PA and TD for the Week of 9-28

Kindergarten students this week will be focused on painting their houses to look like their dreams.  I'll be reading the picture book The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Manus Pinkwater, a story about a neighborhood where all of the houses look the same until Mr. Plumbean gets a wild idea! 

First grade this week is going to be fun! All of the kids need to bring a box to their Zoom time with me because we are going to read the book Not a Box by Antoinette Portis and discover all of the things a box can be turned into. 

Second grade will be discussing why certain animals should not wear clothing after reading the book Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing. The kids will all be picking an animal to create a new page for the story and writing a sentence that follows the pattern in the book. 

3PA will begin to learn about Ancient Egypt this week.  The students and I will be watching a PBS documentary titled Pyramid, based on the book by the same name written by David Macaulay. There will be a lot of new vocabulary introduced, we will learn about some of the geography in the region, what Egyptian society was like, and some things about Egyptian religion and the rulers of this civilization. 

4PA will be reading one more book that connects to the first short story we read this year, "The Power of Light." I have a picture book titled Rose Blanche, about a young girl's feelings when the Nazi army came into her small town.  The class will have a discussion about the thematic threads that run through all of the stories we have read so far this year. Then, we will begin a unit on The Harlem Renaissance, and the creativity that was alive in the 1920's and 1930's.  We will build some background information by learning about the great migration, and then kids will be exploring different writers, dancers, painters, musicians, photographers, and actors who were prominent during this period. 

5PA will  be finishing their version of the Billy Colins poem "On Turning Ten" this week.  The kids and I had a great conversations sharing some of our favorite childhood memories today, and I cannot wait to see the finished poems. Work on our developing ideas for the Capstone Project will continue this week, and we will begin reading and analyzing some of Emily Dickinson's poetry that will be used for a project next week. 

 

PA for the Week of 9-21

 3PA wasn't able to see the short story "Shells" on their Chromebooks  because the link was blocked, so we read it together on Monday.  The group will still be working in pairs looking for examples of change in  different categories on Tuesday.  Then, we will be reading a few picture books to find examples of change as a group and the week will end using a novel students will pick from home.

4PA will be discussing the short story we read last week, "The Power of Light" in a whole group Zoom seminar.  The kids and I will also be reading a short novel titled The Mozart Question that has many thematic connections to the short story.  We will be discussing examples of change and looking for thematic connections as a group.

5PA began thinking of a problem in the world that they would like to find a solution to on Monday, the beginning of their Capstone Project.  This week, the students will begin to do some research on the problem, to show that their idea is actually a problem. We will also be looking at a poem by Billy Collins titled "On Turning Ten" about all the things that change when we reach double digits.  The week will end with the class writing their own version of the poem that celebrates childhood.  

Monday PA Schedule

 It's the first Monday of PA and our schedule is a bit different.  This is our Zoom schedule for Monday: 

4th 9:30-10:30

5th 11:00-12:00

3rd 12:00:-12:45

Ready Set Draw-ish! Peter H. Reynolds' THE DOT

PA and TD for the Week of 9-15

 We had a great opening to our year in PA! Each week, I will be updating our website with the focus for the week, so I won't be sending you a link for Curriculum Night as the classroom teachers will. I also put an active link to our class Zoom meeting on the top right of the PA website for easier access. Here is what what we will  be working on this week during our time together.

For K-2, Talent Development small groups will not begin until October,  but I am still going into teach whole group lessons with each class.

3PA will  begin the week discussing the concept of change.  This will be a theme that will run through all of the PA curriculum.  What types of things change? How do they change? Can we categorize change into different groups? Once we have a better understanding of change, we will be reading a short story by Cynthia Rylant titled "Shells" that will generate conversations about the idea of change. A link to the text is in Google Classroom.

4PA will review the concept of change and the change generalizations we used last year to begin the week.  The kids and I will then be reading the Isaac Singer story "The Power of Light" about two young people in Warsaw during World War II.  A link to the text in in Google Classroom along with the matrix.We will use the text to work on the change matrix that I shared with the class.  

5PA will finish reading The Collector of Moments and discuss what the theme of the text is and why the author wrote this story.  Then, we will begin discussing The Capstone Project which the kids will work on all year.  The Capstone Project is all about an idea to make the world a better place. We will start off by examining our passions in life.  The idea to make the world a better place will be tied into something your child is passionate about.  Lots more come on this in the weeks ahead.

Have a great week!

PA for the Week of 9-3

                              

Welcome back! PA will begin on Thursday, day one we will be off and running.  Our first two days in 3-5 will be spent discussing the changes to school this year and how we will adapt.  The Peter Reynolds book, Ish will be our starting point this year, because we really have school-ish going on.  What will school look like and feel like during this ishy year?  See you on Zoom!  Everyone should have received and email from me with our permanent Zoom link and a Google Classroom code for Thursday.