastigers.org) I am not sure I have a use for this quite yet in our classroom.  We have done quite well with communication amongst each other via Edmodo and I will most likely just stick with that unless I feel a need to open up this tool.  This element can be turned off and I need to find out more about this.  That being said, everything via GAFE is monitored just as I monitor through Edmodo.

Edmodo

The next time you have the chance, create an Edmodo account and link yourself with your student's account.  Have your child login and you will see, on the left of the screen, a parent code.  You will be asked to type in this code when you join. This links you to you child's account and you can always see what they are posting (your child only) if you are interested. I know some of you have already done this and I highly recommend it, not because you need to monitor this, but so you can see the types of things they are doing within this amazing platform. You can read about my love for Edmodo just about anywhere on my blog- it has opened up so many possibilities for me to differentiate for these learners.  

OK! That's enough for now- As always email me at: jkarabinas@sau21.org , call, or stop in if you want to talk!

:) Jaclyn Karabinas

PS: I am putting together a list of resources (links, articles etc.) regarding Chromebooks, GAFE and general 1:1 or BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) information and will get it out to you at some point this weekend (Norah permitting! :) )  along with link for a parent survey I would like you to complete.

All the cliches are true... They grow up fast.

One minute I was living day to day, wondering when Baby K would arrive...the next- she is Norah Grace, 4 months old and I am dropping her off at daycare, feeling like my heart is being pulled out of my chest and left behind.

And that's Norah! She is a good, good baby.  I hope you all get to meet her!  Personally, my life has been all about Norah. Professionally, I continue to seek out new opportunities to connect with educators around world and find ways to improve classroom practices and innovate professional development.  In December, I will be presenting at the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference about using Edmodo for the blended classroom and will be facilitating discussions regarding online and face-to-face learning communities for teachers to "de-isolate" our profession.  I spend a great deal of time studying the Common Core to able to help myself and others understands its call, piece together my thoughts on my professional blog, and plan carefully to balance the integration of arts and technology in the classroom.

Well, this is the longest time period ever in my life that I wasn't "working" (well, I was definitely scolded by my husband for dabbling in quite a few school related projects over my leave... :) ) and it was wonderful but strange! I felt connected to the kids over my leave on Edmodo and by talking with Jill (the world's greatest gift me as to a teacher needing a maternity leave!) and we start it allllll over again in just a few weeks.

Please enjoy the last few weeks with the kids and help them to slowly begin waking up their brains for the year.  Beginning to s-l-o-w-l-y reinstate any reading routines, fact practice/review, and writing (whether paper/pencil or on Edmodo!) will help. 

So many exciting things are to come this year- namely the unveiling of Google Apps for Education at LAS which I am so thrilled about since I had been teaching this class how to use them through my own account.  I have been pushing for this because it breaks down classroom walls for the kids, creating an environment they need and deserve for creating/collaborating on documents in 2013.

My goals for this class this year are to help them become model citizens in the school for balancing the use of arts and technology, learning to collaborate effectively on-line and face-to-face, and continuing to know, appreciate, and respect themselves and each other as learners.

I will send them a message AND a survey on Edmodo soon- please remind them to check in a few times over the coming weeks. I will also send out a brief survey for PARENTS here and for STUDENTS on Edmodo.  While I have a new component of my life with Norah, know that I will always be 100% dedicated to the students and their learning.  

Best,

Jaclyn Karabinas

Can it be June already?

Can it be June already?  I am feeling so many mixed emotions about the last three weeks of school.  It has been such an incredibly awesome experience to have the chance to get to know your children and to guide them in their learning.  I will truly treasure this time I have had with them.  That being said, there are 90 plus hours of learning that are still available to us before the school year ends.  We will fill them with a lot of exciting, interactive learning experiences.

The class as a whole really benefits from a daily morning meeting time.  It is a time to share, to interact, to get to know each other, to be greeted and welcomed each day, and to problem solve.  We spoke today about working hard over these last few weeks to really be understanding and respectful of each others’ learning styles.  So when one student finishes an assignment, I am expecting he/she will choose to continue to extend their learning with available choices vs. socially distracting others who are still working.  I know you are thinking - why do this with only three weeks left?  We have actually been working on this goal the entire semester.  However, we will be having a lot of independent explorations and small group explorations, so I am challenging kids to do their best to stay focused and respectful.  

Math

Our math unit is exploring measurement - length, weight, and capacity using both the standard and metric systems. We will also be supplementing the unit with a lot of problem solving and reviewing/strengthening of skills that need more practice.  I have identified links to IXL for students on Edmodo.  They will be practicing these in class and at home.  

Science

In science we will be learning about magnets and electricity.  I have posted some links to sites for kids to begin interacting with these topics.  This will be a fun, hands-on unit.

