Enjoying Backgammon

Evan plays Jasmine in another close finish. He went on to win our December class tournament.

Matthieu Reads Babar

We enjoyed listening to Matthieu read in French from a first edition of this children's classic.

Class Geography Bee

The was my best ever class Geography Bee with everyone answering many questions during the six rounds. Our students are learning what it takes to prepare effectively for this national academic contest. They will compete confidently for the next four years. Kyle M. finished third in the 4th grade competition.

Florida Cattle Dogs at Work

Remember we're reading A Land Remembered? It's a novel about three generations of Floridians. Well, the MacIvey family have just acquired two dogs so essential to finding wild cattle in the scrub. The MacIvey dream of ranching has a better chance of becoming a reality. The photos are from an exhibit about Florida cowboys at the Tampa Bay History Center.

Thanksgiving Party

Creating turkeys and a snail: part of our pre-Thanksgiving activities.

Presenting with Elmo

Nick B. uses the class document camera system to demonstrate the telegraph he built with his uncle. This came at the conclusion of our trimester study of electrical circuits. All the students are learning to use the "Elmo" with their presentations.

Geography Bee and Me

Yeh, that's me with my son Gulliver and Harrison Schmidt the last man to set foot on the moon. It was 1998 and Gulliver had just won his first (or was it his second) New Mexico Geography Bee. Astronaut Dr. Schmidt was the guest moderator.

You can tell by my grin, that this was a pretty memorable experience for me. How many times do you witness your child succeed at something as difficult as a public academic contest, and meet one of the few people who walked on the moon! I admire the amount of hard work it took for Gulliver to win the state championship twice. I am in awe of the dedication, intelligence and bravery of the men who went to the moon.

The Shorecrest Geographic Bee will be held in December and January. The first part is held in 4th through 8th grade classrooms to determine a grade level winner and alternate. The school final is held in Janet Root Theater with the grades 3-8 in the audience.

I've encouraged my class to prepare by doing the online Geo Bee Challenge a couple of times per week. We will soon begin to practice for the Bee itself.

Besides coaching my son in his quest for the National Geo Bee championship (he finished in the top ten of the nationally televised final), my fifth grade teacher team at The Potomac School in the Washington, DC area piloted the Bee at its inception in the '80's.

By the way, Dr. Schmidt was the last of the Apollo astronauts to arrive and set foot on the Moon (crewmate Eugene Cernan exited the Apollo Lunar Module first). However, as Schmitt re-entered the module first, Cernan became the last astronaut to walk on and depart the moon.

Fall of Berlin Wall Memories

Twenty years ago, my Potomac School fifth graders enjoyed an extended "freedom" recess to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. By chance (in an era before cable and the internet) I recorded the NBC Nightly News live report. Next morning I showed the tape to my class. (I rolled in the huge VCR and TV to my classroom.) Then to underscore this momentous turning point in history I took my class out for an early and extended recess. We played all sorts of "freedom games." Certainly some of those now thirtysomethings are having one of those "where they were and what they did" kind of recollections today.

Today we will spend a few minutes on the subject. Homework tonight will include visiting the link posted here with a family member. Maybe we'll even have a special recess to share in the celebration.

What are your November 9, 1989 memories?

photo (copyright free) courtesy of Wikipedia entry on Berlin Wall

Weekly Class Logs

Our weekly class logs are an important note taking tool that turn into a unique souvenir. Students are encouraged to make the most of this feature of our classroom. Each week (and they are numbered) students do the following: draw and decorate a border on a blank paper, label it with the week's number, divide it into five daily sections, record the date, daily holiday/quiz, today in history edit feature, record memorable new vocabulary, experiences, lessons, projects etc., weekly Geo Bee Challenge results. Students are encouraged to illustrate, doodle and generally make these as attractive as possible. We don't devote a lot of time to this. I suggest they update them several times each day and then again in the evening add to them as they reflect on their day's activities.

I learned about this tradition when teaching in Europe many years ago. Over the years I've shaped the exercise to fit my American students. This is my first Shorecrest class to be able to keep it going.

My hope is that our families enjoy viewing the weekly log and help keep this project growing.

Happy Halloween

Jogging in the Dark?

Matthieu and Melanie invent a running shoe flashlight as part of their science investigations of electrical circuits. It even comes with an on/off switch.

King James I of England: He didn't Dip, Chew or Smoke Tobacco

As we are learning in History, tobacco may have saved the first English speaking colony, Jamestown, Virginia, from financial failure but in the words of the King of England himself, James I: " Smoking is a custom loathsome to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless."

Students have memorized this quote to be recited during next Monday morning's assembly. Each class hosts one of these Monday "Town Meetings." We will be calling attention to the campaign for a Tobacco Free Florida.

It's October...time for the Nobel Prizes

It's Nobel Prize announcement month again. Yesterday we watched a BrainPop about Alfred Nobel and the awards he started. We visited Nobel.org and saw the pictures of the 2009 winners of the prizes in science and literature. Today we learn who wins the Peace Prize and next Monday the award for economics.

Global Awareness: One Shirt At A Time

Each week our "Uncle Sam" wears a different shirt. The class guesses where he's been. Kyle M. helps me keep track of our large collection of shirts from all over.

