David K. Is a cell wall because he is awesome.

I am a cell wall because I can protect people like the cell wall protects the cell. If my little brother gets picked on, I will protect him from the other kid. If someone falls down, I will help them stand up like the cell wall helps the plant cell stand up. My skin is pretty rigid like the cell wall. I am also built thick like the cell wall. Information comes in my ear and out of my mouth like the cell wall let's materials pass in and out. That is how I relate to the cell wall.

Blog Comments, Movie Editing, Book Trailers, and Science

Today we have a full plate, so I hope you are hungry!

First, we will be leaving comments on blogs, and posting our very own blog posts. I would like you to visit our sister school, Elsanor Elementary at this web address: http://ctp-elsanor.blogspot.com/ and leave a comment on any of the top three posts.

Rules to commenting: Credit to Mr. McClung and Mr. Chamberlain. Thank you for your rules and insight.



Your post for this week:

You are currently studying plant and animal cells in science. I would like you to write a post describing which part of the cell best matches a description of your personality, and tell me why.

For example: I most closely relate to the nucleus because the nucleus is the brain of the cell. It helps control eating, movement, and reproduction within the cell. As a classroom teacher, I direct us to the cafeteria, I monitor your behavior (or movements), and I organize productive activities. The nucleus is usually in the middle of the cell because that is the safest place for it to be. When you are working on your projects, I am usually right in the middle of the chaos as well, only for me-- that is usually not the safest place to be. That is why I relate to the nucleus.

Notice how I used the APES method to answer my prompt. Can you find the Answer, Proof, Extension, and Summary?

Before you are finished, you need to add a picture to your blog post. Find a cool picture of an animal or plant cell. It can be a diagram, illustration, or actual image.

While you are working on your blog posts, Jenna, Niaviana, and Miller will be preparing to instruct you all on how to make book trailers. So be ready to listen carefully because the techniques and methods they will be using will also be used when you start editing videos for our ibook next week!

Check out this website: http://www.biology4kids.com/files/cell_nucleus.html and see if you can find another one that is equally informative and easy to understand. Post it along with your picture and post in your blog.

Enjoy your Mardi Gras break!

Upon returning from Mardi GRAS break, we will be learning how to write our own multimedia book! This is a revolutionary practice that will make you all ground breakers of sorts! I hope to work along side Mrs. Henley and Mrs. Tschudy to line up our curriculum goals with the information you are already learning in class. We will be doing extended research, and learn how to use that research to write exciting text for others to use in the regular classroom! This will require you to ask questions, record science experiments, interview experts, etc. We will use all of this information to write our texts as we go. You will each be assigned a blog that is yours. You will use those blogs as a rough draft writing center for others to critique. You will use our class blog as a source for assignments, resources, and prompts.

Get ready for an exciting return! Practice your keyboarding skills over te break so we can make progress more quickly!

Research, Book Reviews, and a Touch of Art

I am at a student teacher conference at the University today, but Mrs. Cole and I have a big, technology, research, and recording filled day in store for you nonetheless! I can't wait to see you all again next week. Enjoy your Monday holiday, and be sure to reflect on the rights and privileges that Martin Luther King Jr spent his life trying to achieve for us. Check out this video below to learn a thing or two about this man who is a hero to so many.



Work hard today. Remember, we have a lot to get accomplished before February 16, and very few days to make it happen!

Author Study LP 01.13

Narrative Essay Contest

Please leave our Explorer Team positive, helpful CONSTRUCTIVE criticism that will be valuable for another round of revisions for these essays. They look forward to your feedback. You may leave your feedback as a comment indicating the essay you are critiquing by the entry contestant number.

Narrative Essay Contest

Author Study: Jan Brett

Today, we are going to launch a project that will be produced for the February 17th, 2012 Reading Rally. This year's reading rally theme is Jan Brett's book, The Mitten. So to prepare ourselves for this enormous undertaking, we need to get to know the author. Click here, or the image below to visit her extensive website.



As a child, Jan Brett decided to be an illustrator and spent many hours reading and drawing. She says, "I remember the special quiet of rainy days when I felt that I could enter the pages of my beautiful picture books. Now I try to recreate that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm drawing really exists. The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real."

Today, I want you to imagine that you are one of the animals from the story, only you know something about the mitten that the Jan Brett didn't mention... when you wiggle your way inside the mitten, it transforms your world into anything you can imagine. For your descriptive writing essay, I would like you to think of MANY, VARIED, and UNUSUAL things that you might see. What does it smell like? How does it make you feel? Who's there? What are they doing?

Remember, your essay will be used as narration for what your character is doing during our performance. You must be EXTREMELY DESCRIPTIVE. When I read your work, I want to feel like I have been transported to your imaginary world. Be sure to use similes and appropriate adjectives to convey the image that you want your audience to visualize.

A sideline project we will be touching on today is one that will help us develop our public speaking skills. Each week, from now until our Reading Rally, we will record ourselves reading a poem. This week's pic was The Bear, The Fire, and The Snow by Shel Silverstein. Below, you can see a clip of Byron and David reading away. Check in to watch our progress!

Visualizing with Torn Paper

Mrs. Luckey's third grade class listened to the Australian creation story. As part of developing our visualization comprehension strategy, they picked a scene that they visualized during the reading and illustrated it with crayons and torn paper. Click play on the slideshow below to see their great results!

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