Finishing up 2014 in Room 5

Some first attempts at message prints.

What a busy year.  I can't believe we're racing toward the end of this calendar year.  There are projects winding up and just launching.  Our memoirs are almost all typed up, awaiting some revision and editing before they hit the presses.  And our printing projects are just finding their legs.  These photos show some of the early attempts.  I challenged our artists to make prints that express a world-improving message, surprise us with color and bend our minds with a clever lay out.

Can you read it?

Geometry tableau: how to make a rhombus with a buddy.

Both 2nd- and 3rd-graders in our class are studying geometry right now.  Our younger kids are just getting to know some of the basic attributes of shapes, getting a solid footing in how to talk about  and think about polygons.  You can hear some of their awesome and hilarious attempts to say some tricky geometric vocabulary, here.  

3rd-graders are digging in deeper, working on linear/mirror and rotational symmetry, as well as the broader taxonomy of polygons.  You should check out some of their geometric art and shape riddles by Mrs. Zimmermans' room.  

Printmaking

Over the next few weeks we are starting a new art study - printmaking.  We started with a very basic definition:

P R I N T I N G  =  ink  + pressure

We are going to explore a variety of methods over the course of our study, culminating in a block print with a text message.  To start off we tried some unconventional ways to get paint onto paper.   As you can see below, painting with string yields some very different results than painting with a brush or fingers.  

We also had an opportunity to try a unique method of applying paint to paper thanks to the amazing Ms. Layman.  She had the brilliant idea of using the paper left on the gym floor from the winter bazaar to make large, very large art.  She also thought it would be a good chance to explore pendulums based on the swing that one of our students uses during PE.  Sue and Gregg Heintz built us some frames for hanging pendula over large sheets of paper.  We used recycled bottles left over from the air pressure experiments to make paint dispensers.  Below are some of the results.  Once we got the paint mixture ratio sorted out, we got some galactic and atomic masterpieces.  Come see them hanging in the hall when you have a chance.   

A very special thanks to everyone who volunteered to create this beautiful exploratory opportunity for our students.

If you are interested in learning more about printmaking, Khan Academy has a nice collection of videos from the Museum of Modern Art posted here.  Moma also has this interactive that has some interesting info.  And while we are posting links, we watched this handy video a few times to learn about the tricky mechanics of writing dialogue.  Enjoy!

It was so great to be back together after our long weekend.  The kids had so many warm stories this morning of their time with family and friends.  We had an extra long class meeting just so everyone had a chance to share their important news.  

The other day the Google home page paid homage to the artist Corita Kent which was incredibly timely because we are about to start a new art exploration based on print-making.  Students are going to decide what important messages they have to tell the world and then turn them into poster prints.  If you have any interest in helping make some prints in class please let me know.  I'll be looking for helpers for times between 2 and 3 PM, Monday through Friday.  It will be a lot of fun, but wear something you wouldn't mind getting a little bit of washable ink on.

Our class has done a great job of dressing for the weather, with hats and gloves and warm coats.  If you have not already, please take a minute to label your child's clothing.  Kids are asked to take their coats to a lot of different places on their way outside and it is understandable that they might get left behind.  We do a pretty good job of staying on top of that but it is helpful if their name is on a label or somewhere else in the coat, just in case.

Rocket Launch Stage II

Thanks to some great parent helpers, kids were able to add rocket-style features to the one and two liter bottles that were donated to our class.  Today the weather held long enough for us to see if the add-on's would make any difference to the flight pattern.  We found that in general the 2-liter bottles went way higher than the one-liter bottles and the wings and cones had little effect on how the bottles flew or how high they went.  Below is a transcript of some of what we talked about afterward.

