This is How We OAA

Third grade students at Horizon Science Acadamy-Dayton Elementary took the Ohio Achievement Assessment--Reading today, April 29, 2015.  Students arrived today greeted by Ms. Amstutz who had written an important message on the board for her students.  The message read:

I Believe in YOU!

Students were treated to a hot breakfast prepared by Ms. Amstutz and cooked at school.  The breakfast consisted of a turkey-sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast casserole and milk.   Many students loved it so much they asked for the recipe.  If you would like to make it at home, it is easy to make.  You can find the recipe here.

Showing support for our Third Graders, Ms. Lierly, our school principal and Ms. Billingsley, our school dean helped to serve breakfast to the students.

Marion is ready to eat breakfast!

Ms. Lierly serves up a special breakfast to TaMya and Alivia.

Once they were served, students had some time to eat and enjoy each other's company in the classroom.  They had time to calm their nerves and start their day off in a positive way.

So, Why the Special Breakfast?  

Did you know breakfast improves academic performance and diet?

Breakfast helps improve mental performance and concentration during morning activities. Children who skip breakfast will be more sluggish, less attentive, and have less energy to carry out their morning tasks. Teachers observe that children who come to school hungry experience more learning difficulties compared to well-nourished children. Studies show that breakfast eaters perform much better in their school work and show extra energy in sports and other physical activities. Besides assuring optimal development and growth, positive effects on alertness, attention, performance on standardized achievement tests, and other skills important for academic success are enhanced for those who eat breakfast on a daily basis.

Marcus enjoys his healthy breakfast.

Students who eat a low-glycemic (low sugar), balanced breakfast may have better concentration and more positive reactions to difficult tasks than students who eat a carbohydrate-laden breakfast. According to research published in “Physiology and Behavior," students given a low-glycemic breakfast were able to sustain attention longer than children given a high-glycemic breakfast. Children following the low-glycemic breakfast plan also had improved memory and fewer signs of frustration when working on school tasks.

Diamond and Marion spending time together before the OAA.

Testing...it is not our favorite thing...but...

Let's face it, our kiddos are over-tested.  Right now, it is the "sign of our times".  We do what we have to do because we "have to".  Ms. Amstutz does her best to not make it any worse.  In order to help the students be "test-ready" what does she do?  She keeps things normal.  Ms. Amstutz does not spend much time at all doing "test-prep".  She believes that good teaching will lead to good results.  Ms Amstutz does not believe that she is teaching for the purpose of getting students to pass a test.  She believes that she is teaching students to become readers who find meaning and purpose in what they read.  She believes that when reading becomes easier for her students, they will like to read.

Throughout the year, there are MANY things we have done to work on our reading skills and strategies.  As the OAA was approaching, in order to review some of what we had learned, Ms. Amstutz did an author study with her class as part as the Right to Read Month (in March).  Students were read Alexander and the Terrible Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst.  Students practices reading skills and grammar concepts with that book.

One skill practiced was Cause and Effect.  Students worked in P.R.I.D.E. groups  (to learn more about P.R.I.D.E. groups, click the hyperlink here) to sort a group of events that occurred in the story.  They had to organize them into two colums:  Cause (why something happens) and Effect (what happens).

Shy'Diamond, Sharnetta, Karissa, and Dymond work on their sort.

Darren, Angel, James, Cayla, and Abubakr with their completed sort.

Karissa's individual Cause/Effect organizer.

Students also worked on story sequencing.  This involved putting a series of events in the order in which they occurred.  This helps students work on retelling a story by its important events.

The ability to sequence events in a text is a key comprehension strategy, especially for narrative texts. Finding meaning in a text depends on the ability to understand and place the details, the sequence of events, within some larger context—the beginning, middle, and end of a story.  

As part of this author study, students also worked on practicing identification of root and base words, prefixes and suffixes using words that were found in the story.  Finally, the culminating project was for students to write their own narrative about a day in their life.  However, instead of writing about a bad day, students wrote stories about their "....Wonderful, Awesome, So Good, Best Day Ever!"

