Monday, August 11, 2014
Hello, Goodbye!
I have recently left my district due to a move to the Austin area. I am now teaching 5th grade. Please visit my new class blog:
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Making Memories
I asked students to reflect on our school year and asked them the following question. What is something that we did this year that you think you will remember for the rest of your life? I truly enjoyed reading their blog posts. The overall theme of them is that it is the relationships we build that have a lasting impact. I know I have many, many wonderful memories of our year.
I want to extend a special thank you to the students, parents, staff, and community of Polser Elementary. I have enjoyed learning alongside you this year. As most of you are aware, my husband and I are relocating to the Austin area to be closer to family; however, I will carry a piece of each of you in my heart.
What's New at the Zoo?
We just wrapped our our last PBL of the year. While I have enjoyed all of our PBL experiences this year, I think this one is my personal favorite! The staff at the zoo were absolutely wonderful with the students. Check out the blog the Dallas Zoo wrote about our experience here.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Monday, March 24, 2014
Weather Fashion Show
Today we began a new unit of study in science entitled Seasons and the Weather. To begin our unit, we held Weather Fashion Relay Races. Parents helped us prepare for the unit by signing up on Sign Up Genius to send in various clothing items.
Students were divided into teams. Each team selected one team member to be the "fashionista" and one team member to be the "fashion model." I showed each team a picture of what the weather looked like and each "fashionista" had one minute to select items to dress their model in clothing that was appropriate for the shown weather conditions.
This was a great opportunity for me to assess student prior knowledge of weather terms, temperatures, and information about the seasons. I will be using the information I collected during this formative assessment to help guide my instruction during the unit. We will also be able to refer back to this activity during our unit.
Below are some pictures and videos of our activity. Special thank you to the parents who helped supply clothing and other items for our activity today. Also thank you to Morgan and Kathleen you acted as our paparazzi during our fashion show.
Students were divided into teams. Each team selected one team member to be the "fashionista" and one team member to be the "fashion model." I showed each team a picture of what the weather looked like and each "fashionista" had one minute to select items to dress their model in clothing that was appropriate for the shown weather conditions.
This was a great opportunity for me to assess student prior knowledge of weather terms, temperatures, and information about the seasons. I will be using the information I collected during this formative assessment to help guide my instruction during the unit. We will also be able to refer back to this activity during our unit.
Below are some pictures and videos of our activity. Special thank you to the parents who helped supply clothing and other items for our activity today. Also thank you to Morgan and Kathleen you acted as our paparazzi during our fashion show.
Weather Fashion Show Superstar Style
Round 1
The weather condition shown
Round 2
Shown weather condition
Fashionistas selecting clothing
Round 3
Shown weather condition
Round 4
Angel rocking his flip flops. :)
Round 5
For this round, students were not shown a picture. I just told them that they got out of bed and dressed without looking at the weather or checking the news or any apps to see how they should dress. I told them they could see the weather conditions after they got dressed. Here is what we came up with.
And here was the weather condition
We were able to talk about how the weather impacts our clothing and activities...and when we forget to check the weather conditions, we are sometimes caught off guard. We are looking forward to learning more about the weather and seasons during our unit.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
World Read Aloud Day
Each year, World Read Aloud Day is celebrated on the first Wednesday of March. This day calls global attention to the importance of reading aloud and sharing stories.
We celebrated by chatting via Skype with Monica Carnesi.
We discussed her book Little Dog Lost which is based the true story of a dog named Baltic, who was rescued after he floated out to sea on an ice floe after traveling more than 75 miles down the Vistual River in Poland.
Ms. Carnesi shared how she first heard about the story of Baltic on the news and decided to draw a picture of his adventure and post it to her blog. Inspired by the feedback she received, she decided to write and illustrate Little Dog Lost which was her first book.
We had previously visited her blog and learned more about her and was able to see her studio so we had lost of questions for her.
The most exciting part of our chat was when we learned that Ms. Carnesi had visited our student blogs and had some comments for us on several of our posts. The kids and I were so excited to learn that an author had visited our blogs!
You can learn more about Baltic's story and Ms. Carnesi on her blog. Special thank you to Ms. Carnesi for chatting with us. We throughly enjoyed our chat!
We celebrated by chatting via Skype with Monica Carnesi.
We discussed her book Little Dog Lost which is based the true story of a dog named Baltic, who was rescued after he floated out to sea on an ice floe after traveling more than 75 miles down the Vistual River in Poland.
Ms. Carnesi shared how she first heard about the story of Baltic on the news and decided to draw a picture of his adventure and post it to her blog. Inspired by the feedback she received, she decided to write and illustrate Little Dog Lost which was her first book.
We had previously visited her blog and learned more about her and was able to see her studio so we had lost of questions for her.
The most exciting part of our chat was when we learned that Ms. Carnesi had visited our student blogs and had some comments for us on several of our posts. The kids and I were so excited to learn that an author had visited our blogs!
You can learn more about Baltic's story and Ms. Carnesi on her blog. Special thank you to Ms. Carnesi for chatting with us. We throughly enjoyed our chat!
Open House
Our Open House was a success. Special thank you to all of our family members who attended.
Here is a link to the Open House Sneak Preview we sent our earlier that week.
We had been learning how to write letters during writer's workshop, so we wrote letters to someone special, inviting them to attend Open House with us.
The students really enjoyed sharing their learning with their parents. They were large and in charge this evening. Since most of our current projects were digital, we created QR codes and parents brought their devices or we had some for check out. Below are some photographs from the evening:
Here is a link to the Open House Sneak Preview we sent our earlier that week.
We had been learning how to write letters during writer's workshop, so we wrote letters to someone special, inviting them to attend Open House with us.
The students really enjoyed sharing their learning with their parents. They were large and in charge this evening. Since most of our current projects were digital, we created QR codes and parents brought their devices or we had some for check out. Below are some photographs from the evening:
Sharing our video interviews from our biography project
Sharing our houses and projects from our Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf PBL
Sharing our learning about conservation from our Igniting Creative Energy projects
We also shared our personal timelines that we created
Thank you parents for coming out and being so supportive during our Open House. It was so wonderful to watch as your children lead you through the their projects.
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