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Thursday, April 30, 2015

It's a TCAP Wrap!

We have finished our week of TCAP testing and I am so very proud of our GES students. They gave it their very best and persevered through the challenges to show their smarts!!! Here are a few snapshots of our TCAP Instacram sessions from the previous week! Way to go, GES Gators!

 Fact and Opinion
It is a FACT that we have practiced and studied lots of facts this year in REACH!
It was everyone's opinion that it was fun to "stick-out" some tongue fun!




GES Students get some personalized support and encouragement as they enter class each day!





The students received some fun treats to celebrate their TCAP success! After all, they acted like Pop Stars as they ROCKED THE TEST!


Thursday, April 16, 2015

Seashell Schema


What better way to return from Spring Break than to bring a bit of Spring Break back to the REACH learners! After returning from a trip to the beach, I wanted to share the experience with my students. Many of them have little to no Schema on shells or the ocean. What a perfect opportunity to build their Seashell Schema!


We began by finding our brain's "Schema File" on Seashells and sharing all we know about shells....

Each student had a different color marker. This way we could tell our Schema apart, as well as, see all the new Schema we were gaining.


Next, it was time to get a bit more hands on! The students worked together to sort the shells based on their properties. The groups used respectful ways of communicating and working together. I was so impressed by their kindness and true teamwork.






The students recorded their sorting strategy and then sorted them in a different way.





At the conclusion, they added their new seashell Schema to their Schema file. This exploration only caused them to ask more questions and truly WONDER about shells. The next day was spent being close observers and looking closely at the details of the shells.






The students used mico-microscopes to examine the shell's characteristics a bit more closely. It was facinating to get an up close look at these amazing shells!





To help answer some of their shell questions and curiosities, the students explored shells further through non-fiction texts.

To celebrate all their learning, they each took home a shell and dolphin souvenir from their seashell experience.