Algebraic thinking with a hypothetical apple stand.

This week we have been using "The Happy Apple" as a basis for discussion in math.  We are working to solidify some of the skills that serve as a foundation for division.  In particular this exercise has focused on subtraction with re-grouping (borrowing) and multiplication by a variable.  In the above example there is an apple stand that has 3 full crates of apples, and 7 loose apples in stock.  A customer comes by to get some apples and asks for....well you can see that above.  Anyway, we kept the units simply as crates for a while, to build the understanding that after the customer leaves the stand will be left with one full crate, less two apples.  Soon after we designated a number of apples in each crate and soon found that no matter the number we put in the crate, the stand was always left with that number less 2.  

We have also been nurturing and caring for the chrysalis cases that we currently have.  The butterflies will probably emerge in a couple weeks, and we look forward to releasing them.  

This week we have also been working on tracking our reading stamina, identifying different traits that characters have, analyzing the different examples of authors craft that we can see.  All of these work toward a deeper understanding of that books that we are really, as well as literary elements that we can add to our own original writing.

I hope you all have a refreshing, invigorating, and warm (hot even) weekend!

-Dave

Hike lunch...

Hey there, we have our all school hike next Friday the 29th!  If your student needs a lunch from school please check in with them tonight, as I need to sign them up for a school-hike-lunch tomorrow.  If you would like to email me, that would work too.

Dave

Our first butterfly!

Our first butterfly emerged from it's chrysalis today!  This is some super exciting stuff.  This chrysalis was collected in-situ by Dallas and his family, and we are so excited to be ready to release our first butterfly tomorrow morning!  If you are dropping off tomorrow come in and check it out!

Band forms and Hike forms...

Just a reminder, all band forms are due to school tomorrow. 

Also, coming home tonight is a form to sign up for the school hike that we will have on September 29!  Please go over this information with your student and return these forms to school by Friday at the latest! 

Also, please remember that Friday is picture day!

-Dave

It is hard to believe it has been two weeks already.

Man, what a first couple of weeks.  Our class is really starting to gel.  We have been very focused thus far on teamwork and communication and it is really paying off!  To this end, we ended last week with some student designed challenges that were very well designed and thought out.  And this week we have been practicing untying the human knot during our morning meetings, making group observations of monarch caterpillars in the afternoons, and finally on Friday we met our Kindergarten buddies!  We will spend the next few Fridays hangin' out with them.  This is such a great opportunity to get to know some younger kids in our school, model the great team work that we have been developing and have some fun!

We have also been working on dusting off some of our math skills.  We have been working with and manipulating 3-digit numbers.  Not only manipulating them in our minds, but also practicing some standard addition.  Before we get too deep into anything we want to make sure that all of our pre-requisite skills are dialed in and running smoothly.

We also have a class of strong writers, this week we have been working on creating stories that follow a predictable pattern (beginning, middle and end), as well as crafting beginnings that establish characters and setting, and finally on Friday we switched our focus to developing characters, making sure that they are believable...even if they happen to be caterpillars.

On another note, please remember that I am working to make sure to add photos to our photo tab fairly regularly.  After you click this tab, you do need to follow a link to the album...I ma working on making this tab a direct link, I just haven't worked it all out yet.

I hope you have a great Sunday!

-Dave

Band information coming home tonight.

Hey gang, there is a form coming home tonight about band.  Please check it out with your student to see what their preferences are.  Please please please, send these band forms as back as soon as possible, and certainly no later than next Tuesday.

Thanks,

Dave

Thoughts after our first week.

I hope this post finds all of you well, and enjoying this first (long) weekend of the school year.  We had a wonderful first week.  During the first week of school all students are getting to know one another, and the new set-up of a fresh year.  While many (9) of these students were with me last year, we have six new faces in our mix, and we are all getting to know one another.  That being said, during this week students exhibited some amazing teamwork skills.  Throughout the week we focused on building some of our transferable skills.  For an outline of these please follow this link: https://www.wcsu32.org/Page/470

In particular this week we worked on expressive and effective communication.  We did this through a team-building exercise I like to call the "helium stick," as well as a series of challenges.  The challenges are kind of like treasure hunts, and during the first two days of the week I designed them and students used and developed their power of communication to solve the challenges.  Later in the week, students designed their own challenges in small groups, and different groups solved one another's.  It was super fun, and effective, these challenges can only be designed and solved by using, and asking others to use transferable skills!

We also saw the arrival of our monarch caterpillars this week! We will be rearing them in the coming weeks.  They have made their initial transfer to some delicious milkweed leaves and we are in need of more.  Earlier this week I reached out to ask if anyone had milkweed plants around their house they would be willing to let me dig up, but after some experimenting, I don't think the plants will thrive in containers.  So, I am asking if anyone has a few of these plants in their yards, and they see this post before Tuesday, could they please ask their student to bring a few leaves in on Tuesday to feed to our monarchs.

I hope you all enjoy this weekend and look forward to seeing you for parent night on Wednesday.