Different Genres, Big Ideas, and Graphs

Fifth graders chose genres for their reader's letters books today. Over the course of the school year, students will read (at least) six books from six different genres, and then write a letter about the book.  I read Pezzettino, a Leo Lionni story, and we discussed possible big ideas.  The greater conversation was about the nature of a big idea within a text.  We'll be talking and thinking about big ideas in texts A LOT this month.  Our first math unit of the year is on graphs.  Jessica had a great definition we all liked: Graphs are a way of organizing information (or data).  Think about what information you would want to put on a graph.

First Day

It was wonderful to have the fifth graders start their year!  We practiced active listening with Eliana, Mrs. Woods, & Miss Weiss by interviewing each other and then introducing a classmate.  Then students were "quizzed" to see how well they listened to each other.
Some of the many highlights of our first day together include: writing our hopes and dreams for the academic year (and illustrating and sharing these), a hevruta (partner) text study about the importance of asking questions, deciding how to define math to an alien and what students need for a "mathitude", and observing, picking, and being in the school garden.  
All 5th graders went home with something they picked in the garden.  Hopefully these foods will be eaten!  A couple of noteworthy quotes from students today: Math is a form of thinking; Math is a way to understand the world around us.
Tomorrow morning the hopes and dreams will be posted on a bulletin board in class- do come and take a look!
I look forward to day 2!

Sneak Peak

It was so much fun to have smiling fifth graders in the classroom this morning!  Students who came by to see their new room had fun choosing their lockers, trying out our new bean bag (which was thoughtfully purchased- it's made of organic cotton- as a gift by last year's graduates), and catching up with one another.  We're looking forward to offically starting school on Monday!

Comfort Zone

Today was Eliana and my first official day back.  We loved catching up with the other teachers and learning with them too.  One topic that particularly interested us was the idea of comfort zones, in terms of learning.  We talked and thought about when the ultimate learning takes place.  For me, it is often when I am pushed outside of my comfort zone.  I'm sure we will continue to think about this and that it will help to deepen our thinking about teaching 5th grade.