Bell-Bannon Crew News

10-14-12

 

Case Study #1, “Trailblazing,” wrapped up last week with a goal-setting presentation to the Kindergarten Crew. The first graders helped prepare the kindergartners for the goal-setting conference week. The presentation highlighted 5 steps the first graders identified as critical to the goal-setting process:

1.Find out what your strengths are.

2.Find out what you need to get better at.

3.Choose a goal.

4.Break it into manageable parts.

5.Reflect on your goal and on your growth.

            The first graders sang a jingle, read entries from their Mountain Journals (reflections written on recent fieldwork), discussed our Donner Peak hiking plan and modeled a “Whip Around” protocol to show one method used to reflect on their goals. It was an exciting and informative presentation!

           

            The goal-setting work of the past six weeks helped to prepare the first graders for setting academic and social/behavioral goals for the remainder of the school year. The goal-setting conferences last week were a great success!

            Case Study #2, “My Sierra Nevada,” is underway. The first graders recently participated in fieldwork at UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center. They learned about the complex concepts of watershed and topography. Experts led the students through hands-on activities, which included enacting the pollution of a watershed with tin foil and water-based markers. The ideas truly came alive as “pollution” dribbled down the “mountains” and into the tin-foil Lake Tahoe.

            Last week the first graders met expert, Bill Hammond (Skye’s dad) out in the field.   Together, they began work on the two learning targets of the second case study:

1.  I can describe the characteristics of local landforms.

2.  I can identify local mountain peaks.

 

            Our recent literacy studies have been steeped in the comprehension of non-fiction texts. We have had several reader’s workshops on the text features of non-fiction text. Ask your child to identify the table of contents, captions, glossary and index. They should be able to use the index to locate a particular word in a simple non-fiction book. This will be a useful tool as we delve more deeply into science-based books for the remainder of the fall!

 

Nuts and Bolts:

  • 10/31: Bear Walk– Please talk to the PTC if you are willing to provide snacks/volunteer for our crew. Also, please encourage your children to accrue sponsors! All proceeds go to our classroom fund to buy books and other expedition materials.
  • 11/7: Arts for the Schools–Lula Washington Dance Theater at CalNeva
  • 11/11: Veteran’s Day–no school for students; professional development for teachers!