Celebrating: ECT (Enrichment Creavity Time)

It's time for celebrating, and I am proud to share this week's celebration.  Thanks Ruth for encouraging us to choose a special moment and write about it.  I am excited to celebrate with everyone.  Spring break has passed, hopefully winter is over soon, and round 2 of state testing starts next week.  Two weeks of testing which changes everyone's schedule in our building and in Room 234 our schedule will have a celebration everyday after testing.

KA and HD chose to research cancer. Both girls lives have been impacted by cancer in their families.
They chose different kinds and their creativity is making the different ribbons to display each
type. I learned that every form of cancer has a color attached to it.  These displays will be placed in the library
so their learning will go beyond our classroom.

RK built the White House with popsicle sticks.
The roof lifts up and she included facts about three rooms that she was interested in learning more about. 

ECT (enrichment creativity time) has been a highlight of third trimester. Our district has encouraged the entire K-12 staff to include creativity throughout the school day.  We have had district PD on what it looks like and sounds like. I decided learners in Room 234 would be apart of the decision making process.  I posed a question: What do you want to learn more about and how could you use your creativity to share your project?  When you ask a group of fifth graders and allow the gates to be wide open, their responses are amazing.  The best part about the process for me (and them) was it was an opportunity for exploration as well as a chance for each learner to share their project with their peers. The criteria included:

1. Learning goals
2. Plan including a timeline
3. Materials (most supplied from home)
4. Completion and sharing with peers

AM built a rubber band car. He chose this topic because we were
studying force and motion.  He loves science! The best part of his ECT project was that
his car did not run smoothly, and he is still revising his plan. I am confident that he will
revise and share his car with us.

Wednesday Word Work: Exploration

Favorite shelf of word study and poetry books.
Typically the poetry shelf is jammed pack; however,
every student has a book in their desk for this week's
Poetry Friday celebration.

I had a little extra kick in my step this week with word work because I was constantly thinking.  I went straight to the source. My amazing and vocal group of learners in Room 234.  I shared with them that I was blogging about word work, and I wanted to continue the conversation from last week about EXPLORATION.  I asked a few students during indoor recess:  What's your favorite part of word study? 

• your word study book tub (which continues to grow out of the tub)
• word observations
• having fun with words on Poetry Friday
• sorting words (introductory lesson for most new skills)
• having our own word notebook (always have a basket ready to choose from)

Word observations is a routine I start early in the year and my students continue to use this strategy throughout the year especially syllable boxes to help them with their spelling.   It's the opportunity to notice the word features.  

1. Count the vowels plus consonants = letters (write an addition problem)
2. Using that information, build syllable boxes (one of the most important rules in spelling every syllable has a vowel in it)
3. Teaching why "y" is a vowel and a consonant (it's really neat if you have a student who's name is Ryan because y is a vowel) depending on if it is in a box without another vowel
4. Part of speech
5. Definition 
6. Sentence showing meaning

first word observation of the year

Thanks for stopping by on Wednesday. I am excited to learn along with you as we explore word work. If you decide to post leave your link in the comment section.