Ryan:  The two liter bottle went up higher.  When we turned them into ships they went lower.
Stacie:  The first time that we did it, it went up higher.  When we added all the wings it went slower.  The first one went up higher and faster.  The second ones wouldn't go up so high.
Logan:  I think that the 2-liters went up higher because of aerodynamics.  I"' thinking it went up higher because the aerodynamics wasn't so heavy.  When we added all the rocket stuff it was more heavy.
Bella B.:  I think that the 2-liter went up higher because it was taller and didn't have as much stuff.  The second time the bottles were smaller and had more stuff on them.  

So now we are working with the lingering question of what made the 2-liters go higher?  Here are some initial hypotheses.

Reta:  Is it the amount of water in the bottle? The 2-liter bottles hold more.

JJ:  Was it the height of the bottle? They're taller so maybe they go higher. 

Logan: Was it the aerodynamics (shape of the bottles)? Maybe they move through the air differently based on their shape.

Further testing and observation is required!

Weekly Notes for the Short Week of 11/24

This week will be another short one.  November and December can be slightly discombobulated due to all of the breaks, holidays and weather events, but we are still cruising right along in Room 5.  There is no homework this week but please do keep the kids reading and writing.  

If you happen to be doing a lot of cooking this week, remember that there are a lot of math and science skills and concepts you can practice in the kitchen. This video is a good reminder on how to use and remember the different units for measuring volume and quantity while cooking.

Over the past few weeks we have started some reading groups to keep all of our students supported and challenged.  I try to meet with each student as often as possible for a brief reading conference because that is the most meaningful way to check in on their growth and guide their development.  Small groups are a way to learn and practice some reading strategies and skills together.  Right now we are doing a lot of word work, zooming in on parts of words, letter sounds, rhymes and common spelling patterns.  There are lots of little pieces to know but my overarching goal is to foster an interest in language and a curiosity about words.

Our Water Bottle Launcher Worked!

Amazing, right?

Here are some creative  explanations of how the launcher worked based on our observations and reading about how air pressure works.

Reta:  You know how there's water in it?  There's not room for much air to get in.  When you pump in more air there's no room for all that air and it tries to escape.  The water started to squirt a little on the sides and then it just burst off!

Beckett:  When you push the air in with the pumper all the air gets cramped inside of it.  So if the bottle is holding on hard and the pressure starts pulling it up off the connection and then it goes up in the air.

JJ:  So once you pump it the air pushes it up.  When you pump it again it just wants to go up so it blasts off.

Bella K:  So when the air is pushing on it, it's like force.  And there's gravity pushing on it too. It's like a battle between gravity and friction and the air pressure and it eventually the air pressure wins out and it blasts off and then gravity wins and pulls it back down and then they're all getting along and it rests on the ground.

Logan:  Gravity is pushing the bottle down like the magnets that D brought in.  Gravity is like a magnet, it's pulling everything down to the center of the earth.  The air pressure makes it want to up and its more than the pull of the gravity for a minute.

Sophia:  It's like the water is in the cup and the pump makes it fill up with air.  Air passes through the water and it pushes the bottle off of the launcher.  Once it's off gravity pulls it back down.

Some of these explanations are kids' approximations of the scientific information we've studied.  But overall they have such a knack for turning complex ideas about matter and forces into related concepts that are easier to old on to.  This kind of metaphorical talk is key for owning new learning.

Air Pressure, Memoirs and Number Sense

There is so much intense learning and positive group growth happening right now.  We had a short circle meeting on the carpet this afternoon and I asked each kid to share what they thought was going well at school.  They started with some of the low-hanging fruit: lunch and recess.  Good to know those are going well.  But as we moved around the circle the answers deepened.  

"I like writing now that we're working on our memoirs and I think it's good how, well, people are helping each other out so much. I saw lots of people helping ---- when he felt sad earlier."  

"Math is fun and I never really liked it that much before! It's because I'm trying to figure more stuff out on my own."

As gratifying as it is to hear these comments from students, I was reminded of how important it is for them to hear each other share what they thought was going well.  We make a lot of time to express compliments and appreciations for each other in class, but those are always really personal and direct.  When we take time to generalize and name what is collectively true it becomes a badge of honor for the whole group.

