Landstown Mind Vine

     Just days ago, a curious letter arrived from Chuck Larsen, a park ranger at False Cape State Park in Virginia Beach.  The letter said that a litter of red wolf pups had been found in the park, but their parents were nowhere in site.  The ranger knew that third graders at LES were studying animal adaptations and environments and asked students in Ms. Cuthbertson’s class to work together to help the park come up with a solution to the challenge of what to do with the pups.

     These students have been working together to conduct research to answer questions they have generated that might help them solve the challenges they have identified: Wouldn’t it be nice if the park could create a safe habitat for the wolves? and How might the park safely return the wolves to the wild?

     We’ve also just learned that a wolf trunk will be delivered to the school on Friday afternoon.  The trunk, we are told by Ranger Larsen, contains clues and materials that may help the students better understand the wolves and the challenges they face.

     Watch for future posts on the progress of solving the red wolf challenge! 

     Did you ever notice when you watch a movie more than once that new details pop up and you gain a deeper understanding of the theme and characters?  Well, second graders in Ms. Haberdash’s class are transferring this experience to literature through a study of Junior Great Books.

     Through multiple readings of a story, higher level questioning, vocabulary study and creative writing, the students gain a deeper understanding of the literature than a single reading would provide. 

     As a culminating activity for each story, a shared inquiry discussion is conducted.  In this story the teacher-facilitator guides a small group of students through a discussion much like an adult book group might have.  The facilitator only asks questions to guide and focus the group and the students share their opinions and questions with one another. 

     If you hear your second grader saying things like, “I understand what your saying, but I disagree with you because…” or “I agree with you and I would like to add on…” then you know they are putting their new discussion skills into practice!

     Back in December, students in Ms. Sykes’ classes were forced to take sides during the turbulent days building up to the American Revolution.  They had to join the ranks of the patriots or the loyalists and write speeches to attempt to persuade their opposition to see their point of  view. 

     Students were first placed in groups for which they had to become experts on an aspect of the pre-revolution.  These groups used text and primary source documents to gather information.  They then informed experts from other groups about what they had learned as well as learned from others in their group–this process is called a jigsaw. 

     Next, students were assigned a famous person such as Crispus Attucks, Benjamin Franklin or Benedict Arnold to research.  In a culminating activity, students were asked to use everything they’d learned about the issues and events leading up to the Revolution to write and deliver a persuasive speech from the perspective of their famous person.

     The students did a remarkable job incorporating factual information, plausible arguments and famous quotes into their speeches.  Though the scene sometimes resembled a raucous session of the British Parliament with protests and challenges being called out from the crowd, the Loyalists and Patriots were generally respectful.  As persuasive as the speeches were, no one changed their mind and the war, we are told, soon erupted.  That’s history!

     On December 7, the students in Ms. Saunders’ classes received a memo from Mr. Anderson requesting their assistance with generating ideas for improving the recycling and energy conservation practices at LES.  The memo included some interesting data.  Did you know, for instance, that the school district spends $16.5 million on energy costs?  The memo also pointed out that most of the trash in the school is recyclable.

     Since Mr. Anderson’s memo arrived, the students have been hard at work identifying possible challenges and doing research to zero in on the areas of greatest need here at LES.  They have created online surveys, done experiments, conducted interviews and searched the internet for information and inspiration.  The students are now ready to analyze their data and move into the solution finding stage of the Creative Problem Solving process. 

     One student, Thomas, said, “I’m just so excited because I’ve been thinking about these things forever and now I’m really doing something about it!”  To sum it up, these students are engaged in authentic, rigorous problem solving!

     Watch for new posts about this project to learn about the students’ progress with identifiying workable solutions and implementing them around the school.

Ms. Miller explains how to use the bidding boxes

     How many high card points do you need to open the bidding?  What is a “no trump?”  How do you know who is the declarer and who is the silent partner? How many tricks do you have to take if you bid five spades?  What do you do if you can’t follow suite? 

     Not only do bridge players have to know the answers to all of these questions and more, they have to have good mental math and planning skills, they have to be able to work collaboratively and they have to have good memories.  Ms. Swager’s fifth grade students are learning and applying these skills every Thursday when life bridge master Ms. Miller comes in to give them a bridge lesson.

     As the local director of education for the American Contract Bridge League, Ms. Miller provides text books, t-shirts and bridge lessons to these students for free.  To top it all off, Landstown Elementary is the only school in the Virginia Beach school district who is participating in this bridge program.   

     Watch for future posts on the bridge program as students will soon be participating in an in-school bridge tournament.  Bridge trophies will be awarded to the top two players.