Lego Robotics for Teachers

Mrs. Gott, Mrs. Dietzel, Mrs. Sorenson, Mr. Greg, and Mrs. Taylor with winning Lego Robot 

Pivoting and turning exactly 180 degrees on the line then returning to another line.

Pushing a block into the designated square.

Following the wavy line.

Along the way we met another robot who we called the mouse. We caught the mouse.

Look at that hairpin turn our robot maneuvered.

Another group put a barrier in the way of the finishing line. We were the only group to complete this wavy obstacle course.

What a great way to learn about using Legos in the classroom, collaboration, programming, and how to overcome anxiety!

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!

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.

Student Comments on Math

 A secret note left for me! Someone loves Math.

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.

Students ask, "What is dry cleaning?"

We have a character in our book who is a "Dry Clean Only" toy. What is dry cleaning?

Capitalization Strategy-MINTS

We have been learning the finer points of capitalization. Found on Pinterest we used this acronym to help students remember what we capitalize. This has been an easy exit ticket question for review. My students remember when to capitalize...now how can we transfer that knowledge to actual writing?

Homophones in REAL life

A wonderful uplifting note left by one of my students. Happy day!! 
Looks like I need to review homophones. Or perhaps it is really a secret message and I should I ask, "My cool what?"

Student Created Vocabulary Review

We started the week by looking at our new vocabulary words and pictures that corresponded with them on the SMART board.

On Tuesday, we played a Pictionary type game where we drew pictures of our words. I photo copied them and mixed them up for a student created matching game tomorrow.

I also had the students type in and record the correct pronunciation of the vocabulary words on a great sight word app (sight words by alligator apps). The students type in the word, say it, record it, save it and they create a list of their weekly words. You should have seen the smiles when they heard their voices! They loved this.

Now, we are set up for a round robin reading center. Students will be challenged to read as many words in 1 minute that they can using sight words on cards, reading rocks, and their own iPad created list. They will rotate from one set to the next. I saw an amazing teacher do this and it was powerful for the kids to have so much direct reading practice in less than 5 minutes. Thanks for the idea Mrs. Thorkelson!! 

Science Week at Riverside

We get to wear our lab coats this week!! Bring on those science ideas and super questions. Anyone need help let me know. Students love my different "hats"!

Scientists have IDEAS

Scientists ask QUESTIONS and propose HYPOTHESIS

Scientists EXPERIMENT

Fishing with Mr. Staheli

Our class was recently featured on the Reading Rewards.com website!!

http://blog.reading-rewards.com/2014/01/fishing-with-the-principal-anyone/