Kindergarten Water Video

I wanted to post this wonderful informational video Mrs. Barnes' Kindergarten class put together. They have been studying water all year long and they are raising money to help build a well. Please watch the video and feel free to pass it on to others.

Thanks!

Mr. Johnson

The Power of Words

I came across this powerful video. Not long - only 1:48 seconds long. But it beautifully shows the power of words.

The Power of Words

Augusta Baker's Dozen

Today was such a beautiful day! It was perfect weather for our trip downtown to the annual storytelling festival, Augusta Baker's Dozen. We were lucky and heard some great storytellers--I bet the kids could tell you a (maybe not so) scary story about the old woman with red lips and red nails. It also turned out to be a continuation of our study of folktales, fairytales, and even poetry. We heard Sleeping Ugly and The Old Woman who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle. The kids made great connections to our prior learning; you would be proud of what thoughtful and considerate listeners they were.

Although I forgot my camera (kicked myself the whole very bumpy, noisy bus ride down) I did have my phone! So you'll have to forgive the poor quality, but I did post a few pictures. The link is below if you are interested. Thanks to the parents who were able to make it! I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60953111@N02/sets/72157626381818643/

Student Led Conferences

I have updated the class calendar in case you need a reminder of when your student led conferences are. If your conference is during school hours, we will have our conference in the back portable located at the playground. Just come to the front of the school and someone (myself or your child) will escort you to the back. If your conference is after school, we will have in in the classroom.

Look forward to seeing everyone next week.

Scott Johnson

Assessment

I wanted to spend a little time talking about assessment. Often when we hear the word assessment, other terms come to mind such as test or quiz. Rarely does the word inquiry come to mind. Assessment as inquiry refers to researching into what the student understands about a particular topic. For instance, to understand a child's spelling needs, I may look at a child's writing and look for patterns pertaining to the child's spelling. These patterns will reveal to me what the child understands about our spelling system. Based on what I notice, I will create spelling lessons I can work one on one with that child. If these patterns run across most students, I may create small group or whole group lessons.

In class, I often will give students tests or quizzes (whatever you would like to call them). The information I gather from these tests will help me make a few decisions about our curriculum, but I DO NOT value these tests as the ultimate measure of what your child understands. This is why I do not place grades on these tests because the letter grade does not summarize what your child has learned.

When tests are handed back and sent home, please focus on what your child understood and what they had difficulty with. It's more important to spend time reflecting on their test and asking why a question may have been answered incorrectly. Is it because of a lack of understanding? Is it because they did not follow the directions? Maybe they used the wrong algorithm (added instead of subtracted)? Knowing why your child got the answer incorrect is just as important and knowing why the answer is correct.

Polls

I want to check to see if this works:

Color Poll

Visit this site if you would like to answer a quick question.

Publishing Blog

I have created a second blog for students to post their published writing. You can find the link to the blog in the column on the right. You can also click on the link here: JohnsonClassPublishing. To be able to publish, you will have to sign in. Here is how to sign in:

1) Click on the "sign in" link in the top right corner

2) Sign in using this email: cfijohnson301@gmail.com

3) The password is: letsinquire

4) Click on "New Post"

5) Give your piece a title and make sure you type your name at the bottom.

6) You can check the blog periodically and make comments about your peers writing. We will establish rules for commenting later.

Pictures

So, I finally figured out how to get the pictures from expert projects and science demonstrations off my camera. I created a flickr account so you can view them all. I'm certainly not an expert photographer by any means, but the kids look great. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60953111@N02/sets/

Booth: The Final Days of Lincoln's Assassination

Here is a fascinating interactive bit on the final days of John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated President Lincoln. I think you'll enjoy it!

Booth: The Final Days of Lincoln's Assassination

Moon journals

Just wanted to add a couple quick notes. We spend time today looking at sundials. We made connections to angles and protractors, and we used our own sundials to look at how the Sun can be used to measure time. The kids were really engaged and figuring out how the shadows change based on where the Sun is. I expect we will revisit the concepts next week, but it was a fun introduction today.

Also, a lot of the kids brought in information today about the "supermoon." In case you haven't heard about it, check this website out:

http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/national/%22supermoon%22-will-appear-in-the-sky-on-march-19

I know the entries for the moon journals will be fascinating on Monday!

