PA and TD for the Week of 8-26

Talent Development: I start the year off seeing every K-2 classroom for some higher level literature lessons in my classroom. These whole groups lessons allow me to assess which students would be good candidates for my first small Talent Development groups that will begin at the end of September.  The K-2 teams and I will use my observations, classroom performance and teacher observations, and some of our CBM data to make decisions about the flexible groups that will come to see me four days a week for 40 minute advanced reading instruction. Students will rotate in and out of these groups all year long.

Kindergarten classes will begin the year with an an author study of Peter Reynolds. I have six different books that we will read together.  The focus will be to see what the kids can discover about this author's style, what the stories have in common, and any connective threads that can be found in all six titles.  

1st grade classes will be reading an alphabet book by Chris Van Allsburg, my favorite author, titled The Z Was Zapped. This story requires a lot of inferential thinking and gives me a lot of feedback about how the first graders can think deeply about a book.  The classes will also be making their own pages for the book in the coming weeks. 

 

2nd grade classes will begin an author study of Chris Van Allsburg.  His books never give the whole story away, allowing readers to think deeply about what the message of the story is, what the theme is, and who different characters truly are in the tales.  I will be sharing several of his books with the kids, and we will conclude with a writing project using his book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. 

PA in grades 3-5 will all be creating an "I Am" statement that will be displayed in the windows of my classroom on Monday.  It's a way to reflect at the beginning of the year on what is really important to each student. 

3PA will begin to explore one of the major themes in the PA curriculum this week, change.  What kinds of change are there, what different categories can we group change into?  The kids will work in groups to try to identify the different categories of change that we will use to do deeper into the texts we explore this year.  Once they have identified the categories, we will begin reading a short story by Cynthia Rylant titled "Shells" about a boy and his aunt who are experiencing lots of different changes. Teams will be making webs about the theme of the story with examples from the text to support their thinking.

4PA will be learning about different literary elements we will be exploring all year long. Things like imagery, theme, mood, metaphors, symbolism, and tone will be defined and discussed.  The class is going to read a Native American poem titled "Birdfoot's Grandpa" to apply their understanding of the different literary elements.  We may have time to begin reading another poem, "Famous" by Naomi Shihab Nye, to continue our work.  The students will all be writing their own version of this poem as well.  

5PA begins the year with one of my favorite picture books, The Collector of Moments by Quint Buchholz.  This book takes about four hours to read, it is layered with symbolism and metaphors, and will set the tone for our year.  It is a story about the music that comes out of paintings, finding that one unique and invisible path, and why none of the kids in PA can ever be a deaf horse.  Trust me, it will all make sense next week.  Teams will create a color, symbol, and an image that illustrate the theme of the book.  

First Day of School!!!!

Welcome to Project Arrow 2019-2020

Welcome PA Families!  I hope you all got the email I sent inviting you to explore the PA website.  This is where you will find all the information you will need for our year together.  For this week, I'm keeping it simple.  Every PA student needs to bring a three ring binder to PA, 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches please.  This is where we will keep all of our work.  PA will begin this year on Thursday the 22nd.  

3PA will meet daily for 50 minutes from 11:45-12:35.
4PA will meet daily for 60 minutes from 12:35-1:35.
5PA will meet daily for 60 minutes from 2:25-3:25.

Our Curriculum Night this year will be for new PA families only.  I will provide curricular updates on the website for the families continuing in PA.  Curriculum Night will take place in the PA room from 6:00-6:25 on Wednesday, the 21st.  

Meet and Greet

Wednesday the 14th is our “Meet and Greet” starting at 9:30. I am looking forward to seeing all my students, and the rest of the Brookdale community next week. It’s going to be a great year Brookdale. Curriculum Night this year will be for families new to PA only, August 21st @ 6:00-6:30 in the PA room. The 3-5 PA curriculum vision for the year and weekly updates for the rest of my students will be posted on this website, visit it weekly for information on what your kids K-5 will be learning. 2019-2020 in PA and TD, game on!!! 

How to triple your memory by using this trick | Ricardo Lieuw On | TEDxH...

2TD Roald Dahl

The 2TD Kids have had so much fun reading books by Roald Dahl these past weeks, and have done an amazing job.  I thought they might enjoy some of the activities on his website:

https://www.roalddahl.com/home/kids

Capstone Presentation Schedule

Today in PA, we drew names at random to select times slots for when each student will present their Capstone Projects.  These projects reflect 7 months of hard work done by this amazing group of learners and the accumulation of knowledge gleaned from kindergarten all the way to fifth grade.  I am extremely proud of this group of learners and cannot wait for them to share their hard work.  Time slots are 30 minutes, so times are approximate.

Parents are invited, bring a photo ID and check in at the office, as are any Brookdale staff who would like to see how the 5PA students have taken a problem and created a unique solution to make the world a better place.  

All work must be shared via Google with Mr. Schumann by 10:00 AM on May 26th. 

9:20-9:50 Amrita
9:50-10:20 Nora
10:20-10:50 Cooper
10:50-11:20 Theo
11:20-11:50 Lunch
11:50-12:20 Sean
12:20-12:50 Michael
12:50-1:20 Naren
1:20-1:50 Amit
1:50-2:20 Ryan
2:20-2:50 Lakshana
2:50-3:20 Ayush

PA and TD for the Week of 5-20

Please take a look around your house for books from my library.  I've got about 30 in the hands of kids that I need back before school ends. 

KTD Math will be creating their own math game using dice this week of me to use with my students next year.  They are so creative and engaged that I thought I'd give them a chance to create something new for the kids to use next year. 

KTD Literacy will continue to explore different biomes, or habitats with me this week.  The students will be using Facts 4 Me, a website the school has a subscription for, to explore and compare two different biomes.

1TD is going to be reading two books by Chris Van Allsburg this week. Jumanji and Zathura. Both stories are about board games that take the players on adventures.  We will be comparing the similarities and differences. 

2TD students all selected a third Roald Dahl book last week after we finished James and the Giant Peach.  The kids are reading their novel and recording any connective threads between the two books we read and the book they selected.  we will be having a Socratic Seminar to finish up the year discussing the works of Roald Dahl. 

3PA will be finishing up their posters on the Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt this week.  These kids have come so far with their ability to collaborate work together, sets goals, and map out a strategy for completing group work this year.  I am so proud of them. 

4PA will be finishing and presenting their sensory memory projects this week.  The group has been very engaged and working quite well on this collaborative project. 

5PA Capstone...need I say more.  I'll post the schedule for presentations on May 30th later this week.  Parents are invited to attend and I invited our superintendent, Dr. Karen Sullivan, to come see what 5th graders at Brookdale have accomplished in PA this year.