Jeff Kinney & Dav Pilkey Webcast

Today after lunch we watched a brief webcast by Jeff Kinney and Dav Pilkey, authors of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants book series.  Using suggestions from an auditorium of elementary school kids in New York, they began a graphic story.  Students watching the podcast were then challenged to finish the story.

I thought that this would be a great jumping-off point for any reluctant writer to finish the story, along with its animations.  A package and information went home with students this afternoon.  Paula Klipfel has also posted more information and the webcast on her web page(http://mrsklipfelstopteachingtips.blogspot.com).  There is a contest for writing the end of the story with prizes!  This is not a required activity, but I am hoping that there may be some aspiring graphic novelists among us.

Happy Writing!

Welcome to the New Year

It's hard to believe that we have already completed 76 days of school.  We still have much to accomplish before the end of the year.

This week, we worked with Patsy Eldridge to begin to understand astronomy.  She brings valuable hands-on learning to our classrooms so that students can literally "see" how things work.  Students learned how the tilt of the earth impacts the seasons and the phases of the moon.  We will be working more with astronomy in our next science unit.

In math, we are completing our unit on fractions.  Students have been persevering through word problems and working to become flexible in their thinking when approaching problems.  We've learned that there are often multiple ways to attack a problem--therein lies the beauty of math.  I cannot emphasize enough the value of tenacity and perseverance as we solve these problems together.

Reading and writing are bringing an emphasis on expository forms over the next two months.  I was tickled by how the students became so engaged in the non-fiction magazines and books that I distributed.  While sharing what we had found in these, I learned today that the highest mountain in the solar system is in fact Olympus Mons on the planet Mars at 69,649 feet, more than twice the height of Mt. Everest!  I encourage you to share any non-fiction reading that you do with your child.  Small articles in the newspaper or in a magazine are a great place to start.

Stay warm during these cold weeks of winter.