Who Wins the Race? Our Third Grade Class.

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As we mentioned last post, Ms. Bishop's third grade class has been studying a book called Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner. The kids have used this adventurous, rich tale to learn how to do many different analytic and writing skills.  They are also working on many of the new Common Core standards, as you can see.

Here are some of the interesting ways they are accomplishing these tasks.  Who says learning can't be fun?

In fact, here is a close-up example of one of the articles.  Nice job, Dominick!

The kids learned so much.  We learned so much too.  The only thing we don't know is how their poster got wet!

It's National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month and we're happy to post our kindergarteners' experience with the wonderful words of Langston Hughes.

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This month gave Ms. Breneus a chance to fulfill a Common Core Standard twice over, because poetry is considered to be poetry, of course, but also nonfiction as well.

It was mostly a wonderful opportunity to have the kids talk about rhymes and images.  They could see how words can make you feel something inside.  Once they had finished discussing Hughes' poem, Dreams, they wrote and drew about their own dreams.  See some of the results below.

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Hold on to your dreams, kids, make them happen.

Common Core Has Many Uses, Part 2

For our last post, which you can see by scrolling down below, we showed one way Ms. Murphy's second grade class practiced the skills outlined in one of the new Common Core standards for second grade.

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 Last time you saw some of their letters to their parents, using evidence and reasons to convince them to grant a request.  This time they are "auditioning" for the advertising business.  Do you find their presentations compelling?

 

What will you buy next time you're at the store?

Common Core Has Many Uses

This is one of the new Common Core standards for second grade.

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Ms. Murphy's class is learning how to use research and evidence to support their opinions about history, animals, and other topics.  They are also learning that this Common Core Standard W.2.1 is very important in daily life.  One assignment they had was to write their parents and try to convince their mom or dad about something using reasons, logic, and evidence.

Are you convinced?

 

Compare and Contrast, One Year Later

If you scroll down to the previous post, you will see our report on Ms. Leverett-King's first grade class and their adventures with Common Core State Standard Ri.1.9: Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).

A note: For those who don't know, Common Core State Standards are the new guidelines for what students should learn and when.  These standards will go into effect in most states of our nation in 2014.

Well, first graders aren't the only kids who must learn to compare and contrast.  Second graders are learning the same lesson, but with more complexity.  Ri.2.9, the second grade version, asks students to "Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic."  

That's what Ms. Murphy's class did when looking at two of our most famous presidents: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

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First they were presented with different written materials.  Their job was to read them carefully and sort them into similarities and differences.  They were supposed to pick the most important points.  Sometimes what's more important is a matter of opinion, though.

The kids learned to present their findings by making their own Ven diagrams.  Even knowing what a Ven diagram is and being able to use it yourself is a big step forward.  That's what a year can do. 

Here are some of the students' examples: 

We Can, Common Core

Today, it's time to report on Ms. Leverett-King's first grade class and its adventures with Common Core.  For those who don't know, Common Core State Standards are the new guidelines for what students should learn and when.  

Ms. Leverett-King's class has tackled Standard RI.1.9: Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).  This standard is for nonfiction or informational texts and the subject they chose was a first grade favorite--dinosaurs.

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After reading about two dinos, the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Triceratops, the class started brainstorming about how the two animals were different and what they shared in common.

Ms. Leverett-King got them ready to write up their findings by writing helpful compare-and-contrast words on the board, such as, "but," and "and" along with phrases like, "Although they are different, in many ways they are the same.  

What ways?  Let's see some examples:

Eliana preferred to stress the two dinosaurs' differences on one page and...

their similarities on another.

Jaylen took the same two-page approach, but organized it differently.

 

While Jasmine managed to get a little bit of both on one page.  

There are many ways to compare and contrast!

Common Core, Here We Come

As we've mentioned before, Common Core State Standards have been adopted in 45 states of our nation.  They will define the teaching standards for all the schools in these states.  They are supposed to start in 2014, but the Perkins School isn't waiting.  

Just look at another display of assignments from Ms. Bishop's third grade class.  Not only are they learning the roots of the American Revolution, they are satisfying some of the learning requirements set for third grade students.

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Go Ms. Bishop!  Go kids!

Common Core Again

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As we mentioned in a previous post, the Perkins School is embracing the new Common Core State Standards.  Mrs. Bishop's third grade class is working on them too--and, letting us see how they are doing it.  Just take a look at the very clear information Mrs. Bishop supplied along with the standards the exercises satisfied.

Here is a close-up look at some of the students' work:

They include captions to interpret historical events and timelines of those events to learn how to chronologize them.

Great work, kids.

Common Core? We're Working on It!

If you aren't in the education field, you might not know that we have new national standards to help improve our kids' learning.  They are called the "Common Core State Standards."  Teachers are learning how to incorporate them into lesson plans. So our teachers and kids are learning together!

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Mrs. Murphy's second grade class read some information about the Pilgrims.  Then they applied the new second grade KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS standard to what they read.  The kids were asked to identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within the text.

Mrs. Murphy made it more fun by having the kids write (and illustrate!) their own books. Their titles labelled their interpretations of the key idea: The Pilgrims Difficult Lives, for example, The Pilgrims Story, The Pilgrims Journey.  Then each following page identified the main idea of each paragraph.  The kids learned to pick out the important information and will eventually be able to take home book of their own.

Here are a few pages from two students' work: