Hi Room 6 Parents!

We had an awesome week! I am confident your kids came home excited to tell you about all we did, but see below for a few highlights as well 🙂

• On Monday we created ice sculptures or ice festival scenes using only blue and white. Students could choose their medium and we had everything from paint to colored pencil to 3D structures…all in blue and white! The designs were inspired by one of our recent Scholastic News articles about the International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in Harbin, China. We are now in the process of writing paragraphs to match each of our pieces of art using descriptive language just like the article.

• Also on Monday we created our own Mancala boards and then learned how to play the game just like William Kamkwamba played with his friends in The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind (but they called in bawo!). This is a fun game of strategy and the boards can easily be made with an egg carton and a handful of rocks. Ask your kids to teach you! It’s the perfect game for a snowy weekend 🙂
• On Tuesday we completed a note card building challenge. Some students felt very frustrated when the time was up and others felt accomplished. At various points students accused others of copying their group’s building idea. This was a great entry into our followup conversation about the many things in our lives that have been continuously improved by someone “copying” another idea and improving upon it or adjusting it to fit a different situation. I feel it is so important to continue to foster this mindset to encourage innovation and cooperation!
• Also on Tuesday we read various articles about civil rights and/or Martin Luther King Jr’s work for our country. Each group wrote and performed a tableau about the article they read. A tableau is a type of drama performance where the actors freeze to form a statue “picture.” The audience chooses one actor at a time by tapping them on the head or shoulder. When chosen, the actor performs their lines and completes their actions before returning to their original frozen position. The scene helps the audience piece together the story with a strong visual representation of the story. On Wednesday we read a different article about Martin Luther King Jr as buddies with Ms. Bridget’s class. We then answered various questions using graphs about MLK’s marches, streets named after him, and how often he used certain words in his “I Have a Dream” speech.

• On Wednesday and Thursday we explored our small electronics. Thank you to those of you who were able to donate! We started by taking apart VHS tapes and then moved on to stereos, laptops, karaoke machines, and more. Some students dove in by smashing and pulling! Others focused on one piece at a time and put some elements back together. All strategies resulted in comments like “Woah! Come look at this!” The energy in our room was beyond amazing! Students had theories about why they found something that looked like a fan or where each wire connected and why. One group named each type of wire they found (bubblegum and toothpaste wire were the two I remember!). Students who were working on different electronics were still happy to help each other loosen a screw, theorize about a new piece, or generally share in one another’s excitement. Once a group determined they had taken apart all they possibly could, they drew a diagram of how their piece (or a small portion of it) worked. Which way does each piece turn? What is its purpose? They also determined the name for their electronic. We will be wrapping up this tinkering project early next week, but my hope is that it inspired some questions about how things work. I also hope it helped students connect with William Kamkwamba’s curiosity as we continue our novel study of The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.

• To top off our week, we tried some new math puzzles to brainstorm what kind of open middle math challenge we might want to create for the school. They were both really tough and really fun!

  

• Find Your Herd and Who’s The Leader? in the gym:

Have a wonderful long weekend! See you on Tuesday 🙂