Creating Classroom Values

Using Student and Parent Voice to Develop Classroom Values

         On back to school night, parents wrote letters to their children sharing their hopes and dreams for their children this year. The students read these letters and used their inference skills to develop a list of values that our parents might want to include in our classroom community.  Annie read that her parents were gazing out the window at the trees outside and she inferred that her parents value the natural world.  Many students read that their parents hope that they enjoy their 5th-grade experience and have many moments of laughter. The students inferred that their parents valued joy and humor. 

A few parents wrote that they hope their child makes some new friends, so we added friendship to our growing list of values. When we had culled out all of the parent values, the students read through the list and thought about whether some important values that they hold were missing.  We added Safety, Learning from Mistakes, Wonder & Curiosity, etc... 

       When we felt our list was complete, partners were given 5 red dots to spend on the most important values to them. Each value that contained a dot was then included in our list of classroom values. 

     Below is our list of values! We created art to hang in the classroom to remind us of the values that we share. These values will then be the basis of our classroom constitution. 

What values stand out to you in this photo?

Traditions and New Beginnings

     There is something so exciting about beginnings. Fifth grade holds a sense of familiarity for our oldest students, but it also brings something new. Fifth graders are often reminded, you are the leaders of the Lower School. This leadership role kicks off so beautifully with the Bell Tower Ceremony. On Wednesday morning, the fifth graders were charged with ringing the bell 149 times for each year of OES, to mark the opening of the new school year. The excitement and pride the students felt buzzed in the room as we gathered together for the first time as a community. Here are a few photos of this momentous event. 

     We held onto the energy of the ceremony and went right to the forest to play games and laugh together. The goal was to start to learn who WE are as a community. When we returned to the classroom, we were ready to think about the Bell Tower Speeches and how they might inspire us throughout the year. 

     The excitement of that first day continued into the week as we learned more about the community we will co-habit. We spent time mapping the classroom and all of the tools available to students. 

    We also spent time co-creating our classroom procedures. We started to answer questions like, How will share the cozy spots on the rug and around the room? When can you get yourself a snack? What should happen if you consistently forget the uniform policy? 

   I am truly impressed with your amazing children and excited about the community I see forming! 

   Cheers to the start of a new year!

   Mary Duden

(P.S. Please feel free to peruse the blog, but know that many of the photos and links are from the class last year and may not hold a lot of meaning for you yet.)

Field Day Fun!

Last Field Day of Lower School

Silliness at Camp Orkila

Campfires at Camp Orkila

     There was plenty of laughing at Camp Orkila! The Campfires each night gave us an opportunity to just enjoy each others company. 

The Challenges

The Challenges

      The philosophy at Camp Orkila is that each person must choose their own personal challenge level. The counselors helped the students to understand what they might feel in their body that indicates that they had reached their threshold and pushed themselves to their ultimate challenge level. At the zip line, some students experienced suiting up and climbing to the top of the tower as their threshold, others found new ways to hold their body as they flew through the air. Challenges presented themselves outside of the designated challenge activities. Overcoming homesickness, connecting with friends, or managing fears of pond creatures. Orkila provided great opportunities for students to stare down their own individual challenges and work through them. 

Camp Orkila Learning in Nature

Camp Orkila: Learning in the Natural World

     My favorite part of Camp Orkila was the wonder that was brought about by being surrounded by nature. There were geckos, snakes, fish, crabs, tube worms, starfish,  plankton, jellyfish, goslings, etc...One group even found what they think may be a new species. 

       The students watched the creature suck in the insides of the green worm. Stay tuned for their own reflection of what happened. 

   Click here for a video of some of our students on an exploration of adaptations that allow tidal creatures to survive in their habitats.

Mt. Hood Climb Service Day

Mt. Hood Climb Service Day

     The work of Mt. Hood Climb service day started well before the day itself. The Dudicorns were responsible for informing the OES community about Project Second Wind, a food drive to benefit Neighborhood House. This year we had the kids nominate their peers to talk to particular age groups about our food drive. This involved speeches, an informational movie created in Technology, and posters to advertise and collect donations. 

     On the day of Mt. Hood Climb Service, the physical work began. Students spread out across the campus to collect the donations, then sorted the food into categories. Once the food was sorted, it was repacked into a waiting by our magical student packing ninjas. We then drove with the donations to the Food Pantry, delivered and sorted the food once again, onto the Food Pantry shelves.  After all of this work, we learned that we had collected 1, 895 lbs of food. It was a satisfying and exhausting day captured beautifully by Enzo Smith in his reflective poem.

