We are Bloggers!

We have made our first blog posts and written comments to each other. Talk about a quiet classroom! Please check out their posts and add your own comments. There will be more soon.

http://kidblog.org/BartinBunch/

 

Blogging Practice

 Last week we talked about all of the different kinds of writing people can do, and we definitely mentioned blogging. When I told the students that kids can have blogs, they were very excited. We looked at many different examples of blogs for different purposes, including this blog, my family blog, a food blog, etc. We talked about the audience for each blog and how the writer has to think about his or her audience.

Then we practiced writing our first blog post on paper. Each student wrote an introductory blog post describing him or herself and talking about things they enjoying doing. Everyone worked hard and took this assignment seriously.

The following day we talked about the importance of commenting on blogs. We watched a video made by a second grade class at a different school about how to comment. We then made a list of comment starters and talked about what makes the best comments. Then I gave students a stack of sticky notes and told them they would be commenting on each other's blog posts by writing on the sticky notes.

It was amazing! It was silent in the room for 15 minutes while students read their classmates' paper blog posts and wrote comments to each other. They did not want to stop, even though it was time for recess. Students later went back to their blogs and read their comments and we talked about what comments could lead to further conversation. Many students wanted more time so they could respond to questions others had asked them. It was amazing to see them communicating with each other in writing, and being so excited about it.

Madeline and Wyatt read blog posts and write comments.

Sydney and Allison write meaningful comments for their classmates.

An example of a blog post with comments

Another blog post with comments- The long string of sticky notes means a conversation was going on about the same idea.

Stay tuned... next week we begin blogging on kidblog.org.

Mayor McDonnell Visit

Kirkwood Mayor Art McDonnell visited with all of the second grade students on Friday. Several students made a presentation to him about composting, and the students asked him how we could get composting started in Kirkwood.

Mr. McDonnell told us about his job as mayor, and students got to ask him many questions. It was a very informative visit!

Mayor Art McDonnell speaks to the students.

Several students made a presentation to the mayor.

Mayor McDonnell poses with second grade students.

The Importance of Voting

Believe it or not, we have been learning about things other than composting. We have been learning about civics and the election process in the past few weeks. Students have developed a great understanding of the importance of voting to have a say in the government. Last week students wrote about what they would do if they were president. Their answers included lowering gas prices, giving money to the poor, giving out free ice cream, and fining people if they don't compost and recycle. Stop by and see our bulletin board with everyone's comments.

On Monday we participated in a school-wide mock election. Students filled out voter registration cards ahead of time, and we talked more about the election process. A few students expressed concern that they were unsure who to vote for. We talked about the candidates generally, and the morning announcements included a few facts about each candidate, but we did not talk a lot about the political views of each candidate. One student commented that she was torn because "responsible citizens vote, so I need to vote, but it is also important to be an educated voter." I love that second graders can understand the importance of voting.

Students wait their turn to vote, while fourth-grade leaders help us out.

Olivia casts her vote.

Gus shows off his voter registration card.

Second Grade Leaders Bring BIG Results

I could not be more proud of our second grade students. Their leadership with our school-wide composting initiative has been one of the coolest things I have seen in my 11 years of teaching. They have been so passionate and invested in this project, and their excitement has spread. Last week, second-grade students appeared on the announcements every day to tell the school about composting. Here are Gus and Sydney with an important message:

Last week our second grade students taught every class in the school about composting and recycling. They prepared a presentation, including interactive sorting activities, to teach every single student at Keysor how to sort their lunch leftovers into landfill, composting, and recycling bins. The Bartin Bunch personally taught all of the fifth grade students, as well as Mrs. Jansen's kindergarten class.
Some students led a presentation at the ActivBoard, while others led sorting activities with groups of students or a whole-class sorting practice. All of our students were great leaders in these presentations.

Sarah and Max teach some kindergarten students how to sort their trash.

Marin and Alexis lead an activity.

Trevor and Maya are patient as they teach younger students.

Wyatt, Madeline, and Marin led our presentation on the ActivBoard.

