A chronicle of the comings and goings of the 5th and 6th graders in Jason's class
(from 2012-2013. Further adventures can be found at http://s-k-5-6.blogspot.com/)
As for our regularly scheduled read aloud, we're rapidly reaching the climax of Esperanza Rising, which has introduced the concepts of organized labor, immigration, undocumented workers, the Mexican Revolution, and more. Here are some discussion questions that have come up in class that you might enjoy discussing at home:
Finally, we're off on another field trip this afternoon. We'll be visiting the University of Michigan Museum of Art to explore their African and Asian collections as part of our Ancient Civilizations studies. Ask your student about the trip tonight!
Last week was a rare occasion for us lately: We actually had five full days of regularly scheduled school! We've had a lot of days off lately; one for parent-teacher conferences, another for Election day, and while our trip to Howell wasn't exactly a day off, it wasn't a day in the classsroom either. Of course, we're off for three more days for the holiday this week. Last week was an opportunity to get a lot done, so our weekly Things to Do list was lengthy as a result:
Happily, everyone rose to the occasion, working diligently to pace themselves throughout the week. We're skipping the Things to Do list this week, but we'll be back at it after the holiday break.
The bulk of our homeroom time lately has been devoted to our research papers. Students have been spending time researching an ancient civilization of their choice. They've been working with a packet to help guide their research that encourages them to learn about the geography, economy, social constructs, innovations, and more of their subject. Now that each student has done a broad survey of their civilization, they're ready to narrow their focus to one specific topic to research and write about.
Posing with source materials:
Working with research packets:
We're only in class for two days this week, so we'll be using the time to decide on the specific topics that we'll be researching and writing about after break. Today, we'll be talking about developing compelling research questions to guide their papers. After break, we'll move into the outlining process.
Of course, our students have a way of generating their own side projects as well. For example, Cory has been spent the last few days flipping through a copy of The Boy Mechanic Makes Toys, a reprint of an old book from the early 1900s that has a variety of interesting projects that a youngster from 1924 might be interested in constructing. One day, he came up to me and showed me this sketch:
It's a rough sketch for his proposed design of a perpetual motion machine, inspired by some of the projects in the book. If he builds it and it works, it will be a major coup for advocates of Project-Based Learning (and a massive blow to the Laws of Thermodynamics). I've encouraged him to work with Dr. George to build it, and Dr. George has agreed, but only if Cory gives him 1% of the profits of the machine if it works. It's a pretty good deal for all parties...
As you already know, Michael Paul Goldenberg recently joined the Summers-Knoll staff as a math instructor. He has also started an S-K blog to help connect families to the classroom. Check it out (and subscribe!) to it here:
Karl Sikkenga has written a blog entry that I'd like you to take a look at. In it, he discusses the current state of our middle school math program. While I've spoken about this to most parents individually, I think Karl has done a nice job of summarizing how our math program has developed, both in terms of philosophy and practice.
Take a look at the entry, and let us know if you have questions or comments!
Here's an example of some of the work that Michael has been doing with our students. They spent today taking this concept:
... and building it using manipulatives in order to truly understand it:
It's an example of students literally constructing their own knowledge of mathematics! Read more about the specifics in this post over at Michael's Summers-Knoll Math blog.
On a related note, parents will be hearing from me individually in the days ahead regarding individualized Singapore Math goals. I've been working with each student in the middle school to set weekly Singapore progress goals. I'm managing these goals with individualized Google Docs, which I will be making available to parents. I think you'll find this system helpful to gain insight into how your student is progressing throughout the year. As always, I welcome any feedback you may have!
On Friday, November 2, the students and staff of Summers-Knoll took their annual trip to Howell Nature Center. It was an exciting and exhausting day, and I have roughly 180,000 photos that I'd like to show to you.
For now,however, I'll just share these highlights:
We began our adventures sitting together for a whole-school meal.
Those seated at Dr. George's table were treated to a discussion on how to make a particularly effective potato gun.