Writing

Students are wrapping up individual creative writing pieces.  They are certainly welcome to continue writing over the summer and posting it in google docs.  I will be happy to create a summer writing link for each student.  We will integrate some descriptive writing into our science unit.

Reading

We celebrated the completion of our class read aloud Owl in the Shower by dissecting owl pellets. We learned so much about owls and reinforced concepts about interdependence from our biomes unit.  Reading groups are finishing up their books this week.  I have enjoyed reading individually with students and having small group time discussions. Students have been connecting to and responding to reading with written responses.  They get excited when it is reading group time.  Ask them about the books they are reading.  They may want to continue reading more books from these series.  I also hope to work with students to generate some summer reading lists in order to promote reading throughout the summer months.  It is so important!

Homework

This week students will have homework each night.  Much of it is technology based.  My purpose is to remind students about all of the great learning resources they can tap into over the summer months. I am also having students review all of the sound alike words we have learned in third grade.  I compiled a list of words and definitions for them to be studying and interacting with over the next two weeks.  They will be drawing pictures to go along with the words to help them to better remember when to use specific homophones.  We will play sparkle.  They will complete practice worksheets.  Finally, students will bring home the culminating project from our Hampton Falls history unit.  They are to share the many projects they have created and the information they have learned with you. They are to reflect upon the learning experience and gather feedback from you.  This is due back on Friday.

Homework assignments for this week:

1. Sound alike words worksheet due Tuesday.
2. Sound alike word/picture sheet (written by students) due Friday.
3. Padlet.com entry focusing on our synthesizing information (new comprehension strategy where original thoughts when reading expand as students encounter new information) from our read aloud Owl in the Shower must be done by Wednesday.  If they are unsure, they can jot down a sentence or idea and show it to me Tuesday for feedback/guidance.
4. Hampton Falls multi-page reflection/parent feedback packet due Friday.

I hope that you have found this final trimester experience with me to be a positive one.  I would appreciate any feedback you have.  I also hope to have some type of year-end celebration in our classroom before year-end to recognize each child’s achievements and to look forward to grade four and to help students decide what their goals may be. 

As always, please feel free to contact me at any time.  Thank you.

Jill Berry

What's the buzz this May in the Honeybees' Classroom?

Hello.  It was such a pleasure to meet or catch up with many of you this past week at LAS Arts Night! I hope to have the opportunity to connect with those families that I have yet to meet.  We have a lot to accomplish between now and the last day of school - June 20th.  

Math -

You should have received the fractions assessment and all paperwork before vacation.  We will continue to review and practice those concepts as we move onto our next chapter.  Unit Nine focuses on multiplication and division.  We have introduced multiplying with multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000 as well as lattice multiplication.  This week we will focus on the partial-products method for multiplying 1- and 2- digit numbers. We will apply these skills working with money and word problems also.  We will work with division and remainders and how to interpret what they mean.  We will also work to find products of 2-digit numbers.  It is extremely important that the children know their math facts in order to be successful with this unit.  Could you please ensure they are practicing each night?  Students will be quizzed twice a week to be sure they are know their math facts quickly and accurately.  Each student has gone through their facts and know which ones they know and which they need to practice.  We are practicing in class each day with partners and with whole class games. I will be sending home math homework once or twice a week.  The blog link to the Everyday Math family letter should be helpful if you are unsure about lattice multiplication or partial product algorithms.  

Reading -

Yes, students will hand in their last reading log assignment tomorrow.  We have inferenced in so many creative ways.  We are introducing the synthesizing thinking stem with our class read aloud Owl in the Shower.  This book also ties in nicely with our biomes unit and the impact humans have on the environment.  It is time for me to organize reading groups and practice those thinking stems with them.   I will be reading with four different groups.  We will rotate through Lexia, reading groups and biomes research/history of Hampton Falls stations over the next few weeks.  I have selected books from different series and hope it will help students to find an author or character whom they’d like to continue reading over the summer months.

Writing (across the curriculum and skill building) -

I hope you had the chance to see your child’s writing at Arts Night.  I will keep The Best Part of Me writing up for a bit, then they will be sent home as a keepsake.  It was interesting to see what choices they made and why.  I thought they came out great!

We have been practicing paraphrasing this past week as we begin our first research project on Biomes.  Students are learning to read small amounts of text and to put what they’ve read into their own words so that they can remember it in a way that makes sense to them.  We will work on this research project much of this week, and students will bring home a colorful, informative cube to share.  In addition to this project, we have been practicing daily editing skills.  Last week we focused on correcting run-on sentences.  We will be moving on to multiple meaning words as this ties in nicely with our word study unit - adding suffixes to a root/base word to change the meaning, part of speech or tense.  We are also practicing making words ending in y plural by adding -s or changing the y to i and adding -es.  

