NEW WEBSITE!

Hello everyone! Since printing and sending your summer letters, I have created a new website for our classroom this year! 

Visit https://sites.google.com/a/meapps.org/mrspbythesea/ to check things out. Please note that it is still very much "under construction". As our year begins, I will let you know when any major changes happen. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your summer! See you soon.

Mrs. Papagni

The Writing Process

In your child's Friday Folder, you may have noticed their Personal Narratives have finally made it home! (Side note: my apologies. These were meant to go home before winter break. They ended up in the wrong basket and got lost in the shuffle of January and February!)

We are SO proud of these pieces of writing, which took us most of Trimester 1 to complete. The process of writing we took was quite a journey, and not a simple one. To begin writing, students always brainstorm individually, and discuss with their peers. This can take some time, especially for these narratives which were personal accounts of a memorable time in their lives. 

Next, students work on drafting a timeline, a lead (to hook the reader), and the actual story. In the meantime, we discuss the importance of writing the "show version" instead of the "tell version". Have you ever read a story aloud to your child, perhaps a book with no pictures, and without even thinking, made a mental "movie" of the setting, characters, and events? That's because the story you read is the "show" version of the events. The author crafted his or her sentences so that you, as the reader, can see exactly what is happening in the story, down to the minute details. Oftentimes, stories allow you to use your 5 senses, which is the first step for some in crafting what we call "snapshots" in writing. Here's an example from the book Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest.

This blurb is a model example of descriptive writing. The goal during the writing process is for students to continuously add specific details so that their readers can make a mental movie in their mind while they read. 

At certain stopping points, students will begin to conference. There are two two types of conferences we run. During group conferences, one writer reads his or her writing to a group of 5-7 students, and the listeners (including me) ask questions and give feedback. During partner conferences, students work in pairs or groups of 3, and follow the same process. Throughout the whole process, students are constantly revising, rewriting, adding, removing, etc. The final product is one beautifully crafted, detailed, and descriptive piece of writing!

Scientist of the Week

I love this quote by Wendell Phillips: "Seldom was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart...". In the profession of teaching, as cliche as it may sound, I am a teacher and a learner every day. My students' creativity, ideas, and inquiry open my mind in new ways. To support this notion that students are also teachers, we have officially begun Scientist of the Week in Room 22! Each Wednesday, one scientist is chosen. He or she takes home the Scientist bag complete with the Scientist's journal, a lab coat, safety goggles, a magnifying glass, and an experiments book.

This person has one full week to choose an experiment (from the book/websites provided, or an idea of your own), practice the experiment at home, and complete a lab report. On Thursday, the student performs their experiment for the class! "Assistants" are welcome to attend the experiment, but the student must do the experiment from start to finish without any help. After the experiment is performed, another scientist is chosen!

This week's scientist showed us how polar and non-polar molecules don't mix by adding a multitude of liquid ingredients to a jar. 

This week, our scientist explained how vibrations on a glass can make loud sounds! This one is easy to try at home!

This week's scientist explained how oranges with a peel will float on water, and without a peel, the orange will sink to the bottom! 

Today's scientist showed us how water can travel directly down a string from one cup to another, without dripping. We were all wondering what other kinds of strings might work!

This week our scientist pushed a sharp stick through a balloon without popping it! 

Today, our scientist used water bottles, Lego pieces, and water to create a tornado in a bottle! This connected nicely to our recent discussions in science about extreme weather. 

This week, our scientist used baking soda and vinegar to blow up a balloon!

This week's scientist used the power of Carbon Dioxide to show us how to make dried cranberries "dance"! This is a great one to try at home.

Our first scientist showed us how oil, water, food coloring, and Alka seltzer tablets can make a lava lamp!

Growth Mindset & The Power of "Yet"

Have you ever heard your child say things like, "I can't do math. I'm not smart enough", or "I'll never be as good as her"? That's called having a Fixed Mindset! In our classroom this year, one of my main goals is to help build and support a positive learning community, and in doing so, help students develop their own Growth Mindset philosophies. In short, having a Fixed Mindset means that you believe intelligence is fixed, and that effort does not have anything to do with success. On the other hand, having a Growth Mindset means that you believe that your intelligence can be developed, and you believe in the power of "yet" (I can't do that...YET). Here's an infographic outlining what it means to have a Fixed vs. Growth Mindset.