Journals

We've spent time each day really looking into the different ways journals can teach us. On Monday, we spent time writing an entry in our math journal. Math journals are a great tool for getting us to think about the math that we do...how we feel about it, the strategies we use, lingering "I wonder" questions, and ways we can use the information in the real world, among others. Often, when we write about something, it causes us to have "realizations," as one student put it. After viewing a math journal entry from Mr. Hass's class on multiplication, we wrote our own thoughts about division. The responses were so thoughtful. To name just a few-- Darius talked about many emplorers using division in the real world for budgeting, Maile wrote out the division trick "Does McDonald's Serve Burgers" (ask your kid what that stands for!), and Kamryn wrote about division being repeated subtraction.



Journals have often been a keystone for us in social studies lately, too. After reading about Washington's appointment as General, we wrote what we thought he might say in a journal entry if he had one. We shared some of our responses and then read what he really wrote. We were shocked that he only wrote the weather and where he had dinner! Can you imagine just being named General of the army during the Revolution and only writing that it was a warm day? We also looked at a soldier's journal entry from after the Declaration was read to his brigade. We all enjoyed the "three Chears" he wrote about (even though we noted that his spelling, punctuation, and capitalization through the entry weren't correct) and had our own chorus of "Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!"



Of course, one of our main focuses in our astronomy unit is our moon journals. Each night, we are looking up at the night sky and recording our observations through sketches and notes. We are truly becoming astronomers. I anticipate that each day, our responses will become more thoughtful, and we will notice increasingly sophisticated features of the night sky. I hope that this will be a special, meaningful experience for you as a family as looking at the moon becomes a nightly ritual. I know that we as a class will grow as astronomers, observers, and thinkers.

Assessment

I wanted to spend a little time talking about assessment. Often when we hear the word assessment, other terms come to mind such as test or quiz. Rarely does the word inquiry come to mind. Assessment as inquiry refers to researching into what the student understands about a particular topic. For instance, to understand a child's spelling needs, I may look at a child's writing and look for patterns pertaining to the child's spelling. These patterns will reveal to me what the child understands about our spelling system. Based on what I notice, I will create spelling lessons I can work one on one with that child. If these patterns run across most students, I may create small group or whole group lessons.

In class, I often will give students tests or quizzes (whatever you would like to call them). The information I gather from these tests will help me make a few decisions about our curriculum, but I DO NOT value these tests as the ultimate measure of what your child understands. This is why I do not place grades on these tests because the letter grade does not summarize what your child has learned.

When tests are handed back and sent home, please focus on what your child understood and what they had difficulty with. It's more important to spend time reflecting on their test and asking why a question may have been answered incorrectly. Is it because of a lack of understanding? Is it because they did not follow the directions? Maybe they used the wrong algorithm (added instead of subtracted)? Knowing why your child got the answer incorrect is just as important and knowing why the answer is correct.

Children's Book Week Voting

Children's Book Week will be taking place May 2 - 8, 2011. As part of the festivities, readers of children's literature are being asked to vote for their favorite books. Voting is taking place according to grade level (K-2nd, 3rd-4th, 5th-6th, and teens). Mockingjay is up for book of the year and Suzanne Collins for author of the year in the teen section.

You can click on the Children's Book Week widget located in the right side column.

Expert Projects and Gathering

This has without a doubt been a crazy week. Between expert projects, the half day, our share fair, our library visit, and gathering, our plates have been pretty full. Although it was busy, it was that good kid of busy. That kind that makes you think "wow, we did all that?" The kids should really be proud of themselves.

We spent the first half of the week really engrossed in expert project presentations. Overall, the papers were well-written, the kids were articulate, and the boards/powerpoints were well made. Of course, at times, we had some antsy-ness after sitting through almost 2 hours of presentations, but they were mostly pretty attentive to the presentations. I was mostly impressed by the questions the kids posed to one another. Brennen asked Blaise "What kind of storm does the most damage to humans?" after her project on Damage Caused By Weather. Harrison asked how wind was converted into energy after Hannah's presentation on wind. They were thoughtful and sincerely curious about other students' projects and often allowed the presenter to share important and interesting details that they hadn't shared originally.

Gathering is always different than you expect it to be. For me, it was even better than I anticipated. Because of the schedule this week, we really began preparing on Thursday, leaving us little time for practicing. Even though we had some glitches with our song, the rest of the gathering went seamlessly. They were prepared to speak when they needed to speak, had their notecards and other artifacts ready, and were confident in their information.

The kids each shared a fact from their weather projects. The rest of the time was split between 3 groups, each focusing on a particular area of study. One group shared the magic of Pascal's triangle and its many patterns; another group talked the school through our timeline of events leading up to the Revolutionary War; the third group explained the song "Yankee Doodle" and how it was transformed from a song made to mock the patriots to a proud rebel march. We then as a group led the school in our (somewhat off-key, admittedly) version of Yankee Doodle. It was a really special time to see those kids up there, confident and proud of their learning.

