Today the students returned to Tree Runner Park in West Bloomfield for an end-of-year climb. It was a beautiful day filled with sun and mild temperatures. One special thing about the park and a reason why we return is the opportunity it offers for students to confront their fears and challenge themselves to go beyond what they previously thought themselves capable of. It was also wonderful to see the ways they supported each other as they climbed, swung and balanced their ways through the courses.

This week we took a closer look at the marketing terminology related to poultry welfare and the ways in which terms like, “Cage-free” and “Free-range” can be used by factory farms to mislead consumers.

We also began researching chicken breeds in an effort to determine which would be most suitable for our school. The students reviewed various charts that indicated chicken breeds that would do well in cold climates, provide a healthy amount of eggs, had friendly dispositions and were hardy and forgiving enough towards their novice caretakers. After finding ones that matched the criteria, they started drafts of posters, including illustrations of their chickens and information about the breeds.

This week the students were introduced to The Last Readers, an interactive graphic novel that focuses on close reading skills. Throughout the adventure, students are introduced to and practice concepts that encourage a deeper interaction with texts. These include word choice, sentence and narrative structure, point of view, argument and figurative language. The topic for this week was arguments and their structure. In order to broadcast a message of hope to their fellow citizens in the Dome, students had to learn about the relationships between claims, evidence and reasons in an argument. They used these categories to identify parts of an argument, evaluated the quality of arguments and began making their own.

We also continued to work on our production of The Little Prince. The students were challenged to perform their first run on Friday morning. The shortened time frame was by design. Throughout the sessions, students created props and shared observations about things that needed to be considered while they worked. These included the need for a way of sharing and knowing what each student was working on, the absence of a script, and the importance of scale and perspective. While we could have discussed all of these directly prior to beginning, this approach encouraged greater engagement and student self-direction.

This week, we spent time studying compost, how it’s made and how it benefits the soil and the environment. The students looked at articles and an animation and drafted responses to questions, focusing on complete sentences and domain-specific vocabulary.

This week the class traveled to the Lake Erie Metropark Marina to study Lake Erie, the body of water that the Huron River empties into. When we think about the health of our water it’s important to think about the bodies of water and communities both up river and down river from us.

We began the week on the Huron River, specifically the Argo Cascades. The class, along with extra chaperones (Thanks, Dan and Jenna!) rented tubes and enjoyed a gorgeous day in the sun. For many, it was their first experience there and most left adamant about bringing their families back. In the coming weeks, we will be looking into the history of the cascades and how economic and environmental concerns inform land use decisions. The trip was a joyous one as well and was designed with the hope of building positive connections between the students and the river. This will make our work with the river more meaningful beyond an abstract appreciation.

This week we worked on writing prompts as a way to connect with aspects of our identity and what matters to us. They included creating a list of rules for being us at this age, describing moments when we were happiest and imagining our lives as a video game and ascribing points to the things that bring us joy, whether that was based on experiences or overcoming obstacles. We will channel these into our work on our 6 Word Memoirs.

1. Oceans
2. Ice Caps and Glaciers
3. Groundwater
4. Rivers, Lakes and Streams
5. The Atmosphere

They then worked in groups to represent their mental models visually by taking a cup of water and distributing amongst cups representing the categories above. After doing so, the students also distinguished between water we can drink and water we can’t.

When Michelle and I revealed the actual distribution cries of shock and disbelief rang out especially when seeing how little of the Earth’s water was drinkable. This helped illustrate how precious of a resource our drinking water is and the importance of protecting it.

We continued reading The Little Prince focusing on the different reading roles that the students will be taking on as they read. These include the following:

• Reporter – Summarizing
• Profiler – Character Analysis
• Curator – Finding Interesting or Confusing Words or Phrases
• Detective – Asking Questions and Making Connections

This work will help them continue to develop their skills as readers. We will also be collaborating with Imogen on our work with The Little Prince with more details to follow.

In math, we continued our Singapore work as well as multiplication facts. Fact automaticity is practiced by learning to recognize patterns and ways to use facts they know to figure out ones they don’t. We also practice in groups naming facts, trying to get as many in a row as possible. The students always get a chance to practice being successful with the ones they miss. We also discussed the Commutative Property as it relates to multiplication and how it reduces the number of facts they have to practice.

The students also took on a series of folding challenges with origami paper. They were asked to create squares and triangles of various sizes (fractions of a whole) as well as different orientations. The two triangles folded couldn’t be congruent. The other important piece was that students had to convince each other that they had actually satisfied the challenge. For example, when asked to make a square 1/4 the size of the original, the students had to describe what made it a square and what made it 1/4 the size of the original. This allowed them to practice making arguments using mathematical reasoning.

Happy First Week of School! This week we spent time settling in and getting to know each other and our space. We began with a game called The Great Wind Blows which helped us learn more about our interests. Academically speaking, the students have been reading independently daily while I conducted informal reading assessments.

Academically speaking, the students have been reading independently daily while I conducted informal reading assessments.