Sandbox Planning

Today we spent a little time outside surveying the new playground area to start brainstorming ideas for the sandbox.  We had so much fun and the kids are REALLY excited to begin this project.  Over the next couple of weeks we will be taking measurements and making a plan.

MAST Aquarium Field Trip

We had the opportunity to visit the Highline Community College MAST Aquarium this month.  It was such a cool hands on experience for the kids.  They got to touch a lot of critters and learn about what happens in the water near our houses and school.  

I highly recommend you making a visit there on one of their free Saturdays.

Here are a few pictures.

Math Games in the Classroom

Math Games in the Classroom

Students Playing Math War to practice adding and subtracting!

Students playing Turn over Ten - a Memory type game working on addition.

Playing Dino Math Tracks Working on place value.

Math Games in the classroom are a very powerful way to teach students concepts that they need to be successful, especially with the basic facts.  Many parents, myself included, have learned their basic facts using the "drill" method.  Studies have shown that while this method is effective for some children it is no longer one of the best practices in teaching math.  Learning math in a setting where they can apply the skills and they are engaged is more powerful than memorizing facts.  

In my classroom you will see math taught through games frequently.






Excerpt from Educational Leadership Magazine:

• Games lower the threat of failure. In school, students often face considerable anxiety and sometimes harsh penalties if they make mistakes. In games, the best way to learn is to plunge in, make mistakes, lose your life, and then reboot so you can try again. Thus, games encourage exploration and experimentation. They do not give us answers that they  ask us to memorize; instead, they ask us to make our own discoveries and then apply what we learn to new contexts.
• Games foster a sense of engagement through immersion. The depersonalized and abstract prose of textbooks locks students out of the worlds those books describe. In the compelling microworlds constructed by games, however, kids can move about and have some stake in the events that unfold there. They can manipulate variables and see the consequences of their choices. Of course, game simulations cannot mirror every aspect of the phenomenon they represent, but the same can be said for the maps, charts, and graphs commonly found in textbooks.
• Games sequence tasks to allow early success. They maintain a threshold at which players feel challenged but not overwhelmed. The aesthetics of current game design first emerged when games were coin-operated arcade attractions. The prevailing wisdom was that the game should allow you to score an initial victory and then present you with a slightly bigger challenge that would motivate you to keep putting in quarters because you always felt on the verge of success. As it happens, this sense of always being challenged and on the verge of succeeding is also a powerful motivation for learning.
• Games link learning to goals and roles. When we approach designing educational games, the first question we ask the content experts is, “What does the information allow you to do?” Most textbooks never address this question.
• Games motivate learning by setting clear goals or allowing players to set their own goals. Games not only provide a rationale for learning but also create a context in which players immediately use what they learn to solve a compelling problem that has real consequences within the virtual world of the game.
• Games create a social context that connects learners to others who share their interests. Game scholars use the term metagaming to refer to the discussions that occur as players share evaluations, experiences, tips, and knowledge with one another. Metagaming parallels what educators tell us about peer-to-peer teaching: The act of sharing what we know solidifies our own understanding and also provides a sense of empowerment and expertise.
• Games are multimodal. Because different learners respond better to different ways of depicting the world and because conceptual understanding gets solidified as we process information in many different forms, learning experiences are more powerful when they incorporate multiple modes of representation—including text, photographs, graphics, or moving images (Kress, 2003). Most games offer multiple perspectives and often ask the player to assume multiple roles in the course of the game play.
• Games support early steps into a new domain. Games not only provide a virtual environment for rehearsing skills and mastering knowledge but also provide a framework that motivates additional research and learning. Players seek out additional information that helps them flesh out the microworld. Even if the game doesn't provide an opportunity to deploy that information through play, this knowledge makes the game play a more immersive experience.

Jenkins, H. (2005, April). Getting into the game. Educational Leadership, 62(7), 48-51.

Math: Problem Solving Strategies

We have been working on solving math story problems with the CUBE Strategy.  This helps students focus in on what the important parts of the problem are and decide what operation they will be using (add, subtract, mutiply or divide).

Welcome to the Rainforest Explorers Page

Welcome to the Rainforest Explorers Page! 

 

This page will be where I communicate the news happening in our class to Rainforest Explorer parents.  Eventually the students will begin publishing to the blog as well.  I am very excited for them to get a chance to share their work via our blog.  Think of this as an electronic newsletter for families.  I will email you a link for when it is updated, but also you can subscribe on the right hand side so that you will be emailed when the blog is updated.

What's been happening in class?

Room Name
Today the class named our room the Rainforest Room.  Over the past two days we have brainstormed a list, narrowed it down and finally took a vote.  It was a fun process.  We are anxiously awaiting the naming of the big front room!  The names on the rooms will help kids identify where they go for math, reading, etc.  A lot easier than calling them the big room, middle room and back room.  

Literacy
We have been talking about strategies for picking books that are just right for you and what to do if a book is challenging or you don't like it.  As part of our "About Me Unit" we have looked at biographies and started brainstorming ideas for writing autobiographies.  A list came home yesterday that your student created.  I would love to have their responses to these questions back in class by Wednesday, September 19th.  We will begin writing these this week and next week.  I have read with every student and next week we will begin small groups based around skills and interests.

Math
This week we have been working on ways to solve situation math problems (story problems) in groups and individually.  I have also been working with students individually to see where they are in math so we can move forward with small math groups. I won't be sending homework home on a regular basis for math, but will often email you games, suggestions or other ideas on how you can support what we are doing in the classroom at home.   

Upcoming
I am very excited to begin a special project next week.  The Rainforest Explorers will be helping to design and build the sandbox for our next outside area.  This will be a combination of our literacy and math time.  Skills you should expect your student your student to use and practice are measurement, scaled drawings, perimeter, area, budgeting and presentations.  Our plan is for the class to look at the area, design what they think would be the best fit, cost it out (after a trip to the hardware store), make a presentation to present to the Board of Directors and then share their final idea with the other students.  This is a SUPER EXCITING project for our class. I can't wait to get started.  If you have skills in building, drawing plans or anything else you think would be helpful here please let me know.  I would love to have some help!  (I will be talking to the class about this on Thursday - so they don't know yet).

Thanks for sharing your kiddos with me this year!

Jennifer