PNA: To the Future and Beyond!
10/19/2019
Space week was a blast! Students were engaged in a variety of enriching activities and having so much fun while learning a lot about space. I believe even teachers and staff learned a lot about our great universe and its complexities! First grade put the final touches on their Space Station Play Station and were so proud of their completed work. We spent a lot of time talking and learning about the International Space Station, what astronauts do in space, and even got to peak at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and see what scientists believe our colonies on Mars will look like in 2047 (one of our students has a grandfather there who gave us a private video tour!), a the while deepening their awareness of Earth's place in the Universe. Their Space Station exhibit was a true hit at our Space Night at the Museum, and many of our first graders who came loved to explain their part in the build and how their specific designs "controlled" the station! Students were so engaged with our guest speakers, Mr. Rich and Senior NASA engineer, Su Curley. They brought all of our conversation about space to life by showing students authentic items such as moon rocks, an astronaut suit, a space helmet, and even space food! Students learned about rocketry and then were then able to build and launch their own rockets, they engaged in activities that demonstrated how asteroids and meteorites create moon craters, and worked as a team to design their crew mission patch. After a busy and wonderful week of learning, we visited the University of Alaska Anchorage to experience an awesome show at the Planetarium, launched more rockets, watched live the first all-female space walk from the ISS, and celebrated the end of our space week by watching Space Chimps with lots of popcorn! Overall, this week was so fun for the entire school and we cannot wait to see what Space Week has in store for us next year! Tinkeres and Go-Getters
10/11/2019
We have delved deep into the basics of Earth's place in the Universe, our solar system, gravity and orbiting, and the why's and how's of space travel in preparation for the launch (pun intended...) of our Space Week this coming Monday. As a crew, we designed and constructed our very own space station in our classroom! We discussed the purposed of a space station, how astronauts travel, and what type of work they do in outer space. We also discussed how space stations and the moon might help us reach Mars one day. We will be working alongside students of all grade levels next week to study and develop ways that we can get to the Moon and, eventually, Mars through a series of lessons, experiments, and hands-on activities. John Spencer is the author of a blog I always find to be inspiring and empowering. He says something I wholeheartedly agree with:" We are all creative. Every one of us. And we can tap into this natural creativity when we embrace a maker mindset." It would have been easier for me to spend a bit of extra time after school and make everything for our space station exhibit. Every line would be straight and every piece of our project would have been organized to a tee. However, that is not the purpose of project based learning. The ultimate goal is not to create this beautiful project that receives accolades. While we want to encourage high-quality work from our students, the true learning comes from the experience of creating. By giving the majority of the work over to the students, they utilized our maker space, our resource books, and asked to watch videos to better understand how the sun looked, and made their own choices about what they wanted to include on their control panels, jet packs, and command center. They have ownership of their learning. Although I helped create some of the pieces, the students were absorbed in the process of making their projects and took such pride in the finished result. Their imagination was on fire and they had to problem solve to make their ideas work. We even donned our scientist mindset and went out to observe rocks that could serve as moon rocks in our moon rock exploration bin. One girl declared, "I am going to be a geologist when I grow up!" One thing I love is that, yes, while she could definitely grow up to be a geologist, these young go-getters might have jobs, or create jobs, that don't even exist yet. Check John Spencer's blog and a glimpse into the 7 things that happen when students own their learning. And a great link to a video about these 7 things can be found here. This process, the design, creativity, and execution process, is vital to young learners self esteem and their ability to think critically. Just as we devote much of our classroom time to learning addition, subtraction, letter chunks, and good reading habits, we also devote a lot of time to independent thinking, team building, and growth mindset. Space week will be a blast because of the awesome activities and experiences we have planned but it will also be a time when first grade can proudly display their creativity to others from the school and the community. Why, we even had a few visitors at the end of Friday from the upper grades who thought their space station was a lot of fun! Aside from our fun and engaging space station project, we experienced a lot of other really fun activities this week. We met with 3rd grade so they could share their Alaskan animal reports with first grade and teach them about their habitats and effects of pollution. We practiced good reading habits and how to support our reading partners and taking turns. Our young scholars learned different strategies to add dominoes - and they even learned how to play the game! As I sent students home this weekend, I kept thinking of how much fun we had this week and that I am not only seeing a lot of growth in their academics but I am also seeing a maturation of their confidence and communication. I see young tinkerers and go-getters in the making.
