Kiker's Strength-Based Learning Cohort

This week we've enjoyed finalizing many projects that we've been diligently working on over the past few weeks. Will Hoard commented, "I am proud to have finished all these fun projects." Great job, everyone! We've been talking a lot about "being in the moment" and enjoying each and every day together of these last few weeks. As Gavin pointed out, "I'm grateful for TODAY!" This month's homework was so much fun to share! We loved revealing and discussing the contents of our time capsules, presenting our SBLC brochures, and connecting to one another with our mindfulness narratives. Language Arts Each grade level had the opportunity to share their Book Partnership book shares. We've got some new ideas for summer reading, thanks to our friends' reviews. As Ava S. mentioned, "We presented about The Magic Finger  and it was really fun." She also has taken to heart our positive critique and drafting ses...

This week has been an exploration again of drafting, getting positive feedback, and drafting again. This didn't just apply to project time, however, but all our blocks. It is exciting to get insight on how to improve, and so motivating that we are eagerly re-drafting our work. Reading and Writing We have finished up all the novels (3rd's still reading) -- Oh my, great endings -- Alfie, for the best reason of all...(ask your 4th grader what that means) and Mike (2nd) has gained some confidence -- we are looking forward to the next book in that series. We have enjoyed some extra time with Reading Partnerships. Most of our partnerships are finishing our first book study together and are creating ways to share what we read through posters, powerpoints, and skits. It's going to be fun to present to one another in the next few weeks...summer reading ideas! We've been incorporating writing as well, finishing our vocabulary studies with Synonym Scrabble boards and ou...

We've been learning about how powerful our peers can be in helping us look at our work and encouraging each other through positively framed words. We discovered that, with Kind, Specific, and Helpful feedback, we are energized to improve upon our work. Reading and Language Arts As our novel studies continue, we are delving deeper into Signposts, our characters, and examining how authors put together their stories. We are also up to our ears in a great Vocabulary Study with words that tie into the fabulous Science projects we are working on. We learned 6 strategies to get at words' meanings. Sometimes, looking at synonyms helps us not only understand variations of the specific word, but learn other words and their usage. We learned that synonyms are related, BUT, may have different, more precise meanings...so they aren't necessarily interchangable. We are really building our word banks. As Fourth Grade worked with "revitalizatio...

Math This week fourth grade analyzed expenses, discussed advantages and disadvantages of different methods of saving money, and made a budget for a weekly allowance. They also worked on a project that involved planning movie meals for $5.00 or less using a price chart of snacks. The second task was to develop a movie schedule so six movies show three times a day in four theaters. Third grader, Sydney said she "learned about planned and unplanned spending", making financial decisions, and saving money. They had to look at each decision  nd decide if the situation was an income, spending, saving, credit, or giving.  Second graders learned about a.m. and p.m. and telling time to the minute. After an assessment on telling time we starting measuring in centimeters. Maryn,"learned how to use diagrams to solve problems" when adding and subtraction lengths. Reading and Language Arts Reading Partnerships are getting started! It's awesome to see them taking so much r...