Parent's Day Building Challenge and Completed Inquiry Projects

Thank you to all the parents who came to the Celebration of Learning and Parent's Day today.  It was really nice for the students to have you view on their work and do your own assessments for how they did.  They appreciate and respect your opinions and it will help them further develop their skills for next time! We also had fun doing a building challenge that put to use all their knowledge about materials and construction.  Using spaghetti and marshmallows, groups of students (and parents) tried to construct the tallest building they could.  Most groups got off the ground easily enough but once the structure got taller it was much more obvious where their design had flaws or mistakes and all the groups structures started to fall around the 70 cm mark!  It was great fun and an interesting way to apply and connect what we have been learning in our inquiries.  Take a look at some pictures of the challenge, along with the student's final projects and our video presentation summarizing the knowledge all the students acquired throughout the inquiry. 

 

Peer Assessments in Preparation for the Celebration of Learning

The students have pretty much finished their inquiry projects about building, design and construction so today they did a peer assessment of each others work.  The students will use this assessment to help them make any final adjustments before the Celebration of Learning on Thursday.  We are also working hard on a video presentation of all the knowledge we have acquired during this inquiry.  Be sure to come on Thursday!

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Katakana Door

G2 students made a lot of Katakana words this week.

Now these are on the door of art room and they really enjoy reading the words whenever they come to the door.

JNL students also made some sentences while they are using some Kanji they have been learning.

These are on the wall in the hallway so please check them out when you come to school!

Guide to Guided Reading

Everyday after lunch we have guided reading time for about 30 minutes.  This is a time for students to practice developing their reading and comprehension skills.

 

The first step is to pick a book.  Each student reads books at their appropriate reading level and have chances to move up when they or I feel they are ready.  Here is our guided reading book corner with all the leveled readers.  

The next step is to label all their "Thinkmarks".  Thinkmarks are like bookmarks but instead of marking their spot in the book, they mark where they were thinking about something important.  The fiction categories for thinkmarks are character, setting, connection, problem, solution, question, new word, spelling pattern, and prediction.  The categories for non-fiction are main idea, setting, connection, interesting facts, question, new word, and spelling pattern.  After titling the thinkmarks they are ready to start reading!

While reading the students simply place a thinkmark on the page where they thought about that category. 

After finishing the book and placing thinkmarks, the students go back and rethink about all their thoughts and write an explanation for each on the appropriate thinkmark. 

After finishing their book and thinkmarks the students meet with me to go over the book and all their thinking.  I keep track of how they do with each category and if everything is ok then they complete an activity worksheet for the book or a comprehension quiz. 

Next, the students take pictures of all their thinkmarks, upload them to the computer, and put them in their reading folder to save their reading thoughts.  

Now they are finished with that book.  They write the information on their reading log and can get stickers for their hard work!

As an extension, the students become the teacher of that book since they are now an expert.  On Fridays they read their books with a 1st grade reading buddy and engage them in questions and discussions while they read.  They ask questions such as, "What's the setting? Do you know anything about a character? What do you think will happen next?" We also sometimes practice this in class during read aloud time where each student gets a chance to read and lead discussion for their book. 

Omotesando Architucture Field Trip

On Monday we took a walking field trip around our school's neighborhood looking at the design and materials used in the different buildings.  It was an opportunity for the students to investigate the construction of buildings and identify the materials used.  Through their observations the students can better understand how the materials can used and apply that to their own inquiries and designs.