Friday, January 27, 2012

Government in Action

We have been studying local government in Research. To put our government knowledge to the test we decided to have our own class government. After students learned about the 3 important parts of local government (Mayor, Council and Judges) and talked about character traits for the people in these different parts they chose what group they thought they would do well in.

Here is our Government chart. It explains the responsibilites of each group and their assignment.


We spent some time working on how to work in a group and use our Habit of the Mind "Thinking Interdependently".

The Mayor group, the Council group and the Judges group met together to work on their assignments. The mayors had to decide on a class name, the council had to decide on a class law and the judges had to decide on a few reasonable consequences for breaking the class law.


Coucil group working on a class law


Mayor group deciding a class name



Judges deciding on a few reasonable consequences


The decisions of our Class Government
We had a Court Day where the students that did not follow the Class Law were seen by the judges and given a consquence. The judges were very fair and reasonable in their rulings!

Judges deliberating

We had a great time trying out our own class government and plan to have meetings a few more time this year to make decisions together for our class community!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Polar Express Day

On the last day before Winter Break the class had Polar Express Day. In the moring we read the wonderful book by Chris Van Alsburg.


After reading the book we worked on our Polar Express activity packet. This packet challenged us to think more deeply about the book, make connections and reflect on the lessons we learned. And we also had some fun completing the word search and maze!



In the afternoon as we were all snuggly in our PJs, we watched The Polar Express movie. During the movie we drank delicious hot chocolate with lots of yummy marshmallows.




It certainly was a great way to spend the day together!

December Manatee Award Winners

Congratulations to our December Manatee Award Winners! Jennifer recieved an award for using Manatee Manners, Juan for his hard work in Math, Jamileth for her hard work in Literacy, Tayshawn for his hard work in the Media Center, and Quinn for his hard work in Art . Great job!