The Rookery

 Facial Hair Day was a huge success.  A truly shocking range of facial hair was sported by the Herons.  I myself wore mutton chops (although if I had to do it over, I would spring for the fake fur I was considering.) Days like these bring a class together and…

At the end of the day today, the Herons headed out for what might have been our last cross country ski of the year.  I was really proud of them.  They've become adept at getting the skis on and have really pushed themselves to hone their technique and find their…

 Last Friday, everyone wanted to know "when we were going to have our geography test."  Before we had it, I wanted to make sure they understood why I had asked them to memorize countries in the first place.  As I mentioned last week, it is important to be able to…

 We began a math unit on probability today.  Let me just say up front that I love teaching about probability and consider central to my teaching success that none of my students leave 5th grade thinking that winning the lottery is a good retirement plan.  At this age, students often…

Today's theme work was pretty related to the sun.  We read a segment of a Gail Gibbons book about the moon and then went down to the kitchen to see the moon's phases for ourselves.  It's a fun experiment and, if you've never really thought about the moon's phases, I hope…

View Larger Map As you know, we've been studying different aspects of the sun including a broader definition of "solar energy."  We've looked at how almost all of the electrical energy generated in the world comes from the sun, usually by way of fossil fuels or the water cycle.  We've…

For the past few weeks we've been working to hone our computational skills.  We want students to be proficient enough with an algorithm and operation that they use it effortlessly in problem solving situations.  For example, if multiplication is not yet second nature for you, you will probably approach a…

 About this time every year I get a back to basics itch.  Spelling word study gets renewed attention, some handwriting issues get addressed ("Top down!  Make all letters top down!"), it's time to have all of those multiplication facts mastered. With the Olympics flashing flags across the screen, it's a…

We had a short spanish class today because of our work with Malcolm but the students still had a wonderful time.  Christina, our new spanish teacher, has a great rapport with the children and many have started spanish journals independently.  They are busily filling them with useful words and Christina…

 We began our art residency work with Malcolm Potek today.  The Herons loved the   abstract drawing they created by following some simple instructions meant to give us a common vocabulary of lines and shapes.  We then created a simple bird drawing to put in our new sketch books.  After Malcolm…