We have been taking a fair amount of time to explore some principles of visual design each afternoon.  I showed students some different ways to make marks on their papers with different lines and colors to create a sense of visual rhythm.  I don't have any good pictures yet of  their creations but come in and see the growing display of their visual music displayed on the storage closet by the door.  Below you can see a picture of some of the early experiments we've been doing into thinking visually with symmetry and asymmetry.

In Math, both 2nd- and 3rd-graders have been working on strategies for adding and subtracting.  Naturally 3rd-graders are working with larger amounts, but the basic concepts are the same. I'm really enjoying watching the students work through concepts of amount, drawing on their innate ability to compose and decompose numbers.  I think this article is a concise, if kind of technical, explanation of the concept.   I like to think about it this way - we all have a pretty innate sense of amounts up to five.  You can look at or touch a collection of things (coins, buttons, etc.) up to five and know how much it is pretty intuitively but everything beyond that relies on our ability to count, think about groups, and use language to mentally talk ourselves into understanding how much we are encountering. Below a 2nd-grader is showing his smart way of grouping amounts for quickly figuring out a total.

We have also begun a unit of study on writing memoirs.  We are going to stretch what our  young writers feel like they can do by exploring rich sensory description and the baffling world of punctuating dialogue. Fortunately our Room 5 authors are ready for the challenge.  Every day when we head out for a break there is a large contingent of writers who ask me if they can take a clipboard outside so that they can keep writing.  I hate to stop a productive creative moment but I do ask them to take the opportunity to move their bodies!  

One way we are make the stories more mindful and setting ourselves up for intentional work is by storyboarding our ideas first.  I call this "Plan it out/try it out" because there are some stories we think we might be ready to tell but when we try to talk them through or sketch them out, they don't seem ready for the page.  On the other hand, once you've laid out the beats of a memory like this, it is hard not to feel ready to go.

Oh, and as far as air pressure, take a look at this PDF if you want to try the science exploration we are about to do at home. I got the parts to do it at the hardware store for under $10.

Making Inferences - Explanations and Conclusions based on Evidence

We are about to dive headlong into a very sophisticated thing that humans do all the time: making inferences.  We are naturally good at making conclusions based on observations.  You smell smoke and the fire alarm goes off in the kitchen. Oops! You left something on the stove for too long.  We make these kind of conclusions all the time.  We don't have explicit, direct knowledge of what's happening but we can figure it out quickly.  So it should be easy when we read, right?  Well, kind of.  

Young readers, like the students int Room 5 often need some guidance and some practice.  Fortunately, there is a genre tailor-made for the art of the inference - mysteries.  And so we are digging in. Students found every mystery in our class library and we made a special collection.  Thanks to my brilliant colleagues, we now have a set of tracking forms that students will use to identify the features of a mystery.  Our readers will assemble clues as they read their mysteries drawing conclusions and backing them up with evidence.

Here are some ways you can join the learning at home.  

Reading Rockets is a fantastic resource for early literacy learning. They have this great collection of resources for families looking to dig into inferential thinking.

The Multnomah County Library is an amazing institution.  I am a dedicated fan and use the library resources almost daily, either online or with actual books.  There's a good chance that a book your child has enjoyed this year was checked out from the library.  They also have lots of great recommended books lists like this one of elementary level mysteries.  Make it a family event and head to the library for some new mysteries!

Week 7 Our First Field Trip and Run for the Arts.

Children's Theater Field Trip

We had a delightful first outing to the Northwest Children's Theater downtown.  Thanks to all of the families members who were able to come along.  The students were excited by the beautiful theater as much as the play!  

We chose the Sherlock Holmes play because it fits nicely into our focus on mysteries in Reading. By reading lots of mysteries and discussing their features we hope students will not only become fans of the genre but transfer some of the skills and strategies of being a mystery reader to their broader reading life.  We are focusing explicitly on making inferences.  This can be a challenge for younger readers but the practice of looking for clues, divining motive and keeping track of suspects makes inferential thinking very concrete.

