Box Office Hit?....maybe not

Both of my class's productions of What, No Santa? went really well.  We had three classes attend out morning production.  The kids were very nervous bit did a great job.  We only had one class attend the afternoon production and that class did great too! 

I am still blown away with how engaged and how quickly they put that show together.  They rehearsed, made the props, and the costumes in four days!  One of my Santas even memorized most of his lines!  I was one proud momma.

Now it's Christmas break.  I got super sick Friday evening and have been on the couch recovering most of the week.  I will start some of my lesson planning this weekend once the Christmas excitment is all over. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

What, No Santa?

This week is all about getting kids engaged in learning something new and keeping them focused.  Most kids are more concerned Christmas shopping, family get togethers, meeting up with friends, opening presents than they are about learning. 

I decided that I wouldn't start the next science workshop.  I did some searching and thought a little reader's theater would be just the thing to get the kids excited about a new project.  Instead of just reading through it, and having the kids take turns reading different parts in an attempt to increase fluency, and strength voice.  I held auditions for the major parts, assigned minor ones.  Anyone who didn't want to perform became a prop master.

In both of my classes, we created a cast of actors.  We discussed emotions of the characters.  Santa is sick and can't possibly deliver toys this year.  Mrs. Claus is taking care of him and insists she can may the deliveries.  Santa doesn't believe Mrs. Clause, a woman, can do it.  There is a flurry of rhyming elves running around and a voice over Narrator who describes the actions of the characters.  Once we got tricky words understood, and dug into the emotions and how those emotions should look on their faces...we started to block.

Today, I read the script line by line and the kids just acted with their bodies and faces.  We'd stop periodically to make sure they were still facing the audience or that they were using a prop right.  We'd check in the crew for the placements.  Then they ran a "dress rehearsal" with the blocking.

The prop masters sat together and read the play, line by line, and made a list of what they would need.  Then they divied up the props.  What they have come up with entirely on their own has been amazing!  I can't beleive how detailed their backdrops are, their hand held props, and their costumes!  I will post the videos to school tube and link to them once we are done.

Break is almost here!

The three weeks between Thanksgiving break and Winter Break are a flurry of activity.  At my school we conduct most of our second round of testing for the school year.  This testing allows us to see how each child is growing throughout the year, gives some projected idea of how a student may do on the FCAT, and allows us to see how we are doing as compared to other schools in our county.

Both of my reading classes were able to complete their FAIR (a webbased reading assessment that the whole state is using) and Math PCAS tests.  This upcoming week we will do the Science, and writing will be done after the Winter Break. 

Somewhere between all the testing my class was able to complete a five day science workshop.  It was called roller coasters.  The kids explored concepts such as gravity, force, motion, kinetic and potential enery, and friction by building models of roller coasters out of insulation foam tubing, tape and marbles.  The groups had to construct a coaster with a loop and a hill.  In my AM class, only one group was successful.  In my PM class, most groups were successful.  In the AM almost all groups tried to create a hill and then a loop.  After the debrief, we talked about some of the forces at work.  Students quickly realized they should have made their loop first. 

This is one of the reasons departmentalizing is wonderful.  I immediately learned what kept the kids from building a successful model and was able to ask some guiding questions to the PM class.  After asking which "track trick" they thought would need the most amount of force to get the marble through (a question I had not asked the AM class), the groups began talking about the best way to get the marble successfully through the track.  The conversations I heard in the AM class were more about how cool they could make their track look, regardless of how successful it may be.

This unit didn't make me change much about my practice except finding a way to lead students to successful outcomes without point blank giving them the 'how-to'.  I took some pics of their coasters.  I will post them when I have recharged the camera.

Happy Holidays!