826michigan

October 10^th was awesome.  From beginning to end, it was a spectacular day.  We walked to the bus stop (on Maple) at around 9:30 and caught the 12B bus downtown.  The kids LOVE this part.  Everyone is so friendly, despite the fact that we are hogging all of the seats J , and the kids are buzzing with excitement.  We land at Blake Transit Center and make our way to Liberty Street, where we enter the Robot Repair Shop (always fun to pass through this fun shop!) and head back to the lab.  Kids gathered on the floor to meet Tom and find out what they will be working on in our two-hour time slot.  They were asked to write a story and began to talk about plot, characters, problems within the story, etc..   Suddenly, they are  interrupted by the evil Dr. Blotch.  She is communicating via speakers from Transylvania (she’s on holiday).  She immediately starts yelling at Tom (she’s not a fan of coffee drinkers, and he’s enjoying a cup of Joe while working with the kids) and she begins to accuse him of stealing her diary.  After a lot of haggling (she hates kids, so when she finds out there is a room full of kids with Tom, she isn’t pleased) she agrees to let Tom and the kids solve the mystery of the missing diary. 

Three suspects are paraded through and kids get a chance to interview and question each suspect.  While they are interviewing, there is an 826 staff member taking notes on the computer and what she is typing is being projected behind Tom where kids can read what she has written.  Tom has prepared them to interview the suspects and discussed key words (alibi, suspect, evidence, motive, scene of the crime, etc.) and guides them while they ask questions, learning about each suspect and why they might be the guilty one.  They were AMAZING.  They asked thoughtful and relevant questions, noting how each suspect evaded questions and how their body language made them think they were lying.  After interviewing the three suspects, they were sent to write a letter to Dr. Blotch telling her who they think took her diary and WHY.  They needed to give EVIDENCE as to why they chose this suspect, trying to convince her of their guilt.  They were also given a chance to create an ID badge and personnel file.  They also created a detailed drawing of the scene of the crime.  Brilliant work was being done at every table, from every pencil.  Every single kid was on task for the entire 2 hours.  Two hours.  To wrap up our day, we had to share our letters with Dr. Blotch so she was able to determine who she thought stole her diary.  Was it: Edna Speilberg?  Her fancy and rich next door neighbor?  Dr. Gold, her disgruntled lab partner who had motive and opportunity?  Or Randy Blotch, a 2^nd cousin who was living in the trees with squirrels because his entire family (led by Dr. Blotch) had disowned him?  Tom had kids explain to Dr. Blotch who they suspected and why they had been the diary thief.  Finally, Tom asked JaVonte to share HIS theory.  JaVonte explained to Dr. Blotch that he thought no one had taken her diary, but in fact, she had made the entire story up so she could get Tom in trouble and fire him.  Dr. Blotch confessed that she HAD made up the story and she was now going to sell their stories in order to make thousands of dollars (mysteries are hot sellers!).  Meanwhile, Cat had managed to steal their letters from Dr. Blotch (in Transylvania)  and returned back to the lab triumphantly  - with yellow folders in hand.  YAYYYYYYY!

Our bus home was late, but we managed to occupy our time and were grateful for the sunshine.  We got back to Haisley at a little after 12:30 and ate lunch in our classroom.  It was a SPECTACULAR day.  Make sure you read their writing!

Math Game Rotation

Math games are an important part of learning.  They allow kids to practice a variety of skills while learning important social skills along the way.  We used eSuite (on the computers), Swish, Set, and Qbitz.  Critical thinking games are an extremely important part of your child’s development and I encourage you to have a GAME NIGHT on a regular basis.  I remember playing Boggle as a kid with my Mom on a weekly basis.  Playing Boggle is one of my favorite memories…not because I learned new words, but because I was able to spend quality time with my Mom while become better at activities connected with becoming a better student.  A win-win situation! 

Q-bitz

This is a game created by MindWare.  This week, kids played the speed round – players raced to complete the pattern first (keeping the card when finished).  The object is to collect the most cards by the end of the playing time.

Set

http://www.setgame.com/set/daily_puzzle

Set is a board game that focuses on visual perception.  The goal is to be the first to see a SET from the 12 cards laid face up on the playing space.  A SET is three cards that are either all the same or all different in each individual feature. 

Swish

Swish in another spatial card game that challenges you to be the first to make matches (Swishes!).  A SWISH is made up by stacking as few as two or as many as 12 cards so that every ball swishes into a hoop of the same color. 

The Content of OUR Character

We have spent a lot of time talking about character traits in the people in the books we are reading.  Our current book The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane offers a fun lead character (a china rabbit named Edward) who changes over the course of the entire book.  Edward is selfish and has no use for love…until his life takes a very drastic new path.  As the book progresses, kids will see how he changes and we will discuss the many ways his personality changes, along with his view on LOVE.   We constantly reflect upon what is happening in the book and how we feel about Edward.  Last week, we began a new project that asks them to think about THEIR character and how they want people to see them.  What do they like?  What character traits best describes who they are?  Here’s what we did:

In our Writer’s Notebooks, we created a rough draft of our self-portraits.  We also started a list of character traits (this list can always be added to as the year progresses).  The final self-portrait is then done on a piece of white construction paper.  This is then cut out, and placed on a piece of colored construction paper.  They then write their character traits around their portraits.  In the coming week, we will continue to work on our characters by adding sentences that describe US.  These will be mounted on the bulletin board in our room. 

WORMS!

Worms have arrived in room 306.  It took them a few days, but they are now doing their best to escape.  It isn't going well.  The worms that arrived are pretty small, so we have night crawlers from a bait shop to check out.  They are bigger and easier to see the anatomy of our worms.  So cool.  Check out our worms!

 What are earthworms?  Worms are invertebrates.  They don’t have any bones or teeth.  The body of an earthworm is made up of segments, which look like rings wrapped around their bodies.  Most adult earthworms have between 150 to 170 segments.  To find the head of an earthworm, look for the saddle.  The saddle is a smooth band around an adult earthworm’s body.  Watching the kids use flashlights to find body parts…priceless.  They were amazing scientists!  We took notes, illustrated our findings and shared what we discovered with one another.