Finally, I just love how eager this group of students is to learn and to grow.  Attendance at school has been wonderful, and as we have so much to do before summer, I hope it continues.  We have such fun learning together!   I have been keeping track of wonderful examples of active learning that I am observing and read it aloud at the end of each week to students.  They also like to end their days by writing in a “What I learned today” journal.  It is a fun way for students to take time to notice how much we are “stretching their minds” in school each day.  

If you have any questions, always feel free to contact me at jberry@sau21.org.

I am working with Mrs. K to get the dates link updated through the end of the year.  Thanks for your patience.

Thank you,

Jill Berry

What have we been learning?

Hello.  I have been really enjoying my first few weeks with your children!  The transition has been very positive, and the children have been so welcoming.  As I knew early on that I would be in the Honeybees' classroom, I was able to prepare by not only looking at upcoming curriculum, but also reviewing skills and curriculum they covered throughout the year. This has been key in making the transition successful.  We have spent time each day building community, setting expectations, promoting accountability, and focusing on positive efforts by students.  They are very eager learners. 

I asked the kids to share something new they have learned over the past three weeks.  These are great conversation starters when asking your kids what they are learning about at school.  Here is a little of what they have learned so far:

Owen - “There are five types of vertebrates and six types of invertebrates."

Jenna - “I learned what an encyclopedia was.”

Jayden - “Mrs. Berry likes birdwatching too.”

Cooper - “A blue whale’s heart is as big as a small car.”

Shannon - “Jellyfish have very strange beginnings.”

Clohie - “Pine cones can be male or female.  Also, some plants have seeds and some do not.”

Lily - “We read a book called Pinduli.”

Nolan - “ There are six animal kingdoms.  They are animals, plants, fungi, protists, archaebacteria, eubacteria.”

Brooke - “Mammals have fur or hair.”

Matt - “When a word ends in y and is one syllable, it makes a long i sound.”

Alexis - “Tigers live in the rainforest.”

Katherine - “ The true way to a good friendship is to have fun and enjoy.”

Coltin - “The world’s largest leaf is 65 feet long. It is on the raffia palm tree.”

Madison - “The tallest type of tree is a redwood tree.”

Ty - “A coconut is a type of seed.”

Kaili - “Ectothermic means cold-blooded and endothermic means warm-blooded.”

Austin - “Skunk is a fun game of chance. I even won a game.””

We have continued integrating technology as I do agree with Mrs. Karabinas in that learning can take place outside of school as well as inside of school.  We have introduced and practiced our next thinking stem in a variety of ways.  We are learning to infer. This is such an important skill for students as they need to find evidence in their texts, and simultaneously activate schema (what they know) to form a new thought about their reading. Today's professional development workshop talked about the importance of students locating evidence in text to support arguments and to be able to respond to inference questions.

The children are fascinated with our unit on biomes.  We have explored scientific classification of animals and plants and have spent time getting to know their characteristics.  We will quickly cover life cycles of both animals and plants.  Then, we will take another trip around the world learning about biomes - their climates, conditions, animals and plants that live there - focusing on adaptations, interdependence and survival.  Finally we will learn how all living things need movement, reproduction, senses, growth, respiration, excretion and nutrition to survive. 


We are studying fractions in math.  We have also explored probability and how it relates to fractions. Students are working with a variety of tools and manipulatives to ensure they are learning and understanding in the way that makes the most sense to them.

Enjoy your weekend!  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at jberry@sau21.org

Thanks,
Jill Berry

(Im)patiently Waiting for Baby K

Hello, Honeybee families!

These last few weeks have been such a whirlwind of preparation! Prepping for baby, keeping myself rested and healthy, preparing for Jill Berry's transition and completing report cards kept me busy. I am actually thankful to have had all these tasks to keep me distracted while my baby girl decides when she will arrive.

The Transition
It sounds like it has been a great week in the classroom, from my conversations with Jill and with the students via Edmodo. I am surely the luckiest teacher alive to have such a wonderful teacher be available for my leave.  Honestly, I couldn't have asked for anything more. I know Mrs. Berry will introduce herself via this blog and utilize it to keep in contact with all of you.  Her email is: jberry@sau21.org.

2nd Trimester Report Cards
I realize it has been some time since my last curriculum update here and I apologize for that. The bigger my belly has grown, the harder it became to sit and type.  Consequently, the comments on the students' report cards are MUCH shorter than I usually prefer. That being said, I still available for any questions that you or the students may have about their progress. The kids should send me a message on Edmodo if there is anything they would like to talk about regarding their progress after reflecting on their report cards today.

