Friday, September 30, 2016

Week Four: POP X, magical items, masters and beginners, and hand feeding butterflies




This week we took an impromptu field trip this week, traveling to downtown Ann Arbor’s Liberty Plaza to visit POP X, an art installation. Students explored the exhibits in trios, making note of what intrigued them, then returned to school and designed their own exhibits in the spirit of what they saw.










In homeroom, we discussed the elements of a story, focusing on what makes writing compelling. We then wrote a couple of lackluster stories together, then worked individually to make them more engaging. We also had a writing prompt about taking ordinary items (flashlights, paintbrushes, etc) and making them magical, and a journal prompt that asked students to consider the quote “the master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”


We also continued our close reading of The Tiger Rising as a group, analyzing the writing to discern the author’s intent.

On top of all of that, we also had a talk with Rachel about banned books, and toured a project gallery of a recent project by the 7/8 classroom.
We're committed to getting outside as often as possible, which sometimes makes for rainy recesses. 

The muddiest kick line ever 

In math group, we spent two days working in our Singapore books, and spent the other two days playing an assortment of math games, identifying what mathematical concepts were involved in each (pattern recognition, symmetry, arithmetic, etc.)


On Friday morning, we partnered with Sam's class to lead the all school assembly, where we talked about our ongoing work with Lisa and monarch butterflies. 

Lisa hand feeds one of our monarchs. 
Learning to wrangle monarch butterflies safely 










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