Dear Families,
Last night was our amazing Winter Concert. This year’s Winter Concert theme was Community and Light. Sara Poland, our music teacher, worked with students starting back in September. Sara picked songs, choreographed them, worked with classes to master the songs, put together the rehearsals, and managed to get the details for the show all done. From the rehearsals to the staging to the final performance, she is a dedicated individual that helps our students to shine during this big event. Barb Crandall, our art teacher, worked with students to create lanterns and banners to decorate for the concert. The entire JFK staff works together to make the Winter Concert a success each year. Having students ready to perform takes a huge effort from all of the students and all of the adults. Our JFK staff worked on the lanterns and banners, practiced the songs with the students in classrooms, at recess, at lunch, walking down the halls – wherever they could! Everyone worked together towards the common goal of an amazing concert by supporting each other and the students. Thank you to all of the families and community members who came to the concert to support our students.
At JFK, we have been working with Ali Brown from 2Revolutions to implement Project Based Learning (PBL) at every grade level for the past few years. Each grade level creates two meaningful PBL units a year. PBL units go deeper into the content which ensures that students master core academic content, think critically, solve complex problems, work collaboratively, communicate effectively, direct their own learning, and develop an academic mindset. High quality PBL units consist of:
- Key Knowledge, Understanding and Success Skills. The project is focused on student learning goals, including standards-based content and skills such as critical thinking/problem solving, collaboration and self-management.
- Challenging Problem or Question. The project is framed by a meaningful problem to solve or a question to answer, at the appropriate level of challenge.
- Sustained Inquiry. Students engage in a rigorous, extended process of asking questions, finding resources and applying information.
- Authenticity. The project features real-world context, tasks and tools, quality standards or impact. Or it speaks to students’ personal concerns, interests and issues in their lives.
- Student Voice & Choice. Students make some decisions about the project, including how they work and what they create.
- Reflection. Students and teachers reflect on learning, the effectiveness of their inquiry and project activities, the quality of student work, obstacles and how to overcome them.
- Critique & Revision. Students give, receive and use feedback to improve their process and products.
- Public Product. Students make their project work public by explaining, displaying and/or presenting it to people beyond the classroom.
At this point, every grade has at least one PBL planned and/or in the the works and/or completed! Here is a rundown on each grade’s first PBL unit of the school year.
Kindergarten:
- Driving Question:
- How can we show visitors to the Vermont Teddy Bear Company how the teddy bears are made?
- Project Summary:
- For this PBL, we’ll integrate the Calkins How To Unit with our field trip to the Vermont Teddy Bear Company. We’ll launch the unit by anticipating the field trip with students and our purpose, which is ultimately to create and publish a How To Book about how teddy bears are made at the factory. The books will hopefully be displayed at the factory so that visitors can engage with them. We’ll teach the How To bends purposefully so that students are prepared for and excited about the field trip. Before and during the trip students will carefully prepare so that they can capture all the information they need to write their books. Immediately after the trip, teams of students will write and publish their books.
1st Grade:
- Driving Questions:
- How do different materials interact to create sound?
- Project Summary:
- Students will plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate. Then, students will use tools and materials to design and build an instrument to make sound. In collaborative bands, students will create and perform a piece of music together with their instruments. Students will complete a final reflection to communicate their scientific understanding.
2nd Grade:
- Driving Question:
- How can we help to protect endangered animals?
- Project Summary:
- Students will choose an animal featured by the World Wildlife Federation. They will research their animal, its habitat, its adaptations, and what it needs to survive through Calkins Becoming Experts curriculum. Students will then use World Wildlife Federation website to learn about the status of their animal, major threats, and what WWF is doing to protect them. After that, students will write an All About Book (using the All About Books curriculum) about their animal including ways to protect them. When their books are finished, students will present their All About Books in their classrooms and then vote with pennies on which animal they want to adopt. They’ll engage in fund-raising, using their All About Books, to raise enough funds to adopt the animal via WWF. Ultimately students will send in the money and adopt the animal, which gets shipped to the school in the form of a stuffed animal. When the animal arrives, we’ll host an adoption ceremony and pass the animal down over time to other classes.
3rd Grade:
- Driving Question:
- How can we use data to better meet the needs of our school community?
- Project Summary:
- We’ll launch our project with the driving question and ask students to generate issues in their school community that they’d like to gather data about. In reading, students will engage in read-alouds connected to the project and prepare the questions they want to ask other homerooms in order to gather the data they need. We’ll use morning meetings to gather data. Once the data is collected, students will make and display graphs in math. In writing, students will write a letter to explain their recommendations based on the data displayed in the graphs.
4th Grade:
- Driving Question:
- How might we design a model that transforms energy in a sustainable way?
- Project Summary:
- Students will explore ways that people are transforming energy in ways that promote sustainability. Examples include hybrid cars that transform motion into electricity, dams that convert the motion of water into power, solar energy to heat, farmers that are converting waste (e.g. methane) to energy (e.g. heat in winter), sound waves to electricity, and architects that are designing green buildings. As the culminating task, students will design a device or prototype that transforms energy in a sustainable way, ideally connecting directly to a local issue or problem.
5th Grade:
- Driving Question:
- How do people responsibly meet their needs?
- Project Summary:
- The Tiny Homes, Big Rights PBL began by all classes learning about the universal rights of a child, exploring social issues involving children’s rights, building background knowledge, and practicing academic discourse. In math, students designed and built a model of a tiny home. We’ll continue connecting this theme throughout the year. In social studies, students will explore the different ways that people live. In science, students will learn about different power sources, and in math students will write an opinion piece about the pros and cons of different energy sources for their tiny home. Finally, students will display all the work related to their tiny homes PBL during parent teacher conferences and describe that work to their families.
As you can see, each grade level team is working hard to develop rich and meaningful PBL experiences for our students. This work directly links to the proficiency work being done at the middle and high school. It not only allows for our students to have richer and more meaningful learning experiences at JFK, it also prepares them for proficiency based learning in older grades.
Have a fantastic weekend
Sara Raabe
JFK Principal
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Movie on 12-12-19 at 4.11 PM #3Upcoming Important Dates
Refer to your JFK Student/Family Handbook for these and future dates:
Monday, December 23rd – Wednesday, January 1st: No School- December Vacation
Wednesday, January 8th – Early Release, 12:15, WITH activities for students that signed up ahead of time
Wednesday, January 15th – PTO meeting
Friday, January 17th – PTO Sponsored Family Disco Night 6-8pm
Monday, January 20th – No School
Thursday, January 30th – All School Morning Meeting and Big Change Roundup Kick Off