Project Groundhog

At the beginning of February our class excitedly joined Project Groundhog. This is a 6 week internet project with schools across the country and Canada. Each day we record the weather and each week we share information with the other schools on our team. Our first task was to adopt a groundhog mascot and choose a name. After much discussion and a close vote, our mascot is named:  Chuckles
We learned about the other schools on our team and found them on the map.

Next, we made our own predictions as to whether Phil the Groundhog would see his shadow on February 2nd. Here are the class results. As you can see our results were different from the actual results :)

Prediction: Do you think Phil will see his shadow on Groundhog's Day? Why?/Why not?  Essential Question? How does the weather affect whether the groundhog will see his shadow or not?
The morning of February 2nd, we took our handmade groundhogs outside to see whether our results were the same as Phil's. 

Our groundhogs saw their shadows. This led to a conversation about how the weather is different in different areas. We concluded that in Pennsylvania it must be cloudy but here in Middleton, it is sunny. Essential Question: Why did our groundhogs see their shadows but Phil the Groundhog did not? For the 6 week project we recorded the weather and temperature each day.  Because the founder of Project Groundhog is based in Canada and Project Groundhog is open to teachers in the both the United States and Canada we recorded the temperature in Celsius. This tied in perfectly with our Metric Measurement unit. At the end of the week, we found the average temperature for the week. Below are a couple of student samples.

For a fun project we read the story Punxsutawney Phyllis and then the students wrote an opinion letter to Groundhog telling him whether they would make a good substitute groundhog or not.

Listen as the students read their letters. They are very cute!

Read Across America

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Last week our class celebrated Read Across America and Dr. Seuss's birthday.

On Tuesday, we watched a live streaming author presentation by Ryan Reynolds. He read and discussed his new book Going Places. The students enjoyed hearing what goes into writing a book and discussing the important messages of collaboration and determination which are portrayed throughout the story. 

One interesting idea that Mr. Reynolds presented to the students was that an idea for a story can come from anything, even something as simple as a dot. He modeled drawing a large circle on a piece of paper and then creating a picture from it. After, he  asked the students to draw a large circle on their papers and to create a picture with it. The students loved this activity and created some really interesting pictures. Essential Question: What can you create from a dot?

We ended our day by joining Mrs. Mulligan's class for a joint reading of the Dr. Seuss story, If I Ran the Zoo! 

Mrs. Mulligan and I took turns reading to the students and then partnered them up to create new and interesting animals for the zoo. Such fun!

After much effort and collaboration, here are the finished projects! If these animals were in a zoo, it would be a very interesting zoo indeed.

We Should Go!

The students wrapped up their opinion/persuasive writing unit with a fun writing piece titled: We Should Go!  

First, the students brainstormed places they would like to go to. This could be a place they had never been or a place they wanted to go back to.  As you can see they had some exciting places they wanted to visit.

Next, the students created pictures to help them visualize and think about the place they would like to go.

  After, we gathered back together and shared the places the students had chosen. We discussed thinking of reasons that would convince the parents to take them. We talked about putting themselves in their parents shoes and thinking of reasons why their parents would want to go to this place. We practiced by sharing a few reasons and deciding together if the reason was why the parent would like to go or themselves. 
The next step was completing a graphic organizer. Here the students wrote a topic sentence stating their opinion, chose three reasons and then elaborated with more detail about each one, and ended with a clincher restating their opinion.

After organizing their ideas on a graphic organizer,  the students were ready to write their rough drafts. Once the drafts were completed the students used editing and revising pens to check over their writing. Once this step was done each student conferenced with me to ensure all of the steps had been followed.

Finally, students took their writing to publishing, made it hallway ready, and shared with their peers.  The students enjoyed this writing very much and did a great job! Next time you are in the building, stop by our wing and take a peek :)

Common Core: W.2.1  Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.
W.2.5 With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.
L.2.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
L2.2  Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.