I am so excited by what's going on in this classroom. I hope you are, too.

Science Demonstrations

I hate that this is so belated, but I wanted to give a short update about some cool things we have been working on.

Last week, we had a set of science demonstrations. Before we began, we talked about how they weren't experiments, because we knew what was going to happen, and we weren't really experimenting with any variables.

One demonstration showed us the effects of humidity by breathing on a plate of salt. We learned how salt can be used as a hygrometer, as the more water vapor is in the air, the more sticky and clumpy the salt becomes. Halfway through the demonstration, one group suggested trying the same demonstration with sugar. We used hot cocoa mix as a substitute, but the results were quite similar and actually was a more visible change in the mix due to the water vapor in our breath.

Another table had almost a microcosm of the water cycle. A jar with hot water was covered with a top that had ice on top. The hot water evaporated, and the cool top (which simulated a cool atmosphere) caused the water vapor to condensate. Every group witnessed the water vapor turning into small water droplets. Several groups even saw the jar begin to precipitate as the water droplets grew larger.

The final table demonstrated the concept of air taking up space. A balloon was placed over a water bottle and placed in hot water, causing the balloon to expand, and then cool water, causing the balloon to deflate. Led by Shubhanjali, we talked about how heat causes the molecules to bounce around, making them take up more space. When cooled, the air contracts, causing it to take up less space.

The demonstrations provided a nice opportunity for the kids to see some of the weather concepts in action, particularly since we have devoted so much of our science time lately to the expert projects. Several students got ideas to incorporate into their expert projects from the demonstrations, which was an added benefit. I am working on getting some pictures posted from the day, so they should be up soon!

Updates to Blog

It has been a while since I have posted but I wanted to make you aware of a few things. I have worked on some updating to the blog site. The biggest addition is the calendar to the side. I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of the various events going on in class. I'm hoping that by including the calendar, you will have a better sense of what is going on in class, when tests are, assignments due, etc. I have most dates up for the year but will add additional dates when they become known (e.g., tests are due, assignments).

I also wanted to send out a reminder about next week since there seems to be a lot going on. Next week, students will present their expert projects (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). Each child knows which day they will present. You can check the calendar to find out the date. Thursday, March 10, we will have our expert project share fair in the morning. That evening, during Curriculum Night, we are having an informational meeting about Earthshine. On Friday, we are in charge of Gathering. We will be sharing expert project information at that time.

Expert Projects

Today, the kids chose their expert project topics. We have been studying weather for the past few weeks, but this is the stage in the learning process where the kids are really going to be delving deeply into one topic. By the end of the project, they will be true experts on their subjects. (A detailed description of the project will go out next week.) The kids generated a list of possible topics that is quite expansive, so we have some great projects going on. Some of the topics are tornadoes, precipitation, weather phenomena, the atmosphere, and cultural views of weather. I am so excited to see what the kids make of this project. I know I will learn a lot!

We spent time at the Richland County Public Library today, and we encouraged the kids to find some resources that would help them in the research phase of their projects. Most of us found at least one or two books. We spent some time in the afternoon reading and taking notes off of the books; it was nice to see how involved they were with their topics. Several kids came up to me sharing neat facts from their books or showing me the cool format they were using for note-taking. Darius even had a "fast fact" section in his notes! In addition to two print resources, we're also asking that everyone uses at least one internet resource. Below are the links to some handy weather sites for kids. (Of course, if you type "weather kids" into Google, you will find a similar list.)

Expert projects are such an important part of CFI. Thanks for all the support you offer during this special time for the kids. We're already looking forward to the end products, but most importantly, we are so excited about the process.

http://www.weatherwizkids.com/

http://www.theweatherchannelkids.com/

http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/

http://www.education.noaa.gov/sweather.html

http://www.wxdude.com/kidres.html

Writing and Partial Products

We've spent some time throughout the past week working on different types of writing. Wednesday, the half day, gave us a nice span of time that is usually used in other ways. Mr. Johnson led us in a neat activity about forming proper sentences. As always, the kids delighted in the chance to write on the SmartBoard, and it was a nice reminder of some things to add in our own writing. The sentence read: "Kleenex is my favorite tissue!" Susie exclaimed. (The kids laughed at how excited Susie was about tissue...she must have had a really runny nose.) We also had a chance to get to some free-writing. The kids had been missing it, so they all were so focused with their writing. We also have been completing writing responses in social studies and reading. This has given them great practice with things like using indentions, forming paragraphs, and just putting their thoughts onto paper.

