I have enjoyed and appreciated meeting with so many of you this week to discuss your children’s progress, ways to support their goals and continued growth.  I am excited about the work we will begin through the independent research project, the Wonders work and our study of maps, geography and history. We have a lot going on.

What Leads to Success

This week we have been considering success – what is it and how can we help each other achieve it.  It is interesting to stop and really think about “success” to realize that in every moment we have a choice.  We all agree that success is a good thing.  We all hope for it.  We are beginning to understand that success in the moment and success in the future are quite different ideas.  It seems as though the class realizes that success isn’t always easy – especially if you are making choices to try something new or push your understanding.

This week we have been trying to notice moments of success for our class as a whole.  We have been looking for examples of successful behaviors in books and throughout the day as we are working together.  We agree you have to persevere (“don’t give up” is how we have talked about it in class), problem solve and try.  It is best if you are positive – but that isn’t always possible especially when you’ve been trying to the point of feeling discouraged.  Ask you child about Carumba, the cat who couldn’t fly or Jack from Clever Jack Bakes a Cake.  We are all working toward success, but it is not a smooth path all the time.

Persuading Others

We have begun exploring persuasion.  The children are trying to choose their top Wonders – each child has made his or her selections and we have narrowed our list from 18 to 11.  The children have been writing to persuade others to support their Wonder choices.  They are working to state their opinion with a main statement, support it with at least three detailed facts and a concluding statement.  To be honest we have not been able to do much of this work this week – our play practices have used a great deal of our time this week.  I am hoping we are further along next week.  Right now our map of North Hampton is a bit empty.

Mapping Sassafras Springs

Our map of Sassafras Springs is coming along nicely.  Most of our buildings are complete, along with some of the characters.  We have a plan of how we imagine the layout of the town and are in the process of completing our vision.  Perhaps next week our maps will be complete.

Discovery Exploration – Independent Research

Each morning our day begins with a variety of projects.  This week children have been exploring various research topics.  They are learning to research on the computer.  At first most of the children thought they could type in each of their questions, copy down the answer and move on to the next.  They felt frustrated by the “no match found” messages they received.  Little by little they are coming to realize that research doesn’t work that way.  Many of the children have realized that books are more helpful at the start and others are realizing that searching the topic more broadly helps them discover more information.  They are learning to use the computer and different search engines more efficiently.  They seem excited by the information they are discovering and are already planning the different ways they can share their expertise with you.

Through other Discovery Time choices children have been able to turn recyclables into a wide variety of objects with some masking tape, markers and imagination.  Some of the children have explored a variety of maps, magnets and games like Bananagrams  – for spelling and word study – and Exact Change – for money and computation work.

Bits and Pieces –

We have begun a new chapter read-aloud, Wildwood.  It is a new genre – fantasy, adventure.  We have met Pru and Curtis, the main characters and we have moved from the city of Portland, Oregon into the Impassible Wilderness in search of Mac.  Ask your child to tell you more.

Bad Boys and The Web Files are nearly ready for the performance at Newington on Tuesday.  Bad Boys at 6:00 and Web Files at 7:15.

We are focusing more on subtraction and moving onto a beginning exploration of fair shares and dividing groups as we learn about fractions.

Another week gone by – zoom!  It is amazing to realize that the first third of our year has nearly come to a close.  Thank you for supporting your child with their student led share and goal setting conference.  The children each did a wonderful job selecting, describing and organizing the work they shared.  It took most of the fall to work through each part of the process.  Knowing yourself as a learner and a friend is an important part of our social and emotional learning curriculum – only through awareness can you bring about change in yourself and accept the diversity of others.  It seems as though the children each know themselves a bit better as learners.  They know how they are smart and how that is both unique from everyone else but also similar to everyone else as well.  They know they can each achieve whatever they set the minds toward doing.

The History of Our Town

            We had a perfect day for our Wonders tour through North Hampton.  It will be interesting to find out what the children remember from the day.  They seemed amazed to know that George Washington, General Lafayette and Benjamin Franklin had all actually been to their town.  Yesterday they may have stood in the exact spot where those famous people had once been. While at the Dearborn Garrison marker we learned that Henry Dearborn had been Thomas Jefferson’s Secretary of War.  We saw the mile marker on Post Road and learned of Ben Franklin’s commitment to making sure people could communicate through a common postal system.  He felt that information and informed citizens were important for liberty.  We learned about the four-room School House at Centennial Hall and wondered what they auditorium looked like – guessing it might be like our cafeteria space.  At Drake Farm after learning the history of the Drake family and their efforts to keep the fledgling colony safe from raids and attack we got to visit the donkeys out back.  They were very cute, but so many of us overwhelmed them.