Kira, Zachary, and Pete teach fifth-grade students about composting.

Our hard work has paid off. On Monday, we kicked off our school-wide cafeteria program. We went from about 12 bags of trash a day, to only 2 bags of trash for the landfill. That is amazing! When I showed the students a picture of the trash that Dr. Painter sent at the end of the day, they all cheered. They were so proud of themselves and our school, as they should be. They even wanted to set a goal of making only one bag of trash on Wednesday. I love showing our students that their hard work has been worth it, and that kids can make a difference.

This picture says it all. The difference in the amount we are sending to the landfill is, and will continue to be, HUGE!

Our class made this pictograph to show the amount of trash we were sending to the landfill before. We will update it with the after amounts.

Earthways Presentation

Just when you thought we had learned it all about composting...

Today Kim from Earthways (a division of the Missouri Botanical Gardens) came to our classroom to do a presentation about composting and recycling. We learned a lot of interesting facts, like:

Paper can be recycled 5-7 times.

In the United States, one person makes about 5 pounds of trash each day.

In Missouri, one person makes about 6 pounds of trash each day.

In St. Louis, one person makes about 9.5 pounds of trash each day.

The top 5 most common things in the landfill.

1.  paper

2.  food

3.  plastics

4.  metal

5.  glass

We can recycle or compost ALL of those things!

Students got to practice sorting trash into compostable, recyclable, and landfill piles. This is perfect before our cafeteria recycling and composting starts on Nov. 5th. 

Some students got to act out a food chain, learning about the important role of decomposers. Then we got to dig through real compost, finding all kinds of critters. It was very engaging and educational. 

Ms. Kim taught us lots of great information.

Madeline and Clayton sort their trash.

Sydney and Kira discuss how to sort their trash.

Some students act out a food chain.

Compost digging- Eddie, Olivia C., Max, and Alexis

Olivia C., Sarah, and Wyatt

Marin, Madeline, Clayton, Olivia, and Kira find some critters.

Pete, Audrey and Maya look at some worms and roly polies.

Worms!

We have been waiting for weeks for our worms to arrive. After ordering them from two different companies and waiting for a month, they finally arrived via FedEx on Friday afternoon (sadly, after school was out). I was already gone for the weekend myself, so we were lucky to have Mrs. Wellman, Mr. Pursley, and Mrs. John around to set them up for us. I certainly owe them one!

Our Worm-A-Way worm bin

 Our worms (all 1,000 of them) are living  in a special box in our room. They have newspaper bedding and a little soil, mixed with water in their tub. We will feed them a few pounds of compostable material each week, and wait for them to do their work. Hopefully, we will have some great compost by spring to use in our new Project IDEA gardens.

Everyone was very excited to open the lid and check out the worms. The worms like to hide, so we have to dig to find them.

We have decided to make it a classroom job to be the weekly worm keeper. This person will help feed the worms, keep their tub moist, and keep a log of everything we are feeding them. It's not easy to look after 1,000 class pets!

One cool effect of this project already is that more kids are bringing compostable snacks, which tend to be healthier. Kids are very excited to feed their banana or orange peels or leftover fruit or veggies to the worms. This is am outcome I hadn't even anticipated.

Today Mr. Krena, our talented third grade teacher, sang his original worm song with us. The song is absolutely perfect for this learning.

In case you were wondering, we can not tell them apart. We have decided to name them all Bob.

Compost Project 3

Maya, Sarah, and Sydney wrote a song about composting.

Kira and Olivia P. share some of their favorite facts about composting.

Compost Projects 2

Here are a few more great compost projects to share:

Some of our students decided that Peace, Love and Compost was a good motto for our class and projects.

Allison wrote a book about composting that she read to a first-grade classroom.

Eddie wrote a book called All About Composting that he read to Mrs. Prichard's class.

Zack wrote The Diary of a Millipede.

Alexis, Wyatt and Olivia C. made a video to show what they know about composting.

