FMS Book Bugs

All of you have finished an independent research project. In these projects there were several pieces that I expected to see: essential questions, original thinking, use of and citation of resources outside of prior knowledge.

What was the easiest part and what was the most difficult? If you could change one thing, what would you change? Please use complete sentences.

The design and technology needed to create the winning boats has evolved over the years; what are the most important improvements and what do you think the future will bring for technology and the America’s Cup?

Hi Class,

We have just looked at a few wordless picture books by David Wiesner. I like his ability to  imagine strange and fantastic situations.  What is the purpose of a wordless picture book?

I liked reading and hearing your stories that you all wrote to go with the wordless picture books.  It was exciting to see how creative you could be with just a few pictures or even with a longer book. I like to see how well the artist and the author combine their talents to create a story. The picture can make the story even better.

What kind of picture books do you like? Did your parents read picture books to you when you were little? Which ones were your favorites then? What is the best part of a picture book?

Many of us were fortunate to hear Mr. Ed Rice speak at our library Wednesday.  He spoke with us about baseball. He told us about Louis Sockalexis who was the first Native American to play in Major League Baseball.  He had a terrific throwing arm; he played outfield because he could throw very far and very fast.

I enjoyed hearing Mr. Rice and hope that you did too. Can you tell me about your favorite baseball player? If you don’t like baseball, what sport do you like and why? Who would you like to have come to talk with us at school? Why?

We are looking into whether the library should buy more books about space and rockets or should we just have students use the Internet? Remember, you may voice an opinion, but you must back it up with factual information from a reliable source. Give the name of the source for each piece of information.
I want to see titles of books that you think would be good for our library. (A good source for books would be an online bookstore, or a library catalog such as MINERVA.)  I  also want to see titles of websites that you would recommend to students studying space and rockets.

Please make sure to do your own thinking - do not copy & paste information.

Why is it important to use more than one resource to answer an Essential Question?

Let me know what kind of food and how often to feed your fish. This space is for that Essential Question.

Once you have decided on what fish to put into our aquarium, it is necessary to choose the habitat - plants, gravel, decorations with care.  We have a 35 gallon tank. What kind of gravel, plants, heater, and filter should we have?
Please remember to tell us where  you found your information. Use this strand to talk about freshwater aquarium habitat.

We are researching aquariums.

1. First we need to define THE ESSENTIAL QUESTION

what makes a good Essential Question?

if you are having trouble thinking of an Essential Question, use the GOOD QUESTION CUBE to give you a jump-start.

example of a question might be: what kind of fish can go into a freshwater aquarium?

I’m reading aloud from the book, Lowji Discovers America by Candace Fleming. The reason I picked this book to read aloud is that Lowji sees America from a different point of view from mine. I really like how he goes about making friends. Let me know what you think about the story as we continue reading it. I will respond to your thoughtful comments.

Mrs. B.