Hayley's Book

One of my future students, Hayley wrote a book. Here is a video of her reading the book. Please watch the video and help her make her goal of 2,000 views. She would also like you to leave a comment. Thanks!

This Made My Day

Here is Brayden and Mohamed reading together today during Reading Day. This was a spontaneous thing, they just sat down and started reading a book together. Good things happen when you give students opportunities and time.

WOOT! Blogging

We finally started our blog this year! We are using my favorite student blogging platform KidBlog for our writing activities this year. We would love for you to drop by and read what we are writing. All you have to do is click here:

http://kidblog.org/MrChamberlainsClass/

When you leave a comment, it won't show up immediately until I approve it. So don't worry about it being lost. We would love to hear from you!

Please Help Fund Our Ukulele Club

I just received the news that my project has been accepted by Donors Choose. If it is funded it will allow me to start a small after school ukulele club for some of my students. I am hoping to start the new year with this new learning opportunity. That is where you come in.

I am asking you to support this small endeavor by donating some money. Simply go to this link:

http://www.donorschoose.org/project/we-want-to-play-music/910594/

and give a couple dollars. I also received word that if you use the code:

 INSPIRE

when you donate, the organization will match the donation (how about that!) for up to $100 dollars a donation. Thank you.

Drop Everything and....

Today we spent some of our time doing different activities. We used the Drop Everything and ______ to start the activities. Among these activities were write, draw, tell a story, listen, sing, dance, paint, and write a thank you note.

Fear Factor 2012

Fear Factor was something I started in fifth grade well before I started blogging. Fortunately I did catpure 2008 and 2009 on the blog. Now that I am back in a 6h grade classroom I started up the tradition again.

This year we included all six classrooms in my hallway. We had three fifth grade representatives and three sixth grade representatives.

The first round of the contest was to have students wear diapers all day on the outside of their clothes. Next we ramped up the fear a little with a dance contest. Here is a video of the students learning the dance.

After practicing they had to put their new moves into practice during the 7th and 8th grade dance.

The crowd selected the final three to compete in the food eating contest.

Corbin was the winner, finishing his baby food off ffirst!

Hidden Spirits

Welcome to Hidden Spirits. Can you lead a scientific investigation to debunk a haunted hotel? Hidden Spirits

October Assembly

During our assembly today we had a mock Presidential debate. 

The fourth grade made the monthly presentation.

Matilda

My reading class started the book Matilda by Roald Dahl last week. Matilda is a great book for elementary kids because of fantastic plot (Matilda has super powers!), the great English language (Roald Dahl was from England), and the silly pranks that Matilda plays.

There are a lot of chances to discuss vocabulary, plot, characters, and relationships. There are also a lot of great writing opportunities presented. For example, my students wrote about the best practical joke they have played on someone. 

Visual Sequence of Peter and Wendy

We have finished the book Peter and Wendy and now we are making a visual sequence of events. These will be put up in the hallway. Come and take a look.

Finding Area (Live Stream)

Homer Compares and Contrasts Pecos Bill

What's Going On in Art and Music?

What I did and Saw at the Prairie Days at the George W. Carver Museum

What I did at Prairie Days was I weaved a scarf on a loom and hand crocheted. I also spinned yarn on a spinning wheel.

What I saw was soap making, old style laundry, churning butter, candle making, sewing blankest, basket weaving, banjo making, arts and crafts, and wagon rides. I also had hot coffee and donuts.

The loom I made a scarf on was made from pieces from a shipwreck from a ship yard. I let kids help me make the scarf also. 

Another Busy Day 9/11

 The students took over Tie Tuesday today. They were waiting at the door to hand out the ties to the students from the other classes.

In math a few students finished their assignment early so they were able to work on some logic puzzles on the iPad. You can see it mirrored on the television.

We had counseling class today. We went to Mrs. Kilby's room. 

Digital United States History Games

http://www.mission-us.org/

Mission-US is a site that has a couple immersive American History games on it. One is on the American Revolution, the other on Escaping Slavery. Which one do you like best? Click the link to play.

Another Great September Day in Class

In our social sciences class we watched a really good video on the Mesopotamian city state of Sumer. We learned about scribes writing in cuneiform as well as the Saga of Gilgamesh. Discovery Streaming has some great videos and we are grateful we have access to them!

In the junior high hallway we saw a lot of posters advertising for the people running for student government. I talked to a teacher in that hallway and asked if we could set up a town hall meeting where the candidates could answer questions for us.

In science lab Mr. Howerton had a really neat learning opportunity set up for us. First we made hand lenses using safety pins and water. The adhesiveness of the water allowed it to stick in the circle created by the wire on the safety pin and the water's cohesiveness kept it from falling apart. It actually magnified!

Then we got to look at some animal cells through the microscopes. They look very big when they are magnified. We managed to make it through the class without breaking a slide too.

Here is Adrian explaining the safety pin hand lens.

Finally, a Face to Face Visitor!

I finally figured out what was wrong with my Discovery Streaming subscription. We celebrated by watching a video that showed a couple 'real world' examples of variables and expressions.

After the video we got back to work on variables and expressions. I am really hopeful that the students are catching on. I am looking forward to seeing how well they did tomorrow.

This afternoon we had a special visitor, Miss Winchester. She has spent the last three years in Niger (which is on the African continent.) She spent an hour talking to us about what life is like there. In social studies we have been studying about Mesopotamia, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. While Niger is not real close, it was still good to have someone talk about an area that is not too dissimilar.

Here are a couple students putting on clothes that are typically worn by women and girls in Niger. The need for light, loose fitting cloth became apparent when Miss Winchester told us that the temperature fluctuates from as high as 140 degrees in the 'hot season' to a low of 90 degrees at night in the 'cool season'. That sure doesn't sound that cool to me!

Stephanie Works With Variables

Here is Stephanie working through an expression using a variable. 

Juan Teaches Division

I hope this comes out well. I recorded one of my students teaching how to do division to my class. Thanks Juan for helping me out!