Dear Parents and Students, What a great day we had today! I was so proud of how well they did Quiddler! I was also so impressed that they solved the Suduko puzzle level HARD in just over our 11 minutes today. Next, they presented their projects. However, it was a bit disappointing to have students come to class not prepared and without their projects. I am hoping they understand that this is not acceptable as a Target Student. We followed the presentations with Cognitive Thinking Stations and the students chose their partners so they did quite well. They really enjoyed doing our creative thinking Yadmodo! Homework: Logic Puzzles. Have a great weekend, D. Searles
March 29, 2017 Dear Parents and Students, First I must apologize as I did not know that the last 2 weeks my updates did not publish on this page. Today we had a great day and worked our Promethean Board with much excitement as the girls competed against the boys on our Mancala game! Then we did a very cool affective lesson about working as a team to solve a problem. They enjoyed this activity immensely. Next, we worked on our paper mache masks that we are creating. They will be making a mask of any character from any one of Shakespears plays. This is truly a process, and we will do a little each week until the last week of school when we will have our finale. We ended our day with the students choosing a partner to work in our Cognitive Thinking Stations. Homework: NONE-Happy Spring Break. Have a safe and fun week, Mrs. Searles
March 9, 2017
We had an awesome day together today! We opened up the day working on choice opportunities from the Challenge Wall and after the announcements we solved our Promethean Board Warm Ups! We then moved into our Cognitive Thinking Stations. We then moved into our discussion of what the common threads were between Hamlet and The Lion King and most importantly that the students recognized that Shakespeare developed many themes, and story lines that are still be used to this day. We then read the play a Midsummer Nights Dream. The students were each given a role and they read it aloud. The students were then given supplies and made paper bag puppets of their character. Next week, we will perform Hamlet using the puppets we created. Homework: Homework continues to be an issue with a couple of students so I ask that you please do not sign their agenda if they haven't completed their homework! They do not have to do any homework on Target days except for Target homework so I would suggest that do it that night. Logic Puzzles and any incomplete work. Please be sure to send in the permission slip for our field trip to Shakespeare's Theater as well as the $31 fee. Have a great weekend, D. Searles
March 2, 2017
Dear Parents and Students, We had a great a and the students worked diligently on the Promethean Board activities and I was very proud of how they accomplished playing mancala using a different strategy today! They finished the most challenging level of Jigsaw sudoku in record time. Cognitive thinking stations went very smooth and and we moved into a different level of HOE using green number blocks which are our negative numbers! The students ready Hamlet today and each student read a part and then we discussed what happened in the story. They then watched the movie Lion King and compared and contrasted the story of Lion King to the play Hamlet. It is my hope that they will begin to recognize more and more that Shakespeare's themes are played out in many of our modern day movies. We finished our day with a story from my "Unstoppable" book and discussed that they are also unstoppable and can be and do whatever they choose if they work hard. I must say I am very impressed with my new students and how they compete with the students who have been with me a while--they are out to be "Top Dog"! They are working very hard:) Homework: Complete the Logic Puzzle and math sheet. Have a great weekend, D. Searles
February 16, 2017 Dear Parents and Students, We had a great day together in Target. We started on our Promethean Board activities and then moved right into our Cognitive Thinking Stations. We then worked on a new lesson on Hands on Equations and I must say that this group truly enjoys learning Hands on Equations! The students then each recited their Sonnets and I believe surprised themselves that they could accomplish this task. We went into the laptop computer lab and worked on our Elizabethan Era Research and it brings a smile to my face to say that they are so enjoying learning about this time in History. Homework: Complete their research of the Elizabethan Era. Have a great break! D. Searles
February 8, 2017
Dear Parents and Students, Wow and what a day it was! It seemed like our day flew by because we had so much to do! We worked through our promethean board warm ups very quickly and then moved into our Cognitive Thinking stations next. I am happy to see some of my students pushing themselves to be better at some of these activities. Next, we had our lesson of HOE #19 and although this was more challenging the students took it on and ran with it--so proud of how they love doing their hands on equations. Next, the students were to act out their sonnet in a group and then each student memorized a sonnet for homework and had to recite it for the class. Needless to say most did not come to class prepared even though this was their homework assignment from last week. I was a bit disappointed with their decision to not follow through with this task. I did have 3 students who hit it out of the park and then a couple who were able to get through about 2/3 of it, but I gave them till next week to have it memorized. This means instead of a 5 they will get a 4 points if they know the entire sonnet. We then went to the laptop lab and researched the Elizabethan Era which we will continue to do next week. They are learning so much about those times. Homework: Complete the memorization of their sonnet and complete their logic puzzle. Have a great weekend, D. Searles
February 2, 2017
Dear Parents and Students, We had an awesome day today and some of my students are stepping into some new challenges as we work on Shakespeare--acting. It may be a new found talent for some and yet, a real challenge for others. We started the day with our Promethean Board Activities and then we shared our homework which was explaining which of the three plays they read was their favorite and why it was their favorite--I loved hearing the why! Next, we watched a few youtube videos about how to mime and then the students received 2 Sonnets which they were turning into a mime. I let them practice for a while but they will have to present it to the class next week and I told them to make you their audience--constructive criticism is all good:) We ended the day with Cognitive Thinking Stations. The students worked their way through the stations and solving different games. Homework: Complete the word search, and memorize their sonnet so that they are prepared to share their mime next week. Have a great week, D. Searles
Welcome Back to Target! January 12, 2017
Dear Parents and Students, What an exciting time when we find out what we will be studying this semester! "Shakespeare"--the students discovered this by taking a baggy filled with letters and trying to figure out what word they spelled. Some had London, Hamlet, Shakespeare and Theater. Once we discovered our words, I asked who do you think we will study and they were very excited. We started out by learning the importance of voice in the theater as there were no microphones and the students learned that the actors have to warm up their voices so that they can speak throughout the entire performance. So we tried a view warm ups ourselves. The students quickly learned some tongue twisters and then challenged their friends to see who could same them clearly and quickly. This looked easy until they tried it--great learning experience to our language and how our brain controls what comes out of our mouth! Next, we worked on Hands on Equations lesson. We wrapped up the day by going to the laptop la and researching information about Shakespeare. Homework: The students need to complete their logic puzzle and Hands on Equations. Have a great weekend! D. Searles