In the town center we learned about Samuel A Dow’s store – a place where you could buy everything!  We learned about the Town Hall and the Library.  We learned that the jail was downstairs and decided we would not like to visit.  We noticed that our Town Hall as one of the few remaining Paul Revere bells.  We’re lucky it wasn’t worn out by all the ringing calling everyone to the Meeting House like so many others.  From the Town Hall we walked over to the train depot.  We learned that how some people loved the train, while others did not.  It was great when the farmers could sell their crops and visitors could come to our area.  It was not so great when people left town to work in Boston – running a farm took a lot of people and North Hampton needed everyone – and leaving town meant taking your business elsewhere.  The coming of the train signaled a real time of change for our town.

Beyond the school we stopped at the Little River Church.   We had discovered that church and going to church was a very important thing in the olden days and yesterday we learned that the state court made laws about who could have churches and where.  North Hampton had two churches that eventually joined into one.  We stopped by Ogden Nash’s gravestone – we’ll be learning more about him today when the 8^th graders come down to perform “Custard the Cowardly Dragon” for us.  We learned about the Fish Houses, the Seaside Garden, the Union Chapel and Fuller Garden.  We even saw the site where Franklin Pierce had lived during the summer.  It is an empty lot now and the house once there is in Hampton.  Can you imagine how they moved it?

A HUGE thank you to the seventh and eighth graders who volunteered to be docents at each of the sites.  They had lots to share and answered many of our questions about dates and time and years.

Choosing Wonders

            Now that we gathered some of the stories and history of our town we have decisions of make.  Back in our classroom we’ll search for a bit more information to fill in some of the details about the people and places we may have missed.  We’ll work to complete the stories that go along with each site as we decide and vote on the official 2012 Seven Wonders of North Hampton will be.  We’ll be working to build a map of our tour and thinking about rich history surrounding our community as we decide.  I wonder what you will hear at home – you may want to ask your child which site he or she feels was most interesting and why.  They only have bits and pieces of information and understanding at this point.  They need help fitting it into place and time.  Right now it is all jumbled in a “way back then” setting along with the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.   If it comes up in conversation your help with that would be greatly appreciated.

We had a wonderful day.  The children are happy to know that North Hampton has a rich history and exciting past.

Bits and Pieces

• Ask your child to tell you about The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs.  Collecting “wonders” may have done the same thing for Eben it is has done for us.  Somehow looking and noticing makes everyday things seem different.  The ordinary becomes extraordinary when you find the story behind it.
• We are beginning an independent research project.  The children have listed possible topics and taken the time to write down all they know already about their topic along with a few questions they hope to answer.  What makes a good question? How do you take information from many places and make it your own? How much information and understanding does it take to become an expert?  When you share the information with others, how can you help them understand?
• November 20 – Report Cards come home digitally – these will have codes, but no written comments.  We will meet in the following two weeks for Parent – Teacher conferences.
• December 4 – Readers’ Theater Plays at Barnes and Noble – hopefully you found the permission slip yesterday and know the schedule for the evening.

Have a wonder – full weekend!

 Thank you so much for helping the children and our class with the research work into North Hampton’s past.  I understand that some of the children were not able to carry our conversation from the classroom home to you that they did not need to answer every question.  Perhaps things got a bit tense.  As stated at the beginning of the project, the children did need support to gather the information.  The resources were difficult to understand, but through your collective help the children do have a much clearer picture of life through time.  They are excited and interested.  They know that people certainly worked hard to have the things they needed to survive in the past and also that North Hampton is a town with an interesting history.

We have had so many stops and start in the last few weeks it is challenging to say we have focused on one or two particular things.  The children are doing a spectacular job of presenting their Multiple Intelligences, and the work they feel best represents themselves as learners in the fall.  They have set thoughtful goals and have made plans for how they will show you they have achieved them.

They are excited and proud to be part of the Veterans’ Day Assembly.  They have worked hard to know the song and to sing well for everyone on Friday.

Here are some images from our discovery time morning.  In them we are researching, reading, writing, learning as ornithologists might in the science area, creating with wood in the craft area and developing strategy and logic skills with math.

