We did it!

On Wednesday afternoon Grade 3 students presented their human body systems to Grade 1 and Grade 2 students. Even if the presenters were a bit nervous at first, they spoke clearly and with expression. They had so much information that we barely finished when the bell rang.

Portfolios in grade 3

Continuing from yesterday.
Last year Grade 2 used Keynote to create electronic portfolios. Keynote looks visually very appealing and allows to make each presentation in personal style. Unfortunately the portfolios were too big to be saved and some got lost in the process of collecting I-Pads. I thought I would try something different. At first I thought of Google Sites or Wikispaces, but you need internet access to be able to view them. I needed something that would keep things in the cyber space but at the same time would be accessible when internet is down. I picked Evernote
I have been using Evernote mainly for collecting Pd reading and also for recording reading workshop conference notes. This is what my notebook collection looks like.

I can have many notes in one notebook. I can insert pictures and audiorecording to my notes. The only drawback is that I can't insert videos. I can include a link.
With students we created a notebook for each subject. Since many of the students had updated their I-Pad, their Evernote layout differs from the one I have.

So far Evernote has been easy to use. When we have our first student-parent-teacher conference, we will find out whether it will be easy to view and pleasing to the eye.

Nutrition and science experiments

Nutrition was a new word for us on Monday.

From the video the students learned that the foods we eat contain important nutrients including proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins and fats. No single  food can supply all the nutrients our body needs in order to stay healthy and strong. We need a balanced diet.We are still exploring what a balanced diet should look like. The students created a meal plan for a day and I will send it to a nutritional specialist for feedback.
Mean while, Doc. Shepherd was kind to invite us to a science lab to see how scientists test food for certain nutrients.
The students had to carefully read and follow instructions and then record their results.

Thank you to Doc Shepherd for this interesting lesson!

Creating portfolios

There are many different ways to collect data about students. We use assessment to understand the learner, to measure progress and to set goals. I have mentioned that I listen to the children reading to me and thinking out loud, observe them during math, or regularly read their journals. These are informal ways to gather data. I wrote about MAP test. This is a formal standardized assessment. Each assessment has its value. Piecing together info that I have collected from different assessments helps me to decide what experiences would help to meet each learner's needs.

Over the years I have found that one of the most powerful assessment strategies is a portfolio.
A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that tells a story of the student as a learner. Each chosen piece includes a self-reflection. It shows interests, habits, effort, knowledge, attitude, skills, progress, and goals in all subject areas. Creating a portfolio asks the learner to take charge. At ISE we don't create showcase portfolios with the best and most beautiful work. The portfolio may include sketches, drafts and even unfinished pieces if the learner is able to explain why she/he chose it.

So far I in my classes students have collected papers and printed out reflections to assemble between covers.

This year I am trying out electronic portfolios. Some of my students had experience with electronic portfolios last year. They used Keynote to do it. This year we are taking a different approach. What and how we plan to do, I will write in a future blog post.

For tomorrow

We decided that during our first unit we were not ready to present to a bigger audience. We still wanted to try presenting. So we have invited grade 1 and grade 2 students to our class. They will come tomorrow. Today we practiced how to speak loudly, clearly and with expression. We know it would take many practices to make perfect. Tomorrow we will try to be as good as we get and learn from the experience for future presentations.

Math goblins

Can you see the eyes peeking above the circle?

That's a math goblin who does tricks to our numbers. Sometimes when we put a number in, the number grows. Sometimes we have a mean math goblin who takes away from the numbers we put in.

Can you figure out what happens to the numbers in this picture?

Can you fill in the missing places in the table?

Most of the time grade 3 students can solve the math goblin mysteries.

We are learning about functions, equations and missing variables. Sometimes it is easier to understand the idea than to learn the tricky vocabulary.

Getting creative

I thought that we had finished with our human body systems book and were ready to move on. The students wished to share what we had learned with other students. We decided that if we wanted to speak to younger students we needed to make it interesting. I left the classroom and allowed them to come up with ideas and make a plan. Now they are drawing large pictures and creating songs and plays.

I am very curious to see what the result will be.

Feet, hips and back

A physiotherapist always checks the feet, hips, shoulders and back of people. He can read a lot out from those body parts and then can find ways to help a person who has pain or is recovering from injuries.

We learned this today when Mr. Tero Ruotsala, a physiotherapist, came to speak to our class. We even did a little check up on each other.

He spoke to us about the importance of doing regular exercises.

