Our project this week has been a study of how to give and receive feedback. We discussed how effective critique is kind, specific, and helpful. Then we practiced giving this kind of feedback to each other. We also noticed how it feels to receive feedback and were mindful of our positive self-talk.
We used photographs of United States and Austin landmarks as part of this feedback process. Each student chose an image, then created a first draft. Next week we'll use our peer feedback to improve on our first draft. While we're using art to better understand the critique and revision process, we're making the connection that lots of worthwhile work is a process that takes time and often multiple drafts.
We've also noticed that we're most proud of ourselves when we demonstrate effort and persistence to accomplish a task that was tricky at first. Here are SBLC teammates working on a fun spatial reasoning challenge that grew our brains!
Our historians took a closer look at the Constitution, specifically the Preamble. We were amazed by how long this important document is!
As scientists, we identified and used some science tools this week to collect and record data. We identified the difference between observable and measurable data, then collected a bit of both ourselves!
In ELA, we've been active in our spelling groups and centers! If you need to see your child's specific list of words, they have them in their agendas underneath their current bank statement. In addition, we've been exploring our characters - analyzing traits, developing theories, and predicting their responses by understanding text evidence. Mo Willems' Knuffle Bunny Series provided Second an opportunity to compare and contrast as well as notice his style as an author. Third Grade began A Long Walk to Water, and have already jumped to a deep level to identify the characters' struggles.
As mathematicians, we've established routines with choice time. This happens several times per week and it provides an opportunity for students to practice numerical fluency, build logical reasoning, and practice persistence. We use a number of different puzzles and games, plus we've been exploring the learning games on GregTangmath.com. As your students have time in class to explore this website and other online resources, we'll expand our list of SBLC Learning Habits math choices. From what I hear, Kakooma is an especially big hit for those important 10 mindful minutes of math each day!
Second grade has been using 3 and 4-digit numbers in many different ways. We explored how the hundreds chart can be a tool for adding and subtracting, and we've also used some virtual place value blocks on our laptops to help with adding/subtracting multiples of 10 and 100. 
Third grade thought about rounding as a tool to estimate and practiced rounding to the nearest 10 and 100. They are pros at creating open number lines to help them better understand distances between benchmark numbers. We're moving into a unit on addition/subtraction problem solving and we started today by working in our group problem solving roles. You can ask your child whether he or she was the facilitator, recorder, resource manager, or team captain and how that role helped the group to solve the problem.
Fourth grade has taken place value further into decimals this week. We created a race track as a number line and students marked tenths and hundredths. We practiced how to read decimals precisely and used 3 different models to better understand place value to the right of the decimal point. While the race tracks were our favorite, our other tools were place value blocks and money. It's been a busy week with lots of hands-on learning!
Happy weekend from your SBLC coaches! :)
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