PACE News
September 17, 2018
PACE FAMILY WALL
Our PACE Family Wall is coming to life! The purpose of this wall is to allow students to know one another and link their school life with their family life. This comes from the research of Dr. Becky Bailey in her book Creating the School Family. As a department, our PACE students have read Hanoch Piven’s My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks. This funny story takes a spin on the traditional family portrait. Rather than having our students bring in a picture like they did for their grade level walls, we asked them to make a family portrait and bring it to school to display on our PACE Family Wall. This shows our use of the FFOE strategy of being flexible, fluent, original, and elaborative.
PACE Parent Meetings
1st Grade
First Grade is Focused on Fluency and Flexibility!
In First Grade PACE we are using our learning to apply critical, creative, and logical thinking to different situations and problems. We thought with Fluency as we brainstormed as many ideas to problems as we could. Then we worked on another facet of brainstorming - Flexibility! We began to look at topics in a new and different ways.
We all enjoyed seeing everyone's visual and written interpretation of Flexibility with the alphabet. First Graders Flipped their letters around and showed how the letters were masquerading as new ideas! "U" turned into a magnet and a tunnel, and "Q" turned into magnifying glass and an inner tube!
2nd Grade
Second Grade Reading to Succeed
In Second Grade PACE we started off the year with a Bloom with Books unit reading the fiction story, Weslandia. We've also just begun our reading adventure with the Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, our novel study for this semester.
As we read, students are challenged to read with empathy and make connections to the characters and story.
We've started working in our Google Classroom, have your kiddo show it to you at home!
Reading Adventure
The Paper Bag Princess
Bloom with Books
3rd Grade
3rd Grade Jumped into their Novel Study.
We have introduced our first Book Club novel, George's Secret Key to the Universe by Stephen Hawking. With this novel we will delve into comprehension and more inferencing sprinkled with some book chats here and there. We will need this experience later on in the year when we begin our Genius Hour projects in the spring.
4th Grade
We also have studied Public Speaking and gave some great impromptu speeches! We listened to an example of a good speech and a poor speech and analyzed why one was more effective. Focusing on eye contact, gestures, and word punch, we were able to deliver some great messages.
We will continue our Leadership Unit throughout this semester!
5th Grade
Why should we care about our individual rights?
Why is it important to be an engaged and responsible citizen?
Does it matter if we understand another's position on an issue?
This will lead us into the study of governing documents that affect our lives today. We will also analyze and discuss the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
We have a unique time once a week to cycle through four thinking stations. During this time, students experience time in problem solving, advanced language, logical thinking, and critical thinking games. This time is full of excitement and is fast paced.
Social Emotional Learning for September
Grade 1 - How Our Brains Work - From our The MindUp Curriculum - 1st grade friends start their social and emotional learning with a lesson about the brain! Learning about the brain map can help us become better thinkers.
Grade 2 - Mindful Listening - From our The MindUp Curriculum - 2nd graders will dive into what it means to be a mindful listener. They will learn to choose which sounds to focus their attention on. As well, they'll learn how to be thoughtful in the way they hear and respond to others.
Grade 3 - The Meaning of Giftedness - From our I'm Not Just Gifted Curriculum - 3rd graders will consider and discuss the following questions during our social and emotional learning in September. What does it mean to be gifted? How am I different from my typical peers? What are the myths and assumptions about giftedness? Has anyone ever made those assumptions about me?
Grade 4 - I'm Not Just Gifted - Fourth graders explore their interests, strengths, and needs as a gifted learner and analyze the pros and cons of their traits.
Grade 5 - Expectations - What expectations do we place on ourselves as a gifted learner? What expectations do parents set on us? How do we make sure that these expectations are realistic and appropriate?
Mrs. Deanna Lowenthal and Mrs. Morgan Chesser
Email: Deanna.Lowenthal@pisd.edu
Location: Mathews Elementary School, Marchman Way, Plano, TX, United States
Phone: 469-752-2367