Creative Geniuses
10/4/2019
Creative geniuses, eh? Yes. Your children were born creative geniuses and it is our job to help them keep this spark alive throughout their education. Sir Ken Robinson gave a TedTalk (begin at minute 2:06) in 2006 that is still relevant in 2019. He argues that our children have this innate ability to think outside the box, problem solve, and create solutions that are not only creative but genius. He says, "creativity is as important as literacy - and we should treat it with the same status." These are skills that the 21st century needs in order to create a more sustainable, humane, and prosperous future. I am so excited when I see your children deep in thought and their creativity at work. Add this to developing leadership, teamwork, and communication skills and we have the baby building blocks of a phenomenal next generation of movers and shakers. PNA is a unique place of education where children can flourish not only through academic rigor but also encourages holistic, creative, and personal growth. I believe deeply in guiding children down a path of exploration and discovery, and this week was focused around fueling their curiosity and creativity through various challenges and experiences. So how did students go about being challenged both academically and creatively? We focused on some fun and interesting design challenges this week. Both challenges had specific parameters, required students to communicate and work in teams, and students had to explain their designs to their peers. And you know what? Students had so much fun, were so serious and engaged, and demonstrated growth mindset. I had on student state, "I was going to give up but I didn't and it finally worked!" This is the mindset our students need to be successful - in school and in life! This is an awesome article about harnessing creativity and innovation - and highlights some wonderful and updated thoughts from Sir Ken Robinson. So, what can the design process teach kids? When I first presented the problem and challenge of building something to get Mark, a tiny crayon, up to pick the apples at the height of their chair, many of my students looked at me like I was a bit crazy. One of my very literal students said, "that's impossible, Ms. Lemanski. Crayons cannot move on their own." However, after they were situated in their teams, they quickly began sketching out their ideas and coming up with all sorts of fun designs for their crayon to reach the apples. They only had a few parameters: their design must be free standing and it must be made from materials they found in the classroom. Check out this wonderful and inspiring article about what the design process can teach kids! Aside from all of our cool design challenges this week, we had a great time at the Alaska Zoo! We got to learn about adaptations, Alaskan Animals, and enjoy a lovely albeit rainy day outdoors! Thanks to our awesome parents, we had a great experience outside the classroom that helped deepen our understanding of animals and supported our animal/biomimicry unit! Adults and children alike were blown away by our up close animal encounter with Cranberry, Anchorage's very own Polar bear! Check out a few snaps of your kids hard at work below! We had such a fun week together :)
Measuring UP
9/27/2019
This week has been packed full of so many wonderful activities. We began our week with a great lesson in growth mindset from our amazing second graders. They stood up confidently in front of the student body and explained their design and engineering process for their egg vessels and then dropped them from over 30 feet! Some eggs broke into smithereens, others merely cracked, while a few survived unscathed. What the important lesson to our students was that not one of the second graders displayed a poor attitude or felt defeated from their cracked egg. It was an opportunity for them to think about what they could improve upon and how they could make changes in the future to be more successful. I overheard many of our first graders talking about how they were excited to do this project next year in 2nd grade and how they would design their egg vessels! I always love opportunities where the community rallies around each other and shares knowledge and experiences Students were also exposed to coding and robotics this week in our very cool tech den. Since we have been studying biomimicry this past month, we talked about how we can design robots to mimic animals and/or plants in nature. Students designed a human code using game pieces adhered to the floor and then used this knowledge to code their Lego creations from Lego We Do kits. These young children grasped the concept so quickly and were designing code to make their robots sing, flash different colors, and beep - among many other commands! This is a meaningful hands-on experience that makes technology really fun for young learners! This week, we delved in even deeper into good reading habits and how to improve our bad reading habits. Ask your first grader what it means to do "the freeze" when it comes to reading! We also introduced new first grade snap words to our word wall, emphasizing the chunks, blends, and vowel pairs we have been learning in class. Students are getting faster and faster recognizing these parts of words, which is a key component in reading fluency. I can tell that these next few weeks are going reveal a big burst of reading growth in your young readers! And what is a day of school without a solid math lesson? This is an integral part of our morning routine and we wrapped up our week learning about standard vs non-standard measurement, estimating length, and using popsicle sticks to measure the room - and each other. I spent quite a bit of time lying on the floor with lots of popsicle sticks lined up to measure the teacher! Students also had a fun time using measuring tape to observe and measure elements within our play ground space. Our busy week came to its close with a wonderful performance of Mary Poppins at the Sydney Lawrence Theater in downtown Anchorage. One of our awesome 4th graders was in the show and it was incredibly fun for our student body to see him perform! For many of our young students, this was one of their first experiences seeing a live performance in a theater venue. Our students represented PNA with wonderful manners, positivity, and respect. I even had a few students show a sincere interest in performing on stage in the future after this experience!
