The Bond Brief: Monday Memo
February 10, 2014
No BYOD Day Tomorrow
I will be out of the class tomorrow, as I will be in Lansing with Maddie and Finley for the STEM and Me Award's Ceremony. We will be meeting with State Board of Education members, as well as the Michigan STEM Partnership Board. Mrs. Hodde, our building sub, will be in our class as the sub. I told the kids today, but I want to reemphasize, we will NOT be having BYOD Day tomorrow.
You may wonder how we use our devices during BYOD Days. Last week we had a great geometry hunt using our devices. One group took photographs of shapes and geometric solids found around the class, and then they emailed them to another classmate. That classmate then created a notebook in Notability with all the photos, complete with labels. This was an excellent form of collaboration between devices. Another group made a screencast with drawings of their shapes. One group even created an iMovie. At the end, the groups shared their projects. Even though all of the students in the classroom did not have devices, the students worked together to use their devices for the project. For spelling, some students chose to write their sentences out using their devices, while others chose pencil and paper. I would also like to point out, that even though it may be BYOD, that does not mean that we have our devices out all day long. The students have tasks to work on, and are not given free time, unless they have finished with their assignment and there's just a bit of time between subjects.
Sign Up for the Valentine's Day Party
Also, we will be ordering pizza. (This connects to our social studies unit for the Michigan Economy) We are asking that each child brings in $2 to cover the pizza. We are having our party after our recess, which will be around 11:20, therefore, the party will be at lunch time. Do not pack a lunch on Friday.
Also, to remind you, we are not doing classroom Valentine's. Instead, your child is going to create one large Valentine for everyone to sign. Remember, they are welcome to bring in any supplies that they would like for their Valentine's. It would be neat to incorporate their favorites for third grade to capture who they are at this time and create a neat keepsake.
www.buildwithchrome.com
Enjoying a New Sugar Scrub
Poster My Wall
Today at Goal Time...
The Goal Time Spa spent the time adding products to their Sugar Scrub Collection. Today they created a citrus sugar scrub, as well as a cinnamon sugar scrub. It has been great to be able to connect this to our Economy Unit. Today each child was able to create their own business plan in social studies, and it was neat to have a business that we could use as an example. Here are some other things that were worked on during the 40 minutes of Goal Time:
- Valentine's Card in Minecraft
- Warm Wishes Tags for our Team Bond Community Service Project. (Gabby and Kristina bought a ton of hats, gloves, and scarves with the money collected from the coin challenge. We are sending them to Cass Community Services in Detroit for Valentines weekend. I am so proud of the class for this wonderful outreach! )
- Modeling Clay Sculptures
- Knitting
- Crocheting
- Song Writing
- Arts and Crafts
- Remote Control Car Prep
- Pattern Block Shapes and Creations
As you can see, there is a diverse working environment during Goal Time, and it is a wonderful experience to see grow each week. In particular, I truly see the soft skills growing and developing week after week in Goal Time. If you are ever free between 2:15-2:50 on Mondays, I encourage you to come and check it out.
A Preview of the Week
Social Studies: We have learned about natural, capital, and human resources. Today we discussed entrepreneurs and created our own business plans. Tomorrow Miss Jenkins, our pre-student teacher from OU, will be teaching the kids about Better Made Potato Chips, as she works for a trucking company that transports the potatoes from the farms to the factory.
Writing: HOORAY! We did it! We did it! The day the class has been waiting for! Every child that was here today wrote over 100 words in 15 minutes! Our writing lesson prior to lunch was on creating topics to write about. I had the kids brainstorm at least 10 topics, and I shared many examples of prompts that I have hanging on our back bulletin board. After lunch, they sat down to write...and they were voracious! They will be receiving a treat on Wednesday from me!
Reading: Most of our book clubs are finishing their book reports by the end of the week. One group presented last week with their Quiz Show Game they created on BYOD Day. Other groups are still working on their productions or creations. In addition, we are working on non-fiction note taking and summaries. We are reading The One and Only Ivan now as a read aloud. It is a WONDERFUL book! It just came out last year, and it won the Newbery this year! (http://theoneandonlyivan.com/)
Math Facts: We are having the Math Fact Olympics this week where the kids will earn "pins" for their efforts in math fact mastery. We will be having several events to practice math fact fluency.