Happy Thanksgiving!

Last week the 6th Age and Pilots celebrated Thanksgiving Calvert-style! The Pilots were the pilgrims and the 6th Agers were the Native Americans in a Grandparents' celebration. We had fun memorizing our lines, making our costumes, and singing holiday songs! I am very proud of my class for all of their hard work. Here is a sample video of us singing, and a few pictures of us in full costume. Happy Thanksgiving!

"Over the river and through the woods...to grandmother's house we go..."

Paul's Place Delivery!

On Friday afterschool I hand delivered our lasagna casseroles to Paul's Place. I took a few pictures of my adventure!

Outside of Paul's Place



The neighborhood



Inside the main building and kitchen area

Casseroles for Paul's Place!

This month we worked with the 9th Age girls to make four lasagne casseroles for Paul's Place. We wore gloves to protect our hands and keep germs at bay. We liked mixing together the sauce and ricotta cheese! Working together to help others makes us feel good! Nice job, 6D and 9B!

Having fun with friends!

We like to build and play with friends in 6th Age!

The Alphabet Tree

We listened to the story THE ALPHABET TREE by Leo Lionni. In the story, a tree has many beautiful green leaves, and on each leaf there lives a letter. One windy day the leaves are scattered about. A bug comes along and teaches the leaves to be stronger by linking together to form words. Later the words form sentences.
We made our own alphabet tree and letter leaves. It was fun to create words out of the letter leaves!

Median, Mode, and Range

We have started something new in math class! The mathematicians are learning about the median, mode, and range during estimation projects. We estimated on index cards this week, and then posted our estimates on the chalkboard. We were sure to sequence the numbers from least to greatest.
Then we calculated the median, or middle number. We started at the least and greatest numbers, and then worked our way to the middle.
Then we tallied the mode, or number repeated most often. This was easy to see visually with the numbers on the board.
Lastly we calculated the range, or the difference between the largest and smallest number.
Nice job, mathematicians! We will continue to calculate the median, mode, and range when estimating!

Star of the Week

We learned our Star of the Week loves to travel to warm, exotic places! She loves her family and can walk the tightrope! She is a ballerina!

Turkey Glyphs

We created turkey glyphs with Mrs. DeLorbe's math class! The glyphs tell the viewer data about ourselves. For example, if we chose a white body for our turkey, it meant we did not like turkey. If the body was dark brown, then we prefered dark meat, and light brown meant we prefered light meat.
Upon completing the glyphs, we worked to graph the data. We have been using our addition and subtraction skills, as well as our number sense to graph this information.

6D Tree

In the beginning of the year, 6D adopted a tree outside of our classroom. I think it is a maple tree, with beautifully lush green leaves in the summer, and a variety of colored leaves in the fall. In the early months of September, we brought crayons and pencils outside to color a picture of our tree for our journals. Most recently, I wanted to repeat this step to make note of any changes that have occurred with the tree since our last visit.
Behold the power of technology! It has been raining here for the past few days and drawing a picture of our tree outdoors would have been next to impossible. So...I gathered 6D and we walked outside to the tree for a great photo opportunity. I also took several photographs of the tree for later. Inside we went, where I was able to upload the tree photos. I quickly hooked them up to the smartboard, where we colored a picture of this tree indoors! The students were able to add as many details as before, while staying dry.

Pen Pals!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of hand delivering my reading group's pen pal letters to Mr. Bryden's 3rd graders at LeithWalk Elementary School! His students were eagerly anticipating receiving a note, but were delighted to additionally receive a photo of their Calvert pen pal, along with a video and some stickers. Mr. Bryden and his class gave our reading class a book titled Skippyjon Jones Goes to Outer Space! It even came with a CD, so we listened to the story today!

Thank you, Mr. Bryden and LeithWalk! We look forward to hearing from you again soon!

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?

We spent time in math listening to a story titled, How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? The main character, Charlie, opens pumpkins with his teacher and friends, and then proceeds to count the seeds inside.
The first day of this project included us opening two pumpkins. Some seeds were large, and some were small! We dug deep in the pumpkins to claim any remaining seeds. Then we separated the pulp from the seeds, and will count them by 2s, 5s, and 10s this week. I can't wait to learn which pumpkin has the most seeds!

Star of the Week

Last week's Star of the Week decorated a poster with beautiful photographs of family and friends! We learned this friend used to live in Chicago, loves to swim, her favorite sweets are cookies, and she has a twin sister and younger sister. Thank you, Star of the Week! It was so fun learning about you.

Halloween!

Halloween was a fun time in 6D! Amelia Bedelia mysteriously stopped by and took Mrs. Armstrong's place for the day! We all came to school dressed in costume and participated in a school-wide parade on the blacktop. We also spent time together with our friends in the classroom, enjoying holiday treats and decorating orange frames. Thank you to all parents who helped to make this party a success!

Halloween Visitor!

A pre-Halloween visitor came into 6D the day before Halloween! He read (and donated) a Halloween book to our class, and we completed a pumpkin puzzle together with teamwork. We cracked the puzzle and the pumpkins spelled: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Thank you, Mr. Giese for visiting 6th Age and for sharing this time with us.

Sneaky Snake

We played a game in math a few weeks ago called Sneaky Snakes! It is an addition and subtraction game. Each player shares a sneaky snake mat with a partner, and then takes turn rolling dice to fill up their sneaky snake mat with M&Ms (or other small candies). Take a peak at the video for a more thorough explanation from a student.