December in the Resource Room

Fifth grade students have been working with a unit on fractions. We did many computations using fractional distances from an imaginary frog-jumping contest.  Of course, the next logical step would be to have our own frog-jumping contest.  Students experimented with paper sizes and folded the perfect frog using origami.  Then we had a frog jumping contest.  What fun!

 Sixteen students in grades five and six attended the Creativity Festival on Thursday, December 4.  This annual event is held at the Science Museum of Minnesota and is sponsored by Success Beyond the Classroom. Students had the opportunity to participate in three sessions throughout the day.  Some of the sessions included Squid Dissection, Paper Engineering, The Buzz on Bees, Spark of Genius, Rocks in Hula and Hawaiian Cowboys, Soul Dance Celebration, Capoeira-A Brazilian Art Form and more.  If you hear some students speaking Portuguese in the hallways at Highland Catholic, they were in the capoeira class for sure!  Pictured below is one of the students in capoeira.

Resource Room Classes

Resource Room classes are geared up and have started for students in grades 1-6.  Stay tuned for future posts about what is happening in each of the classes.

Meanwhile, I came across this very interesting post about the effects of music on the brain.  Often, parents will ask me what to do to challenge their bright child who is finding school to be easy.  One of my first suggestions is to consider music lessons.  I admit, I am biased.  I am a former MMTA piano teacher of 17 years and have been playing the piano for well over 45 years.  Music is a passion in my family--in fact, we own over 30 different instruments?  I hope you find this post as interesting as I did.  I love the analogy of "fireworks in the brain".What Playing a Musical Instrument Does To Your Brain

Welcome to a New School Year

It is hard to believe that the lazy days of summer are gone and autumn is right around the corner....and that we have been back at school for nearly a month! I tell myself that routines are good but am still having a bit of difficulty with that when the alarm sounds in the morning.

The Resource Room is buzzing with activity:

• Destination Imagination teams are being formed, 
• Sixth grade Math Masters teams are just about ready to begin practicing, 
• Young Rembrandt Art will begin next week with a cartooning,
• Battle of the Books groups for students in grades 5-8 are being formed,
• Teachers are completing observations as part of the identification process for Resource Room groups.    

I  am looking forward to a great year of learning and to challenging my students to push their learning to new experiences.  Stay tuned for more details regarding what each group is working on in the Resource Room each week.

Battle of the Books

All year long, fifth and sixth grade students have been busy reading the ten Battle of the Books titles, writing practice questions and practicing.  Today, was the BIG DAY!  Competition time was at hand.  At lunch, six teams gathered to compete for bragging rights as the school champions.

The fifth grade team,"The Surfin' Smurfs" walked away with the title.  Congratulations.  They received a gift card to Barnes and Noble so they can continue reading.  All participants received an ice cream treat and a jeans pass, too.  What fun!

Below are pictures of the six remarkable teams.

April Showers

April happenings in the Resource Room include fifth grade students reading novels.  One group has read Where the Mountain Meets the Moon  by Grace Lin.  Students are now busy creating digital books of Chinese folk tales and working on their storytelling techniques.  What fun!

The other group has read a book from the Winston Breen series. There were two separate options.  During this book, we closely examined the text and worked on story elements such as protaganist, antagonist, climax and resolution.  Pictured below are the students using the "cootie catchers" they made and answering questions about text elements.

Fourth grade students have been busy working on an algebra unit.  Every once in a while, we take a break to practice our multiplication and/or division facts so they are speedy and automatic.  Watch as the students play "I have, who has" with multiplication facts.  They were very speedy and accomplished the entire round in less than two minutes!

Recent happenings in the Resource Room

A group of sixteen students (see photo below) just attended the Young Author Conference held at Bethel University.  These fifth through seventh grade students spent the day in a variety of classes with noted authors such as Geoff Herbach, William Durbin, T. Mychael Rambo, May Lee-Yang and more.  The entire day was dedicated to the writing process and particularly to developing interesting and vibrant characters.

Highland Catholic students applied to go to the conference by submitting a paragraph about writing.  Here are a few excerpts:
"....I think that seeing the process that professional writers use might help me finish one of my stories."
"...I am growing as a writer and a human being. One of my outlets for artistic expression is writing."
"..My dream for when I row up is to become an author."
"...I also want to go because I want to be able to show emotion better on a page.  Another reason is because I always have an idea but never can transform it into a story."

 In the classroom, a group of second grade students have been reading The Great Cheese Conspiracy. While reading, each group member has a specific role to aid in comprehension.  These roles are based on the "Reciprocal Teaching Strategies".  Students are predictors, questioners, clarifiers, and summarizers.  Pictured below are the students with the props that prompt them to use the comprehension strategies we are learning and practicing. Each strategy has a hand motion that the students use when they access the strategies in our discussions.  It is quite amazing to hear a second grade student start a discussion by saying, "I would like to clarify something that we read."

Creativity Festival--Grades 3 and 4

On January 15, sixteen students in third and fourth grade joined me at the Creativity Festival.  This event is sponsored by Success Beyond the Classroom and was held at the Ted Mann Concert Hall at the University of Minnesota.

We had a wonderful day full of creativity and new experiences.  The children each got to experience three classes on a variety of topics.  Everyone thought that their class "was the best!"  All of them returned with an attitude of being open to trying new things.  They also learned that with creativity comes the chance of mistakes and trying again.

Some of the classes the students participated in included African Stepping, Interstellar Water Quest, Theater Tableau, Native American Stories and Music, Champion Chalk Art, Chemistry, Crime Lab, Aviation, Cartooning and Body Percussion.

Below are photos of Interstellar Water Quest and Champion Chalk Art.