Target

Week of February 27, 2012 Fourth and Fifth Grades

Our fourth and fifth graders continue to sharpen their convergent thinking skills with logic puzzles, Hands-On Equations and other activities that require finding a correct answer. They have also been practicing their divergent thinking skills. Last week our students created an advertisement for either a habitat or a restaurant fit for a frog. They were encouraged to concentrate on their fluency (the more ideas the better), flexibility (changing ideas if needed), originality (ideas that no one else will think of), and elaboration (adding details). This week our students will learn about a frog's life cycle  by creating a narrative from the perspective of a frog going through metamorphosis.

To further the students' knowledge of metamorphosis in an authentic way, we are planning to hike to Sibley pond and observe the transformation from eggs to tadpoles to froglet to adult frog. This should be happening soon, so please send in the permission form to ensure your child will participate.

The Frog Man will be visiting the first week of March. If you haven't already, please return a $5 donation to cover the cost of his presentation. We are looking forward to the awesome learning opportunity for our students!

Lastly, the Georgia Aquarium has a frog exhibit called Frogs: A Chorus of Colors. We, unfortunately, will not be able to take a school field trip there, so we highly encourage you to take your Target child there to see this exhibit. Follow the link below for more information.

http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/explore-the-aquarium/exhibits-and-galleries/frogs.aspx

 

 

Week of February 20, 2012 First Grade

Today was short due to the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon, which we thoroughly enjoyed!  Thank you, P.T.A.!

We worked on logic puzzles and a word boggler.  We read Yertle the Turtle and talked about life with and without rules.  We went to the computer lab and did research on turtle species.  This is the web site we used:

Enchanted Learning: Turtles

Week of February 21, 2012

First of all the big news.....Half of the Xyphoid population have been saved thanks to our marvelous third grade heart experts and their new heart designs. The rest of the Xyphoids are anxiously awaiting their new hearts from the second graders next Monday. Third graders put a great deal of effort into their Xyphoid heart design, their written explanation of how their new model works, and the construction of a clay model.

The class reviewed the parts of the human heart by examining a pig's heart, which is anatomically similar to our human heart. Convergent thinking skills were focused while students worked with the next Hands on Equations lesson learning their first "legal move," and completed a logic puzzle. The class concentrated on their affective learning strand with their reflection and discussion on today's heart quote; "One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter." We further explored the affective domain with our heart mapping and the introduction of our poetry facet with the book Love That Dog by Sharon Creech.

Week of February 20, 2012

Last week our fourth and fifth graders were introduced to our semester-long Connections Project. A packet was given to each student explaining the project in detail. This week, our students should come to Target having already viewed the websites, written a statement about each one, and chosen one of the topics for further research. Scroll down to last week's post for links to each website, and check your child's take-home folder for the project explanation. 

Also, to further our study of Anurans on the Run, we are planning to hike from Sope Creek Elementary to Sibley Pond to view the life cycles of frogs and toads up close and in person on some future Target days. A permission form was sent home last week to allow your children to participate. Please sign that form and return it this week on your child's Target day. 

In the near future, we will also have an expert guest speaker on frogs and toads. A request for $5 has been sent home to cover the cost of his presentation. Our students are in for a wonderful learning experience with the Frog Man!

Week of February 13, 2012

Second and third graders are becoming more knowledgeable heart experts.

Our day began with our heart quote; "My mind tells me to give up, but my heart won't let me."  Students reflected and wrote in their journals about personal experiences when this occurred in their lives. For our primary algebra experience 2nd graders used their thesaurus skills to find synonyms for the terms vary, various, and variable. They then determined the mathematical definition of variable.  Third graders are moving along quickly with their Hands on Equations lessons. We continued working on our convergent thinking skills with a logic puzzle activity.

