Kiker's Strength-Based Learning Cohort

Our learners have been busy classifying and discussing the differences between someone who is leading, compared to being a boss. It's a work in progress, so we will update you on how we see that in ourselves as learners and citizens in our classrooms when we have more application activities. It's exciting to see some real thought and conversation from varied perspectives, and we are exploring those and listening with open ears and hearts. SBLC mathematicians have been hard at work showing what they know about place value.  We created a visual place value chart that helped us realize the amazing power of 10 and how quickly numbers become very large or very small.  It's been exciting to think about how those patterns apply to tenths and hundredths on the other side of the decimal point.  We started exploring the connections between money, fractions, and decimals with some partner problem solving.  We realized that we really need intervals between whole numbers to improve

http://www.nyu.edu/pages/mathmol/textbook/weightvmass.html 

Celebrate Freedom week was a perfect opportunity to focus on the first responders, leadership, and unity of the United States.  We have learned through the lens of historical events how important each citizen (even as children) is to our country.  We took time to appreciate all the people who have come before us and their contributions, as well as those around us that provide protection and safety. Which also led to our fabulous new book, Eleven , by Tom Rogers.  We began by learning important information about 9/11, the city of New York, and some scientific research done on the Twin Towers.  The kids responded with open hearts to the tragedy of the event with inquiry and curiosity, and with empathy.  We then began our journey with Alex, our main character. As we have delved into the first two chapters, we have also discussed our habits as readers.  What we do in the living room with Mrs. Forrest should be replicated with our Just Right books independently.  You can ask your kids a

Happy Friday! We have been hard at work, settling into our routines. In Language Arts, we've been constructing letters, learning multi-paragraph structure and how to elaborate our main ideas with specific details (You've probably received this already!). We've been digging into our library to find those Just Right books, building our stamina, and monitoring our engagement with our characters. We've explored several books about United States Flag and Anthem, the Constitution, and our Pledge of Allegiance. We analyzed the meaning of the words, the symbolism, and the document's contents. We examined the SAY (What they are/what we see), the MEAN (the meaning behind, the meaning )of, the sacrifice and thought put into them) and the MATTER (Why this is important). We are learning our history not just to check off boxes, but so that we can move forward as active citizens, in mutual respect, investing in our country's founding beliefs into our future. In math, w

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Thanks for coming to Tuesday's Back to School Night!  We loved seeing everyone together and sharing our passion for this year's Studio SBLC.  If you haven't yet paid enrichment fees online or via check, please do so ASAP so we can order this year's t-shirts. This week the SBLC began a new design project...our outdoor space! After seeing the possibilities come to life inside, the kids are making plans for re-landscaping zones outdoors to make them more learning centered and user-friendly. We needed to hone our map making skills (which works perfectly with math, social studies, and research TEKS)... We applied our knowledge of measurement and used scale to convert our feet to inches in order to create an accurate representation of Mrs. Forrest's side of the Studio. BIG work!   In ELA, we read about landscape architects and designers while refreshing our memory of nonfiction text and text features. We also quickly reviewed some routines for spelling so that w