The Rookery

The second and third graders are going to be collecting pennies to see how much 10,000 is.  They're working on place value and as the pennies come in, they'll bundle them in powers of 10 until they get to 10,000. It provided an authentic question for us to tackle in…

Yesterday, there was a buzz in the room after recess.  A few students came to be because they were concerned that part of the play at recess involved some kids spreading rumors about another kid “asking someone out”.  I did a little bit of digging and quickly found out that…

    Sometimes, when we're in the flow of a theme, it can be hard for students to do anything but theme.  The first thing they check for on the daily schedule right now is "maps" and, if I've scheduled anything else during the sacred afternoon theme time, I'm met with a…

The planetary axes have been tilted.  The days and years decided upon.  The latitudes are chosen.  It is time to start discovering our countries. To get us going, I read Weslandia, one of my favorite picture books.  In it, a seed sprouts in a boy's garden.  He cultivates the unusual…

The Herons have been considering the craft of writing in recent mini-lessons.  We read Ralph Fletcher's short piece about "Reading Like a Writer" which directs children to read (and re-read) in order to discover how an author "works her magic" in our head.  Together, we've considered the simile, metaphor, strong…

Here are a few pictures of our day of exploration. Thanks again for all of your help!

              We're just wrapping up making topographical maps by buidling a land out of playdough in a tupperware container and then mapping its contours as we add incremental amounts of water.  The students did a wonderful job with a complex project and their finished…

For many years, "This We Believe" was a running segment on NPR in which people shared their beliefs about what is essential.  We've borrowed the idea to help define our classroom "rules."  I've put "rules" in quotation marks because we don't have formal rules in the Herons — instead we…

The Big Birds have started our first rotation for math workshop. As a review, our math time has three main components: a "two minute math" routine that checks in on math facts daily; "foundation math", where kids work to build and extend foundational skills such as algorithms; and "math workshop",…