It was nice to have a 5 day week. We took advantage of the time and worked on a few projects and invited in some guest teachers.
We started our week by doing some blogging about our writing. Each student is working diligently on an informational Earth book. Our focuses are elaboration, vocabulary and details. Several of our Room 222 students went on Kidblog and shared a page they were really proud of. Check out their work here. Keep an eye on our Kidblog page. We will have more bloggers this week.
In addition to writing about the Earth, the students are working in groups to plan an informational video about the Earth. The focus is collaboration, planning and accurate information.
They planned and made sure that all of their "domain specific" words were clearly explained in their videos. We are finishing them up this week.
Friday was a very exciting day in Room 222! We were lucky enough to have two guest teachers.
The first was Mr. Drendel, our amazing P.E. teacher. He joined us as a "How-To" writing expert. Part of informational writing is not just teaching someone all about a topic, we also need to teach people "how-to" do things.
Mr. Drendel walked us through the steps of juggling again and helped us plan our "How-to Juggle" papers. He used a cool app that allowed him to slow the video down and find the important areas of our body for juggling. We found the midline and saw that he was making small circles with his arms while juggling the scarves.
We then began practicing and writing.
Lastly, we had Mr. Berger join us to share some information on Owls. Mr. Berger is a raptor expert. He has worked with eagles, hawks, falcons and owls. One of his favorite activities is "owling", where he sits quietly and waits for owls to come to him. He uses his owl calls to attract them.
He talked to us about the wingspan of the Great Gray Owl. It can be up to 4 feet wide!
One of the most interesting facts was about Owls and their 3-D hearing. He taught us that the Owls have ears in different places on their heads and this helps them locate prey with just their hearing alone. Mr. Berger said that you can blindfold an owl, place him in a dark room and the owl will catch it based on hearing alone.
With this information, I'll bet we have a lot to write about this week!
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