We also had the good fortune to have Ms. Kathleen lead us in an experiment on plant transpiration.  Students put plastic bags around different plants all around the building and left them overnight.  When we returned the plants in the shade had produced very little moisture into the bag while the ones in the sun yielded more than a cup!  Our class is in the midst of making posters to explain this process.

Run for the Arts looked like it might have to get postponed due to rain but in the end it turned out to be a perfect day.  Thanks to everyone who was able to run with kids or cheer them on.  As a class we tallied our laps and calculated that we ran over 52 miles!  Way to go Room 5!

Week 6 Notes

Lots going on in Room 5, right now!  We are continuing our study of matter by examining phase changes.  How and why does ice melt?  What makes water evaporate? What are some changes reversible and others aren't?  By observing and exploring various interactions and changes over the coming week, we will come to some new understanding about the physical properties and forces at work.

Our students have also been learning about how to use the classroom computers and are now really smart about logging in, creating new documents and using teacher feedback.  We have a really great tool called Hapara, which allows me to view student work in progress and interact with them while they use the computer.  Coming up next is how to locate information on the internet in way that makes sense.

This Friday, 10/17, we will go on our first field trip, to the Children's Theater production of "Sherlock Holmes." Students will eat their lunches a little early so we can board the bus at 11.  We will return well before dismissal with some time to reflect on the trip and the play.

Week 4 - Character Silhouettes and Working Memory

The seven -, eight- and nine-year-olds in Room 5 have been working together to track and discuss the characters in our read-aloud book, The Year of the Book.  As kids this age move from reading shorter books that center around one topic or a handful of characters, to longer books with lots of information or lots of characters, they often need some time to practice putting all of the pieces together.  Longer text places a big demand on what cognitive researchers call working memory. For a nice overview on the idea of working memory and why it's key for learning, check out this TED talk by Peter Doolittle.

These students are taking notes on character silhouettes we created by outlining a character on a big piece of paper.

Part of what Doolittle talks about is that working memory is a limited resource - life places a lot of demands on our attention.  Fortunately we can tap some inherent skills kids have to help them absorb, process and retain information.  These are natural ways in which people turn sensory information into meaning. This is why we've been working on making mental images while we read, and tracking what's happening with the characters on the large silhouettes. Doolittle talks about the power of "illustrative thinking" to help us understand and remember. If you have a sensory image attached to new information - be it a sound, a smell or a picture - it will be more meaningful and long-lasting.

Students interact as they add their thinking to our growing notes on the silhouette.

Another aspect of inherent strength we have been tapping into is the power of discussion.  Students have lots of opportunities to discuss the book and the characters in a variety of formats.  We talk whole group and in smaller groups.  As the kids add their thoughts to the silhouette, they take in each other's ideas.

Writing on the large paper gives everyone lots of room to add their thinking.

This all feeds into another key element of learning - synthesizing new understandings into big ideas. In the coming weeks we will sift through all of the notes we have taken and work through some bigger questions - how have the characters changed? what have they learned? what does this teach us about life and the world? 

We use the collective thinking to hash out what's going on with the characters and think strategically
about what's most important for us to understand.

Week 3: What a week!

We are really getting into the groove.  This week we launched some new aspects of our learning and got even deeper into others.

We continued to work on writing about ourselves by using the character trait vocabulary we've been learning through our read-aloud book.  We also got our new personal spelling dictionaries and learned how to do some peer editing.  

We had our second successful Friday Math Jam with lots of parent helpers.  

The students really enjoyed all of the time working in small groups. 

I was grateful for the time to work one-on-one with kids and get to know them better as mathematicians.

This was our first week of 

Science.  We began by studying fundamental scientific skills and strategies.  This week we focused on observing the world around us. We studied all of the great rocks students brought in and some leaves from around the school.