Counting on
9/20/2019
We introduced coins this week. Nickels and pennies to be exact. Our number corner is a gathering place each morning to predict patterns, read the calendar, and learn how to group numbers and objects. We have used to nickels to group our pennies, as well as add the coins to represent the date. We even engaged in a nickel and penny hunt around the room and students worked together to add their amounts and order their totals from least to greatest. Who knew 39 cents could be so fun?! In addition to learning how to sort and recognize nickels and pennies, we celebrated our 2nd decade day on Friday because it was the 20th of the month! We learned that deca means 10, that a decagon has 10 sides, and that we call it the 2nd decade day because, well, 10 + 10 = 20! Little lightbulbs went off as students started asking about triple decade day and fourth decade day and so on. I asked them how many decade days we would have this month and they were able to figure out that there will be 3 all on their own. We explored how animals protect themselves (following our biomimicry study) and how they can escape from predators. Each student was tasked with their own project that required only two things: their bug must 1) be able to fly away from predators and 2) be able to protect itself. We utilized our awesome Makerspace materials and students created some amazing bugs with very unique defenses. Their creative sides were engaged as well as their problem solving skills as they had to figure out how to join their materials, explain their designs, and use trial and error to make their bugs better. I was, of course, the testing subject for the bug's defense mechanisms and I don't think I have ever been "stung" by so many bugs in one day! We have further developed our mission of teamwork and collaboration through our weekly build-a-tower challenge, as well introducing centers that require students to work together. Children, as well as adults, need to consistently practice in order to improve their speaking and leadership skills. I have noticed that there are particular students who always take the lead and it has been interesting assigning the team lead position to students whose voice is not always heard. It is empowering for the students to have to practice leading and listening to each other. Classcraft's article on how to teach leadership resonated with me, especially the part stating "Good, effective leadership is a skill that can be learned, practiced, and improved upon. And while we tend to notice the more obvious charismatic leaders with the loud and bold personalities, the fact is that anybody, even the quiet kid in the back who hardly speaks a word in class, can be a leader." Classcraft has a great article here if you are interested in reading more about how leadership can be taught in the classroom. Lastly, PNA's annual field day was a great success! Our students did an awesome job trekking through the forest on the path build by PNA's prior middle school students. It was so important to recognize this achievement and for our younger students to see the value in applying what we learn to the real world. First graders and fourth graders partnered up while walking to the park and it was so neat to see the community and relationships being cultivated between students of different age groups. For some students, this was their first opportunity to go on a hike or be exposed to the forest, and for new PNA students, this was a great opportunity to experience the mission of PNA in action: courage to try something new, the vision to create something authentic and useful, and the integrity of following through with a plan with the help of fellow classmates. Book Bins, Balls, and Biomimicry
9/13/2019
This week was a fun week in first grade! Students were introduced to the idea of Rasheed - the lion who is on his way to visit us but whose flight got delayed due to a snow storm in the mountains. Now, of course, a real-life lion is not on it's way to PNA but students loved the idea of it anyway! Rasheed is, however, the mascot for our reading workshop. We use Rasheed to demonstrate the use of chunks (sh!), short vowel (a) and twin vowels (ee). Rasheed not only helps students break apart and study words but he also introduces students to new names. The real Rasheed, stuffed animal of course, will be arriving next week in our classroom. Our first graders came ready this year with a solid foundation of letter sound knowledge and we are delving in even deeper as we explore words together and encourage the strategies that 'good readers use' during our silent and partner reading. We also have been focusing on these strategies as we gather at the small group table for reading group, as well as during group board work. Students are quite proud of themselves when they discover a hidden chunk, blend, or short vowel and are quick to write their findings down on their white boards! Also in the world of reading this week, we introduced individual book bins! Students were so excited to get their book bin and go "shopping" in the class library. They gathered books that were fun and interesting to them, and will be adding books that are targeted right at or just slightly above their reading