Upper Elementary

Overview for Upper Elementary Group

8:30 Morning Meeting

We begin each day with a class meeting to connect with each other, engage in the building of a strong class community, and orient for the day. Morning meeting starts with a greeting from each of us to another, and then two or three members of the group share something about themselves and their lives. Other students respond and ask questions. Responses are focused on the person who shared, rather than "that reminds me of something in my life" responses. If there are social issues within the group, or other issues in the class or school, this is a good time to talk about them. Each day a poem is read aloud and talked about, and then we sing a song or two. At the end of the meeting, announcements for the day are made, and then we finish with the word of the day.

9:00 Writer's Workshop

The purpose of the workshop is to enable students to think and work like writers, to experience being part of a writing community, to help see writing as a significant and compelling way to develop ideas as well as to communicate them, and to cultivate a love of good writing. We focus together on a shared genre for a period of time and within this students each decide on a topic and what they will work on. The workshop begins with a brief lesson on some aspect of the writing process. Examples of great writing are often shared and analyzed (from published literature as well as writing within the group). Students then write quietly for thirty to forty minutes. During this time the teacher conferences individually with students or meets with a small group. The workshop concludes with a teaching share session - an opportunity for further input and a time for students to share with each other what they've accomplished.

Students all work initially on drafts of writing in which the main focus is to get ideas down. Within each genre study, students each choose one or two pieces to work

into a finished piece, and focus on the art of revising a piece to bring it fully alive. Students also edit their final pieces for correct punctuation, grammar and spelling.

We publish our finished pieces in literary collections within the school community throughout the year, to share and celebrate our writing. Genres that we will explore this year include personal narrative, fiction, historic fiction, poetry, response to literature, a variety of essays, reports, news articles and editorials.

9:50 Snack / Read Aloud

Reading a great and riveting book aloud (by the teacher) provides a way for the group to share a literary experience. Read alouds serve as a springboard for a range of discussion. Our first book is The Ear, the Eye and the Arm, by Nancy Farmer, which takes place in Zimbabwe around 200 years in the future.

10:05 Social Studies

Over the year we study themes together as well as individual topics. We are starting the year with a study of Greek mythology. The year will include an extended study of American history in the 1800s and a closer look at Vermont during this time. We will also set aside some time for independent studies.

Our theme studies involve:

• Research - reading non-fiction books, historic fiction, articles, primary sources, web based information, interviews, field studies
• Discussion, sharing, group work
• Projects - visual displays, drama, readers' theater, art, presentation of learning
• Sharing of learning

Energy and excitement for exploring our chosen themes is generated through working together as a learning community. We take time to share what we're learning, look for ways to creatively express ideas and information, and have fun with what we're doing. We try also to help students experience the genuine satisfaction of rigorous learning in the pursuit of intriguing ideas and information. We work to create a synergy within the class community.

During our social studies explorations students are acquiring content knowledge while also developing important skills including critical thinking, reading, learning how to find needed information, recording and organizing research, writing, working collaboratively with others, and expressing learning in a variety of ways such as written report, oral presentation, art project, visual chart and drama.

10:50 Math

Students learn basic arithmetic and geometry while engaging in both group and individual projects. We begin the year by harvesting garlic from the Red Cedar School gardens and preparing it for sale at the Bristol Harvest Festival. Students use both logic and computation to determine a fair market value for our garlic products. Along the way students learn skills in data collection, measurement, graphing, estimation, fractions and decimals, and problem solving. Learning to effectively communicate using math language is also emphasized along with the importance of developing computational fluency. New skills are taught at the beginning of each class and then practiced and applied to real life situations. Science class often provides data for use in our mathematics class. Content is pulled from a variety of math resources including Everyday Mathematics and Bridges curriculums. The overall goal for the class is for each student to discover the power of numbers while developing strong math reasoning and computational skills.

11:30

Mondays & Fridays: Sports/Games

Tuesdays: Older-Younger Partners

Thursdays: Music

12:00 Lunch and free time

1:00 Science

Science at the elementary level mainly focuses on nurturing the student's natural curiosity about the physical and natural world around us. Emphasis is placed on developing observational skill, precision in data collection, and making connections. Explorations are often hands-on and experientially based. We also spend some time each week discussing current issues in science. This is a time for students to share their expertise and excitement about a variety of topics.

This year our studies will focus specifically on the physical sciences and the various properties of energy. Topics in chemistry, electricity, light, sound, magnets, simple machines, and space will be explored. Students' curiosity about how the world works is nurtured while conducting independent research and experiments. Much of our time is also spent discussing and sharing our learning.

The natural word around us provides an excellent opportunity for making scientific observations, developing hypotheses, and gathering data. On any given day, the upper elementary science students can be found collecting data from our own weather station, observing the aerodynamics of an insect wing under the compound light microscope, learning about the energetic demands of migratory birds while banding, or studying the chemistry of composting in the Red Cedar Gardens.

Both content knowledge and specific science skills are practiced and demonstrated while conducting research and experiments, participating in group and class activities, and during oral presentations of learning and report writing.

1:50

Mondays: Art

Thursdays: Spanish

Tuesdays & Fridays: Readers' Workshop and Language Skills

Our goal is to develop a culture of literacy within the class community that centers on a love of literature and writing, frequent and animated discussion about books, and knowledge of the richness of the great writing that exists. During the reading workshop students engage in independent sustained silent reading, participate in book groups and other discussions, and have conferences about their reading with the teacher. Students usually choose what book they will read and always have a book underway throughout the year. Some overarching parameters help to ensure that students read a range of genres (an expectation that students read some biography, some historic fiction, and some non-fiction, as well as regular fiction literature over the year). Sometimes groups will choose a book to read in tandem and discuss together. Occasionally the whole class will read a book together. Each student keeps a reader's journal in which thoughts about the book underway are shared in letter form to the teacher and responses are written back. Reading, and writing about reading, is interlaced with the social studies theme studies as well.

Language skills are also focused on during this class period. Students meet for spelling and grammar activities. Students are also given weekly writing assignments in which they write to a prompt or write in a specific style within a genre, often inspired by a particular piece of writing. Revising and editing of these pieces are done for homework.

2:40 Chores

2:50 Day ends

Homework

Students in the upper elementary class are expected to read for a minimum of 30 minutes each day for homework. They are also given specific assignments related to their explorations in social studies and science, writing assignments, and math and language skill work - adding up to about a half hour of work per night, give or take, in addition to the reading.