Cool and gusty weather brought in the new week, with an extended power outage to boot. Cerrito students are working on finishing Chasing Secrets–many have read it, and the last few are trying to procure copies and read it quickly–so we can write the script for the play we’ll be putting on for you on 5/24. We have the play mapped out into ten or eleven scenes, and a pair of students is collaborating to write each scene. We are composing music and writing song lyrics–two down, two or three to go. The week after next I’ll begin inviting some of the volunteers in to choreograph and coach actors, or help design and create scenery and props.

The students’ fiction and storytelling project is also well underway, with drafts and revisions wrapping up this week so they can start creating eBooks on iPads early next week. Before long, I’ll even be introducing a research project. Busy, busy, busy! And Friday we’ll do the bike trip. I’ll send a more detailed itinerary later this week, and until then I’ll teaching students about bike safety, history along the trail, etc. Please let me know if you’d still like to join, though we already have a nice list of volunteers.

Buddy time on Monday
Fifth graders are hard at work on the stock market project. Yesterday featured a calculator lesson. Calculators are practical tools with many functions that few of us know how to use. Students learned to create fractions, exponents, and solving complex equations.
Not everyone likes having their photo taken!
These two are collaborating nicely as an investment team.
An investment summary sheet.
A mini-lesson on the anatomy of the bicycle. Students will be prepared for their adventure on Friday. Send those bikes in for a tune-up tomorrow, and we can keep them at school until Friday.
Cerrito bike mechanics fixed up 15 bikes this afternoon.
Cerrito Bike Shop
Jay Golden, a local storyteller and business coach, came and talked to us today about our storytelling efforts. He breaks stories down into once upon a time, and then one day, because of that, because of that, and then finally, and ever since then to scaffold stories. Of course, we don’t use those phrases at this level, but it’s a nice way to think about structure and organization.

Homework

Monday

Math:

  • 4th grade: liquid measurement worksheet
  • 5th graders: calculate decimals and percentages of our dice data from this morning. Write one paragraph describing what was surprising about our experimental probabilities and what was not so surprising.

Writing:either work on Worldy Wise or your storytelling project for approximately 20 minutes

Reading: as always

Tuesday

Math: 4th graders have division homework, 5th graders are off the hook

Language Choice: Wordly Wise, script writing, or story writing

Read: as always

Wednesday

Math: 4th grade is to finish up what they started earlier this week, 5th grade has a two-sided probability worksheet on the multiplication counting principle

Read!

Bring in your bike for a tune-up tomorrow!

Thursday

Pack a lunch, snack, and water into a backpack that’s comfortable for biking. Make sure to wear warm, breathable clothing layers for wind and sun. Make sure you have a helmet! It’s going to be an awesome day on the Bay!!!