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/

Making Nouns Plural

DAY 1
We had a brief discussion about the rules of plurals. We did write on the tables!! Don't tell the principal! We talked about our class and how we all learn differently. The students decided they wanted to teach the lesson using the way they learn! We will see what they come up with..

DAY 2: Student Lead Lessons
My students decided they wanted to teach the lesson and each choose the way they learn best. We have 4 different lessons taught by 4 different people!!:

TRADITIONAL LESSON- We were shown rules and given examples.

VIDEOS AND SMART BOARD- We were lead in a video discussion on the SMART board.

GAMES- We played a game called "Bang". We read our spelling words for the week and told what rule it followed or needed to make it plural. If you get the word "Bang" you lose all your cards.

MOTION- We played a game similiar to Hallaballoo..were you had to step on the plural rule that matched what was called out. Example if the word baby was called out...the rule you step on was "change Y to I and add ES"

DAY 3
We used a KWL chart and filled out what we know about plurals, what we wished we still knew.  Then we watched the video about plural from brainpop and filled in our what we learned portions to see if we learned anything new.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz9uYl1WJos
 

Why Do Elephants Have Trunks? Sentence Building

Our sentence building question for this week was: 

Why do elephants have trunks?

Some favorites this week:
If they didn't have trunks they would not look like an elephant.
If they didn't have trunks they couldn't breath.
Elephants have trunks because the crocodile pulled it that way.
Elephants have trunks so they can paint.
Elephants have trunks so they can spray themselves with water.

Lesson objectives:

• Review adjectives-how using describing words create better sentences for the reader
• Review synonyms
• Use the online dictionary to find synonyms
• Create a colorful list of words to add to our vocabulary
• Have fun while learning

I learned that elephants can paint! My students repeatedly said that elephants have trunks so they can paint. I asked them, "Are you sure"? Well, they schooled me this week. Check it out...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZxSPSWxwjI

Why Do Pirates Wear Eye Patches? Sentence Building

A very quick sentence practice that we are doing in our class. 

(Question found on Pinterest)

Day 1

Directions:

1. Answer the question with 1 complete sentence. Explain why we do not start a sentence with because.
2. Edit with "Gimme 5"
3. Present your answer to the class before adding it to the board (practicing our public speaking skills!)

Students can "Gimme 5" or tell me the 5 things a sentence needs:

• Capital Letter
• Subject
• Verb
• Makes Sense
• Punctuation

Day 2
The following day we discussed ADJECTIVES. I love describing words! We played a game from the Florida Center for Reading Research, where there was an item in a bag. We needed to use our describing words to see if our partner could guess what it was.
We then filled out describing words for common things like Moon, Dinosaurs, Cats and Dogs.

Day 3 
Directions
1. Review ADJECTIVES
2. Grab your sticky note sentence and highlight the subjects or nouns
3. Add the nouns you choose to the boxes and add 4 describing words
4. Transfer your adjectives to you new sticky note and improved sentence.
5. Present your new and improved sentences

Our new and improved 7th grade sentences!! We are shooting high since we are 4th and 5th graders. What do you think? 

The students loved it..and wanted to create the next few questions. Look forward to: Why do elephants have trunks? and Why do Ninjas have swords?

Common Core Standards:

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.1a Introduce a topic or text clearly
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.1b Provide logically ordered reasons that are supported by facts and details.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.4.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.5.1b Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles.

Exit Ticket with Movement

In my quest to be a great educator, build lifelong learners, follow research best practice and to utilize what I am learning in my technology cohort class..I am trying some new things.

After listening to a webinar (BretfordUniversity) about movement and looking at the research, I created an exit ticket outside my door that was a review using a hopstotch game. This webinair discussed how, "Movement is an essential factor in how people learn".

Students reviewed 2 strategies that help us become better writers. 

Gimme 5- 5 essential elements to a sentence

• Capitalization
• Subject 
• Verb
• Makes Sense
• Punctuation

MINTS-When do we capitalize

• M- Months, Days, and Holiday
• I- When the letter "i" is alone 
• N- Names
• T- Titles of movies and books
• S- Sentences

The students had a fun time and increased their speed in saying what things go in a sentence and what things we capitalize with each time they did the hopscotch. They even asked if they could do it during lunch!!