PA and TD for the Week of 1-22

KTD Math will again focus on geometry this week as we discuss shapes and their attributes.  The group will be going on a scavenger hunt around the building looking for examples of ten different shapes. 

KTD Literature will be discussing the terms protagonist and antagonist as we read Farewell to Shady Glade by Bill Peet. 

1TD will be reading fictional books with inspiring individuals this week.  Our focus will be finding important information and evidence that the characters are inspirational. 

2TD will be introduced to a few inspiring people this week.  We will meet Linda Brown, who won a landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education which overturned the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson "separate but equal" laws that allowed for school segregation.  The kids and I will be reading a book by Toni Morrison, Remember, and Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges. 

3PA Will continue to learn about how the pyramids were built, why they were built, and the secrets held within them.  

4PA is going to continue working on their Harlem Renaissance projects during their time in PA this week. 

5PA will begin researching a person who was a catalyst for change in their community for a short TED Talk that will be given after PA testing.  I put a document in everyone's Google Drive with a list of about 40 people the kids can choose from, but they do not need to use a person from the list if they have another idea. The kids can also choose to do their TED Talk taking a side in our GMO debate.  

PA and TD for the Week of 1-14

There will not be PA or TD on Monday or Tuesday this week because of CBM testing with K and 1.

KTD Math will meet on Wednesday to do a few fun activities with shapes and finding shapes within other shapes.

KTD Literacy will meet with me on Friday to play a game using dictionaries, searching for different words. 

1 and 2TD groups will meet with me on Wednesday and Friday.  Both groups will be learning about the protagonist and antagonist in stories.  Kids will all have books in their hands looking for characteristics of both types of characters and comparing what they find with a partner who read a different story.  

3PA only got through 15 minutes of the documentary about the Pyramids last week because they were taking so many notes!  It was so much fun to see the kids so engaged in this new unit. Our journey back 5,000 years ago to Giza will continue this week.

4PA did a fantastic job sifting through the poetry of Langston Hughes last week.  It was so fun discussing his writing and listening to what the students had to say.  This week, we will be exploring Harlem in the 1940's using a website that is listed under "Student Resources" called Drop me off in Harlem.  The kids can explore artists, musicians, dancers, and other writers who were a part of the Harlem Renaissance.   

5PA will be having a Socratic Seminar, using questions they wrote, about the positives and negatives of genetically modified organisms in the human food chain.  The students all read the same three articles and annotated them last week, and then did some independent research once they had formed an opinion on which side of the debate they were on.  We will also have one day for Capstone work.  

Welcome Back!

K-2 TD groups will not be meeting this week, instead, I've invited every K-2 class to come to my classroom for a "Best of 2018" read aloud celebrating some of my favorite books of the year.  I'm looking forward to welcoming back all of our younger kids for a fun celebration of stories.

3PA will begin our exploration of Ancient Egypt today.  The class will be watching a documentary film that explains the complexity of how and why the Great Pyramid of Giza was created.  We will learn about the Pharaoh Khufu and his significance in the pyramids.  The film is based on a book titled Pyramid by David Macaulay, and when we finish the film, the kids will all get a copy of the book to begin reading. 

  

4PA will meet Langston Hughes this week as we begin a short unit on The Harlem Renaissance.  The class will spend most of the week using a poetry analysis process called SIFT (symbols, images, figurative language, and tone and theme).  The class will be reading "Freedom's Plow", "Harlem", and "I, Too Sing America" and discussing the poems at length.  We might have time to begin writing a poem inspired by "Harlem" later in the week. 

5PA will get back to work researching the pros and cons of using GMO's in our crops.  We will also be discussing the Capstone and moving into the next part of this journey, developing practical solutions of how to fix the problem they are researching.