Kiker's Strength-Based Learning Cohort

We have been hard at work -- so much learning packed into five short days! We continue learning routines and procedures that set us up for success all year long. These include choosing just right books, collaborating effectively, finding our best spaces for independent work, using rubrics and criteria to improve the quality of our work, and lots of community-building. We're off to a great start with daily morning meetings, learning the names of all 45 classmates, and organizing our notebooks/supplies. These first two weeks have also included lots of social-emotional learning (SEL) lessons, some of which we've crafted into mantras that help us through the day. Your student knows these two mantras already: I think before I act or speak and I focus when I listen . We've also talked about how readers, writers, scientists, and mathematicians all learn best with a growth mindset. This means we know that our effort creates our abilities and that all of us have limitless pote...

We made it! We are sure your kiddos, just like us, are tired...lots of learning, new names, faces and routines! Here's a glimpse! Remember to send in the decorated notebooks on Monday. We are using them first thing! Relax, get some rest, and we will be ready to hit the ground running on Monday!

Our last week together has been an amazing way to finish out our year. We are so grateful for each relationship built, each child and family in our rooms this year. Whether you are a continuing member or you have "graduated" on to new things, you will always be part of the SBLC. Our trip to the park was fantastic today -- the weather cooperated, and we enjoyed games and food galore! Thanks to all who contributed and organized to make today a wonderful experience for all. We both want to say a personal word of thanks for your generous end of year gifts. As we use our gift cards we will be reminded of your thoughtfulness! Happy Summer to all -- see you at the pool (or HEB, or the library, or...) Best, Jennifer and Jewellyn

and heading into the last stretch! This week has been applying our strategies to longer pieces of text. It's amazing how using as few as 5 words per subheading for a nonfiction article is enough to help us piece together an overall summary! They're experts now! We've been working on some poetry as well (hope you enjoy!), and progressing on our individual pieces. The application continued into our math block, with lots of group games and partner opportunities designed to keep our neurons strong across topics. We know that slowing down, rereading for full comprehension, annotating our noticings, and showing all parts of our written pathway all support attention to detail and accuracy. Our mathematicians have come so far this year and they're ready to show what they know next week! Our last project of the year has us working in groups to create a game involving an SEL theme of choice. Their energy is amazing and they don't want to stop! It's neat hearing th...

Luckily, April showers bring May flowers, right? We've been lucky to get outside at recess, so the rain has not deterred us! :) This week, we focused our responses in nonfiction on composing a summary with our 5 key word strategy. Students employed this with a longer piece of text, and enjoyed discussion on finding the best summary statement for each subsection of the article. We also explored Social Emotional Themes that they felt resounded from 8 different read aloud opportunities. We are using these to formulate ideas for a theme for our new project: creating board games! We've also celebrated the wide variety of topics we've covered as mathematicians so far this year. We continue to notice meaningful connections between topics and worked this week to apply our understanding across a variety of contexts. Our neural connections weaken when we haven't thought about a topic for awhile, and this week we could almost feel our neurons getting strong again as we reconsi...

Starting at the end of the week -- 3rd grade participated in Kiker's annual Vocabulary Parade. Here's a glimpse into the fun! In ELA, we have been working diligently on individual writing projects. Our revision exercises with Active Verbs, Concrete Nouns, and Exploding a Word have improved our writing by leaps and bounds. In reading and social studies, we focused on critical thinking and key words. We used pieces of a nonfiction book about rock climbing to work on capturing the essence of the text in a summary, called the SAY. Next, we are examining how our thoughts, combined with text evidence, give us an inferential understanding, called the MEAN. Knowing these pieces helps us let go of detail and zero in on identifying the main idea in nonfiction. SBLC mathematicians have applied algebraic reasoning to input-output tables this week. These puzzles have given us opportunities to deepen our understanding about the 4 basic operations and to apply them in a different con...

Playground remodel update! Happy to report that ALL Kiker kids are loving the new space, and we are enjoying some peace and quiet as the new design has guided the games on the field. It's so neat to hear the kids talk about how their ideas matter ! It's been exciting this week to see them using so many strategies consistently and digging deep with writing. They now know the rules behind how authors create bodies of work, and they are beginning an individual writing project. They are using peers to edit, revise, and insure that the author's purpose is conveyed to the reader. It's fun to hear them justify things: "That's a conjunction, and the conjunction's job is to join things -- so there's two subjects in that compound sentence with one predicate on the second half." SO exciting for them to understand so deeply! We've finished our novel, Out of My Mind  by Sharon Draper. This week, we refined our theories about her struggle, located the cu...