Penguin-Human Comparisons

We have been so curious about what makes penguins different than human beings. This week in Science, we compared physical features and measured up against the largest penguin of all--the Emperor Penguin.  Students made predictions about whether or not they would be taller than the Emperor. We were surprised to find most of us were not! The Emperor grows to be 4 feet tall.

               

                 

Afterward, Stanford Trees traced one another and labeled a human's physical features.

Sharing and Interactive Write!

We have been learning all about our classmates during "Share" time in Morning Meeting. Each morning, a Stanford Tree shares something special about their life. It's a great time for the sharer to practice public speaking, while the audience practices active listening and question asking.  As a class, we learn more about one another and build community.  

Then, the class works on one component of writing as we share the pen through interactive write. Each day of the week has a different focus--conventions, sight words, cvc words, etc.  Here are some of the Sharers we had this week.

Amazing Workshop Scholars!

I have been so impressed by my super scholars' work during Literacy Workshop! Check out the Writing they have been doing at the Writing Station, and the observations they made at the Science station.  They are like sponges, retaining so many facts about penguins, and learning so much vocabulary!

PENGUINS!!!

Penguins might be my favorite animal ever. We have been having so much fun growing as Ornithologists, and learning all about this fascinating creature. Here are first graders working on "Observation Charts," and interacting with penguin images as scientists.

  

  

Here are scientists exploring a penguin's habitat. These first graders froze ice to create icebergs for their penguins.  We had so much fun having our penguins jump off icebergs, dive into the icy cold water, and slide on their bellies.

Our penguin/human pictorial & vocabulary wall: 

Writing Workshop Goes this Way, Each and Every Day!

Thanks to my fantastic co-worker, Chana Karlin-Neumann,  I have truly enjoyed launching Writer's Workshop in true Lucy Calkins-fashion.  Chana attended the Writing Institute this summer, and brought back some tremendous resources.  Here is our writing wall after a couple of weeks of Writer's Workshop.

After just two weeks, our writers truly know and anticipate the rhythms of Writer's Workshop. I can't wait to see how they'll grow this year as writers!

The students' writing folders are full to the brim, and we will be working on choosing partially-written pieces to elaborate on this week.

SCHEMA!...what I already know!

Reading came to life this week when our kiddos learn all about Schema (SCHEMA...what I ALREADY know!) they shout ANYTIME I say "Schema". :)  We used Schema as a framework to learn some important lessons as readers: Reading is Thinking, Our Schema Changes, Our Schema Grows.

Inspired by a lesson from "Comprehension Connections," my coworker Preethi brough in, I used a lint roller to illustrate what our brain does when it comes in contact with anything--it picks things up--and things stick!  We talked about how "schema" is what we already have in our brain, and it's what makes us each unique and wonderful. All of our schema is different--and that's GREAT!  We then explored how our schema helps us as we read.

In subsequent lessons, we learned about how some things we have a lot of schema about, and other things we just don't have much schema about.  I asked students to shout out what schema they have about "penguins."  They had a BALL shouting out  so quickly I could barely chart it all!  "WOW! I can't believe how much schema you have about penguins! Now let's try with a new word..." I uncovered the word "Glaciers" & the students sat wide-eyed--"We don't have schema about that word!!!" they exclaimed.  "That is fantastic," I explained, "because Schema is something we can grow. One way we grow our schema is by reading."  We then read a story called Icebergs, Ice Caps and Glaciers to grow our schema and learn more about glaciers.  Students couldn't believe how much schema they had to add to our chart after the story!

I have to say, these lessons were by far my favorite reading lessons I've ever done!!!

Piecing it Together

The Stanford Trees worked on their flexible thinking as they persevered through some tricky puzzles their very own classmates had worked on.  

We discussed how perseverance means never giving up, and felt how great it feels to work through the tough stuff and complete a puzzle we thought we couldn't do!!! 

This was a particularly fun activity because the puzzles were created by students, given to a friend to piece back together, and art was created!

"This is the COOLEST!" exclaimed Doriahn, as he added his last piece.

"I am SO proud of myself. I didn't think I could do it, but I DID!" said Fernando.

Teamwork in Action!

The first CARES trait we studied was Cooperation, and we focused on Teamwork in table groups through Math Exploration.  

The Macaroni Penguin table set a fantastic example for the rest of the class on how to work together!:

We had so much fun exploring manipulatives, and creating phenomenal pieces of work in teams! The Stanford Trees certainly impressed me!! They also learned an invaluable lesson--you can get much further (AND have more fun) when you work as a team!