Inch by Inch

The Garden Song starts with the chorus: 
"Inch by inch, row by row,
Gonna make this garden grow."

Learning works much the same way.  A new idea or lesson or observation builds upon the last, then another and another.  That's how we learn and acquire knowledge.  Ironically the way Ms. Hicks' first grade class applied this type of learning has been with plants and gardens.

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First they explored their senses.  One thing they thought about is how they can use all their senses to learn about something.

Smelling beautiful scents and seeing bright colors is a plus, especially when your next science unit is about plants.  Of course, it's also important to learn how plants get the energy and nutrients they need to grow.

The kids' senses came into play again as their unit moved to learning about water and watched different ways that it moves.  Grownups might think of these processes as the hydrologic cycle and osmosis; those words are fine, too.

Then it was time to put all these ideas and lessons together and into action--a test, an experiment.  The kids put one group of white flowers into a cup of regular water just to see what would happen to the flowers normally (that's called a control group).  They put other white flowers into cups of water tinted by food coloring. WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN?

  

THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!

The kids wrote up their observations.  After all, that's what scientists do.    

Plants AND Language Skills Grow in Spring

It's spring and many Perkins kids are studying units about plants, the earth, water and how things grow.  Imagine trying to understand all these new subjects when you have to learn the words that describe them at the same time.  That's what's going on in Ms. Enos's class of English language learners.  Many of these kids are newcomers to our country and to English.  So there's a lot of learning going on.

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Here are some of the new vocabulary words they must learn to even start their units.

 

Sometimes it's easiest to connect a word to a picture.

A simple sentence in English often starts with the subject (I, in this case), follows with a verb or two (can pick), an article (the), and noun (carrot).  It seems simple when you grow up with this pattern.  

Most languages have different forms of every verb and you must learn which one is used with which subject.  Some languages often don't bother with the subject because they just change the verb.  Still other languages think of nouns as feminine or masculine and you must know which they are to put the feminine version of "the" or "an" in front of them.  

Sounds hard, doesn't it?  Any language is hard when you don't know its rules (or its words!).

Luckily the English language learners at the Perkins have plants to look at as they study how things grow.

 

They also have Ms. Enos to help them study English and watch their skills grow.

I Know a Place To Go...

Last month we reported on the need for our students, everybody actually, to know how to calm down and focus.  As we mentioned, it sometimes takes practice finding a quiet place inside ourselves.  One way to practice is to have a quiet place out in the world, where you can go to breathe deep. This has been especially true around Boston recently.

Some of our second graders wrote about the quiet, calm places they can go and relax.  

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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?

 

Thinking and Feeling

We are back from vacation, and concentrating upon getting back to work.  We'll be reporting in on Perkins' activities when we can.