In class, we began by learning specifically about the two mindsets, and discussing how we all have Fixed Mindsets about something! We watched a short clip about our brain's elasticity, and what happens to our brain when we continuously do easy things, and what also happens when we continuously choose to challenge ourselves. Ask your child at home!  In pairs we talked about the wall posters (pictured below) and how we can use them in our daily language.

Since this discussion, we have been referring to "mindset moments" constantly! I love how students have been reminding each other when they hear Fixed Mindset talk, and how they recommend a new way to approach a challenging situation.  Each week, we will spend a few moments referring to this philosophy. I hope this new way of thinking inspires you to notice when you may have a Fixed Mindset, and encourages you to approach learning and effort in a different way.

Fourth Grade: The Daily 5

If you haven't heard already, we've finally launched The Daily 5, and the results so far have been truly remarkable. In short, The Daily 5 is a literacy structure that teaches independence and gives children the skills they need to create a lifetime love of reading and writing. It consists of five tasks (Read to Self, Work on Writing, Word Work, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading) that are introduced individually. When introduced to each task, the children discuss what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like to engage in the task independently. Then, the children work on building their stamina until they are successful at being independent while doing the task. Once they are successful, the "real" daily 5 begins. Check back later for another post about that!

We've also charted ways we can be independent during Read to Self and Work on Writing. These charts are called I-charts (I for independence). Here we are building Read to Self stamina. Ask us how we're independent during this task!

Below is our stamina chart. Look at how far we've come in just 4 days of practice!!!

In addition to Read to Self, we've also built stamina for Read to Someone and Work on Writing. 

Ask your child to tell you more about our options during Word Work and Listen to Reading!

Fourth Grade: Community Building

Welcome back, everyone!
We have had an exciting and busy first few weeks of fourth grade in room 22. I'm so glad to be learning and teaching with each one of you this year. We all have something unique to bring to the table, and I can't wait to get to know everyone.

If you haven't already heard by now, the first few days of Fourth Grade were AWESOME! We spent so much time learning about one another, hearing stories of summer, and playing cooperative challenge games. The most important activities within these first few days are those that involve community building.

Building a classroom community is my top priority as an educator. In a true community of learners (including teachers) a support system is built in which we can all feel comfortable sharing triumphs, tragedies, and pieces of joy from our everyday lives. We are safe to take risks, to grow together, and to develop into our true selves.

The first community building activity we did together was the Cup Challenge. Students were grouped in 4s (or 3s) and were challenged to stack 7 cups in a pyramid. Sounds easy, right? Not so much!! They were not allowed to use their hands, feet, etc. at any time, and could only move the cups with the string/rubber band contraption provided. Check out some of us in action!

The next day, we had a circle conversation about why communities are important, and what it takes to build one and maintain one. After, students were given boxes of spaghetti and marshmallows to build a marshmallow community! The one and only rule was that each student's structure, road, etc. MUST connect, in some way, to another person's.

The following week, we had a chance to sit down together and talk about what kinds of things we will each need to feel successful, safe, and happy this year in room 22. Our list of brainstormed ideas barely fit on our whiteboard! Here were some of our ideas: be responsible, respectful, nice, kind, don't bully, include others, listen, try your best, do the right thing, tell a teacher when you see bullying, be helpful, don't run in the halls... the list goes on. Together, we then worked on grouping and combining our ideas into a set of succinct thoughts. Room 22 is proud to announce our Class Promise! *Check back tomorrow morning for a photo of our poster, signed by each of us!

Soil Scientists

Our newest science unit is a hands-on discovery of soil, an incredibly interesting, accessible material that surrounds us in our daily lives, both figuratively and literally. As soon as we began our unit, discussions among students were centered around the idea that soil is important for many reasons. After an impromptu lesson on food chains, we all agreed that without soil, we couldn't survive, even if we aren't vegetarians!

Earlier this week we each constructed our own compost bags from soil and compost materials around our school's perimeter. In the bags we put damp soil, and a handful or 2 of composting leaves, twigs, etc. A few lucky scientists even ended up with some bugs!

After exploring the local soil and compost, we added live earthworms to our bags. We brainstormed a list of predictions regarding what the worms will do in our bags. Unfortunately, earth worms do not transform very much. Students were pretty bummed about that, until they saw their worms burrowing holes in their soil!! 

Next, we experimented with three types of materials: natural clay, sand, and humus (not the snack!). Students used 4 out of their 5 senses to describe each material. They also observed each material being shaken in a test tube, and predicted what would happen after the mixtures settled overnight.