Thank You!

I am amazed at what a fantastic group of parents you all are. I need to thank each and every one of you for stepping up and jumping in and volunteering to do so many thankless tasks this year. I have been so lucky this year to have all of your support and help that was given so cheerfully. It has made a huge impact on me and on our whole crew of students. The following list is far from complete but shows you just how much you have all done for our crew this year.

Thank you for:

• Chaperoning Voyages – which includes so many things from being responsible for kids, carrying gear, being role models, helping kids with gear, helping with meals, giving up some sleep to tend to sick kids and/or homesick kids, bonding with the kids and providing emotional support to kids, teachers and other chaperones
• Helping with the gear check at home
• Helping load and unload gear
• Chaperoning other field work experiences
• Running classroom parties
• Sending in supplies to help make the parties a success
• Doing clerical work for me
• Coming in to help with students in class during Exploration Stations and Math
• Being an audience for students during Writer’s Workshop and Reader's Workshop
• Belaying for the climbing wall
• Attending all of the various trainings and meetings
• Keeping up with all of the many communications sent home (This is no small task when you are in my crew!)  :)
• Organizing and planning school-wide activities like Life is Art, Teacher Appreciation Day, Boot Camp and more
• Reading with your child and sending them to school each day well prepared and ready to learn

I am sure that this list is not complete but I do want you to know that I am aware of how hard you all work and how much time you put in to make our crew and our school a better place. It has such a positive impact on all of the students and all of us as a crew. Thank you.

Another Bonus Blog Post

The 6th graders came this morning to help us practice for the All School Drum Circle that we will have at 9 am on June 1st. It is always a fantastic experience. You are all invited to attend. Then you can drop back by at 12:15 pm for our final crew closing circle. Hope to see you there. If you get this post by email, you will need to go directly to the blog to see the very short video that is below. Thanks Ms. Diane, Gracie's mom, for taking the pictures and the video this morning.

Bonus Blog Post - Garden Pictures

We had a great time planting the garden this morning. We hope that everything will grow and we will have lots of corn, beans, carrots and pumpkins.

Spelling

One of the ways that we have been working on our spelling is by simply trying out different ways to spell a word and then seeing which one looks right to us. Even if the word still is spelled correctly, it will be much closer than our first attempt. The best ways to learn to spell are to read and write a lot and to really look at words to notice patterns within them and how words look when they are spelled correctly. Check out some of our work below.

And They Read Happily Ever After...

Before school starts the crew always browses through bins of books that I bring in from the library. Last Friday I looked over and noticed how deeply engage they were with their books so I just let them continue to read. They all read for just about an HOUR! (55 minutes to be exact) It was the perfect way to start our day. When kids have books that they love they will read and read and read! I also heard them really discussing the characters in the Dragon Masters series. I love that this conversation happened all on it's own and that it was so deep and intent. Look at their intent and happy faces in the pictures below.

They even made lists of titles that they want to continue reading over the summer!

Here are the books that were in our classroom on Friday. I am bringing in more on Monday. They ask me to get more and I can never, ever say no to books. Check out the books in the photos below and ask your child which ones he or she likes best. There is a wide range of levels here so if you end up with a book that is too challenging for your child, turn that one into your family read aloud. Put some on hold at the library today or drop by and pick some up. I will update you on the books that I get from the library this weekend to bring in on Monday.

These books from the Scholastic Branches series are the most popular by far!

Updated to included these books:

3-Act Math Lessons

I follow lots of math teachers on Twitter and learn about many new ways to teach math from them. (I also follow teachers of other content areas, too.) One of the ideas I was interested in was something called 3-Act Math Lessons. I had seen many examples of teachers using this format for a math lesson in middle and high school and knew that it would be great in elementary school, too. I just never took the time to write/film one for our crew. Then one day I ran across a site that had 3-Act Math Lessons that were written for elementary school (K-6). Someone had written some and shared them. Now I had to try one. Last Friday we did our first one and the crew loved it. We tried the Cookie Monster problem and they all got so involved in trying to figure out the problem and situation. They actually broke out into applause when we got to act three - the conclusion or the resolution of the problem. I will definitely do more of these and will try and find the time to write some of my own. The links to the problem that we did last Friday and the one that we did today are below:

The Cookie Monster

The Juggler


These are the types of problems that you can do with your child over the summer. These types of situations pop up all the time in our daily lives. We just need to take advantage of them and use them to talk about math with our kids.

Vocabulary

The very best ways to grow your child's vocabulary are through reading aloud to them and talking about anything and everything. Even after your child can read, reading aloud to them is still a very good habit to continue. It will increase their vocabulary, improve their reading comprehension, introduce them to books and topics that they need a little support to understand and create bonds and inside jokes among family members. Please continue to read aloud to your child for many years to come.