Austin's Ride Benefit
The students worked so hard and it paid off! We raised $500 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Northern New England Chapter in the name of Austin's Ride. The students had so many educational experiences by engaging in this philanthropic act.  We learned about the genres of informative and persuasive writing by preparing posters and speeches to spread the word to the LAS community. Additionally, students practiced their fluency and public speaking while preparing their speeches for morning announcements. We acquired new vocabulary with our understanding of Cystic Fibrosis and put our coin and bill counting to the test when we totaled the donations.  I love projects like this because they make learning real for kids.


Other...
Hopefully you are enjoying the artwork the students have brought home from their journey around the world in our last Social Studies unit.  This was an arts integrated unit that Collette Elzey and I have crafted and revised since our Arts Integration Master's program through Lesley university. It was so nice to enjoy that experience with the students as my energy was winding down.

Please do not hesitate to let me know of any questions you may have about progress, the transition, or anything regarding curriculum from this past trimester. You can direct any emails to both Jill and I if you like and we will get back to you!

I'll let you know when the baby arrives!

:) Jaclyn Karabinas
 

We made it a full week!

Well, it was the first full week the kids have had since before the holidays and we survived! The mild weather allowed for them to still get fresh and play outside and for this I am thankful.

Here are just a few updates to bring you up to speed with what kind of learning is happening in the classroom.

Weekly Reading Homework Changes
This week we reviewed examples of how our weekly reading collection will change a bit.

• We still read minimum 4x weekly and the minute minimum is now 20 minutes. They have all built this stamina now.
• Responses should include "Thinking Stems". These are attached to their logs and will eventually live in their binders for reference. (explained more below)
• Students have the choice of continuing 4 short responses weekly OR composing 2 longer responses for the week.
• Our 3x weekly math fact practice remains the same.

Our core strategy for thinking and stretching comprehension is to use thinking stems connected to each of our comprehension strategies: Metacognition, Questioning, Connecting to Schema, and Visualizing are the ones we done so far.  Yet to come are: Synthesizing, Inferring and Determining Importance. Thinking Stems are basically just sentence starters that guide us to share different kinds of thinking about text. These are based off of my favorite book for teaching reading, Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor. Now that we have been doing this for half the year, they are ready to apply it to their home reading.

Our current read-aloud is Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare.  This book has brought so much rich discussion in our class about clashing native and English cultures, roles of men and women, wilderness survival, friendship and family.  This text is engaging to the children because the author does such a great job connecting the readers to the characters, as well as using rich language to help the reader visualize. We are learning this same skill in writing- as writers, our job is to use rich and specific language so OUR readers can visualize, too!

Science
Our unit on Earth's Materials began in December and will wrap up soon as we as ourselves this question: How do humans use earth's materials? We have learned about rock composition, the rock cycle, landforms, erosion, and are now focusing on Natural Resources. This week we completed a very challenging beach erosion investigation where students had to collect, graph, and analyze data! It was so hard but we stuck together with the goal of having a successful first attempt at what a real investigation requires.

Our next unit will be in Social Studies as we study World Cultures.  I love this unit because it is completely arts based, my first love, and allows us to explore the world through music, visual art and so much more.

¨Math
This unit focused on understanding place value and reading very large numbers. Students worked to use place value to explain and prove that numbers were smaller or larger than one another.  Explaining our mathematical thinking was a major goal this unit and we showed our progress on an Open Response that mimicked a game we played in class. Now we are focusing on understanding decimals. We have talked about them being parts out of the whole or the ONE, the same language I will use for fractions. Comparing decimals to money is extremely helpful for them.

Fact practice continues to happen both at school and home. Our goal of mastering all +, -, and x facts by June is attainable if we stick to this!

Technology
The students are really beginning to experience the power of cloud-based, collaborative tools.  Through Edmodo and Google Docs, we can share our learning and writing processess with each other in both real time and asynchronous (timeless) environments.  Students are learning how to draft writing pieces in Google Docs and utilize the commenting feature to "confer" with me as they need, even though I might not be right next to them. Many students are using Edmodo in such an awesome way. I notice that students listen to posted recordings of our read-aloud from previous days. Others are revisiting sites we have used to practice math and science concepts.  Some ask me questions about our schedule for the week or about what we are learning. The possibilities of these tools really expand our learning opportunities, breaking down the school walls.  When students realize they can access their writing pieces by the Google Doc link I post for them on Edmodo, they immediately want to grab their notebooks to work on it at home! That builds such dedication to learning and a true example of how technology can extend our learning beyond the school walls.

No wonder we are so tired at the end of the week! As I re-read what we accomplish, I notice that we are certainly in full swing and accomplishing so many wonderful things. Thanks for your continued support. As always, please call or email me at jkarabinas@sau21.org with any questions or thoughts.

Jaclyn