Gosh, these kids are good!

Playing "Four Square" at recess.

Zuni Guardian Animal Stone Carvings

Students hold five Zuni Pueblo Indian stone carvings of animals from my collection of native American art. The Zuni are native Americans who have lived in a remote part of west central New Mexico on the Arizona border for thousands of years. I am sharing what I know about the Zuni and other Pueblo tribes with the class as a way of introducing our year long theme of "identity awareness and culture."


I taught in and visited many Pueblo Indian schools during my twenty years living in New Mexico. Here is a close-up of the stone carved animals who the Zuni believe are guardians of the four directions. They are shown on the New Mexico flag. The bear guards the west. The mountain lion guards the north. The wolf protects the east and the badger the south.



Above is a close-up of my Zuni watch band.

Dry Erase Boards: a fun tool for exam prep

Students hold up the list of spelling words they've just practiced writing on our dry erase boards. We use the boards many ways including preparation for vocabulary and math exams.

Everyday Math Unit One: Geometry

Mariah V. practices using a compass to learn more about geometric shapes and concepts. Students explored using the tool to make circles, measure line segments, create polygons within a circle, construct concentric circles and patterns. Mariah is designing a pattern using congruent circles. This was all a part of Everyday Math's Unit one.

Math Manipulatives Develop Thinking Skills

Students ponder their math manipulative challenges (from top: Danny K. thinking through coin patterns, Elia J. absorbed with the attribute blocks, Matthieu C. figuring out a complex geometric shape using pattern blocks and Melanie F. sorting out the tangram puzzles. Students turn to this enrichment project when they finish their regular math lessons.

Maps of Our Hearts and Stomachs

Inspired by The Map Book by Sarah Fanelli students made some different "maps" of their own. Here are two hearts and one stomach. Other students mapped their minds, bedrooms and faces.

All Tied Up: describing my ties.....one day at a time

I have an unusually large and diverse collection of neckties. Part of our morning start-up activities is for each student to observe my tie of the day and write a description in his or her log. In the photo, I'm wearing one of my favorite beverage-themed ties....it's all coffee.

Wish We Had Been There

These are four of the post cards "sent" using stamps from my collection that were part of my welcome to back to school letter. Students researched where their stamp was from and then imagined they had traveled to that place. They composed a post card message reflecting information about that country.

Reading Assessments: checking independent and instructional levels

Each student's independent and instructional reading levels were checked over these past few weeks. Everyone read a 4-5 page booklet while I took notes. Students read half the selection aloud to me and the rest silently. Later I asked them several questions to determine how well they understood what they had read. Here Evan S. is reading about the causes of earthquakes. This data is collected at least three times per year. The levels are used to help design independent and guided reading experiences during the year. Levels achieved in third grade were starting points for the assessments this year. The system is Fountas & Pinnell's Benchmark Assessment System.

Toothpicks: one of many valuable math learning tools

Jasmine L. manipulates toothpicks to complete the first of many math enrichment challenges sheets. It's all part of Math Toolbox's 35 challenge sheets of 9 activities each. Each challenge comes with a complete explanation that expands on the concepts under investigation. Students turn to these fun math experiences when they have completed their daily math lessons.

Recognize This Plant? Our School's Plants part 1

Everyday all of us pass by many beautiful and thoughtfully placed plants that collectively make up our lovely landscaped campus. Our class has a unique opportunity to enjoy these plants as we daily take the outside sidewalks to special classes, recess and lunch.

If you know about this pretty lilac colored flowering plant please leave a comment below.

We will be posting many more photos of our school's plants hoping to learn about them.

Students' Summer Travels....if only in their imaginations

Included in the welcome-to-my-classroom letter I sent to each student in early August was a blank postcard with a real stamp from somewhere in the world. All took me up on my offer to imagine that they traveled to this nation and came to school with these cards many illustrated too.

Daily Holiday Quiz Book

Every day we learn about a holiday being celebrated somewhere in the world. I read a brief paragraph and ask five listening comprehension questions. Students record their answers in their logs and use atlases to pinpoint the place in the world. So far this year, we've covered festivities in Nigeria, Swaziland, Saudi Arabia, India among other places.

Where's Uncle Sam Been?

Uncle Sam proudly displays my global t-shirt collection about 6 at a time. Students guess what's under the current shirt. We started with the 2004 Florida four hurricane survival shirt. I have probably enough shirts to show off about three a week. Stay tuned.

Our Class Word Wall: Greek & Latin Roots of English

Each week we tackle a different Greek or Latin root word that is the key to unlocking the meaning of many common English words. We started with "unus/uni" = one and "duo"=two. With unus we figured out the meaning of unit, union, unique, unicycle, united, universal, university and even unibrow. Knowing duo is two we figured out duet, duel, duplicity, dubious and so forth. Students record their findings on index cards to study later. All this is in addition to our regular Wordly Wise weekly word list.

Happy Birthday Hawaii from your Florida Friends

Floridians Salute Hawaii on 50 Years of Statehood

We're All Smiles Hawaii on Your Statehood 50th Anniversary