Alexander Lapbook, finished product, inside.

Once all of the components were completed, students assembled the parts into a special Alexander lapbook to display.

Alexander Lapbook...finished product, outside cover.

So, as you can see, we have kept busy with normal instruction as much as possible.  All year, students were given reading comprehension passages (close reads) that had multiple choice and extended response questions.  These passages always pertained to whatever we were currently learning in class at that time.  Only for a few days right before the OAA in the Fall and the OAA in the Spring were students given "practice tests" and no more than one hour a day was spent off our usual instruction.

Ms. Amstutz believes in educating her students in the same way she would want her own children educated.  She would like her students to go to school to be enriched and educated to be successful in life, not taught how to take a test.

Ms. Amstutz DOES Believe...

Just as Ms. Amstutz wrote on the board for her students, she REALLY DOES believe in her students.  I do believe in their growth and achievement this year.  Regardless of how the test results turn out, the students have ACHIEVED.  Ms. Amstutz does believe, however, that the students did well.  Many students have had to overcome and struggle through academic obstacles this year.  Others have had to overcome and struggles through personal obstacles this year. Ms. Amstutz DOES believe, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that no matter what, each and every one of her students has achieved great things this year.  And, Ms. Amstutz DOES believe that her students are MUCH MORE THAN A TEST.

A letter shared on Facebook by a fellow teacher about her
views on student testing.

Exploring Forms of Energy: Heat and Sound

As part of our "Dynamics" Interdisciplinary Unit, Third Graders explored forms of energy.  We began by observing the painting New York Movie by Edward Hopper.

Students were asked the question "What are the dynamics (the forces or properties that stimulate growth, development, or change within a system or process) present in this painting?"  As we discussed the painting students generated a list of ideas or dynamics including:

• Lights in the theater
•  story in the movie
• feeling of the usher (character),
• Economics- people paying for the movie and she works for the movie theater

As we explored forms of energy, we attempted to answer the following essential questions:

1. How does applying energy transform an object?
2. How can we see that energy transfers from one thing to another?

We began our exploration by discussing heat.  We learned what heat is and that it is a source of energy.  We then explored how heat effects matter.  To do this we conducted an experiment called Can Crush Saga.

Can Crush Saga

During our Can Crush Saga Experiment we aimed to prove that hot matter expands and when that matter cools, it contracts. This is a problem in nature that experts like engineers, have to control.  To solve this problem, engineers will add Thermal Expansion Joints to the bridge.

Thermal Expansion Joints on a bridge/roadway.

To test this, we first filled an emptied soda can ¼ full with water .  Then we put can with water on a pan on the hot plate until water boils (less than 5 minutes).

Next, we filled a bowl with ice water. 

We waited for the water to boil.

After water boils, we used tongs to flip the can over into the ice water.

After a few minutes we observed areas in the can where the can had crushed in on itself.

Spoon Wars

After proving that hot matter expands and when that matter cools, it contracts, third graders went on to explore how heat moves.  We discussed how some materials act as insulators and hold heat in place and other materials act as conductors and allow heat to move.  To investigate this concept, we conducted an experiment called Spoon Wars.

For this experiment, we used bowls, spoons, water and butter.  We placed two bowls in the middle of a table as the students gathered around in a group.  In one bowl, a metal spoon was placed and in the other a plastic spoon was placed with the handles facing downwards and he circle part should be sticking up out of the bowl.   Each spoon had a small square of butter in each spoon. Hot water was poured into the bowl so that only the handles should got wet. Students watched to see what happened...on which spoon did the butter melt first/most?  Which spoon is a conductor?  Which spoon is an insulator?

A plastic spoon and a metal spoon with butter on them.
On which spoon will the butter melt first when hot
water is poured in the bowl?  Which spoon is a
conductor and which spoon is an insulator?

After a few minutes, the butter on the plastic
spoon was melting where the spoon hovered
over the water.

After a few minutes, the butter on the metal
spoon seemed to be melting farther up on the spoon.
Some drops of butter melted into the bowl.