The classes thoroughly reviewed the main parts of the heart and the flow of blood through the body.  Students were then given a unique problem to solve and challenge for their divergent thinking skills. They must design a heart for the alien Xyphoids.  Students have various homework assignment, depending on how much of their design they completed in class.  Most students need to complete their design and label and color their hearts.  Some need to also bring in a step by step written description of how their Xyphoid heart works.  Students have a copy of the directions in their take home folder, which explains what parts a Xyphoid heart needs. In class next week students will  make a 3D model of their Xyphoid heart.

Reminder: Due to Presidents' Day holiday on Monday 2/20,  second grade's assignment is not due until 2/28.

We enjoyed meeting many of our new Target parents at Open House this week.

 

Week of February 13, 2012 First Grade

Our first grade Target day begins with a lesson on the concept of "balancing," to prepare students to think in terms of equations as being balanced.  We use physical balances and combine different objects to see how many of each it takes to balance our scales.  We then continue using our "convergent" thinking to solve logic puzzles and a word boggler puzzle.

Before reading our Seuss book, we talk about the concept of rhyming words and brainstorm lists of rhyming words.  We then work individually to complete a rhyming activity.

Our story this week is Green Eggs and Ham, a book that Seuss wrote on a dare from his publisher who bet him that he could not write a book using no more than 50 words.  Obviously, Mr. Geisel (Dr. Seuss) won!  We talk about the fact that the boy in the story doesn't want to try something new.  We make connections with our Target day, which has lots of new things for us to try.

We use our "divergent" thinking to transform the shape of a green egg into something that has nothing to do with an egg at all.

NO HOMEWORK this week! 

Connections Project: 4th and 5th Grades Week of February 13, 2012

This week, we begin our Connections Project.  This project enables us to "connect" with a world issue, to research it, to present our findings to our classmates, and to design and implement a service project.  A letter will go home explaining this project to parents.  Our first assignment is to research and discover some basic facts about each of our possible choices for our project.  The details on this assignment (due next week) are as follows:

View one site from each of the seven topics and read about the issue it describes.  Complete the sentences at the bottom of the assignment page (given to you in class) about EACH ONE.

These are the sites (you may click on the links to view them:)

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Energy Crisis

Destruction of Ecosystems and Habitats

Hunger and Poverty in Atlanta

Animal Cruelty

Loneliness and the Elderly

Companionship for Disabled

The Week of February 6, 2012

Students were excited to share the things that were "near to their hearts." We learned a lot about our friends through this sharing activity. Convergent thinking skills were activated as second graders worked on a math balanced activity and third graders worked with their new HOE (Hands on Equations) manipulatives. Convergent skills were further stretched with a challenging logic puzzle.

"The Beat Goes On" as both grade levels took the first look into the anatomy of the heart. Students followed the path of blood through the chambers and parts of the heart with the mechanical heart and interactive activities. Our future cardiologists quickly absorbed the new vocabulary. Students began their "Heart Journal" in their spiral notebooks with heart idioms and quotes. Our quote for the day was: "There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart...pursue those." Using their evaluative thinking skills, classes had interesting discussions on what this meant to them. Some students need to finish their pictures, definitions and sentences in their heart journal for homework.

Reminder: We hope to see meet many of our new Target parents at our Winter Morning Coffee Open House Wednesday 2/15 7:15-8:00 AM in the cafeteria.

First Grade: Week of February 6

This week we're learning about the concept of "equal" by doing some research into words with the prefix "equi" in preparation for learning about balance in equations.  We're also going to work on logic puzzles and be introduced to the strategies needed to solve them.

We'll finish our study of Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and read And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street.  We'll talk about rhyme and rhythm as well as elaboration in the writing of this book.  We'll learn some new vocabulary as well.

We'll brainstorm things we see on the way to school in preparation for our homework, "And to Think that I Saw It on Papermill Road."

Homework:  "And to Think That I Saw It on Papermill Road."  Students will finish the story with their own ideas and illustrate them.

New Parents to Target

Please join us at our

Winter Morning Coffee Open House

February 15, 2012

7:15-8:00 AM in the cafeteria