Baker’s Dozen Plus 3

Many times I post more than one article at a time. I like to write them by subject matter and have each under its own title. Friday, I entered 4 posts on the home page (look below) and 1 on the science page. Have a terrific weekend. Thank you for your patience.

This week was an exciting and monumental time for our country with the inauguration of our 44th president, Barack Obama.  We are learning a bit about his early life, family and career.  More importantly we are discussing qualities a person possesses who chooses to run for the office of President of the United States of America.  Some might say, one such qualitiy is bravery.  To illustrate the meaning of brave we are working with William Steig’s, Brave Irene and Jane O’Connor’s, Molly the Brave and Me.  Both stories demonstrate the bravery, determination, and creative thinking of two girls.  In the coming days, we will use the characters to make comparisons to Obama and what we think might be traits that will make him a good leader for our country.

Ms. Peterson provided the link to Reading Rainbow’s annual writing contest (See the blogroll). The students and I looked at some of the past winners this week and began getting very excited about participating in the contest. I told the children that it would be very difficult for me to oversee 16 individual projects as a part of the class work. So, we began thinking about a class project, but unfortunately this particular contest specifically states “only one entry per child” and “only single author stories”. I encourage each family to check this site out and embark on a project at home with your child if you so choose. I would be happy to consult or even edit any work one of the student’s might write/illustrate at home. Even if you are not going to participate, it is fun to read the stories on the site.

We will be entering a contest called, Young Poets Collection.  Students will select from poetry we will be writing using Haiku and Cinquain formats.  The deadline for entries is April 20th so look for more information in future weeks.

Over the holiday weekend, Mark Haberle and River, volunteered in the classroom. They erected our bird sanctuary and re-hung bulletin boards that were removed from the wall in order to install the SMARTBOARD. I sincerely want to thank both people for providing this act of kindness and community service. I have already begun creating displays upon their work.

A dear elderly friend of mine gave us her bird feeders as she is unable to physically perform the task of filling them on her own anymore. Mallie and I prepared them for hanging last Friday. We have two suets and four seed feeders. One of the seed feeders was given to the class by Jon Jameison as Christmas present for our birds and us. Today, a group of children and Beth Libby, added more sticks and greenery allowing us to hang feeders from branches and providing areas for perching. It looks fantastic. The class is anxious for the birds to hear there is another buffet in town. We have had a few siskins and chick-a-dees, but no sign of mourning doves, woodpeckers, or goldfinches which Mrs. Kingsbury’s group has had visiting.

Before Christmas Izzy’s and Eli’s Grandmother posted a comment from Utah.  Here is what it said.  Hello, and Happy Holidays to Mrs. Baker’s class. I have been reading your blog, sounds like a very busy month.  Did Izzy tell you that we saw a bald eagle when we were in southern Utah?  It was perched in a huge tree, near a small stream.  Grumpy, and I liver near an eagle nesting area; sometimes in the late winter we see as many as 15-20 eagles.  They are very large and easy to spot because of their white heads.  Golden eagles live here too.  Last summer I spotted an eagle family nested near the Sandbar on Lake Champlain.  Keep your eyes open.  Have a great vacation and I will see you in February.  CeCe

We are preparing a slide show/bird guide of 16 birds we identified before Christmas. Each child is responsible for a bird. The individual slide shows will be combined to make one in the end. All the work is being created digitally. So far, each person has worked on a cover slide and an anatomy slide. I am shocked at the students’ ability to draw with a mouse birds that actually look like the one under study. Our bird journals are also being written in on a weekly basis. (Check out our Science page for examples of the students writing. Also, please note the link under blogroll.)

Happy Belated New Year one and all!  This comes to you late because the past few times I have tried to get on the blog, it was unavailable and then life just got too busy.  It has been a rocky beginning given the snow day last week, a delay, absences last week (including mine), the holiday this past Monday, and ski day on Wednesday.  However, we are pushing forward trying to get back into our routines.

I need your help.  Many of the students are forgetting to put their names on their papers.  At first thought, this doesn’t seem to be that big a deal.  However, just imagine, 16 papers and 10 have no name.  By the end of a day, there could be as many as 74 papers with 30 or more not having a name placed on them.  I think you are beginning to get the point.  In the past, we play the game, “Whose paper is this?” where I stand in front of the class holding identical papers up and have 16 children yelling at me, “that one is Joe’s, no it’s Sarah’s, no it’s mine… “.  It takes far too much time out of a given learning session to be a productive activity.  I posed the problem to the class asking them for suggestions to rectify the problem.  The first and only suggestion for improvement was, put your name on your paper.

To make a point, last week I said for every paper without a name, a “0” was placed in my grade book because I am was unable to quickly identify the owner.  We talked a lot about how “0’s” can take away from a person’s grade.  Last week I offered extra credit work to replace the “0’s” that are currently in my grade book.

This is not an exercise in inflexibility, but hopefully one in taking responsibility for one’s very important work.  I am pleased to announce that most all of the students asked about grades when each came to me for his/her spelling test last Friday.  Yeah!  They understand why!