level. Students also continued the theme of biomimicry this week by creating their own secret boxes. We studied what plants and animals use to protect themselves and then modeled their boxes after their favorite! We read the Caldecott honors book, "What Do You Do With a Tail Like That?" and learned all about animals such as how horned lizards shoot blood out of its eyes and that the giant ears of a hare are used to shade and cool it during hot days! One morning we decided to extend our morning meeting to the gym and do a team building activity. Students worked towards a common goal of delivering a ball, suspended above the ground by an O-ring and ropes, to the other side of the gym. One student was chosen as team lead and helped guide the class towards success. First grade was awesome and achieved their goal multiple times! It was amazing to see them collaborating, communicating, and having fun. And as their teacher, I stood back and let them work independently and encouraged the team lead to be clear with his or her directions. All in all, we had a great week! Despite the sniffling noses that autumn brings, first grade has been an exciting and fun place to be this week! Teamwork and Tallies
9/6/2019
No man, woman, or child is an island, especially not in a classroom. Tuesday morning was the start of our week after a restful day off for Labor Day. We began our day by exchanging compliments to one another and practicing receiving them with gratitude. By doing so, we are taking time to recognize the good in each one of us and by offering gratitude in return, we create relationships that are kind and considerate. It is especially important for young learners to practice compliments and gratitude as they learn to work together and exchange ideas. We practiced our teamwork by working on building towers out of paper cups. No idea was dismissed and students were encouraged to offer compliments, suggestions, and take on leadership in their teams. I stood back, offering only slight suggestions as they experienced trial and error, and eventually, success. They felt pride, not only in themselves, but in their team. I was proud, too. We have continued to work in teams this week in our workstations and also during partner reading. To see them collaborating, learning, and listening to one another is truly awesome! This week we also introduced first grade Snap words to the class and identifying chunks in words, which we incorporated into many activities from whiteboard work to finding them in the books we are reading. Silent and partner reading seems to be an absolute favorite among students in this class! Another favorite in our class is quiet choice. Quiet choice is beneficial to your child in many ways. Not only is it a time for quiet communication with a partner or silent focus but 6-7 years old are still developing their motor skills! Legos, dominoes, polygons, cubes, etc all help develop muscles in the hands, improve hand/eye coordination, and help strengthen their ability to focus. Unstructured play helps a child develop social skills which are important for school success like taking turns and using eye contact, body language and gestures. While often dismissed as ‘just fun’, play is the vital activity that children use to learn about and interact with their world, and gain the mental, physical and social skills necessary to succeed in their adult lives.” (NAEYC) The 2 sessions of 15-20 minutes that they are engaged in this activity has enormous benefits! Your children have also been exploring biomimicry. Now, some people may assume that this is a big word for little ones. However, your first graders are loving the idea that we can create useful items that are inspired by nature! Although they are young, children have this amazing ability to take big ideas and turn them into very creative and even cooler ideas! Our PBL unit is centered around this concept and we are learning how to think about animals and plants as inspiration. They are developing observational skills, looking for characteristics in animals and plants, and beginning to think about how we can solve problems by looking at the world around us. It is rather cool to see their minds at work and the discussions happening centered around these big ideas that are really just the perfect size for our children's mind. They are the future who will be solving our world's problems and we need to trust their ability to think outside the box. And now on to tallies. Tallies everyday! We used tally marks to count the day of the month, to add, to group, to see numbers as bundles. And your students have got this! I have watched them this week work so hard and are already mastering building their bundles of 5's with popsicle sticks, whiteboards, and other math manipulatives. It has been a fun and rewarding week that we will continue to build upon as we grow our bundles of numbers higher and higher. I cannot wait to see what your student can do in just another week! Joy and Family
8/31/2019