After thirty minutes, the butter on the plastic spoon had cooled.
A little bit of butter had dripped into the bowl.

After thirty minutes, the butter on the metal spoon had started
to slide down the spoon.  There were many drops of butter in the
bowl.  The butter on the spoon was still melted.

Students determined that metal was a better conductor of heat than plastic.  We discussed how certain things in our homes are coated in plastic to protect us from heat...electrical cords, for example.

Keeping Chilly Warm

As a performance assessment for our study of heat energy, students were given the task of designing a setting for a penguin named Chilly. They were asked to keep Chilly the Penguin warm by including in his setting sources of heat and insulators.. After designing his setting, students must write about the insulators and sources of heat they used. Here are several student examples.

Cayla's Chilly setting.

Cayla's explanation of how she
kept Chilly warm.

Ray'von's Chilly setting

Ray'von's explanation.

Abubakr's Chilly setting.

Abubakr's explanation.

Sound Art

After concluding our study of heat energy, students also explored light and sound energy.  In order to help student understand the concepts of pitch and volume,  a technology lesson was conducted so that students could understand the difference between the two concepts.

First, students listened to YouTube videos of low pitch and high pitch sounds.

HIGH PITCH:

LOW PITCH:

While these video clips played, Ms. Amstutz adjusted the volume dial on the speaker.  Students were then able to understand the difference between a low pitch at a high volume and a low pitch at a low volume.  They also hear a high pitch at a high volume and a high pitch at a high volume.

Students then completed an interactive notebook entry for what the visual appearance of high and low pitch sound energy waves and high and low volume sound energy waves looked like.

Afterwards, students had a turn at seeing what the sound wave for their own voice looked like.  Using a voice memo App on an iPhone, a recording of each student saying their name was taken.  Then, the whole class participated in an experiment.  We recorded ourselves saying "Third Grade" three different ways:  1) whispering, 2) speaking at a normal volume, and 3) shouting.  As the voice memo App recorded our voices, we were able to see a visual display our our sound wave.  Students were able to see that when they spoke loudly, the amplitude of the wave increased.

Here are two examples of the original recordings.  Can you guess which student spoke with a louder volume?

After this, Ms. Amstutz, worked behind the scenes taking a screen shot of each sound energy wave. Each image then had the colors inverted so that what was black was now white and what was once white was now black. The new images looked like this:

Aaron's inverted sound energy image.

Cayla's inverted sound energy image.

Following this, each student's inverted image was placed in a PowerPoint slide where it was replicated a total of four times each to create a piece of "pop art".  Each voice clip pop art  had the student's name placed it using word art. Students then used their choice of media to add color to their pop art.  This was a perfect way of integrating the science of SOUND, visual arts, and technology!  Here are some of our finished pieces:

"Third Grade" in a whisper, a spoken voice, and a shout.  Notice the increase
in wave amplitude as our volume increases.

Third Graders Unite Against Bullying

During the last week of March and the first few days of April, third graders joined together to take a stand against bullying.  To do this, we decided to participate in the Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias J. Heck's Violence Prevention Poster Contest.  Through this contest, art is used to convey a message about the dangers associated with the topic you selected from the list provided.  All third graders created their poster on the topic of bullying.

Cayla, Ray'Von, Da'Marieon, and Darren show off their posters.

In order to gain some inspiration, third graders watched the following video prior to drafting their posters:

The Violence Prevention Project began in 1990 to offer information about alternatives to violence as a means to solving problems. The close connection between violence and the use of illegal drugs soon lead to a discussion about alternatives to drugs as well as violent behavior. And, with the increased access to electronic technology it was necessary to include the subject of internet safety. The education programs and this contest have been used to encourage members of our community, particularly our youth, to promote positive behavior.

Posters were submitted.  All entrants receive a prize but special prizes and awards are presented to those judged to have exceptional content, message, and creativity.  An award ceremony will be held in May.

HORIZON SCIENCE ACADEMY DAYTON ELEMENTARY-- RIGHT TO READ MONTH

Throughout March, students at Horizon Science Academy- Dayton Elementary will be enjoying special guest readers as part of a month-long reading extravaganza in honor of National Right to Read.

