"Happiness never decreases by being shared." -Buddha

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Reading Rewards Fishing with Mr. Staheli

THANKS MR. STAHELI!!! Thank you for a wonderful experience and lots of fun memories for the students at Riverside.

13 students earned a trip to fish with Mr. Staheli by reading all the way to the SHARK level. We use Reading Reward.com for our online reading log. It is really motivating! The students love it!

This is a student making it to the SHARK level and moving her name. She read over 27 hours independently.

 Had to bring some of our favorite books..just in case the fish weren't biting.

 Beautiful weather, great food, wonderful students, lawn games, and a very excited and supportive principal.

What? Reading while fishing? I love these kids!

Friday, March 28, 2014

Math Question- What is a Ton?


We had our daily story problem about an elephant eating and how many kilograms was it. When we found the answer and my student said, "That is a ton!".
 I asked, "Is it?"
Student, "Is it what?"
Me: "Is that many kilograms a ton?"
Student: "I don't know."
Me: "What is a ton?"
Students (all 3):"I don't know."
Me: "Hop on the computer and find out."
Students: "How?"
Me: "Google it."
Students go to computer and all find the answer on different websites. (2000 lbs)
Me: "Do we know how many pounds the elephant ate?"
Students: "No"
Me: "How can we convert kilograms to pounds?"
Students: "I don't know."
Me: "Go find out."
Student go back to computers and find out how to convert lbs to kilograms (22 lbs=1 kilogram)
Me: "Okay walk me through the process of finding out how many pounds of food that is (pointing to the kilogram answer)."
Students walk me through the problem
Me: "So, is it a ton?"
Student: "Yes but..."
Other Student: "Don't say anything!"

My students make me smile.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Friday, March 21, 2014

Students Use Story Cubes as Story Starters

My students love using story cubes to release their creativity. These story starters are really fun to read.

A castle under siege!! Now that is creative.

Look at the indenting, capitalization, and use of punctuation! Nice job.

Creating a definition of one of the cubes.

A shooting star and idea light bulb above someones head showing the idea to build a rocket. Now that is original!

Sometimes simplicity is beautiful!

One sentence that sparks so many questions.