Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Multi-meaning words

One of the things we have been learning about recently are multiple meaning words.

What is a multiple meaning word? It is a word with more than one definition.

For example, the word draft has more than one meaning.

Jaelyn finished the rough draft of her story.

The barn is chilly because there is a draft coming through a hole in the wall.

We had a great time brainstorming lots of multiple meaning words. We put them on a Padlet and used Twitter to invite others to add to it. We got a lot of responses! Here is our Padlet with lots of multiple meaning words.

Look at all the great ideas from students in our class and other classes. Teachers too!


One of the reading groups worked to create some presentations about multiple meaning words on the iPads. They were able to choose any app that we have used so far this year. Here is what they made:

Tessa used Haiku Deck to make a slide show about the multiple meaning word orange.


Multi-Meaning Words - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Sara Jean used ChatterPix to make a video about the multiple meaning word bark.


IMG_0251 from Jane E Essenburg on Vimeo.

Claire made a Pic Collage about the word train:


Kaiya chose to make a Haiku Deck about the word bark:


Multi-Meaning Words - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Kaydance made a Pic Collage about the word play:


Kiersten made a Haiku Deck about three multiple meaning words, orange, spell, and bat.


Multi Meaning Words - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Deven made a ChatterPix about the multiple meaning word rose.





The English language is amazing! We had a lot of fun thinking of how one word can have more than one meaning. There are hundreds of multiple meaning words. Can you share an example of one below and show the different meanings with two sentences?

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Everyone Matters

It is great to be back at school after Spring Break. The warmer weather feels wonderful. Everyone came back refreshed and ready to get back at it!

We had a great start this week. One of the things we did the first day back was talk about our goals for the rest of the school year. We have less than eight weeks until we are fourth graders! There's a lot to accomplish between now and then.

We will be talking more about goals in the weeks ahead.

To get us started on our last eight weeks we took a moment to think about how Everyone Matters. This great idea is from Miss Bosch, our school Social Worker. Mrs. Bosch and some Pinewood students made a great video to explain what Everyone Matters is all about. Check it out below!



The first day back after Spring Break as we look ahead to a busy eight weeks is a perfect time to stop and think about what makes each of special. We brainstormed some ideas about what is unique about each of us. Then we traced our hand and cut them out.

We had a chance to share about what words we chose and why we chose them. Here are a few examples of what we think about ourselves.


Check out the video below for some more examples. And be sure to check out our school tree full of these great "I Am" statements the next time you stop by!



We all have things that we do well or that are special about us. We'd love to hear what is special about all who visit here. Please let us know what is unique about you in the comment section below.



Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Learning about Cause and Effect

For our last post before Spring Break I wanted to share with you something fun we have been doing with reading.

In Mrs. Essenburg's classroom we have been learning about cause and effect. Finding cause and effect relationships when we read is an important comprehension skill. We have been practicing this skill in a variety of ways.

One thing we did was make a paper slide video about Cause and Effect to get us started thinking about how Cause and Effect works. Take a look at it below.



We read a lot of stories, both fiction and nonfiction, and looked for cause and effect relationships. After reading a lot of examples, we tried our hand at writing some cause and effect stories. We put them on Book Creator.

Take a look at our Cause and Effect stories!

Here is Tessa's Cause and Effect story.



Here is Jaelyn's Cause and Effect story.



Here is Claire's Cause and Effect story.



Conner and Sara Jean recorded their Cause and Effect story. Listen to it below.



Here is Kiersten's Cause and Effect story.



Gavin and Andrew also decided to record their Pokemon Cause and Effect story.



Here is Ruby and Jocelyn's Cause and Effect story.



Here is Deven and Kaydance's Cause and Effect story.



Here is Kaiya's Cause and Effect story.



It is a lot of fun to think of cause and effect relationships and stories. Can you think of one and share it with us in the comment section below? We could start a great story!