As you may have heard, my mom was able to visit San Diego at the beginning of May. It was so sweet to see the students equally as excited as I was for her to see the classroom and meet everyone. I want to celebrate each and everyone of them - they welcomed her to our community with eager attitudes and open arms. It was hard for us to let her go, and even harder for her to leave! Luckily, she left a part of home behind for us to treasure. Back in Virginia, she works with elementary students, teaching them about our local history (my dad's passion) and incorporating it into art lessons (her passion). While quilts might not be necessary in southern California, she told us about why they were so important to people living in the Appalachian Mountains. Years ago, many families lived without electricity, and without electricity, they did not have heat to keep them warm in the harsh winters. So they would sew quilts out of scraps of fabric to keep them warm. Quilt-Making Process:
While traditional quilts were practical, they were also pieces of art. Each quilt was cut, pieced, and sewn together by the hands of loved ones. And now, our classroom is adorned by our own quilt - a piece of art made by the hands of 20 wonderful, loving students. I will cherish this quilt, and this class (my very first class), forever. Thank you, Mom, for giving us the opportunity and support to make beautiful work!
0 Comments
First, students built their own book box. We agreed that we should practice building before trying to build a little library for others. Students sanded, glued, operated a nail gun (with the help from an expert), and painted their book box. They were so excited to take them home! Below left: A closer look at some striped book boxes. Below right: Smiling faces and painted shirts! "The preschoolers aren't going to like their little library, they're going to LOVE it!" - Julieta In fact, I think we all love it! Good thing we made two because students are already suggesting that HTeNC needs one. This week we'll interview our preschool buddies to find out how we should paint it There are many steps to making a library for our preschool buddies. |
Books Deserts | San Marcos Library |
We spent time looking at access to books within our community in San Diego. We mapped out the San Diego County Public Library branches in North County on a class map. Our observations about the library locations led us into learning about a new concept: book deserts, or a location without access to many books. We quickly located a couple places on the map that look like book deserts - there isn't a local library within walking distance of the Oceanside Preschool. | We went to to the San Marcos Branch Library! The children's librarian, Ms. Sandy, taught us so much about the library. She told us about how libraries provide lots of people with so much access to books because the books are free, and anyone can get a library card. She also taught us how to search for books in the library. We got a great tour too! I think a favorite for all of us was the sorting machine behind-the-scenes! Librarians feed a book into the machine and it sorts the book to make re-stocking easier. After the fieldwork, we came back and shared the notes we took from the library. Then, we wrote a reflection about what makes a good library. I was most impressed by the thoughtful thank-you letters the children wrote to Ms. Sandy afterwards. Their writing continues to grow more detailed, personalized, and "On Target". I cannot wait to deliver the letters to Ms. Sandy (along with the books we checked out from the library). |
Rube Goldberg | Map Study |
Students explored all kinds of different materials and grappled while creating their Rube Goldberg machines. While building ramps, jumps, and pulleys, the NGSS crosscutting concept cause and effect came up. For example, if we knock over a Domino, then it will cause the marble to roll down the ramp. The NGSS refers to cause and effect as a crosscutting concept because they provide students with connections and intellectual tools that are related across the differing areas of disciplinary content and can enrich their application of practices and their understandings of core ideas. As a class, we started a list of cause and effect examples found in our books (just one approach to a deeper understanding of text). I was so proud of the way students collaborated in small groups, shared and listened to each other's ideas, and persevered in order to execute their ideas. I can't tell you how hard it was to watch them set up Domino after Domino, only to see them fall over, setting off the entire chain reaction. Every time this happened, students would set their Dominos back up again! Check out this video of our school-wide Rube Goldberg, as well as the ones from High Tech elementary Chula Vista and High Tech elementary Point Loma. | Before break, the second grade spent our time in math and studying maps. Without giving our second project away, the second grade teachers thought it would be important to have a deeper understanding of where we live in relation to other states, other countries, and other continents. We began small, mapping out the different communities we each live in. Next we looked California and surrounding states and our country. Each student helped to put together a puzzle of a map of the U.S.A. It was a highlight because students were engaged and eager to talk about each state. I was so impressed by the questions they were asking and the inferences they were making based on geography of the states. In our next project, we will be talking more about communities close and far, similar as well as drastically different. Community BreakfastThank you, thank you, thank you for a wonderful community breakfast. I was blown away by the incredible turnout. The students were thrilled to see so many loved ones invested in their daily life at school. The food was delicious, too! |
Next Steps |
| Big World, Little Library
|
Some other highlights from this week:
|
We make beautiful work. You'll see students reading their final drafts of the informative paragraph. After finish 3 drafts, making necessary and recommended revisions and edits, we celebrated with a PPP party - Publishing, Perseverance, and Popcorn! | We keep our school beautiful. Once a week, the second grade helps to clean up our playground by picking up trash. Below is an Inclusion team member, John, holding the trash we collected. |
This is your place to find important information and my place to show off the wonderful things our students are learning and doing.
June 2016
February 2016
January 2016
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015