Musical Rehearsal

Here's a snapshot of a song hearsal yesterday. Note Mary Jane Wirsing trying to teach the 3rd/4th graders how to rap! We have a lot of work in the coming days to be ready for the 28th.

Class Update

Our plant unit of study is cruising along quite nicely with several successful plantings. Our windowsills are full with a variety of small plants which sprouted from seeds planted before vacation. Everyone has a "grass head guy or gal" made from knee high stockings, potting soil, and grass seed. Many will be in need of a haircut soon and several have significant ear hair growing though deliberately placed holes in their cups! We have joined forces with the UVM Extension service and will be putting in a rain garden in the courtyard between Vista and the planning room. Andrew the gardener is also working with a few students each week in the garden right outside our door. You wouldn't believe what he gets them to eat!

Nonfiction books written by and about the children are finished, complete with covers that include individual head shots that were then Photoshoped using a variety of filters. Some funny, some creepy, some clever! How many of you know how to use Photoshop? We began our final unit of study in writers workshop this week, poetry. The children are very excited and I'm quite impressed with their initial attempts. Our first mini lessons have helped us look at everyday things in a new way as well as look into our hearts for what matters most to us. Next we'll be learning about how to make line breaks which help create a rhythm to our words and phrases.

Auditions were held this week in the classroom for parts in the house musical as well as daily song practice. Everyone has a speaking part, some longer than others. They all seem quite pleased with their parts and are psyched to practice. Just today several of the children in our class stood up in the kiva and sang part of a solo in front of the entire house in hopes of being chosen for that role. Surprise of the day . . . Beckett has terrific pitch and the sweetest voice. Future American Idol?!

After many, many trials and mishaps we finally have the World Wide Research slide shows published for all to view. Unfortunatley we won't be able to see the transitions or sound effects as the only website that could handle it also speeded up the show so fast that we weren't able to read the slides or hear many of the sounds. We all learned a great deal about technology!
Japan by Evey & Riley
Russia by Trevor & Ben
Cape Verde' by Sam & Patrick
Mexico by Beckett & Tommy
Germany by Lily B. & Adele
Russia by Noah & Zach
Columbia by Sophie & Lily M

Class Update

We are full on with a study of nonfiction reading and writing. Our mini lessons in reading are presently centered around how to read nonfiction differently than fiction, strategies for decoding, rereading and reading on, and generating conversations about what we are learning and turning those conversations into questions. As the month rolls on we'll take a close look at various text structures; table of contents, captions, index, diagrams, glossary, and headings. We are presently studying Jim Arnosky's collection of All About . . . books. Thank you Jim for painting such a clear picture for kids as to the features of a nonfiction book that they are able to create one themselves. Along with All About books we'll be writing our own How To and Question And Answer books. Right now everyone is feverishly creating lists of all the things they are good at.

Our World Wide Research has taken on a life of its own. I hadn't intended to dive into the animation part of PowerPoint, however, after someone stumbled upon that button the rest was history. Now our slides twirl, crackle, chime, drum roll and have colorful backgrounds. As Ben was quoted in our Blue & Gold article, "It's amazing what you can learn from just one website." I am truly amazed at what they are putting together and at the level of their excitement and enthusiasm. Everyone loves to share their slide show on the new projector and the audience always finds something they can change or enhance!

Hopefully we will begin posting slide shows next week. Stay tuned!

World Wide Research

Our study of cultures around the world has taken us to our final project . . . research. The children are working in partners and using CultureGrams to learn about a country and then put together a Power Point slide show. CultureGrams is a program that the school has purchased and is designed for easy navigation and is filled with great pictures, information, and videos. Each pair of children are required to present an 8 slide show with a picture and description on each slide from the following areas: people and places, history, lifestyle, society, culture facts, map, flag, and national image. CultureGrams has buttons for each of these categories. The children are extremely excited and totally engrossed in the project. I jump from group to group solving simple tech issues, they seem monumental to those involved at the time. Soooooo much learning is taking place. This type of engagement is just what we needed to pull us all through the end of the winter season. I have found an online storage site that can accommodate Power Point slide shows. As soon as we have some finished products I'll begin posting them. Make sure to ask your child about their World Wide Research!

Big Basket Raffle - Scrapbooking Fun
The Williston Families As Partners are gearing up for the annual Big Basket Raffle. Each classroom gathers items for a theme basket that will then be raffled off the evening of April 3rd.
Donation Suggestions:
Album, scrapbook paper, stamps and ink pad, acid free glue, glue dots, stickers, scissors, markers, scrapbook kit, organizer, gift certificate to Michaels or Creative Habitat, etc.
*Families with more than one child in a House may choose to donate one item per child or one item per family.
*Students are not limited to only one donation item
*Students may join together to donate larger items
*Donations will be collected from February 16 to March 18, 2009, and then be assembled into beautiful theme baskets to be raffled off at the
Big Basket Raffle on April 3rd

Happy 100th Day of School

After celebrating 100 in as many ways as we possibly could the children ended the day by making Fruit Loop necklaces . . . 10 groups of 10. Podcasts are coming along. The question of the day is "How many takes did you have before you actually had a keeper?"