Art Museum Recount Writing

What better way to develop our writing skills than writing some fantastic recounts about our excursion to the Art Museum, our weekends, and memorable memories? 

My second graders have recently been learning to write recounts of past events in interesting and engaging ways. We've also learned to write an introduction/orientation, a sequence of events, and then finishing our recounts with a feeling sentence or personal comment.

As the students write, they have been using their own personal writing chart, which helps them to see the criteria they need to show in their writing to become more proficient. During conferencing, students are asked to refer to a particular area in their writing as they describe their achievements and future goals for improvement!

organizing recount writing using visual color cues

We are working on including sequencing words, using attention-grabbing adjectives and details to give more information. We are also becoming more confident at correctly structuring a recount. We began with fact-filled introductions answering the when, who, what, where, and why questions. 

After some solid introductions, the students recalled a few of the minor events that were most important to them. Each minor event is explained in detail in its own paragraph using an appropriate transition word. Finally, our recounts conclude with a feeling sentence, recommendation, or personal comment. 

Visiting the Art Museum

The field trip to the art museum allowed students to gain an important opportunity to add depth to their Unit of Inquiry study on cultures. Students were asked to recount and reflect on what they experienced. What was impressive was the empathy shown by second graders with statements like:  

• “I can imagine what life was like for people a long time ago, it looks more difficult than how we live today" - A
• “When I looked at the similarities and differences of my culture and the culture in the painting, I tried to imagine what those people were thinking," - P
• “I think people from different cultures can have different thoughts about the same thing," - T

We try and integrate across subjects and have specialists involved in the unit of inquiry. The art teacher joined us on the field trip. Prior to the trip, our team planned with the art teacher and she did a pre-visit to the museum and chose several art pieces that would tie into our unit. 

School to home connections are important for families to further the discussions in class. Here were the questions that I sent to my families to ask their children: Which was your favourite painting and why? What information did the paintings give you about Vietnamese culture? What is the SAME as your culture? What is DIFFERENT to your culture?

Moon Festival

Once a year on a full moon, according to the lunar calendar, Moon Festival is celebrated. Families can celebrate on the day by watching the moon, eating moon cakes, and eating special new year home made foods.

Performances at the school's festival included singing and dancing by the Vietnamese language students.

Reading Buddies

A wonderful extension of mixed-age buddies is the buddy relationship my second graders have had with their fourth grade buddies. There they read and are read to from their book boxes. This exchange builds confidence in the little ones and brightens the days of the older kids. 

Our second graders gain from the experience, not only in learning about reading, but also in having successful social interactions with others. They learn reading behaviors, listening skills, and book selection strategies. They become more willing to converse with older friends and more adept at interacting with others.

Mindfulness in the Classroom

Mindfulness is paying attention to your life, here and now, with kindness and curiosity. At my school, children have two 10-minute sessions of mindfulness a day. The practice of mindfulness in our classrooms teaches students how to pay attention and become more aware of their own thinking. This way of paying attention enhances both academic and social-emotional learning. 

In studying second and third graders who did mindfulness practices for 30 minutes twice a week for 8 weeks, Lisa Flook, Ph.D. and her colleagues at the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center at UCLA documented that children who began the study with poor executive function had gains in behavioral regulation, meta-cognition, and overall global executive control. 

Our Math Workshop

I'm at an IB PYP school where we will try and integrate different subjects into our unit of inquiries. 

Math workshop will usually start with a focus lesson on a skill or strategy or even a discussion. 

Immediately following the focus lesson and talk, students engage in an inquiry activity or partner practice. 

Afterwards, students will continue their inquiry activity-open ended math question- or have more independent practice-all working at their own pace. 

During independent practice, I will usually work with a small group of students or hold one-on-one conversations with individual students to understand their thinking. 

To end the workshop session, we will usually all gather together to share our learning for the day and talk about how the concepts tie into our unit of inquiry. 

I really find that this approach allows for more differentiation of instruction. 

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Using the Marketplace Strategy to Make Class Rules

We used a constructivist strategy called, Marketplace, which gave students the responsibility for planning and developing their own learning on a particular topic-in this case the topic of school behaviors and rules. 

This worked really well in developing a sense of independence and confidence. Not surprisingly, students enjoyed it more than having me in front of the room talking the whole time about how they should behave.

Each member of the group was responsible for taking back whatever it was that they had learned in the other groups to their home group. 

The home group members then had to synthesize the material in the form of a poster using no more than 10 words. 

Everyone was required to work at all times, otherwise the home groups would be unable to complete their challenge, which was a "test" of their learning. 

Students learned so much more when their peers are teaching them and I'm glad to say everyone passed the test!

Each member viewing the content via video. 

Group members reporting back what they learned via the video and working together to synthesize their learning by creating a poster using no more than 10 words. 

Marketplace. Members switch roles in presenting their poster and teaching their peers.

Test time. After peer teaching and gathering the information, students showed their learning.

Each group's poster was placed along the wall so students could refer to them to complete their "test".

Our Ultimate Summer Holiday!

Since ending our summer holiday and beginning a new year, a holiday themed picture seemed appropriate. 

My students drew their idea of the ultimate holiday destination or the destination they visited over the summer in the background. They traced the outline with black sharpies and colored them in with water-colors. 

They did such an amazing job! We visited lots of destinations from the Moon, fun in the sun beach locales, the forest, and even Spaceland!

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