Guest readers planned included members of the Dayton Demonz Hockey team, Jim Bucher- TV Guy, Buckeyeman and Jim Tressel Look-alike, members of the Dayton Sharks Indoor Football team, and members of the Victoria Theater. The month-long event was designed to highlight the importance of teaching strong reading skills and the value of reading to children. Students spent the month reading a variety of books that touch upon different aspects of their curriculum with a special focus on author studies. The month will culminate in a special Dr. Seuss event to celebrate the birthday of one of the most loved authors of children’s books.

On Tuesday, March 10th several readers came from Wright Patterson Air Force Base. They read to several of the classrooms with the elementary school, grades kindergarten through fifth. The students were so excited to see the soldiers from the Air Force come in uniform and read their favorite books! The students got a chance to see that reading is important to so many people, but especially soldiers. This is a profession that many of HSA Dayton Elementary students say they want to you be when they grow up.

2nd Lt. Fairchild visited third graders.  After reading to them, the students had an opportunity to ask him questions about his particular role in the military.  2nd Lt. Fairchild explained that he is an electrical engineer and that to do his job it is very important to study mathematics and science topics.  He said that being a good reader is important in both of those areas.  Students talked to him about the kinds of careers they were thinking about when they grow up.  He told them that many of those careers were things that they could do in the military and that the military could help them go to school to become those things but that they had to study hard now so that they could do those things later.

2nd Lt. Fairchild  reads to third graders.

2nd Lt. Fairchild celebrated Right to Read with Third Grade at HSA-DE.

On March 17, we were visited by Buckeyman and a Jim Tressel Look-alike (written about in a previous blog post).  Third graders enjoyed listening to an ABC book about the OSU Buckeyes read by both of these gentlemen.  Afterwards, they questioned them about what it takes to get into a great college like The Ohio State University.  Buckeyman, who sits on the scholarship board for OSU, indicated that students would need to have good study habits, good grades, and a willingness to work hard and struggle.

Jim Tressel Look-alike and Buckeyman

On April 24, Third graders were visited by Jeff Booth, Chief Meteorologist for ABC 22 and FOX 45.  Mr. Booth read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to students and then fielded some of their questions about what it takes to be a meteorologist.

Jeff Booth reading Cloudy with  Chance of Meatballs

Thank you Mr. Booth for supporting our Right to Read!

Throughout the month, several other guest readers visited HSA-DE.  We ended the month with a special Career Day event where students were permitted to dress up like the career they would like to be when they grow up as successful readers.  In third grade, Shy'Diamond dressed up as an art teacher, Diamond dressed up as an elementary teacher, Darren dressed up as a boxer, Khadijah dressed up as a doctor, and Da'Marieon dressed up as a businessman.  Students are already starting to see that they can be anything they set their minds on if they make a plan and work towards it.

Cause and Effect: Force, Energy, and Simple Machines

Third Graders at HSA-DE continued their fourth Interdisciplinary Unit of Study during the third quarter with an exploration of physical science.  This Interdisciplinary Unit, titled "Cause and Effect" focused on physical science topics of Forces, Energy, and Simple Machines.  As previously written about here at Down the Hall in Room 177, in Social Studies, we focused on Citizenship and Government (Cause and Effect Social Studies).

To kick on the physical science aspect of our Cause and Effect Unit, we began by examining the front cover of the book How do You Lift a Lion? by Robert Wells.

Students were posed the question and were asked to come up with possible solutions to this dilemma. Each student was given a post-it note on which to write three ideas for how to lift the lion.  Next,  They worked in their P.R.I.D.E. groups to compare their ideas and generate a group lists of ideas for how they might lift a lion.  Finally, a whole class discussion was held and ideas were shared.

Some ideas for how to life a lion included:

1. Have a whole bunch of people lift different parts of the lion up all at once.
2. Use a helicopter and straps to lift it up.
3. Use a rope and pull it up.
4. Put it on a swing.
5. Push it up on a truck.
6. Use a tow truck to pull it up.

