Today we had an amazing gallery for our tree houses! They were fantastic and showed such creativity and innovation! Students voted on six different categories of their peers' tree houses and we'll have the results of those ballots next week!

Today we worked on our Tree Houses. We'll present these in gallery form next week, so make sure they are amazing! I'm loving all the creativity that is happening. Keep it up for one more week! We'll have gallery and voting next week.

Today was spent working on our tree houses! Everyone has a great start. We'll keep working on this next week as well. If anyone would be willing to donate some mini-glue sticks, it would be very much appreciated! This class tends to go through them quickly. If students have their own glue guns, they are welcome to bring those in as well. I am looking forward to seeing everyone's finished designs on May 5th.

Today we awarded prizes for the Create Your Own Island project and we discussed our final project of the year, which is to build a tree house for the Swiss Family Robinson. Students should be prepared to work on this project both in and out of class. We will continue to do activities in class, but I am planning on giving the students, the last half (or so) of class to work on their project. I suggested students bring in their tree house in parts so it is easier to transport back and forth. You can more details about the project on the assignment page. Much like the Create Your Own Island project, students will have a gallery showing on May 5th (parents are welcome to attend) and we will also vote for our winners on that day as well!

Tree House Idea
Another idea
Something Else to spark the ideas
Using a bottle

Today we had a gallery viewing for our Create Your Own Island. It was fantastic! Everyone showed a lot of creativity and artistic abilities! Students were able to interact with the galley exhibit and even vote on the following favorites:

Most Artistic
Most Creative
Most Realistic
Island you would most love to visit
Island you definitely do not want to visit

Today we worked on our own island map. These should be finished next week for our gallery showing. I also showed students how to find their pages to read each week, so they should have that information as well. We will begin our final STEM project for the year next week!

Today, we started reading Swiss Family Robinson. I suggested that all 5/6 graders read an abridged version and 7/8 graders read the unabridged version. Everyone has a different version, so it is difficult to post a reading assignment. So, to determine the reading pace, you should take the total pages in the book and divide by seven (that's how many classes we have left in the year). That will let you know how many pages you should read each week. From there, you can make a specific reading schedule based upon your version. I will walk through this with the students on Thursday, but everyone should begin reading his or her version of Swiss Family Robinson (SFR) this week.

Also, we began our geography/map project to accompany the first part of the book. You can find more directions on the instructions and rubric page. You will also need to bring poster board to class next week to work on our island during class time. You can begin working on your island or you can wait until Thursday to get more clarification.

Today we did a beautiful watercolor painting of an arctic scene and an Aurora Borelais/Austrailus. These turned out to be gorgeous. You can see some of the examples on my Instagram page (@drrowereads). We also took our igloos home yesterday. I'm not certain that anyone was actually able to finish (it was a much more elaborate project than I thought)! We will begin reading Swiss Family Robinson after the break and until the end of school. This one is a "classic," but also has some pretty dense language, so if you are more comfortable listening to this one, that is fine! We'll also be constructing a tree house as part of our STEAM challenge, so if anyone has materials to bring for building, that would be helpful. We will need items such as cardboard tubes (paper towels and toilet paper), string, cardboard. If you can begin collecting those, I'll let you know when to bring them in.

This week, we learned about the Aurora Borealis and the Aurora Australis. Julie observes the Aurora Borealis once she builds her igloo. We learned about the science behind the Auroras, including what gasses cause the different colors of the Auroras. We'll use this information to complete an art project next week. We also worked on our gigantic igloos. Hopefully, they will come on Thursday.

Everyone should have finished up their reading of Julie of the Wolves. Today we developed the theme (author's message) based upon topics and quotes taken directly from the book. Then we continue to work on our MASSIVE igloos (I really thought these would be much smaller!) Hopefully, those will come home before spring break.

Today we started building our igloos. We designed our struts in a decagon shape and started to make triangles on the sides of the dome shape. We'll continue this next week along with working on a Julie of the Wolves literacy activity. Please make sure you have finished reading the entire book by next week.

Today, we completed a partner gallery walk about discussion questions from Julie of the Wolves. Part II is the most challenging (content-wise) in my opinion, and part III is the most exciting! After we did the gallery discussion, we continued to work on our igloos. Students should work on rolling their struts for HW. I'd like to start construction next week.

Reading: Part III of Julie of the Wolves.