 

 

We are beginning an independent inquiry project to help the children learn the steps they will need to go through to become an expert on a particular topic.  They will need to move far beyond “googling” for answers as we learn about different types of questions and different ways to search for information.

Bits and Pieces

•  November 13 – Exploring the Fogg cellar hole and cemetery with Mr. Caron – the beginning of our “Wonder” search
•  November 13 Picture Retakes
• November 13 and 14 Student Led Conferences
• November 15 – “Wonders” of North Hampton Field Trip
• November 20 – Report Cards come home – these will have codes, but no written comments.  We will meet in the following two weeks for Parent – Teacher conferences.
• December 4 – Readers’ Theater Plays at Barnes and Noble

Have a wonderful weekend!

Thank you so much for you support in helping the children uncover different pieces of history.  They are interested and aware, curious and thoughtful.  As part of this social studies work we shared All the Way to America by Dan Yaccarino.  It is his family’s story of immigrating to the United States from Sorrento, Italy.  As we read the children were able to use their background knowledge (schema) to infer when the different generations had lived.  They were spot on.  They used vehicles and clothing as markers for different eras.  I think you would have been impressed with their thinking.

Discovery Time Begins

            Our day is beginning a little differently this week.  The children are able to select from 5 different activities with a variety of academic focuses.  There is reading, independent inquiry/research and writing.  This week’s writing activity supported our work with details and was there to do, or not.  Math’s focus was geometry and working with Tangrams.  Children could build individually or they could challenge themselves with Tangos.  The science focus was observation and coming to understand what they could about trees by looking at different leaves, seeds, bark and branch samples.  The last choice was making puppets in the arts and crafts area.  They were asked to read and understand the directions and had the opportunity to learn thirds and quarters in the process.

The children seem to have enjoyed this addition to our day.  They appreciate choice and variety.  They have been challenged to set their own learning purpose and to persevere.  With time the children will learn a great deal about themselves as learners, while also exploring a greater variety of learning topics and approaches.  Already this week though excited by the openness of independent research and possibility to use the computers, several of the children realized there is no research without questions first. They also discovered that sometime books are better resources at first.

Setting Personal Learning Goals

            This week we set goals for the school year.  Some of the children chose academic goals, while others chose social goals.  Many of them set goals that they will work on in UA classes.  It is interesting for me to see how individual children are and sometimes surprising to see how they think of things.  We definitely don’t think of goals in the same way.  One child, concerned by forgetting sneakers for gym, has set a goal to learn all the activities in that class.  The only way to do that is to remember sneakers.  Another child wants to eat healthy so she can be fast. Several of the children want to learn multiplication and to write and read in cursive.  Some have specific interests like learning about foxes or robots.

In addition to writing their goals they are working to think of what they will show as evidence that they have worked on and/or met their goals.  This is a challenge.  It is difficult to think about your thinking and project forward into the future.  Metacognition is something that grows with practice and with the development of abstract thinking.  It is something that eight and nine-year old brains are just beginning to be capable of.  It will be exciting to share all this work with you in the next couple of weeks as you are able to meet for the conferences.

The Magic of Three

            Last week you some of our work come home as we worked to identify details in writing.  We continued this week by exploring how writers often work in threes to convey a mood or tone to a piece.  Three seems to be enough to get the point across.  As we looked at different picture books and different passages from chapter books as well we can see how three details creates a clear, memorable image.  We know that sometimes two or four works too, but three is the magic number for remembering.

Bits and Pieces –

•  We are enjoying The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs.  You might want to ask your child which of the wonders they find most interesting.  The children are keeping response journals as they listen.  You may want to ask your children how they think it is going for them as they work to record their ideas and wonderings on paper.
•  As part of our weekly exploration of who we can live up to the rules we have set for our learning community this week we discussed the importance of knowing yourself, being yourself, and thinking of others as you act.  We read the books Blabber Mouse and The Blabber Report.  We noticed how kind and considerate the other mice were in the class.  We talked about how we can work to be patient and thoughtful as well.  Again you may want to ask your child about those stories – we’d like to think we’d be so kind, but if we are honest our first reaction probably would be to yell at him and tell him to knock it off.
• Student Led Goal Setting Conferences – see enclosed sign-up sheet
•  Picture Retakes – November 13 at 8:30
•  Term 1 Report Cards – November 20 Parent Conferences to follow
• December – Readers Theater Play – Bad Boys and The Web Files