August 28th

Words Their Way Program

At the start of the new semester we had the addition of a wonderful teacher that in partnership with me, has set up a program called "Words Their Way"

What is "Words Their Way?

It is a word study program that individualizes the way students learn to spell. It is a hands on approach to practice spelling patterns and to manipulated the words into different categories. This Sorting process help students analyze, compare and contrast the words they see. This program not only motivate the students to practice spelling words but it also helps students internalize the spelling patterns in words for the future!

Words Their Way Language

Sorting – organizing words into groups based on similarities in their patterns or meaning.

Oddballs – words that cannot be grouped into any of the identified categories of a sort.  Students should be taught that there are always words that “break the rules” and do not follow the general pattern.

Sound marks / / - Sound marks around a letter or pattern tell the student to focus only on the sound rather than the actual letters. (example: the word gem could be grouped into the /j/ category because it sounds like j at the beginning).

Vowel (represented by V) – one of 6 letters causing the mouth to open when vocalized (a,e, i, o, u, and sometimes y). A single vowel sound is heard in every syllable of a word.

Consonants (represented by C) – all letters other than the vowels. (b,c,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,q,r,s,t,v,w,x,z) Consonant sounds are blocked by the lips, tongue, or teeth during articulation

We already had a computer lab session where we got to use Spelling City to practice our words in a variety of games!

https://www.spellingcity.com/users/JessieChislett

August 27th

Art

We have begun to work with Pastels, we are stating with an amazing artist Georgia O'Keeffe, Facts about her.

We are mainly looking at her flower style to practice the shading, colour blending and gradient scale techniques needed for these art skills. 

We started exploring the Primary colours and Secondary colours by using a colour wheel and blending the colours together to get our secondary colours mix. We then moved into Gradient scale of colour which is moving from darkest to lightest tone.

Primary and Secondary Colour Wheel

Gradient Scale

Next week we will start making "Close Up Flowers" which was her specialty and uses many of the techniques explored above.

This is my example that I made

August 15th

WEBQUEST

Soil Facts For Kids- 
http://www.childrenoftheearth.org/soil-facts-for-kids/soil-facts-for-kids-intro.htm
https://www.ducksters.com/science/earth_science/soil_science.php 
https://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-soil/
http://www.soil-net.com
https://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-healthy-soil/


Epic! Books - 
https://www.getepic.com/collection/1071396/soil 
https://www.getepic.com/book/41436969/whats-soil-made-of
https://www.getepic.com/book/11772158/why-do-we-need-soil

Types of Animals- 
https://soilsmatter.wordpress.com/2015/06/30/what-types-of-animals-live-in-the-soil-why-is-soil-condition-important-to-them/
http://www.zephyrus.co.uk/animalsinthesoil.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qas9tPQKd8w

Worms-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-zc_1vjLnI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8miLevRI_o
http://www.homecompostingmadeeasy.com/wormcomposting.html
https://www.epa.gov/recycle/how-create-and-maintain-indoor-worm-composting-bin
https://www.getepic.com/video/49262853/scishow-kids-make-the-most-of-compost

Jobs-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hgtg0M7lFE
https://www.ohiopedologist.com/what-is-a-pedologist.html
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/edu/?cid=nrcs142p2_054277
http://www.soil-net.com/dev/page.cfm?pageid=secondary_whatelse_soilcareers&loginas=anon_secondary

Decomposition/Rot-
http://science-at-home.org/kid-question-rotting/
https://www.leaf.tv/articles/how-does-food-decompose/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB61rfeeAsM
https://kids.kiddle.co/Decomposition
http://techalive.mtu.edu/meec/module10/Decomposition.htm

August 10th

Novel Study Review!

On Monday we will be having a test on Chapter 1-10! Please review the worksheets and the comprehension questions!

You may watch the YouTube video up to 26:36 minuets (DO NOT WATCH PAST THIS TIME)

Next week we are also designing our own science experiment for our Soil Unit

Wind: Erosion by wind will maybe have straws, sand, containers

Water: Will have sand and water

Natural: Showcase mudslide, flooding, sandstorm

Human: Deforestation, Farming, Construction building

Erosion: Showing the impact of soil with no grass, soil with rock, soil with grass

Here are some posters that the students made to advertise our Camp Green Lake from Holes

August 1st

Novel Study

We've begun a novel study as a whole group! I really wanted to mentor and guide students in their first attempt to dissect a novel! Given that half my students are reading below a grade 3 level and with a few ESL students as well in my class, I thought that this was the best approach. I wanted the whole group exploration of a chapter book to be the blocks that build up success for groups to do an individual novel study project. 

Our book:

HOLES by Louis Sachar 

The book centers around an unlucky teenage boy named Stanley Yelnats, who is sent to Camp Green Lake. This is a juvenile corrections facility in a desert in Texas, that he chooses to go to instead of jail after he is falsely accused of theft. The plot explores the history of the area and how the actions of several characters in the past have affected Stanley's life in the present. 

So far I have read up to chapter 4 out load. I gather the students to read a certain section and then students work together to answer questions about the literary elements I want to focus on for that particular section. They then will complete some comprehension questions individually, so I can assess if my lower level/ESL students are grasping the content. So far, the students seem interested! I think I picked a book fit book for this group :D