Moonball Space Warp--team building

For Wednesday's SAM morning, we went outside to play Moonball Space Warp--which is a really a team building activity using groups and a small ball. The idea is to keep the ball in the air, and to count how many hits the group can get. The more hits, the longer the ball has stayed moving and the better the group has worked together. Players are not allowed to double tap the ball, let it touch the ground, or catch it. 

Below are the small groups attempting to strategize and get in some practice:

This group's best was 14 hits in the air, while others reached the 20s.

The next challenge was to combine groups and keep just 1 ball. Did the amount of students help the groups, or hinder the groups? Some groups rose to the challenge, and had even more hits than in the small groups. 

Another successful SAM day working together to accomplish goals!

Field Trip Photo Albums

After our Fort Crown Point trip, students put together group photo albums about what life was like as a soldier or settler. They needed to include information about daily life including food & drink, work, and dangers around the fort. They could create digital or hard copy versions.

Here are some examples of hard copy photo albums:

Here are pages from digital photo albums:

Great job, storytellers! Ask your child to share their photo album with you. They were collaborative efforts!

Field trip!

Last week we went on our first field trip of the year to the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum and Fort Crown Point. Students are preparing for our social studies unit on Colonial America and have learned about early settlers in the Lake Champlain basin. 

Our first stop was the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. Students explored early boats of the area, like the dugout canoes below, top left:

They also explored some early diving equipment:

And talked to the staff about why there are so many wrecks in Lake Champlain:

There is a whole building about our involvement in the Revolutionary War, including the ship models below (the first of the Philadelphia):

And a video on the replica of the Philadelphia: Take notes!

Students could head down to the lake to learn about the ships: 

Our next stop was Fort Crown Point in New York. Students had already learned all about Fort St. Frederic and Fort Crown Point during class. Their task while at the fort was to create a photo album with their group of life at the fort. They needed to create characters, and include aspects of life during the time, such as food, work, and dangers or concerns of living in the area. 

The first stop at the fort is the presentation in the screening room. Here the students listened to a presentation with images and a map of the area, which highlights the conflict over the area between the French, British, and Native Americans. 

After the presentation, students exited through the museum. Here is a model of the French fort, Fort St. Frederic:

Later, the British built a much larger fort:

Here is a map of the British fort: Ask your student why the fort is built in a star shape--the design is intentional!

After a picnic lunch, students went off with their groups to start snapping photos for their photo album:

It was a beautiful day to explore the fort!

Students were able to explore the ruins and create their stories: Ask your student what happened to the fort!

Students created digital or hard copy photos albums, which they worked on until the end of the week. Ask your student to share their photo album with you if it's digital. They should have lots of details about life at the fort!

Community reading: Buddha Boy

This year's reading is Buddha Boy by Kathe Koja. 

The back cover reads: The kids at Edward Rucher High School call Jinsen "Buddha Boy"--he wears oversize tie-dyed dragon T-shirts, shaves his head, and always seems to be smiling. He's clearly a freak. Then Justin is paired with him for a class project. All Justin wants to do is get it over with and go back to hanging out with his friends...until he discovers Jinsen's incredible artistic talent. And the more he gets to know Jinsen, the more Justin questions his own beliefs. But being friends with Buddha Boy isn't simple, especially when Justin realizes that he's going to have to take sides. What matters more: the high school social order or getting to know someone extraordinary? 

We started the unit by discussing the community at CHMS on Schoology, and sharing those results with Ms. Engels, our assistant principal. What is the community like here at CHMS? What else can we do as a school? Ask your child to share their thoughts with you. 

As we started reading, we filled out a character chart to learn about the different characters of the story. We wrote down names, role in the text, physical and personality descriptions, quotes, and maybe questions. The author uses similar names throughout the story, such as Justin and Jinsen or Magnur and McManus, and this will help readers remember who is who.

One of the strategies good readers practice is always using the text to support their thinking!

The first strategy we looked at is questioning. How does questioning help readers? Students shared great responses about how questioning can help better engage, predict, & comprehend the text. Each student has the following questioning chart, with space for questions, answers, and thoughts or predictions. 

As we continue reading, students have met in small groups to read and discuss, sharing their own questions and responses as discussion starters. They have also continued to respond to questions on Schoology, remembering to use evidence from the text (page number, chapter references, or quotes,) to support their thinking.  

Goooood morning, GRIT!

Today was a SAM day, so this morning team GRIT worked together to be present, safe, and honest. We practiced these tenets by playing the game Captain's Calling.

Here Mr. Jensen is the Captain. Attennnntion!! Players wait to hear the captain call attention before obeying an order. If the captain doesn't say attention, but calls an order, players should not follow the order! They will be off the ship, and out of the game.

The order is: Captain's Waltz! Players must partner up with each other and dance the waltz aboard the ship deck. If you can't find a partner, you're off the ship. 

Attennnntion!

The order is: Starfish! Players must gather in groups of five, hands in the center and spin around in a starfish shape. If you can't find the right number of players to make a starfish, you're off the ship. 

The order is: Man the Lifeboats!! Players line up in groups of 3 to paddle their lifeboats to shore. Not enough players for your lifeboat? You're off the ship.

We also had the orders Swab the Deck (solo, pretending to mop the decks,) and Captain's Table (gathering in groups of four, as if around a table.)

As always, team GRIT practices circling up to share out how we worked together. 

How were players honest? 

"We were honest when we accidentally started to follow an order, and realized we were out. We would walk out of the game, knowing it wasn't a big deal and it was ok."

How were players safe, emotionally & physically? 

"People included each other to be part of the group commands."

"We would tell our group members not to follow orders with the attention command." 

"We didn't get physical trying to get organized."

How were players present? 

"Everyone participated and wanted to be a part of the game."

Bookshelf: Miss Lindsey's reads and Grit's recommendations

Each 8th grader is expected to read 2 books a month in a variety of genres. That's a lot of books this year--how we will decide what to read?? Good thing we have a shared Google doc just for books recommended by team GRIT! The doc is divided by genre, so students can look for new titles in genres they haven't read yet. Students can also see some of these book covers on our white board in class, along with the DCF list and the GMBA book list.  In addition, there is also a corner for books I'm reading--along with a rating and a book talk for each finished title. Happy reading!!

GRIT cereal boxes: they're grrrreat!

Students completed their cereal box designs just in time for parent night! What would your child design as a cereal? Nutrition facts divide how your child likes to spend their time, and the ingredients are what they think makes up who they are. What are their interests? Hobbies? Likes? They also picked a person their cereal would sponsor, a person they admire. Come check out the cereal aisle at parent night!