This ties in with our work in Art, where we started learning about observational drawing.  We challenged ourselves to really LOOK at the things we are drawing and practiced by drawing each other - first, without looking at the paper, second, only looking a little at the paper, and third, by looking 50/50 at the subject and the paper.  The results are pretty hilarious.  One student said "It looks like you drew me in the blender!"

Mr. Lauer came in and set up our new computer cart. We practiced logging in and creating documents.  Up next, turning text documents into multimedia presentations!

This Week’s News

• Open House 9/16
• Homework
• Two Hour Late Opening on Wednesday, 9/17 for Teacher Training

Open House/Back to School

I hope you can join us Tuesday evening at 6 for our Open House.  We will meet on the playground to introduce the staff and then head into classes to mingle.  I will not be making a formal presentation but we will be signing up for conference times so be sure to stop in.  

Homework

This week I am introducing the Spelling and Math practice routines.  

For Spelling we did a quick assessment to get a sense of your student’s developmental level.  This determined the list of words that I gave to them.  We will adjust along the way if it turns out that the words are too easy or too challenging.  On the cover sheet there are two columns, ‘Write’ and ‘Spell and Check’.  For ‘Write’ they simply copy the words once in that column.  For ‘Spell and Check’ they cover the words with another piece of paper and try to spell the words without looking and then check them.  The attached sheets have related grammar and writing practice.  

For Math we have some simple practice and review exercises.  I will adjust the activities to challenge and support as I get to know our mathematicians a little better.

The reading log is optional and there is not reading comprehension activity this week.  Please return the homework on Friday!

Thanks and I hope to see you soon,

Mark

Our first two weeks

What a great start.  We have learned so much about each other, played some high energy team building games and written brilliant sentences about ourselves.

We are getting familiar with the materials we can use to extend our understanding and practicing strategies that make learning fun and successful for everyone.

I have had such a great time getting to know my new students and their families.  The best part is always watching the students sparking off of each other's ideas and passions.

Tomorrow we'll share the drawings students did based on the mental images that came to them while reading.  Over the coming weeks we will work on this strategy for making deep meaning and connecting to what we read.









Tomorrow will also be our first Friday Math Jam.  A few family members who were in the building indicated that they would be willing to come and help run a few math stations. I will reach out to everyone else who is interested in coming or taking work home to help out as our routines fall into place.  As always, you are welcome to stop by or contact me whenever you have a chance.






Thanks to Ms. Layman for the PE parachute photo.

Welcome Letter

Dear families,

I am excited to jump in to this new school year as your child's teacher.  We have so much important, joyous work to do. 

I know these first weeks of school are filled with paperwork and forms for you to fill out, so I will keep this introduction brief.  This will be my first year teaching at Lewis but I have been teaching for PPS since I got my Masters from Lewis and Clark College in 2001.  I am a co-Director of the Oregon Writing Project at Lewis and Clark, a national teacher-led network that collects and spreads strong teaching practices.  My partner is also a teacher and I have a rising 4th grader, so school is a very big part of my life. I still make time for biking, building things, and a lot of cooking. 

I take the meaning of elementary in elementary school very much to heart: we are here to provide students with the building blocks for lifelong learning — not just skills and knowledge, but an active stance toward learning and life.  At root I want students to know that the most profound and lasting satisfaction in life comes from broad curiosity, deep engagement and serious effort on meaningful work.  I also believe that we learn best when we feel safe, respected and known.  We will put a lot of effort these first weeks to learn about each other, what we hope for, and what we can do to move along together. 

Please take time to stop by or contact me when you can.  My door is always open and I love family visitors and helpers.  I will be contacting you soon and will send out a handy sheet with the various ways to get in touch me and how to follow our class’ work on social media.  For now, please feel free to contact me by phone or email.  I am thrilled to be doing this work with you.

Best,

Mark Hansen

Me, my mom and my son at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.