Today, we discussed which quotes fit with our various themes (this was our worksheet from last week). We also started construction of our igloos. For HW this week, please read Julie part II.

We've been out due to illness, so here are the things you will need to do this week:

1. Finish reading Julie of the Wolves Part One
2. Take the Julie of the Wolves Quiz One
3. Complete the Quotes to Support Topics Page (this will force you to copy the document)

Today we began our book study of Julie of the Wolves by completing a word search and then using those words in a prediction paragraph about what we thought would happen in the book. We also listened to the first few pages of the book. Julie of the Wolves is not divided into chapters, but it is in three large parts. Though it's a small book, we'll be taking our time and working on the skill of moving topics to fully developed themes and finding evidence to support our themes. We'll also be doing some STEAM projects to accompany our book. For this week, please read 1-37 (to the page break).

We worked on building our earthquake proof structures today. I loved the language I was hearing---phrases like "shock absorbers," "cross-bracing," and "structural damage." It was very fun to build and test our structures.

I will be posting a final Disaster Days quiz on Monday. You can take this at any point over the break. When we return from break, we'll begin reading Julie of the Wolves. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas break, and I look forward to reading and doing STEAM challenges with you in the New Year.

Disaster Days Final Quiz

Today, we read an article about Earthquake proof buildings. Please review this article before we begin our STEM challenge next week.

Students may bring items from home to attempt to construct an earthquake proof building as a team. The following items are NOT allowed: any food item, bricks, rocks.

Continue to read Disaster Days 16-end

Today we replayed our RPG from before break. This time everyone was much more successful and some groups even managed to be rescued! After that, we worked on our model of the earthquake throughout the earth. For the next few weeks, we'll be working on a STEM challenge to build an earthquake-proof building.
For HW, please read chapters 11-15 in Disasters Days. There will be an in-class quiz over these chapters next week.

We played a Disaster Days survival scenario game, which is basically like a choose your own adventure or a role-playing game (RPG). It was fun to see what everyone's choices would be and how those would hurt or help us in an earthquake situation. We also practiced our argumentative skills because we had to convince our group members to select our choice.
We also took an in-class quiz.

For the break, please read Disaster Days chapters 6-10.

Today we started our study of Disaster Days. We began by activating our background knowledge about earthquakes. Groups worked together to list the things they knew about earthquakes and what they wanted to know about earthquakes. They we made a model of an earthquake. For HW, please read chapters 1-5 of Disaster Days. We will have an in-class quiz next week :)

Watch the video about earthquakes.

Today in class we played a fun game called Bring Your Own Book. We used the lines from Wildfire to fit random categories and then judged each other for the accuracy. It was a very fun game. I highly recommend it for your family game night! Then we read a scenario for clues for arson and filed a fictitious police report.

For HW:
-Finish reading Wildfire if you have not
-Take the final quiz
-Get your Disaster Days book (I will be assigning pages from that next week).

Today we learned how fire investigators map and determine the point of origin of a fire. We also determined the direction of burned vegetation based upon coordinates and our mapping skills. We worked on cartography, graphing coordinate grids, and predicting causes and patterns of fires. For this week, please finish up reading Wildfire.

Today we worked on understanding what would be strong evidence to support a claim and what would be weak evidence to support a claim. We then discussed what to do if we were in a "lost" survival situation. We know the most important thing is to remain calm and stay as close to the same spot as possible. We also learned that the first thing we need to do is make a shelter. Looking for nearby natural shelters, like caves is ideal, but sometimes we must build our own. So, we practiced making knots to secure our shelters. We make several knots at each station. This also worked our well because the Girls' Challenge class practiced making knots today as well (and we didn't even coordinate!).

For HW:
Please read until page 154
Take the quiz

South Sudan Update: I finally finished counting all the change that was donated for our fundraiser! I am thrilled to report we raised $500 for South Sudan! Thank you all for being so generous and teaching your children to be generous as well!

Today we finished up our To Build a Fire responses and they look great! We have them hanging in room 5 D if you would like to take a look. Then, working in groups we determined the five most important items we would need if we were lost at sea. Finally, we discussed what was happening in Wildfire page 1-64 and we predicted what might happen next. For fall break, please read 65-94. We'll continue reading Wildfire for a few weeks when we return from break! We'll finish up the semester with reading Disaster Days.

