The Debater by Sophie

For the past two months in class we have been doing two or three debates.

In the debates, first we read a book together as a class, having two ideas about the character and collecting evidence about why that character is being that way.

The photo above is of Sophie's evidence for two conflicting ideas, that the tree is strong and the tree is weak. She collected the evidence as we read The Giving Tree.

After that, we share some of our evidence with our reading partner. Soon, after that, we get in a caucus and order our evidence. Later, we get with our debate partner and we both get about two minutes to speak. Then we get with our caucus and figure out ways to fight back. After that, we get back with our debate partner and say what we came up with with our partners.

I think this is a good way to learn about perspectives because it teaches us that there is no wrong or right answer and many people can have different perspectives. Maybe if you get fifty people in a room, maybe they could all have different perspectives about the same thing.

The video above contains images and video from a recent debate. The video was compiled by Sophie.

KNOCKOUT by Harry

Knockout is played at recess. You play this game by trying to get the person in front of you out by shooting after they missed to get them out.

The game Knockout is played on the basketball courts at recess. If you want to play, you can just join wherever you want.

Personal Narratives around Fair Haven

We are excited to announce that our first published pieces, our personal narratives, are hanging in local Fair Haven businesses. Thanks so much to Tavolo, Fairwinds, and River Road Books for so generously giving us space to share our pieces with a wider audience!


Here's a breakdown of whose pieces are where:

Tavolo - Ellie, Caroline, Connor, Cameron, Jack S., Maia, Marcus, Harry, Patrick, Sophie, Jack M., Megan, Maddie, Harris, Sal, and Lily

Fairwinds - Lucas, Christina M., and Maisy

River Road Books - Quinn, Braiden, Christina U., and James


At the end of each unit, we'll swap out the published pieces and update you with where each writer's piece can be found.

We hope that you're able to stop by and read our class's writing soon!

pieces hanging at Tavolo

pieces hanging at Fairwinds

pieces hanging at River Road Books

Touch Football by Maddie

I like Touch Football because I watch college and NFL football and it makes me feel like I am in the real stadium. But I'm really not.

So the rules are very simple as well, like no jumping on top of each other and you're not allowed to have the ball for more than 5 seconds then the defender can tag you.

The object is to have fun and get as many touchdowns as you can!! You should try to get the football before it hits the ground. Football is a fun, super fun sport! Have fun!!

 

The video above contains photos taken by Maddie at recess.

Fire Safety Assembly by Ellie

This week we had a fire safety assembly and you learned lots about fire safety. For example, "KEEP OUT AND STAY OUT!" and like "Stop, drop, and roll!" And they showed us their equipment they wear when there is a fire and I thought that was cool! You should make a meeting spot outside in case there is a fire.

FIRE!

one week in!

Our first week was a busy one! Across the week, we began to work on creating a classroom environment that will help us all be successful. We thought about what we value as individuals, our expectations of ourselves and others, and created a class agreement.

We've also dug right in to our work. We learned how to choose just right books, began reading books (many classmates have finished at least one book already!), started a list of Burning Story Ideas in our writer's notebooks, and took a math pre-assessment.

We ended the week by talking about how we've already grown since the first week of school and had our notebook decorating party and first Motion and Design challenge in science. The video below includes some photos from our notebook decorating party and the science challenge.

Social Issues Celebration

For the past month, we've read with a focus on social issues. We grew the chart below as we read across many books this year, identifying in clubs or whole class conversations the issues, ideas, and concepts hidden in the text we read.

Our work during social issues focused largely on determining what each text taught us about the issues and then pushing ourselves to be the kind of readers who change our own ideas as a result of reading the text.

During this unit, in addition to returning to favorite read alouds and rereading them (many we know by heart, practically), we read Wonder by RJ Palacio. (We're sure you know this already, as it's been a favorite in our class and most likely mentioned at home by now.)

In Wonder, one of Auggie's teachers, Mr. Browne, has precepts for each month. Similar to our class agreement - our precept - If you work really hard and are kind, amazing things will happen - Mr. Browne's September precept was "When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind."

To celebrate our work for the past month on social issues, each student chose an issue, idea or concept from our chart and wrote his own precept. This felt like an appropriate way to end our time together. We share them with you in the video below.