Dr. Johnson's Reading Blog

Today we successfully completed our immigration simulation. To remind everyone, we have been studying the period of immigration between 1890 and 1920. During this simulation, students played the role of immigrants or processors from Ellis Island. Students were randomly chosen as an immigrant or processor. Each student was given and identity they were to keep secret until the day of simulation. Immigrants simulated what it was like to go through the process of coming to Ellis Island and getting processed. Processors played the roles of processors who processed the immigrants. As students moved through the processing process, they answered questions according to their character. By the end of the simulation, some students were deported and some students became citizens. Make sure you ask your child about the experiences.

Darius and Aaron made a great power point presentation using Google Docs. They created their presentation during explorations. Have a look and let them know what you think.

Some students seemed interested in this website so I'm posting it here . It is a national competition in which student make video games. More information is found at the website.

Here is the speech we listened to by Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Native Americans. It was only fitting that as we are learning about Westward Expansion and relocation of Native Americans that we listen to the words of native people. We read about the Nez Perce Native Americans from our Social Studies textbook then listened to this partial reading of his speech. These words are a partial reading of a speech attributed to Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce. The full speech was reported to have been delivered to the US government at Lincoln Hall in Washington DC (1879) where he was meeting with lawmakers to sign over their native lands. What did the speech remind you of? How do you think his words from 1879 still resonate today?

By popular demand, here is the TED Talk we watched in class on smiling. We are just about to finish up our inquiry into Speeches and the spoken word as a powerful communication tool. Look for the other speeches and talks we have seen soon!

I believe through this link you will be able to view all of our expert projects.

I have posted five expert project videos from Monday, October 31 for the following students: Troy Brandon Will Blaise Brennan

Last week (Friday) we completed our models of our cell. The class was broken into four groups in which two groups made an animal cell and two groups made a plant cell. We spent a week in class putting our models together including researching information to label our cells and building our models. While models are often the end product once they are completed, I felt that when a model is built, it should lead to further understanding. Instead of the group models being the end product, students are using their models to create test questions for the other groups. In other words, the plant cell group is putting together a quiz for the animal cell group and the animal cell group is putting together a quiz for the plant cell group. Those groups will then use the other group's models to help them study for their quiz. To make sure each group can adequately prepare, the models need to be accurate in their detail and information. The most important part of this project is not the resu

Today is our official first day of starting our expert project. Each student has a packet, and in that packet explains their whole project. For your information, here is a copy of the introduction letter. I am also including a copy of the rubric here . Here at the Center for Inquiry, we believe that children should inquire into those things that matter to them. For this project, students will do just that - inquire into something they have always wanted to know more about. This project is more about the actual process of inquiry than having a final project. For instance, I have always wanted to know more about sushi. So I plan on inquiring into this topic from many different perspectives (e.g., history of sushi, different types, how to eat, how to make, sushi etiquette, culture). At the same time, I need to be open to possible directions my inquiry may take me (e.g., mathematics of sushi, science of sushi?). At the conclusion of this project, I need to be able to teach my students wh

Students wanted to share this video / rap. Mrs. Liz introduced us to this rap today as another way of helping us remember prefixes, root words, and suffixes. Enjoy!

This is a brief video of our class working with our reading buddies. I have never witnessed two groups who work so well together. Those kindergarten buddies truly look up to these 5th graders. Very powerful!

I have included a few pictures from our day at the zoo. I had more pictures but I had a new camera which was temperamental at times. We all had a great time exploring the zoo, eating lunch, then off to a class taught by the zoo. Justin and his Kindergarten Buddy Shubhanjali and her Kindergarten Buddy Zoo Class Petting the hedgehog Hedgehog looking for food Everyone looking good!

This is the link so you can take your Reconstruction Quiz. Please click HERE . The link has now been removed.

Richland Two Teachers in Oregon Here is a post to the WLTX news report about our (Mr. O'Keefe, Ms. Breland, Mrs. Vice, and Mr. Johnson) trip to Oregon and the things we learned from our trip. Enjoy

This past week we have started our study into Reconstruction. I will be the first to admit my knowledge of this time is limited but what I have learned so far has been fascinating and troubling at the same time. Students have also been fascinated with this time period because they are already making cause and effect type connections between Reconstruction, Civil Rights, and current news they here on TV. This is one of the directions I hope to move towards as we continue studying US History from Reconstruction to current times - helping students make connections between the past and current history. For instance, we just read an article about Cherokees who once owned slaves during the Civil War, sided with the Confederates, and are now denying the descendents of those slaves the right to vote in Cherokee elections (read article here ). We are also continuing to look at probability and dice. We should be winding down by the end of the week. Today we watched a video from Jim Gandy on WL

Just in case anyone is having difficulties with viewing the blog calendar, I have made a few discoveries. Viewing the calendar under Internet Explorer never seems to work for me so I'm assuming IE does not display the calendar correctly. I have had success using Safari , Firefox , and Google Chrome . If you are having difficulty viewing the calendar, try using on of those internet browsers.

You may be asking why this video is posted on our blog. Mrs. Edwards showed this video in class and everyone in class wanted to see this video again . . . so I'm posting it here so they can access it. I'll admit, the video is quite cute. Enjoy!

Safety Patrol : Your child should have brought home a schedule for safety patrol. But in case you did not receive one or need another copy, here is a link  to download a copy for yourself. School Planner / Calendar: Today, your child received a planner / calendar. The planner should remain in your child's backpack so they can bring it back and forth from school. Each week we will add important dates including the due dates for various assignments. These same dates will be included in the calendar posted on our blog. Scholastic Book Order: Online Ordering Information Due Date: 9/16/11 Web address: scholastic.com/bookclubs Class Activation Code: GPY4P I am sending out Scholastic Book orders. You will be able to order books online using the web address and class activation code OR you can return the book order slips Remember, any book orders you make online we earn a coupon for a free book. Thanks! Inquiry into Dice: It has been a busy and intense couple of weeks. As you

Johnson Class Publishing I wanted to remind students of how to publish their writing to the class writing blog. The link for the site is to the right. When you go to the blog site, enter CFIJohnson301@richland2.org into the username of email. The password is letsinquire. Once you get into the website, click on New Post and you are all set.

Welcome back to a new school year. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get a first message posted but I had to transfer our old blog over to the new district Google email. Let me start off by saying the new school year has started off great. We have two new students and a new MAT (I'll let her introduce herself at another time). Our schedule is as followed: 8:00 – 8:40                Explorations 8:40 – 9:05                Sharing 9:05 – 10:05              Math 10:05  - 11:15            Reading Workshop / Writing Workshop 11:20 – 12:00            Lunch 12:00 – 12:25            Read aloud 12:30 – 1:00              Recess 1:00 – 1:40                Social Studies / Science 1:40 – 2:30                Special Areas 2:30 – 2:50                Reflection You may want to visit the blog on occasion. I'm trying to use the blog as a resource for student work and your own information. I have included Google Calendar and I keep the calendar up