Everyone took advantage of doing extra credit homework to replace a “0″ with a “3″.  Also, this week I offered Obama extra credit.  Some individuals took me up on the offer and brought in pictures and articles about Mr. Obama’s inauguration.  Nice job.

(Don’t you just love our name. It came to me when trying to title this piece and we all agreed it was perfect.) Thank you Mark Haberle for extending our bird sanctuary yesterday. River, Wes, and Grace helped Mark when he came to attach the extension. They then hung the feeders from it. We had our first woodpecker soon after, more chickadees, and maybe a bluebird. We are thrilled with the bird activity at the sanctuary. Then when we thought it couldn’t get any better, the preschoolers came with a birdfeeder they made for our sanctuary. It was exciting. I showed the preschoolers our wall of good deeds and told them to look for their picture the next time they came. (Mark, keep an eye out for your picture on the wall of good deeds too.)

Today is the national Christmas Bird Count! We were outside from 8:15-9 counting birds in three different places. Yesterday, the students and I walked outside to discuss our work and the importance for taking it seriously. We also talked about dressing warmly, as if we were preparing to go skiing. (I am still hoping some of you will be able to bring boughs for our bird sanctuary.) We used Joe’s walkie-talkies to communicate between groups. Our group names were Shrike, Chickadee, and Woodpecker. I think Elizabeth, Beth, and I had more fun with the walkie-talkies than the kids. Our bird count included sightings of: a male downy woodpecker, a hermit thrush, black-capped chickadees, a red-breasted nuthatch, a mallard, and a shrike! Our data will be joined with Mrs. Kingsbury’s and pre-school’s and submitted to the feeder watch coordinator. Scientists will use our data to analyze bird populations, so it was important that everyone count their birds exactly the same way. more than 50,000 observers across North America participate each year in this all-day census of early-winter bird populations. The results of their efforts are compiled into the longest running database in ornithology, representing over a century of unbroken data on trends of early-winter bird populations across the Americas. (Look on the science page for more photos. UPDATE….HOURS LATER…THE PICTURES ARE NOT UPLOADING FOR SOME REASON.  THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING.  KEEP LOOKING BECAUSE WE HAVE FABULOUS BIRD PICTURES.)

The holidays are fast approaching and many of you have asked me about scrapbooking opportunities and supplies. In advance, thank you for your continued support. There is a link on this blog that will take you directly to the Creative Memories site where you can shop at your leisure. (Keep in mind December 15th was the date they guaranteed shipment for Christmas. However, it has been my experience that the shipment turnaround happens quickly. If you shop by tonight, you should have no problem receiving your order.) After shopping on the site, you will be asked to select a consultant at which time all you need to do is type my name in. This will give me credit for the sale and allow the materials to be directly sent to you.

I am also happy to shop for you tonight.  You can call my number 244-7203 and leave a message as to what you would like.  I will be at my daughter’s concert until about 9:00 p.m., but will be placing an order later in the evening.  I can be reached by phone at home until 11:00 p.m.  You may also reach me via email at geobaker3@verizon.net.

I highly recommend purchasing tools for your children’s use at home crafting and/or school projects. My daughter uses our tools and materials for school projects all the time. She is always excited to see her creations look professional and classy because she is able to decorate with self-designed punches and accurately cut papers.

I will be teaching after school classes in the new year in my classroom. I will send you a survey in hopes to best suit peoples’ needs and desires for projects and days and times.

Good day, we are trying to build a bird sanctuary out of our Sukkah.  Being in the rain this fall and having been moved from the front to the side, has made it less impressive and full of holes.  I would like the children to work on rebuilding the sides and top to allow for a true safe haven for the birds.  Could anyone bring boughs from home and drop them off at the side entrance to our room?  I would love to have them for Friday morning as we will be participating in the Christmas bird watch that day.  Also, we are still looking for help with extending the Sukkah to attach birdfeeders that Pat Folsom generously gave us.  Mark Haberle may be able to help Wednesday mid-day.  If so, I am sure he would be happy to have assistance.

Last Friday, Patricia Folsom, Birdwatcher extraordinaire, came to class to help us kick off our new social studies/science unit.  Pat graciously is giving of her time to teach us about birds in our backyards and how we can participate in the upcoming Christmas Bird-watch on December 19th.  We made bird feeders with pinecones, peanut butter, and birdseeds.  Yesterday we were distracted by all the activity outside our window in our newly made over sukkah/bird sanctuary.  Pat also provided us with bird-feeders to place outside our window.  Does anyone have feeder poles they are not using right now?  If so, we would really appreciate being able to borrow them.  We need them as soon as possible.  Lastly, Pat is coming back this Friday to teach us how to collect data for the official bird-watch.  The children made beautiful pictures of birds we might see in our backyards of Vermont.  Each one was beautifully crafted.  I was particularly impressed with how carefully each person replicated his/her bird of choice.