Reflection on Being a Good Classmate

We continue to review, practice, and reflect on what it means to "be a good classmate". As a quick reflection after a partner activity (read and answer comprehension questions) I asked each student to write about 2 specific actions they did during the activity to be a good partner.

Finding Text Features

Students looked at the most recent issue of Scholastic News magazine in the app. They took screenshots and using Skitch, identified different text features such as bold words, diagram, heading, etc.

Using 5 Senses to Describe a Food

Students chose a food they like to eat and drew it (or imported a picture) using either My Story or Popplet. For each of the 5 senses they wrote an adjective that describes the food. This was an introductory lesson to adjectives that we will build on throughout the year.

Pairs of students met. Each student read their list of 5 senses and their partner had to infer what food was being described. This led to a further conversation about using specific adjectives, and a lot of them, helps with inference.

Design a Chair

Last year some students from the Stanford d.School worked with me to give a design thinking presentation using Nearpod. I really liked the whole design thinking concept and plan to incorporate it frequently this year.

We started off with a chair design activity. First we looked at photos and around the classroom for different types of chairs. We talked about basic parts of all the chairs and how/why they differed. I gave small groups 3 pieces of paper and 1 foot of tape and asked them to design a chair for a specific person (a baby, an elderly person, an astronaut, a very tall person, and a person with a sore back). I saw a similar activity on the Internet somewhere, although I can't recall now where, so this was not my invention.

Students created a chair and then shared with another group. They gave each other positive feedback and suggestions for improvement. Students created a second chair with the same set of supplies (3 new pieces of paper and another foot of tape).

We shared whole class and then I asked each students to reflect in iDiary about how they helped their group in a specific way and how 1 other person in their group was helpful.