Regular exercise trains our muscles, releases natural pain killers, makes us feel better and helps us sleep. He pointed out how physical health and emotional health are connected. For example, if you have  pain, you can't sleep well, and if you don't sleep well, you are in a bad mood. He said that it's best to do sports and exercises that you like. It should be fun.

One of the most common problems is a back pain because both children and adults sit too much. He gave us some exercises we can do during a day to help us to move our muscles and keep energy flowing.

The most important idea he wanted us to remember was not to be alone and to have friends. Sometimes the people who come to him need a good listener as much as the physical exercise.

Literature circles

I love reading. In fact I went to the library two days ago and brought three new adult books to read. I find that I am extra fortunate to be a teacher and  in addition to adult books I get to read children literature. Currently I am in a literature circle group that chose Because if Winn-Dixie as their book to read and discuss. I enjoy the book but it is even more fascinating to listen to the thoughts children share during our discussions. Today they shared how the dog plays a key role in the events that happen to the main character. They talked how it is not nice to judge people by someone's comments or by the way they look. They thought of reasons why the life of the main character is changing and how come she is so brave. Talking about the book gives it a whole new dimension. 

Peer editing

Yesterday the students tried a role of a peer editor during the writing workshop. Everyone got a short personal narrative to look at. They used highlighters to mark places where the writer had effectively used words and included details, and used a different color to mark places that left them confused or where they wanted to know more or needed more details to be able to visualize what the writer meant.

As it turns out, sometimes it is harder to be an editor than a writer. Today the students used the advice that they had received and made changes. Some students were ready for creating illustrations to go with their stories.

Connections, connections, connections

Yesterday we looked at four different models of addition.

Part-part-whole model

Join model

Comparison model

Number line model

Today we looked for connections

1, If you have a model...

.....you can write an equation

6+3=9

.....and you can connect the picture and equation to a story.

"There are 9 students in class. Six boys and three girls."

2. Knowing the addition helps you with subtraction.

"If there are nine students in class, and six of them are boys, how many girls are there?"

You can hide part of the model and

you can write the equation like this

6+ a= 9

(a stands for the unknown)

3. Knowing basic facts helps you to add really large numbers.

If you know 6+3

Then you can also do 6 tens plus 3 tens is 9 tens

or 6000+3000=9000

Do be able to do large numbers computation and equations with missing addends, we have to make sure that the foundation is very strong. Understanding what operations really mean and having automaticity of recalling basic facts ensures that even when a student encounters a harder problem they can use their foundation to solve it. If they use just rote memorization, they may forget, get stuck or take a wrong path when faced with harder problems.

Meditation

Why is there a photo of toes?

The reason is simple. We had our third guest for our UOI unit visiting us on Wednesday. Ms.Naglee came to talk to us about meditation. She spoke about our brain constantly thinking. The thoughts go on and on and on, like runaway horses. Meditation is a way to get control of your brain. She said that it takes hours of practice to become really good. 

She taught us some techniques.

The first one was focusing on the pinky toe (hence the picture). For example, when you are in pain or nervous, you can concentrate on your pinky toe and try to make it move the way you want. Your brain is so busy with commanding the toe that you forget about the bad feelings.

The second technique was counting your breaths. When you are nervous, your breathing gets mixed up, you don't get enough oxygen to your brain, and you start sweating. Focusing on your breath helps you to calm down. It would be best to count to seven when breathing in and seven again when breathing out.

The third technique was becoming mindful. It means thinking of just one thing that you are doing at the moment. Doing one thing at a time is the best way of doing things, whether it is listening to someone, writing something, solving a problem, brushing your teeth, eating a cookie, or playing ball or walking. 

We practiced all three techniques with her.

International Music Day

It was a surprising fact for me that International Music Day has existed since 1975. Young musicians from Tallinn Music School gave us a short concert to celebrate this day with us.

Models

5+3=8

Easy, right?

We all know that this is addition.

How would you model addition and subtraction if you were not allowed to use any mathematical symbols or numerals ( no Roman numerals)?

Not so easy anymore.

Most students want to replace numbers and signs with invented symbols and signs instead of modeling the actual concept of addition. This week we will look at different models of addition and subtraction and how the same model can represent both operations.

Understanding the part-part-whole model or the join model or the comparison model helps the child to put meaning into the symbols and also makes mastering basic facts easier. 

What to write?

What would you write about if you had an empty journal page in front of you and not very much time?

It was interesting how the young writers approached the task. Some continued with writing they had started earlier, some wrote with a future plan in mind, some illustrated their writing, some chose a prompt we had had before.