Following this, we began experimenting with force and motion.  Students learned that a force is something that changes the motion of an object.  We learned that there are many things that are forces.  For example, pushes and pulls are forces.

Students were shown a picture of Dr. Doolittle's famous creature the Pushmi-Pullyu.

They were asked how they thought this creature might move.  Students discussed this question with their table partner and eventually the class decided that while one half of the creature pulled, the other half pushed.  When asked what would happen if both halves of the creature tried to walk forward (away from each other) students realized that the Pushmi-Pullyu probably would not move much.

Following this discussion, students participated in a motion lab.  Students worked in P.R.I.D.E. groups as they moved through five centers.  At each center students were presented with a task where they would put small objects in motion.  They were to answer questions such as, "What was the force?" and "What made the object stop moving?"

Khadijah, Da'Marieon, Lavon, and Jayda PUSH a car across
the carpet to put it in MOTION.  Many things can cause the car
to stop moving or slow down.  One thing is if it CHANGES DIRECTION.
Another is the FRICTION of the tires against the carpet.

Dymond, Karissa, Shy'Diamond, and Marcus experiment with what happens
when two marbles are PUSHED towards each other.  They CHANGE
DIRECTION when they hit each other and eventually stop moving.

Darren, James, and Cayla observe difference between when a
bouncy ball is dropped from two different distances:  lower to the
ground and higher from the ground.  When the ball is dropped from higher
up, it bounces back higher.  GRAVITY is the PULL that makes the ball
MOVE to the ground.  The ground is the PUSH that makes the ball
bounce back up.  When there is more FORCE (dropping the ball from
higher up) there is faster MOTION.

Adriana works at one center where the students were to spin a top.  The FRICTION

created by the top rubbing against the surface of the desk stopped the top from moving

Mairon, Kaylin, and TaMya experiment with the force of wind
on a pinwheel.  

Ra'Jhay, Ray'Von, Adriana, and Aaron experiment with the force of wind on a liquid.

Next, students observed and experimented with friction and how the surface and object is being moved across effects the amount of work necessary to complete a task.  To demonstrate this, we used a spring scale.  A spring scare measures force needed to move an object in Newtons.  A stack of text books was bound together and pulled across a table, which is a smooth surface,  using the spring scale.  Measurements were taken and data was recorded.

Students record data after a stack of books was pulled across the table using a
spring scale.

Next, we repeated the test the same with with a rough surface.  Several bumpy ceramic tiles were places on top of the table and held in place by the students.  The stack of books was pulled across the tiles and the force needed to move the books was recorded.

Students working together to move a stack of books across a rough surface.

Finally, students experienced what happens when a lubricant is added to a surface.  LUBRICANTS are substances that can make work easier.  For our experiment, we used dish detergent on our table.  We pulled the stack of books across the table.  The books slid very easily across the table.

The students conclusion was that it took the least force and was easiest to move objects over a surface with a lubricant.  Next easiest was a smooth surface.  Finally, it took the most force, and was most difficult to move objects over a surface with a rough surface.

Students began to understand the key vocabulary involving force and motion:

ENERGY:  the ability to cause movement or change

FRICTION:  a force caused by objects rubbing together that makes them slow down or stop

FORCE:  a push or a pull

MOTION:  movement of something from one place to another

PUSH: a force that moves an object away from another object

PULL:  a force that moves an object towards another object

GRAVITY:  a force that pulls objects towards each other
POSITION:  where an object is located

So, next we discussed things that help us do WORK.  WORK is what is done when something is done to move an object over a distance.  We revisited How do You Lift a Lion? by Robert Wells.  By reading this book, students were exposed to their first discovery of simple machines.  In the book various animals were moved by using levers, pulleys, inclined planes, screws, wheels & axles, and wedges.  Each day, for a week, students learned about one simple machine.

Da'Marieon and Khadijah experiment with load, fulcrum and lever.

On the last day of this unit, students looked through advertisements from Lowes and Menards to find simple machines.  They made collages of items found in these ads that were examples of simple machines.