Compost Projects- Part 1

We have been learning about soil and composting for weeks now. To show what they know, students selected a compost project to work on. Their goal was to teach other people about composting, and they had 7 different choices about how to do that. I wanted students to be creative and to choose a project they would enjoy. After discussing the expectations of each project, students made a choice and signed the Composting Project Contract.

A big part of working on this project was choosing the audience and the goal. Some students chose to teach younger children about composting, while other chose to teach parents about how to compost at home, or teach the entire school about composting in the cafeteria (which we hope to start soon). I think this focus helped make their projects more meaningful.

We worked on the projects every morning for two weeks. I was amazed at how seriously the students took their work. Some kids were researching on computers and in books, while others dove right into writing scrips and rough drafts.

At the end of the two weeks, everyone has completed a project. We are working on editing some of the videos, or binding a few books, but all of their learning and producing is complete. I love how invested the students are with their projects. They are so excited to share them with others. Some students will be reading their books to other classes next week. Others are excited to show off their songs and videos. Posters are now hanging in our hallway.

Here are a few of the many projects that are complete:

This is a video by Trevor, Pete, Clayton and Gus demonstrating how they set up a composting experiment with worms. We are still observing the experiment in our classroom. We owe a BIG thanks to Mrs. John for helping with the experiment and video.

Alex made a poster of a Log Hotel. We read a book called The Log Hotel, about a tree that fell over, and all of the living things that helped it decompose. Alex cut out pictures of animals and fungus that caused his log to break down.

Max made a brochure about how to compost at home. We sent it home with each student in our class and gave it out to other teachers at Keysor.

Audrey and Marin create a nonfiction book about critters that live in a compost bin. They even included a table of contents. They will read their book to a kindergarten class next week.

Madeline wrote and illustrated an ABC book about composting. She will share it with kindergarten students next week. 

First Field Trip

Today we took our first field trip to Litzsinger Road Ecology Center in Ladue. This was a great experience, partially because we got to plan the trip ourselves based on what we have been learning in class. The students were divided into five groups of four, and each group was led by a volunteer. Each student had science booklet to complete, and each group was given a gardening bag containing a shovel and an empty container. We had four main objectives:

1. Collect soil from a specific location (prairie, woodland, near the road, upper creek bank, lower creek bank) in their container, and draw and describe their dig site
2. Find five different bug boards located at the center, and pick them up to count and draw what they see
3. Find examples of weathering and erosion
4. Turn over a log and look for signs of decomposition. 

Because we had such great volunteers and I knew my students would be on their best behavior, I was able to float back and forth between all of the groups. I loved hearing the students' inquisitive questions and seeing the joy of learning on their faces. The students had the opportunity to explore with their volunteers for about an hour and a half, and each group traveled all over the center's grounds. Students found lots of worms, insects, fungi, new plants, and even a deer skeleton. At least one group saw live deer. We all learned lots of new things (including me) and got to put our classroom learning to the test. There was even time for some groups to skip rocks in the creek.

The time went very quickly and nobody was ready to leave. It was awesome to hear the students so excited about learning, and just to see them explore nature. Several of the volunteers told me how impressed they were with our students' behavior and said they were one of the best groups they had ever had. The volunteers were also impressed with the kids' understanding of erosion, weathering, soil, and decomposition.

We brought back our soil samples and other great nature finds to explore further in the classroom. This was a wonderful experience and such an extension of our classroom learning. The best part is that we get to go back at least once more this year (maybe two!)

Unfortunately, I was not able to get pictures of every group (they got really spread out), but I took a lot. 

The bus ride

Writing in their science journals

They found cool seed pods.

Sydney, Olivia P., Max, and Wyatt stopped to check under a log.

Gus stops to look at the cup plants.

Olivia, Audrey, and Sarah explore the prairie.

Kira, Marin, Pete, and Eddie listen to their volunteer.

Finding the remains of a dead deer.

Looking under a log

Kira and Eddie show off a worm they found.

Wyatt, Zack and Eddie share ideas during our debriefing afterwards.