The beginning of the school year is always filled with such an array of emotions. Students charge forward through their summer breaks with the anticipation of that first day; yet when it arrives, nerves can take over, for students and parent, as well as teachers. On that first day, nervous ‘hellos’ are exchanged, students look their teacher over and imagine what the day will hold, and teachers hope their students feel loved, appreciated, and noticed. I felt many of these emotions on my first day and the joy I felt as each child’s face peeked through the door settled my heart and filled me with such excitement for the year to come. We spent our first few days building a sense of community and quickly our mutual feelings of nervousness gave way to excitement, familiarity, and a budding sense of family. The first weeks of school establish and continue to deepen the sense of community, reinforce mutual respect among students and teachers, and lay a foundation of kindness in the classroom and school. It was a joy to experience the genuine respect our first graders had for each other as they greeted one another by first name in morning meeting! We have been continually reinforcing kind and considerate gestures in class through our speech and actions. As we introduced stations and workplaces, students were encouraged to show confidence and practice their language skills via conversations with their partners. We talk daily about the importance of kindness, patience, and being respectful. When one of us speaks, student or teacher, we listen. We ask for things politely, and we offer help if it is needed. We are a community, and a family, and that is reinforced daily by creating a learning environment that allows students to learn in a deep and meaningful way. We will continue to develop the relationships in our class, encourage collaboration, exploration and risks, and reinforce a love of learning in your awesome first graders. This is a class full of curiosity and wonder, big personalities, and compassion. I am very excited to see where our mutual love of learning takes us this year! Thank you for sharing your first grader with me! Schools Out!
5/24/2019
The final week of school always has a palpable excitement in the air as students and teachers get ready for summer. As lessons come to a close it seems right and fitting to get outdoors and and enjoy ourselves as a small reward for a long year of hard work. Bike Day!Classroom Challenges!Field Day!Every student has worked hard this year and has made progress. Summer is an important time to be as a family and spend time together and relax. However 'summer slide' is a real thing and children can loose valuable progress made over the summer. Mrs Hitchcock has made an excellent and informative blog post discussing it. Please take some time and read it here: http://pna17-18blogs.weebly.com/2nd-grade/summer-slide.
Aim to give your child the best start they can have at PNA next year! Have a great summer! Life Skills
5/17/2019
At PNA our mission statement is 'We educate students to be exceptional learners and independent thinkers of vision, courage, and integrity.' While that is a bold statement it is made up of lots of little parts that each student learns that are equally important and are life skills. Such as; self advocacy, responsibility, patience and resilience. The last few weeks before summer are always a test of students and teachers resilience as a long year draws to the end with a flurry of events and tying up of projects and loose ends. To persevere to the end. This year 1st grade was tested further on their resilience by having to change classrooms multiple times and by having a substitute teacher for 2 weeks. It is a testament to them how each student responded to these challenges. Due to the sharing of spaces with an outside group, some classes were temporarily moved to other rooms. Teachers and students alike were both put to the test and needed to put their resilience and growth mindsets to work. When a challenge popped up, whether it was where to eat lunch, how to send groups of kids to where they needed to go, or how to access things that we were used to having right at our fingertips in our own classrooms, critical thinking, problem solving and a positive attitude rose above the challenge. These solutions came from not only the teachers but the students as well. Resilience can be defined as "the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.” While this is an actual definition, it doesn't take into account what else is actually entailed by one who is resilient. People who can bounce back from mistakes and successfully adjust to change have a different mindset. They know that they have the power to do what is needed to not only take what life throws at them but also to use that as an opportunity to grow, learn and to succeed. As part of persevering to the end and having fun while doing it; 1st Grade spent time this week finishing their Trash Monsters from their work on Earth Day and recycling. We also had some with leftover marshmallows from our camping trip. What else to do with them but build marshmallow catapults and castles to fling them at. |
Hali TuomiMs. Tuomi has over five years experience in ASD, where she taught first and fifth grade classrooms. An avid skier, Ms. Tuomi is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Alaska Pacific University’s Bachelor of Arts in K-8 Education. Archives
April 2021
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