Mt. Hood Climb Service Day

Enzo

We trudged around the school,

Met together,

We sorted food,

Expired,

Expired,

Perfect,

Boxes of beans,

Boxes of pasta,

Desserts, snacks, canned fruit,

Delicious things that I so want,

But that I can’t have.

Carried boxes as heavy as a pail of rocks,

The sound plays in my head a thousand times,

Clink, clink, clink,

Carried paper bags almost as heavy,

The noise still playing,

Put into a cart to be carried to a bus,

I hear the rip of a bag,

Food goes everywhere,

Like the leaves in the fall,

Blowing in the wind.

Loaded food into the bus,

Vroom vroom goes the engine of the bus

I feel every bump in the road

Crash,

The food falls to the floor of the bus,

Finally, we get to neighborhood house,

Carry boxes again to the top of a hill,

49 pounds it weighed,

After it was weighed,

Off to another room to be sorted yet another time.

So much food just past one thousand,

Almost two.

Celebrate for all the food we brought,

Now we go off back to school.

Go to the chapel to get some drink,

Surprised by an Oreo just for me,

The taste exploded in my mouth like a firecracker,

The cold sweet lemon berry juice,

Falls into my dry mouth waiting to be swallowed.

The day is done.

Waiting for another year of food to come around.

Immigration Day

      Whew! What a day. The students were taken through a variety of possible immigration experiences that were possible historically as well as today. For some, there was waiting. Filling out forms. More waiting. Medical exams. Waiting. For others there were decisions. The quota of immigrant slots was filled. What decision would you make now? Would you pay a smuggler to get you into the United States? Students also experienced what it might be like to spend time in a refugee camp before being vetted and invited into the United States. When they had finally entered the country, the students had to go to school or sign up for English classes. They had to navigate housing, grocery stores, and work.  The feast culminated the day and provided students a chance to reflect and share their experiences.

Tradition is SO Last Season Cast

Meet the Cast 

To see all of the cast pictures, click here. These photos, as well as the character backstories, will be displayed in the hallway outside our classroom for the remainder of the year.

Our Class Play

Becoming Playwrights and Actors

   

      The class play is a large and exciting component of our 5th Grade year. The majority of the Dudicorns agree that our play should be original, funny and should include fairy tales or some type of fantasy writing. The students were adamant that the stories we use should not be typical. Less happy endings. No princesses being saved by princes. No marriages. They want something different and unique.

     The collaboration process started with research. What is the structure of fairy tales and how can they be twisted or changed. 

     Using reader's theater, we examined a written script about fractured fairy tales. Students were encouraged to jump into a variety of characters and celebrate their missteps by shouting "I failed!" In this way the stage is set for everyone to take risks and possibly fail. Failure means your trying. 

     Check out these clips of students trying their hand at acting out new characters:

            

                   • Joseph, Quinny and Bridget

                   • Sebi

    Reflection and community conversations is the cornerstone of this work. Students are sharing and reflecting on the work thus far and they are learning to hear ideas and say "Yes, and..." to ideas rather than negating the ideas.

Jamestown Research and Building a Fort

Jamestown: Researching with Primary Source Documents

     Studying history requires learning the habits of historians. As we dove into our historical look at the founding of our country, we began by studying primary source documents. Students studied the Virginia Company Charter to learn who was sent to the New World and what Virginia Company was after.

    The language of the charter was challenging and provided some context as to the class system in England and motivations of the English people. Students were particularly upset by the language of "propagating of christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness" and referring the the natives as "savages". 

      After digging into the charter, students then studied primary source documents about forts. Through their study they made conclusion about the purpose and structure of forts in the colonial time period.

     Once the students had determined, what would be in the fort, they were challenged to plan and map a fort that we could plot outside, Students determined the measurements of each building within the fort, then scaled up the measurements to fit in a space 2 and 1/2 times the map measurements in order to plot the fort. They then had to scout the best place to plot the fort. We ended up in a large field behind the dorms surrounded by the woods.
       

     The woods became a place to search for natural material to enhance our fort and define the spaces. 

     Historians also rely on archaeological findings to make sense of the past. Students used their skills as archaeologists to learn about artifacts that have been discovered at the Jamestown site as recently as the late 1990's. After determining some historically accurate artifacts and where they were found, students created their own artifacts to hide in the fort.

Lead tags that would have been found on crates of supplies.

Chess Pieces

Candlesticks

Glass Beads for trading with the Natives

     Other 5th Grade classes embarked on an archaeological hunt to try and determine, through the examination of found artifacts, the purpose of the fort buildings and spaces,  Our class explored a new fort, Fort Shades, to do the same archaeological work.