Partial products is a type of multiplication that many adults, including myself, weren't taught as young students. While this isn't the traditional method, it is one that really makes sense. It explains how place value plays a part in multiplication. It also removes the need for "carrying" and "place holders," minimizing errors that often occur in the traditional method. Honestly, I wish this method had been more "in vogue" when I was a student. I might have understood the process, rather than just learned the steps. The partial product method of multiplication is also foundational for certain concepts in algebra...anyone remember the F.O.I.L. method? The kids will be well-prepared for this. We had a check-up this Monday on partial products and estimation. Overall, the students seem to be learning the method and using it effectively.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Weekly Update

This week has included some really neat sharing times. During social studies this week, we have really been delving into our study of the 13 colonies as we move towards the American Revolution. After reading in our History of US books, we watched a 3-part video on the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. But I digress...sharing time. Oz started us out by bringing in a bag of rice and a can of corn. While this could have been a pretty surface level sharing topic, the class, led by Oz, really ran with it. The discussion covered a wide range of topics, including the food pyramid, eating habits in other cultures, and ultimately back to food in the colonies. The kids made the connection that rice was the first major crop in the colony of South Carolina, and Oz explained how corn was a staple food at the time. Justin followed in sharing a website he had found at home, socialstudiesforkids.com. He navigated the website on the Smartboard, showing us all how you can learn more about each of the 13 original colonies. "Sharing time" isn't a structure that you can find in a typical 4th grade class, but this day alone shows how much pure inquiry takes place through sharing. The kids are taking an active role in the learning of the class and becoming such natural teachers to one another. (Not to mention, they are "covering" many standards through these discussions!) This time is truly one of the most valuable in the day.

Thursday of this week was the NAEP testing. This standardized test is one of a set that is collectively often referred to as "The Nation's Report Card." A small sampling of classes from each state is chosen to take the test which is used to compare across states, as well as measure how our nation is performing in comparison with others. Some kids had math assessments, while others had reading assessments. As a whole, the class was pretty relaxed, though there were the occasional, typical grumblings and groans associated with standardized tests.

Hopefully you have heard about Multiplication Wrestling. We have devoted a lot of time this week to this math game; the kids (and teachers!) are enjoying it. Using number cards, we make "teams" of numbers that "wrestle" one another. If you have cards at home, ask your child to play with you! It's a good-spirited game, and the kids are practicing 2-digit multiplication, as well as preparing for new strategies that we will be learning early next week. We've also been working hard at math puzzles like Sudoku. The more we do, the more strategies we have for solving the puzzles and thinking critically about numbers.

We'll continue moving forward with our inquiry into weather. This week, our readings about the water cycle and basic elements of weather (clouds, types of precipitation, storms, etc.) have given us a solid foundation. We'll be building upon these as we dig deeper in the coming weeks.

Our reading of The Jacket finished this Friday, but discussion will continue next week. The conversations around the book were a great scaffolding into smaller group literature studies that will continue throughout the kids' school career. The discussion was quite impressive--the kids were quoting page numbers and certain points in the book, making thoughtful connections to other books we have read like Calpurnia Tate and Maniac Magee, analyzing how they would react differently if they were the main character, and talking in a sophisticated manner about the "overall idea of the book: prejudice," as Maile said. Many adults could learn how to talk about books from these kids. You would be proud. We sure were.

Greetings!

Happy Sunday, everyone! I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Molly Sanders, but I am better known in the classroom as Miss Molly. This semester, I am fortunate to be a student intern in Mr. Johnson's class. After the hiatus caused by the snow, I started this Tuesday. I'm so glad I came in this week, as we have begun learning this week about weather, the 13 original colonies, and literature study through a great book, The Jacket.

Coming from Mr. O'Keefe's second grade, I was so excited to see how a class of older students was going to be. From the first few days, I already know that it is going to be a wonderful experience being a part of this community at CFI. Your children are such sophisticated learners, using the language of professionals and making deep and meaning connections. One student noted "I am noticing a pattern in our conversations and I would encourage those who haven't to participate." After reading two picture books as a class on Thursday, another student said "I see a connection between the two books because the main character felt like she was far away from home in both but found a way to feel at home." Wow! These comments showed me how much these kids are going to teach me over the next few months.

I feel so richly blessed to have the opportunity to learn not only from Mr. Johnson, but also from your children. They each have so much insight and individual expertise, and I am so happy that they are willing to share their knowledge! I know I have big shoes to fill; Miss Madona's presence was so important last semester. I am so thankful that your children have welcomed me and made me feel like a part of the community. I want to thank each of you for allowing me to interact with your children—they are truly amazing young people, and I cannot wait to get to know them each individually.