Activity #1: Fire Building
After a tutorial on the essentials of fire building, our class was divided into three teams. Each was challenged to construct a safe and productive fire using as few matches as possible. It was no small task, given how wet everything was from the previous day's rain. However, the chill in the air provided an excellent motivator!
Alexandra, Kaeli, and Melissa prepare their site.
Henry, Noah, and Kathy try to breathe life into their fire pit.
Success! Aristea, Laurea, and Kaeli warm up.
Activity #2: Zipline!
Henry A. comes in for a landing.
Melissa zips across the gulf with gusto.
Frozen in time, Kaeli looks as if she's falling from the sky (or ascending into it?)
Kathy adopts the classic Peter Pan in Flight pose.
A video of Noah's run on the zipline:
Activity #3: Climbing Tower!
The class contemplates the height of the tower.
Laurea makes her ascent.
Henry and Henry on the wall.
Noah making progress.
Matthew was the first person to make it to the window!
Kaeli in search of the perfect handhold.
Lee braves the wall.
Alexandra was the only one who made it all the way to the top! It was amazing!
After she rappelled back down to Earth, I told her to throw up her hands in celebration of her triumph! This was her response:
An excellent climber and humble!
Activity #4: Shelter Building
Given a tree, some sturdy branches, and a trillion twigs and leaves,
each team was tasked with constructing a shelter that would fit everyone in
the group while providing protection from the elements.
Henry A, Noah, and Henry K begin framing their shelter.
Kaeli, Alexandra, Melissa, and Aristea constructed a shelter that was both spacious and well-insulated!
Lee, Matthew, and Laurea, warm and dry in their shelter.
Stomping through the wilderness from one activity to the next.
By the end of the afternoon, we were all spent. However, everyone managed to rally for several epic matches in the Ga-ga pits. Many of us had never heard of Ga-ga before Howell, but everyone sparked to it in a major way. Here's some footage of a game in action:
It was tremendous fun to watch. First graders often squared off against middle schoolers, with no guarantee of who would win. The number of strategies and playing styles were as varied as the individuals in the pit. For example, watch the above video and see if you can spot Aristea. She pioneered and mastered the strategy of calmly standing perfectly still along the edge of the wall for most of each match. Time and time again, she would make it to the last few minutes of a game, at which point she would spring to life, rested and ready to go against the players who had been running nonstop. Crafty!
Before long, students, teachers, and parents were suggesting that we strongly consider constructing a Ga-ga pit back at Summers-Knoll. It's an idea that hasn't waned, as evidenced by this makeshift pit I noticed on our playground last week:
Dr. George has already mocked up a possible design for a full-size pit, which would be a delightful and idiosyncratic addition to our evolving campus.
Dusk gave way to night, putting an end to the games. We sat down to a subdued group meal, then wrapped up our evening with campfires and s'mores.
It was a really wonderful trip for the school in general, and for our class specifically. The day was packed with different types of challenges, and I was proud to watch as each student rose to the occasion and was met with success.
I'd especially like to thank the parents who spent the day with us climbing, zip-lining, and tromping through the woods: Kathy, Paul, and Jenny: THANK YOU!
We're spending much of our homeroom time in November working on individual research papers. Each student in our class has chosen an ancient civilization to research and report on.
In addition to in-class research and writing time, we'll be venturing outside of the school for sources. On Wednesday, we visited the Mallets Creek branch of the Ann Arbor Public Library to explore their resources.
After speaking with librarians and consulting the catalog, each student found at least a few different books to use in their reports.
We're using notecards to keep track of information about our subjects, including bibliographic details.
Each student was able to check a couple of items out from the library, which we'll be using in the classroom for further research. We'll visit another branch of the library next week to return books and seek out other sources.
We spent our homeroom time this morning reading through the books we checked out and taking notes for our papers.
Ask your student what civilization they're studying! What books have they been reading about it? Perhaps even consider a family trip to a museum or the library on a weekend to enrich their report!
