Bee Doh Alerts - Oct. 24

I learned how to tell time to the minute on a clock. ~Isaiah
I learned that summaries have a beginning, middle, and end. ~Dominic
In writing, I learned how to edit and revise by adding and crossing things out.  This helps me get better at writing and might make me want to be an author or illustrator. ~Macy
In math, I learned about rounding like 25 = 30 and 52 = 50. ~Asher
I learned you can add and subtract time. ~Aadi
Today I learned that you can even make friends with a bully. ~Leila
I learned that subtracting time is different than subtracting with normal numbers. ~Kristos
Today I learned some fun facts about Vincent Van Gogh. ~John Luke
In writing, I learned what you should edit in your story like punctuation, spelling, and it should make sense. ~Riley Carroll
In math, I learned to round and subtract numbers.  For example, round 421 to 420 and 313 to 310. Then subtract to get 110. ~Kaia
Today I learned in social studies about how communities develop which means how it evolves. ~Malavika
I learned that adding punctuation is important because it sounds weird when there is no punctuation. ~Adelina
Today in reading, I learned about expository text. ~Meredith
I learned how different communities look. ~Riley Cook
I learned to add numbers that equal 100. ~Xavier
Today in math, I learned that adding numbers to 50 is harder than adding to 100. ~Laken
I learned our new central idea is Human and geographic factors shape communities.  The theme is Sharing the Planet. ~Joseph

Batter batter batter, swing!

Bee Doh Alerts - Oct. 17

Today I learned how to estimate. ~John Luke
I learned that the heart of the story means it is the most important part of the story. ~Xavier
Today in math, I learned how to estimate with addition by rounding first and then adding. ~Malavika
I learned that Tengo hambre means I am hungry in Spanish. ~Laken
We learned to estimate numbers by seeing what number they're closer to on a number line. ~Joseph
I chose Abraham Lincoln as my hero because he helped free the slaves. ~Jon
Today I learned that my hero matches my values: courage, bravery, and hard work. ~Aadi
I learned to round to the tens place. ~Travis
Today I learned about Clara Barton.  I chose her as my hero because she helped people who were hurt and made the Red Cross. ~Meredith
In reading, I learned that making a summary helps me understand the story and helps me remember what happened in the story or the chapter. ~Adelina
I learned in math that if the digit is higher than 5, you round the number up to the next number.  But if it is smaller, it stays the same.  For example: 27 rounds up to 30 and 23 rounds down to 20. ~Kristos
Today in reading, I learned how to write a summary by writing the name of the character, what they wanted, what got in the way, and what they did about it. ~Macy
I learned to round with tens because it's easier to add. ~Riley Cook
I learned that Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs.  I wish I could do that.  I also learned that everyone has different values. ~Isaiah
Today I learned how to work the computers by going to PebbleGo and looking up my hero. ~Leila

Bee Doh Alerts - Oct. 10

I learned that a role model is someone who helps people and other people look up to them. ~Asher
I can make an inference by using my background knowledge and text evidence. ~Xavier
I learned about revising my story which means fixing the big stuff to make the story better. ~Malavika
I learned to check your thinking in math by going back and relooking at your work. ~John Luke
In social studies, I learned how to take your values and find a hero that matches them. ~Riley Carroll
I learned how to explain how a character changed in a story by thinking about how they were at the beginning and at the end. ~Riley Cook
I learned that in some math problems, you have to do addition and subtraction. ~Dominic
Today I learned about qualities of a hero.  We read about Amanda who helped people who were sick and Michelle who planted trees to help with clean air. ~Meredith
In social studies, I learned that heroes are different from role models because heroes might save people but role models don't. ~Adelina
I learned that an ending to a story could be a wish or a hope. ~Laken
I learned how to do regrouping in subtraction problems. ~Jon
I learned to write an ending to the story that will make someone want to read more. ~Joseph
In reading, I learned how characters change. For example, a woman named Magda used to be unkind to humans but at the end she felt sad for a buy and was kind to him. ~Kaia

Students' Action

In our IB Unit, we've been learning about the characteristics of good citizens such as respect, equality, honesty, truthfulness, justice, responsibility in daily life (taking care of our community), and participation in government (learning about community issues, voting, holding government accountable for what they said they'd do).  Students brainstormed ideas for how they could be good citizens in our community.  Their ideas included writing letters to people in the government, fostering or adopting pets from a shelter, planting trees, having a contect for cleaning up litter, raising money for charities, mowing grass and cutting weeds in the neighborhood, and spraying for insects.  Then they selected cleaning up litter as their action item and created posters to hang around the school.  One student commented how we cannot expect others to do something that we don't do ourselves.  I was so excited to hear their critical thinking! I hope you're as proud as I am because these beliefs and values come from you!  We talked about how this thinking applies to other things as well such as being kind and respectful.  
The class then decided we should pick up litter around the school.  Yesterday we carried trash bags around the major areas of the school and the students picked up every last tiny piece of trash that they saw!  Here are some photos of your children's great work!

Look at all the trash we picked up around the school!

Bee Doh Alerts - Oct. 3

Today I learned that a lead is the beginning of a story.  At first it might sound boring, but using an exciting lead makes it better. ~Meredith
I learned in Spanish that De donde eres? means Where are you from? ~Josheph
I learned how to borrow with zeros in subtraction. ~Travis
I learned that one type of lead for a story is a flashback lead. ~Dominic
I learned that there are not just adjectives and synonyms but also homophones.  Homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled differently. ~Kristos
There are all kinds of leads for a story like action lead, snapshot, talking lead, question lead, flashback, and sound effect lead. A question lead means a lead that starts with a question. ~Isaiah
Today in math, I learned how to do partial sum.  You do it by adding the ones, then the tens, then the hundreds.  Then you add those totals together. ~Macy
I thought we could make posters and hang them up in the school about how we want to improve our community.  ~Laken
In social studies, I learned the qualities of a good citizen such as justice.  For example, justice is the quality of doing what is right or fair. ~Kaia
I learned in reading how to find character traits like being sad, mean or weird. ~Riley Cook
In social studies, I learned that justice means doing what is right or fair. ~Aadi
In math, I learned that using more than one strategy to solve a problem is important because you can check your answer. ~Adelina
I learned how to use different strategies like drawing an array to find 7 x 3. ~Asher
I learned that we can fix our story by using interesting words when we revise boring sentences. ~Jon
I learned that I can write better by practicing more in my journal. ~Leila
I learned in math that when borrowing for a 0, you go to the closest number that has a number. If it is also a 0, you go to the next number to borrow. ~Riley Carroll
In PE, I learned that you can hear a ball coming toward you. ~Xavier
In reading, I learned how to develop ideas about characters like if they are kind or mean based on what it says in the story. ~Malavika
I learned how to write different leads in the beginning of a story like saying "Woohoo!" or "We won!" ~John Luke