Dear Parents and Students, What a great day we had today! I was so proud of how well they did Quiddler and beating the computer by 10 points! I was also so impressed that they solved the Suduko puzzle level HARD in just over our 10 minute goal. 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 30, 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. I am challenging them to start from different positions on the Mancala board so that they learn different strategies. Then we did a very cool affective lesson call Keypunching. We had to go outside to do this, but I will tell you they are a competitive group. 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 22, 2017 Dear Parents and Students, Super day today, but boy did it fly by. The students moved quickly through their promethean board warm ups and then we began our Shakespearan Mask project. I was amazed to hear some of the students say they had never blown up a balloon before. I told them they could do it and needed to figure it out and eventually they all did! We began the outside structure by putting a foundation of cardboard on the the balloon and next week we will continue it. Next, we worked in our cognitive thinking stations and worked our way around 6 different stations with our partner. It is amazing to see how well they are doing and the progress made in 24. As a matter of fact, next week I will give them level 2 to really challenge them. Next, we began an activity as a group. We read through Romeo and Juliet and are creating a flow chart of Act 2. The first part is put together like Shakespeare did and the second part is put together the way we perceive it. However, next week we will create our own modernized story of Romeo and Juliet. Homework: Students who did not complete the middle box of the Tic Tac Toe need to turn it in to me tomorrow and they need to continue working on the next box of their Tic Tac Toe as the whole project will be due the week after the break! Have a great weekend, D. Searles
March 15, 2017 Dear Parents and Students, We had a wonderful day today! The students worked on the Challenge Wall before announcements and then we went straight to the Promethean Board. It was a great success--we completed set in 1.40 seconds and we beat mancala playing from a rough position! "Yea" for us!! Next, the students chose partners for Cognitive Thinking Stations and we worked our way around the room at lightening speed. Once we completed this task, we completed a HOE Assessment which covered all of Level 2. We then got our puppets we created last week and performed a Midsummer's Night Dream using the puppets. I then introduced them to our next project which is a Tic Tac Toe of Shakespeare. We went through each square so that they understood what they needed to do. Lastly, we went into the laptop lab and researched more about Shakespeare so that they complete the middle box of the Tic Tac Toe as that is required of every student. Homework: Middle square of Tic Tac Toe. If you have read this announcement, please come to me for a special treat! Have a great week, D. Searles
March 8, 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. Next, we worked on Lesson #15 from our Hands on Equations and yes we are done with Level #2 for Hands on Equations and will take an assessment of Level #2 next week. 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: 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 1, 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! 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. Homework: Complete the Logic Puzzle and math sheet. Have a great weekend, D. Searles
February 15, 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. Go Sean for introducing a more challenging way to play Tri-cross! Next, we had our lesson of HOE #14 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 supposed to act out their sonnet in a group and then have the sonnet memorized so that they could say it to the class. Needless to say most did not come to class prepared and this was their homework assignment from last week. I was a bit disappointed with their decision to not follow through with this task. 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 1, 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 Logic Puzzle, complete word search, and memorize their sonnet so that they are prepared to share their mime next week. Have a great week, D. Searles
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