Leadership Qualities

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 our precision.

As scientists, we have been discussing the 5 states of matter and how energy affects these states.  We have much more to explore through the year, but it's been interesting to sketch 5 different states of matter and to describe what makes each one unique.  We also applied our knowledge of number lines to an exciting scientific tool -- a triple beam balance.  One of the properties of matter that we'll use all year is mass, so a triple beam balance was the perfect tool to measure the mass of some familiar objects in our classroom.  As we became more accurate with this tool, we measured to the nearest tenth of a gram and put our new decimal skills to work!

We've also immersed ourselves in the design process and have engineered aluminum foil boats that both float and hold mass.  Our discussions of how structure affects function has led us to apply our learning about mass and volume, and to explore the concept of density.  


   In ELA, we are working on slowing our thinking down and using text evidence to dig deeply into the character's developing struggle. As Mrs. Forrest stops and pushes us to think past the surface, she's showing us what we should be doing with our independent reading! We are becoming reflective practitioners as we not only think about what's happening in the book, but also the more important work, what we are doing and how we can improve our reading endeavors.
  We have been introduced to a new rubric and will be using it to evaluate and improve our work. We discussed how not every evaluation goes in as an official grade, but instead, should be looked at as an opportunity to grow/challenge ourselves in our products.
  In writing, we are honing our sentence mechanics and grammar with Sentence Analysis, and have covered Subject/Predicate, possession, contractions, punctuating quotes, and titles. We also continue work on our outlining for expository writing.
   We've learned so much about the various resources, wildlife, and landforms in the four major regions of Texas! We've created some giant maps and synthesized some fabulous nonfiction information too. Don't be surprised if we ask to go visit the Piney Woods or Big Bend soon!

Our counselor, Ms. Bankston, came to present us a lesson about how mean words and actions "bruise" others, and used apples to illustrate this to us. It was a well-received lesson and gave our kids great things to think about.

Next week, the plan is to send home portfolios for your enjoyment. Have a wonderful weekend!