Week of April 8th

To begin the first of my two weeks of solo teaching, we had many exciting things going on in our classroom this week!

As a continuation of our Mexico unit, the students completed 3 days of groupwork rotations on Mexican culture.  These activities gave students a chance to put the groupwork roles that we have learned (facilitator, recorder, reporter, and materials manager) into practice.  As the students rotated to a different activity each day, the roles within the group also rotated.  The students had some very creative products from the three different activities:
     1) a puppet show on a Mexican tradition or celebration- to show what we have learned about celebrations and traditions
      2) making a menu for their very own Mexican restaurant- to show what we have learned about the traditional foods of Mexico and pesos, Mexican money
       3) a map or a model of Mexico- to show what we have learned about the environment and places of Mexico

As that unit wraps up, we started a new unit in writing: poetry!  To get the students as excited about poetry as I am, we have started "Popping Poetry."  I have created a tri-fold display with numbered balloons on it.  Each day we are learning about a new type of poem, the class with pop one of the balloons to reveal the sheet of paper inside with the type of poem we will study that day.  After introducing the unit this week, we started with shape poems.  Next week, we will be looking at haikus.

Another exciting activity in our classroom this week was Hands On Nature!  The students learned about different defenses among plants and animals and how they help them to survive.  The students watched a puppet show on predators, prey, and defenses and completed puzzles to match animals and plants with the same methods of defense.  Then, with the others at their tables, the students received a secret material that was one of the defenses that had been discussed (ex: seashells, porcupine quills).  With 3 of their classmates, the students came up with clues, which they then created a poem out of (which fit perfectly with our poetry unit!).  They presented these poems to the class to have them guess the defense!  All of the class seemed to thoroughly enjoy the activity.

Pictures from both the Mexican groupwork rotations and Hands On Nature can be seen on the slideshow from this week. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Taylor