In a music class, this student is reflecting on a previous musical performance with another singer. In the course of her reflection, she:

• describes her learning
• analyzes her own communication
• considers a variety of communication aspects (verbal and nonverbal)
• talks about her musical style
• and reflects on her collaboration

In Health and Career Education students have been using Art Costa’s ‘Habits of Mind’ to help identify and use common language around expected behavior in their learning community. As described by Costa “Habits of Mind is knowing how to behave intelligently when you DON'T know the answer. It means having a disposition toward behaving intelligently when confronted with problems, the answers to which are not immediately known.” One of the habits of mind the class is focusing on is persisting. In this video, a young boy explains what he has learned about persistence and what it means to him.

This project was assigned at the end of patterning unit in mathematics:

You have been hired to create a new video about a math concept. Your video must contain a visual aid, like a poster, and a scripted dialogue that describes the necessary steps that you would use to solve your question. For this assignment you can work alone or in a group of two.

Students were provided with a rubric and a checklist to help them understand the assignment expectations. In the video, a student explains how to construct a table of values.

In science, class has been following an inquiry process to study Extreme Environments. Students focused on shelter as a basic need. On the first day, the teacher asked them to think about what is important in building a shelter, and they invited them to plan a shelter, using only materials found on the forest floor right outside their classroom. Students first worked independently listing the necessary materials for their shelter and sketched their designs.

During free choice time, these students decided to create a hockey rink together, by placing the small whiteboards together and drawing on them. The students listened carefully and respectfully to each other and required no teacher support to produce their “giant” hockey rink. In this classroom, free choice time provides students with opportunities to work on group projects and develop teamwork skills.

This student is presenting information to her classmates about something important to her: her pink stuffed pig. The class has been working on using their senses when presenting information. The student made connections to math and science: in math, the class was working on solids and she made connections to her learning (it can roll, it is round). In science, they were learning about what materials make up certain items; this student independently gave details about what her item was made of.

During their literacy time, this class was working on story telling, characters, and the beginning, middle and end of a story. They had read a variety of versions of Little Red Riding Hood that offered several different elements and endings. This student was able to independently take a variety of stories with the same title and incorporate them into his retelling. He shows strong oral language skills and is able to use a variety of language to add detail to his story.

A young student wrote this "apology letter" during free choice time after he kicked down a friend's tunnel. The transcription reads "I'm sorry Benny for knocking down the tunnel." Students in this class had previously learned to create written apologies when they did something that they regret and wanted to make things right. The student read his written apology to his friend and gave it to him. Then the two of them went on playing together. The student who read the apology felt better as did the student who received it.

During Daily 5 literacy activities, this young girl chose to make a list of the names of children in the classroom. She is supported by an adult.