Learning in Bloom
Growing independent thinkers
Readers are Thinkers
We have been studying the six habits of thinkers all year. We have been applying these thinking practices into our learning. Most recently, we have been flexible with our thinking. We have been using our schema to help us infer. Ask your 1st grader what inferring means. They know! We use the pictures, words and the title of the story to help us read between the lines. We use our schema (background knowledge) to help us make connections and understand things that are left out in the story. As we begin to read more complex books, our comprehension becomes essential. To review the 6 Habits of thinkers, check out the website below. Your child should be able to explain each one to you at home!
https://sites.google.com/a/dublinschools.net/dcs-enrichment-for-parents/?pli=1
Spring Narratives
We continue to work on our end of the year spring narratives. These stories will come home soon. It is amazing to see the writing progress that we have made this year.
Alex
Alex wrote a very detailed story called "The Babysitter." He wrote about his babysitter Maggie and all the fun they had playing soccer and watching the 2016 NFL draft. They even had double fudge brownies before bedtime! Now everyone in class wants Maggie to come babysit!
Madison
Madison wrote a story titled "Gymnastics." She wrote about her very first day of gymnastics. She started her story off sharing about how she got dressed and ate grilled cheese and apples. Such fun details! Her story continued and she talked all about the new friends she met and her coach.
Chase
Chase wrote a great narrative titled "My Sleepover." It was all about his friends coming over and playing hockey and basketball. They night ended with a movie, Star Wars. Chase did a great job adding lots of details about his fun night with friends!
Sammi did a great job confidently sharing her finished narrative with the class. One of the 6 thinking habits we have learned this year is "Sharing Ideas Confidently". Way to go Sammi!
Author's chair
Defending our Mathematical Thinking
We have worked hard all year learning how to share our mathematical thinking. It's important to not only know the answer, but be able to verbalize HOW we know it (the steps we took, related facts that help us be efficient, etc.). This week we practiced a very complex, multiple step story problem all about "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." Many students came up with different answers, but their THINKING and REASONING while defending their conceptual understanding blew me away! Check out the video above!
Defending our mathematical thinking
We solved a similar problem to The Itsy Bitsy Spider problem. This one was about cookies. Each Day Katie bakes a half dozen cookies. She gives half away. If this pattern continued, how many cookies would she keep for herself after 5 days?
Learning About Life Cycles
Plant Observations
Students enjoyed walking over to the greenhouse next to Sells Middle School and identifying different types of plants that are growing inside. We took over our squash and basil which will soon be transplanted to the IRE garden.
Mad Scientists
Mrs, Kinzer's crew enjoyed exploring the green house with us. We learned all about what a green house is, how it functions, and how the climate and glass walls/roof support the plants.
Garden Giggles
Students couldn't believe all that is growing in the green house. Among their favorites were the pumpkins, cactus, and sweet peppers.
Spring Survey of the Culture of Enrichment.
Please take 2 minutes to fill out this survey. We have worked hard to "grow thinkers" this year and your feedback would be appreciated! Thanks so much!