Friday, December 8th, 2017 –A View from The Front Porch, Watson’s Winners Work! And Science-y Stuff…
YOUR KIDS ARE BLOGGERS! Please go to the FRONT PORCH: THE HOUSE OF READING AND WRITING Page (https://cwatsondps.wordpress.com/front-porch-the-house-of-reading-and-writing/) to check out the kids blogging about their reading. From this point on, students will be posting their Reading Responses to the Front Porch Page to share their critical thinking around the books they’re enjoying. They will also reply to each other’s ideas. This is a great way for parents to have a sense of how their own child (as well as a typical fifth grader) thinks and writes. I invite you to read this section frequently and give feedback to your child as you see fit.
IT’S TIME TO SHARE THE WORK! Also, please go to the SHOWCASE: WATSON’S WINNERS WORK! Page (https://cwatsondps.wordpress.com/about-2/) to check out our students in action. First you will find each student’s unique Small Moment story, written earlier in the fall. Writing a Small Moment teaches a writer to “pause the plot” – to stop the action and use unique vocabulary and figurative language to describe the setting, add some sensory details, or share any internal thinking of the characters. Writers also learn how to embed a life lesson or theme into their story, so that the reader can understand what the story is REALLY about. We hope you enjoy!
Below the Small Moments you will find our Whole-Class Halloween story for 2017 – NIGHT TERRORS… This was another great writing exercise, in that the story had a brief and open-ended beginning, and each student was asked to write an entry that extended the story (using only their knowledge of the last two entries written). When their bit was complete, they tapped the shoulder of the next student on the list and it grew from there. (We just squeezed this activity in between all the other subjects…)
In our first social studies unit, we were hard at work on informational writing with our Narrative Nonfiction Books, entitled, The Roads that Led to America, which can be found below Night Terrors. In writing and designing these digital books, students conducted extensive research and told the story, from multiple historical perspectives, of feudal life and how feudalism gave way to The Renaissance through the catalyst of The Crusades. The expanded world unleashed by the Renaissance then led to an Age of Exploration, which led to the discovery of The Americas. The goal of this project was for students to understand the never-ending cycle of cause and effect that drives the engine of history, and how one driving FORCE (ex: religious, political, economic, natural), causes a MOTION (ex: movement of people, goods and/or ideas), which results in great CHANGE (ex: new events and eras begin). And as the song says, “One Thing Leads to Another…”
In exciting Science news, below the Roads to America you will find pics of our science partners and some of their work in action. The kids are holding their flat models of how Earth’s systems interact in a setting, delineating between the geosphere, the biosphere, the hydrosphere and the atmosphere. They are also holding their “Beanie Babies,” the beans they resurrected from the Ox Ridge garden while testing whether or not the beans had died or were just dormant. In the background are their Science Journals which contain the scientific processes for the QUESTS and INVESTigations we are involved in this year.
In the fall we went on several field studies – we searched for signs of life; we examined how earth’s systems interact cyclically in the Ox Ridge garden, and we learned to document observations of plant growth with and without the presence of dirt (the geosphere). We learned about variables and controls (or constants), as well as direct vs. inverse proportionate relationships.
We then pondered how earth systems interact with space systems, and are currently embarked on a study of how the sun, the moon and the earth interact to cause: day & night, a year, the four seasons, and the phases of the moon.
Wednesday, December 21st, 2016– The Roads that Led to America, A Day at the Improv and Seasons Greetings…
THERE’S JUST SO MUCH GOING ON! Last week, The Company of Watson’s Winners was immersed in historical improvisational performances entitled, A Day at the Improv. It was a sold-out show! Some of the paparazzi pics can be seen by clicking on this here link to the Showcase: Watson’s Winners Work Page:
As you know, our over-arching theme in social studies and science is “Force Causes Motion, and Motion Causes Change.” We began our study of American History with the Middle Ages in Europe and Asia, simply as a way for the students to understand how history is an ongoing cycle of cause and effect. Example: The religious forces of the Crusades caused a massive movement of people, goods and ideas, which in turn created great change ~~ the death of the feudal system and advent of The Renaissance. As the intellectual and economic forces in that era grew stronger, a movement of explorers in search of trade routes led to the discovery of the Americas (massive change). More religious and economic forces caused settlement and colonization, and this is where we are now – just past Jamestown and Plymouth.
Previous to this, students completed another culminating piece called The Roads That Led to America. This was Google-based, with Google Drive and Chromebooks utilized throughout. Students used the many websites on my blog, our library research sites, and others they found, in order to research, take notes and make inferences related to the ideas above. They then wove their notes and inferences into “essays in disguise” writing in different historical voices/characters within each era (they also used babynames.com, historical map images for exact locations, Google translate and websites related to formal/middle English vocab, also on my blog). They then drafted and published their essays in disguise. READ THE STUDENT “PICTURE BOOKS” by clicking on the following link to the Showcase: Watson’s Winners Work Page:
For this Improv project, which was also Google-based, students honed in on the life of one historical character from the eras above (Middle Ages through Crusades, Renaissance, Exploration, Settlement) and investigated that character’s life through the lenses of particular questions (see project guidelines: A Day at the Improv!).
They then wrote a first-person “Faux Autobiography” (narrative nonfiction) in the voice of this person, again focusing on the big picture ideas that they researched. Once they “had become their characters” by writing and re-reading their pieces, we conducted a two-part event (with props, costumes and accents) called “A Day at the Improv,” in which by turns two seemingly random people from history were be picked out of my Tiffany Bag and had to hold an improvisational conversation in front of the audience – with the goal of finding out more about each other, but also finding the connections, similarities and differences and historical impacts that they each possess ~~ and seeing the cause and effect aspect of history. Audience members participated after each performance. After all performances were complete, we hosted a post-performance “Mocktail Reception,” at which students mingled in character and held more conversations with each other, all while enjoying some post-performance FESTIVATIONS!
Speaking of FESTIVATIONS, I cannot believe that the Holiday Break is almost upon us. The Company of Watson’s Winners are UBER EXCITED to perform our adorable and fun play, The Santa Interviews, for you ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23rd. CURTAIN RISES AT 12:15 SHARP! We think you’ll enjoy the show…
During this special time of year, it is my fervent hope that you and your family get to take some time and unwind, just to relax and enjoy each other and the dear ones in your world. These are trying times that we live in, and it seems more important than ever that we spend time each day doing the things that really matter with the people who matter most to us. My greatest wish though is that, in the weeks, months and years ahead, our world will become a place in which the love, peace and fellowship of being one humanity will be extended to and felt by all. Enjoy the rest of your Holiday Season!
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