Today, students selected a variety of response activities to complete that related to either To Build a Fire or Building a Campfire. Students could choose to make comics, a newspaper, or posters about fire safety and hypothermia. Everyone worked really well together and it was a great chance to work with different groups. For this week, please read Wildfire page. 1-64. I have the Wildfire guides available and I will be giving this one away free of charge! If you are interested in the Wildfire consumable guide, please just email me and let me know!

Today, we learned how to build a campfire. We learned the elements we needed and what each element's job was. We practiced building campfires with using candy :) It was quite fun. We also predicted about what we thought our short story might be.

HW:
Read To Build a Fire by Jack London
AFTER you have read the short story, watch this video. Be prepared to discuss it in class next week.
Take your quiz over To Build a Fire and how to build a campfire for survival (posted Monday)

Today we constructed our water filters and then actually filtered our dirty water. We will let these settle until next week and made another observation at that point. It was truly amazing to see the filtering process at work. A couple of groups were able to get very clean water from their filters. Other groups did not have water as clean, however, they realized that if they filtered it yet again, they would have cleaner water. I think it was very eye opening for everyone.

For HW: Please finish the reflection we started in class.

Paragraph 1: Now that your experiment is over, what are your first thoughts on this experience? Are they positive or negative? Why? What are some positive thoughts you have had? What are some negative thoughts? Why?

Paragraph 2: How did your team work together? What was great about your team? How could your team work improved? What will you consider next time before working with a team?

Paragraph 3: How does this relate to ALWTW? Reflect on the reading of the book. What did you learn through the reading? Reflect on your understanding and appreciation of clean water.

Today, students reviewed ethos, pathos, and logos by discussing classmate's posters! Then we hung the posters throughout the building in order to help with our fundraising efforts. We are off to a great start with our collection, but we want to contribute as much as possible, so continue to bring in spare change (or more) until the end of the month. Want to see where the money will be going? Check out Water for South Sudan.

We also started our next STEM challenge. Students were challenged to create a water purification system to filter dirty water using gravel, sand, coffee filters, activated charcoal, and a bottle. Students have various designs and I'm eager to see which team creates the "cleanest" water (no worries--we won't be drinking anything. Even if we get the water clean, it would still need to be boiled to kill the microbes we cannot see).

HW:
-Finish the remainder of the book
-Take quiz #3
-Procure your copy of Wildfire by Rodman Philbrick

Today we learned about rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos), which is a pretty advanced concept! Students need to apply rhetorical appeals when they create their poster for homework (see below). We finished up working on our STEAM challenge, which was building shoes for Nya out of newspaper and plastic bags. Groups came up with some great designs!

We also discussed Water for South Sudan, which is the charity that Salva started after he emigrated to America. This organization supplies villages in Africa with the necessary hygiene materials, water, and supplies. In addition, they build wells to allow villages to have clean, sustainable water sources. Our class has decided to raise money for Water for South Sudan. We'll have collection buckets throughout the co-op until the end of September, so bring in your spare change!

HW:

-Make a poster to hang in the building to promote our collection for Water for South Sudan. Your poster should include one example of rhetorical appeals. It should also be neat, colorful, and contain no spelling errors.
-Complete Quiz #2
-Watch Salva's Ted Talk (see below under the Long Walk to Water book cover)
-Read Chapters 7-12

In class today we discussed the two major types of literary conflict (internal and external) and we also discussed what each of the subsets of those conflicts were named (person v. person, person v. self, etc.). In addition, we reviewed what literary point of view meant, the different types of point of view (1st, 2nd, 3rd person limited/omniscient), and how to recognize them. We began a new STEM challenge--building shoes!

For HW:
Please Read pg. 1-30 and complete the quiz. The quiz will mark the last two responses incorrect automatically. Please do not fret! I will grade those personally!

First Day of Class! Today was a great first day! We were able to play an ice breaker game and complete a STEM challenge as well. We will begin reading A Long Walk to Water next week. Please bring your copy of the book to class next week. I have created literacy/cross-curricular workbooks to accompany each of the texts we will be reading this year. If you are interested in those, please email me and I will share more information. They are not required, but would be a great accompaniment to the reading of the text (especially if you are completing this course as an academic course). In addition, beginning next week, an online quiz covering the assigned reading will be given for HW each week. The quiz will cover literacy skills (reading and writing) as well as comprehension questions based upon the reading.