This week in readers and writer workshops the students have been diligently working on packing away information they have found about their non-fiction topics. Students designed and assembled non fiction notebooks for storing their notes and then created a "suitcase" to pack their knowledge into. The non fiction notes, images, and sketches will be unpacked to create a new work on each student's topic in the new year! Please enjoy the images of these beautiful creations below.
We have been working all week with the idea of Read, Think, Write. This encourages students to read a bit, think about what they have read and then put that information into their own words for note taking. Some of the observations during the mini lessons were really great, here are some of the quotes of the week...
While discussing Jaques Cousteau
"He was wondering three things: why people float, why boats float, why rocks sink." -Blanca
"Sophia said it was kind of like a poem and I said he discovered things that had never been seen before." -Grace
"Cousteau loved exploring in the sea." -Oscar
"Whales are migratory." -Brodie
We also took part in learning how to take notes using a video as a non fiction resource. The students were encouraged to put a twist on read, think, write by trying watch, think, write to use. The ability to stop and go back in a video clip was seen as a benefit for note taking. We watched a clip from a documentary about explorer Matthew Henson. Here are some of the things students were able to recall from the video...
-Henson got a gold medal for discovering the North Pole.
-Henson was not recognized (at first) for his achievements because of his skin color.
-Henson's body was re-buried in 1987 from his original resting place to Arlington to be next to his partner.
It has been a great week of learning about explorers through non fiction text!
In math workshop we have been adding new concepts to our prior knowledge of addition and regrouping by beginning to address subtraction and borrowing. We discussed the three kinds of subtraction problems: taking away, comparing and finding the missing part. Students have been working with base tens blocks to see what borrowing looks like and challenging themselves by trying new kinds of problems each day. It has really been exciting to see students gathering new information and applying new knowledge in their work!