Journal, Predicting Art

In today's journal assignment, you have been assigned a section of painting titles (see list below, it corresponds to your seating arrangement). I would like you to make a prediction of what you think the painting is going to look like. What will be in the painting? What kind of colors will it use? How will it make you feel? What makes you curious about it? Will it look real? Answer as many of these questions as you can about each title in the section of which you were assigned.

Section 1 (table closest to the door)

Man Resting Under a Tree
The Daydreamer
Young Girl Holding Pink Gladiolas

Section 2 (table closest to the Mac desktop)

View of the Thames
The Phoenix Entering the Harbor of Whitby

Section 3 (table closest to Mrs. Cole's desk)

Morning, Noon, and Night
Sunrise in the White Mountains
Sunset Near Deerfield

Section 4 (section closest to Mrs. Cole's AR library)

Roman Country Scene
The Valley of Pemigewasset
River with Man on Bank

Get ready for a PHENOMENAL DAY!

Journal Prompt: Last week you wrote about the qualities that makes us unique. Many of you also wrote about the most unusual person you have ever met. Now I want to know what you would like to learn from the person that you chose. What questions would you ask them, and why?

If you did not write about anyone last week, you have one of two options. You may write about the most unusual person you have ever met, and all of the qualities of that person that makes them unusual: their behavior, appearance, culture, et cetera. Otherwise, you may think of a place you would like to visit and make a list of questions that you would like to ask the people who live there.

Making Connections

I am very excited to report that we have successfully made a connection with Mrs. B's Team from Room 13, Cooinda Primary School in Bunbury, Australia! We have chosen this school because we want to learn more about how we are similar and different from them before we embark on our field trip to the Exploreum to see the exhibit, Kangaroo Kraze! Last week, we began our research on some of the wildlife native to Australia. This Friday, we will be wrapping up our presentations and writing scripts for a podcast we plan to share with Mrs. B's team. Our podcast will include some of our discoveries about their school and community, the wildlife we researched, questions that we have about where they live, as well as a bit about ourselves.



In addition to our research and script writing, we will be following up on our spanish math activities to see if we can make two more mathematical conclusions by encoding our own story problems with the statistics we sorted through a few weeks ago. If all goes well, we will be decorating paper cut-outs of the nations we have been exploring, including: Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, United States of America, Peru, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. Be sure to check back soon for pictures of our geographical fact art!

Spanish Nicknames Origins on a Timeline

Friday, we created a timeline on timetoast to share our discoveries about hispanic historical figures that we named ourselves after. Check out our timeline to learn what our nicknames are and why we chose them! You can click the bubbles to read our captions and view the whole picture.

Australian Wildlife Presentation

As you can see, this is a work in progress. I am very proud of those who have already begun this project on their own initiative and I look forward to seeing more to come from the rest of our Explorers! We only have one more class meeting before our big adventure at the Exploreum. The wildlife you see in this presentation will be featured in the exhibit at the Mobile Exploreum. We plan to come prepared so that we can proudly represent our school and community as professionals.

Note to Room 110, St. Elmo Explorers: Each slide should contain at least one picture, your FIRST NAME ONLY, and at least three interesting facts written in complete sentences. Remember, we are always looking for the most unusual information that we can find so others can read our discoveries from a unique perspective. With that said, write about something that surprised you in your research!

Australia, Story Problems, and Spanish Nicknames

Journal Assignment:

As you know, we have been learning about how differences make us more valuable. For the next few minutes, I would like you to list as many ways as you can think of that makes us unique. You should have at least ten ways listed. If you finish early, write a short paragraph about the most unusual person you have ever met. Be sure to include details about why you chose this person. Did they behave differently? Did they look differently? Do they sound differently?

Today, we will be looking at a few interesting classrooms in Australia. We will be choosing one with whom we will make contact. Our first destination will be Leopold Elementary School. We will then be visiting a 6/7 grade class from Cooinda Primary School. Lastly, we can take a look at Ms. Brown's Grade 5/6 class blog to find out what classes around the world are learning. I am especially interested in discussing a Flat Stanley Project, we will be engaging in a Decision Making Talents Activity to see whether we should participate or not.

Be sure to check back her next week to find our Exploreum Presentation. We will be publishing our findings about native Australian wildlife to prepare us for our Exploreum Field Experience!

We will also be creating a timeline using timetoast. The timeline will include historical hispanic icons from whom we will adopt our new nicknames.

Coming soon: Book Interviews!

Friday, our Explorer's learned more about the interview process, videography, and professionalism, scholarliness, research skills, and data analysis skills. Along with our Self-Portrait Activity, we explored Spanish-speaking countries on the CIA World Factbook. As we did this, we compared population sizes, average incomes, literacy rates, and other statistics to prepare us for our word problem skills next week.

Next week, we will be using the data we gathered to explore hispanic culture more fully by creating word problems. Our problems will look something like this:

41,769,726 people live in Argentina. The United States has a population of 313,232,044. How many times greater is the population of the United States than Argentina? Why do you think this is true?

Along with our math exercise, we will be creating book interviews to review the books and skills that they have been learning in Mrs. Joyner's Reading class. Elsanor Elementary has provided an excellent example for us to use as a framework. You can see their interview by clicking here. We will use this opportunity to connect with their classroom by commenting on their blog post, Interview Book Report.

I can't wait for Friday to get here! I hope you are excited too, Explorers!